Marks Of A Healthy Church Pt. 1

• The church is in a sad state

• Barna Research says: 1.2 million will leave their faith in 2023. 70% of kids will lose their faith in their freshman year of college.

The data isn't pretty. Radical secularism is winning the souls of our youth.

"To move from religion to secularism is not so much a loss of faith as a shift into a new set of beliefs and into a new community of faith, one that draws the lines between orthodoxy and heresy in different places." Timothy Keller

"I’m preaching on revival, but there was nothing to revive…There has been a failure of transfer of discipleship to the next generation and there’s nothing to revive.” Jon Tyson from Sermon God comes Where He’s Wanted.

I was handed this last week from Carol, I told her that anything she hands me is fair game for sermon material. It just so happens that this fit with part of what I’m sharing today. As we’ve seen in just the little bit of wonderful news I’ve already shared this morning

Each year, thousands of churches close their doors. Why? One simple yet complicated answer, they kept doing things that did them in. I want to share with you 12 mistakes dead churches make before we talk about the Marks of a Healthy Church.

o Growth just happens

They mistakenly believe growing churches are nothing more than the result of being in the right place at the right time.

But you have to realize that the perfect garden in the perfect place won’t stay perfect if you just walk away and leave it.

o You can have evangelism without evangelists

In other words, you can reach the lost without ever having anyone in the church actually reach out to the lost.

They believe you can win souls without soul winner. That’s why they die.

o You can have progress without change

They want to grow. They really do. They just don’t want to change

They don’t want any new people taking their parking place, seat, or place of leadership in the church

o You can have success without sacrifice

They want growth and don’t mind the cost as long as someone else pays it/ They’ve convinced themselves great things can come about without any price being paid or pain being experienced.

o God will bless in spite of sin and unholy living

They believe God will bless in spite of how they live

Obviously, there have been no in-depth studies of the lives of people like Achan, Samson, David, Ananias and Sapphira.

o First-class facilities, grounds, printed materials, programs and activities aren’t important

In a dying church, members often think ripped and worn out carpet, parking lots with cracks as wide as the Grand Canyon, burned out lights, poorly designed, typo-riddled programs, landscaping resembling a tropical rain forest, equipment from the ‘50’s, etc. doesn’t matter to the unchurched.

The fact is, people who demand excellence in the cars they drive, homes they live in, and places where they do business, won’t accept less than the best form the church they attend.

o Leaders don’t have to be tithers

Their leaders lead by the motto: “Do as we say, not as we do.” Most people would be shocked to learn how many leaders don’t tithe in dying churches.

Their “weakly” giving is just that. That’s why their church is dying

o By-laws, budgets and board meetings are really important

They are constantly beset by the “B’s”

? By-laws

? Budgets

? And Board meetings…as if those things somehow impart the supernatural, providential blessing of God

Growing churches focus, instead, on the Bible

o The Pastor and staff work for us

They see their Pastor and staff as official employees who are paid to do the work of the church.

The Bible teaches the opposite. In fact, the Pastor and staff are to equip the saints “for the work of the ministry.”

o Being traditional is spiritual

People in dying churches think “the way we’ve always done it,” is somehow holier than attempting something new. They forget the time-test traditions of today were cutting edge “new” things of the “good ‘ole days.”

o The world cares about our doctrine.

They mistakenly believe their beliefs will bring more believers. Few unchurched people even know what doctrine is.

We ought to have the right doctrine for sure. However, just having the right doctrine alone won’t grow a church

o There’s always next year

They have no sense of urgency

Growing churches are passionate, enthusiastic and urgent about everything. They pursue ministry every day, as if they don’t have the promise of tomorrow. Because they don’t. And quite frankly neither do we

• Church

In many ways there’s an illness that is going through the church

o Just as you would go to a doctor to get well