Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb What is a healthy church?

What is a healthy church?

Sunday 6 April, 2008 · Posted by Ben Atwood

What is a healthy church? It might seem a silly question on the surface – but, as churchgoers, we have a vested interest in the health of our church.

Is a healthy church made of sandstone, with beautiful stained-glass windows and bells? Is it one with a choir and organ? Or perhaps you prefer sound of guitars, bass, four-strong horn line, and a drum kit. What kind of minister goes to a healthy church – is it the staid academic who knows his Bible, but never smiles and struggles to make his sermons less than an hour? The young comedian who makes you laugh with his stories? Or maybe the minister should be a ‘she’ in your mind? What kind of people attend this church? What ministries are run? Is it trendy? Is it passionate?

Mark Dever, the author of 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, proposes that a healthy church is made up of nine things:

  1. Expositional preaching – the kind of preaching that exposes God’s Word for us to understand.
  2. Biblical theology – deriving our understanding of God, Jesus, the world, etc. from the Bible.
  3. The Gospel – the heart of Christianity.
  4. Biblical understanding of conver-sion – that it is God’s work in us, and the role of sin and grace.
  5. Biblical understanding of evang-elism – not as a mad dash to get someone to ‘convert’, but the role of sharing the good news.
  6. Biblical understanding of member-ship – the role of commitment to a church.
  7. Biblical church discipline – not harsh judgement, but rebuking, correcting, and training.
  8. Biblical discipleship – a concern for growing people as Christians.
  9. Biblical church leadership.

The most striking thing about this list is the centrality of the Bible, God’s Word, to the health of a church. Do you think these things are a good measure? And, does Toongabbie Anglican hit the marks?

— Ben Atwood (MTS)

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