How to Spot a Healthy Church… Quickly
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, April 24, 2007
- Viewed 139
- (5) comments so far
I have come to the conclusion that there are two very obvious indicators of church health that the one-time visitor can gauge very quickly:
1. Hearty congregational singing.
2. Obvious affection between the pastor and the congregation.
You can read his whole article here. He also goes on to explain his rationale. HT: Crosswalk.com
FOR DISCUSSION: What do you think? Are these two factors in healthy churches?
Ray Pritchard writes, "In the last 18 months I have come to a few conclusions about how to quickly gauge the health of the churches we visit--either to preach or simply to participate in a worship service. The Lord has allowed us to travel from coast to coast and to visit country cities, city churches and suburban churches--some large, some small, and many in-between. I don't know if doing this sort of itinerant ministry makes you more qualified to evaluate churches, but the very fact of being in a different church almost every Sunday inevitably forces you to think about where you've been, what you've seen, and what you've experienced. On one hand, it's obviously true that coming in to preach and then leaving doesn't allow you to do an in-depth analysis. But when your schedule takes you from Tupelo, MS to Muscle Shoals, AL to Baton Rouge, LA to New Brunswick, Canada to Arlington Heights, IL (my current schedule), it does allow you to worship in a variety of settings and it gives you a birds-eye view of how things are going in various churches."
Comments
if you want a Globally Recognized Avatar (the images next to your profile) get them here. Once you sign up, they will displayed on any website that supports them.
Camey on Tue, April 24, 2007
They can be two factors in a healthy church. Can be… BUT…... they can just as easily, unfortunately - not be.
SLW on Tue, April 24, 2007
These are certainly serviceable pulse points, i.e. they give you the quick take on whether or not the things alive or not, particularly for a visitor, but a declaration of health would require a more thorough examination.
Jan on Tue, April 24, 2007
I think I agree for the most part.
Though I would add that if a church is full of visitors then you may not see very much of either. (Like our church, 3/4 visitors this last week). So, I would say that not having those things doesn’t always mean the church is unhealthy.
I guess I would guage it more by the responsiveness of the congregation. I know that’s difficult to measure, but I just inately know if they are with us or not. And I suspect most of you can sense that too.
This last Sunday it was pretty much a concert ministry for me http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif , but like I said, a large portion were new people and we had 3 decisions for Christ. And the people were THERE, you know
(no yawning, watch checking or drifting off)
So… can you say that’s an unhealthy church?
SLW on Tue, April 24, 2007
Jan,
You’re right about that. When we have a service where the regular to visitor ratio is noticeably lower than usual, our services lack a certain something. Ours is a charasmatic congregation, and very dependent on participation, and when there’s alot of folk not quite on the same page, things are just off. That being said, Praise God for those services!
jeff on Wed, May 30, 2007
I suppose it depends on how one defines a healthy church. I have been in circumstances where people love their pastor but there just is not any missional effectiveness.
On the flip side…it seems that a “fondness” of the pastor does need to be present for a church to thrive.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Post a Comment