EP 136 – ANALYZE THE CONDITION OF YOUR CHURCH
The Bootcamp is coming at you from the Big “D” Dallas TX. Jimbo and Bob were on the road along with big boss man Mark Clifton, leading a conference for the Korean Council of Southern Baptist Churches. Our thanks to Dr. James Kang, our translators and the many great Pastors, Staff and leaders we met while there.
Today we get down to the important business of analyzing where your church might be in terms of its spiritual health. Bob opens the discussion-here are some of the highlights.
We often ask one another; “How is your church?” We may not want to answer or have categories to answer. Here are four important areas to examine the health in your church.
- Spiritual health: prayer, members are Christlike, demonstrate fruit of the spirit, obeying the commands of God, personal devotion to God by regularly participating in worship, prayer and bible study
- Financial health: members supporting the ministry by giving regularly and sacrificially of their resources to the work of God in the local church and beyond, the church is able to compensate its pastors and staff
- Missional health: members of the church regularly engage non-Christians and unchurched people in the community, and communicate the gospel clearly. The Church as a body knows, loves and serves its local community.
- Relational health: the members of the church are unified in the gospel, they are not filled with divisions over their differences, they love and care for each other, they meet each other’s needs as need arises. They give, serve and love one another-the testimony to those outside the church creates interest and brings praise to God.
Some important things to note:
- Numbers are something-they aren’t everything.
- Most Churches, read that-most churches right now have experienced decline – you are not alone.
- You can’t define health from numbers alone.
Here are some questions to analyze the health of your church:
- Is our love for Jesus the primary motivation for the actions or work of our church?
- Where is our love for Jesus leading us to risk and step out in faith to follow him making the gospel known in our community?
- What preferences and barriers are hindering our love for Jesus and our ability to follow him faithfully?
- What is something that Jesus asking me (and our church) to die to, in order to follow more faithfully?
Bonus Material-The Stolen Slides from Keelan Cook
You probably need to analyze your church website. Get with our great sponsor, One Eighty Digital, they can help your website move forward and connect with your community.
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