From your perspective, how healthy do you perceive your church to be? To answer this question you must first have a baseline of what constitutes a healthy church. If you attend a Bible believing New Testament church then your baseline is found in the pages of scripture, The New Testament in particular. Researchers tell us today that 80-90% of our churches are either plateaued or declining. Ninety percent (90%) of our churches are not growing. That is a huge statistic that should cause concern in our hearts.

Many people believe the church they attend is fine and healthy. Yet if the above statistic is true then at best only 10% of church goers would be correct in believing their church is okay or healthy. It is extremely likely your church has health issues. I believe the health of a church is demonstrated in at least four areas. I also believe each builds off of the previous. In other words the first one will be evidenced in the lives of church members and each of the following three areas will be outcomes of the previous ones.

The first is spiritual maturation. If you and I (as church members) are growing spiritually both as individuals and corporately as a church body we will experience church health and growth, spiritual maturity. Am I and the people in my congregation farther along in my (our) personal spiritual walk than one year ago? (Do I have a deeper desire for studying God’s Word and serving Him this year?) If I and each one are not committed to individual spiritual growth we cannot expect to grow corporately as a spiritual body.

However, when spiritual growth is being experienced in our lives it will be evidenced in two ways. Our commitment to serving and spiritually sharing with others will always increase. When this happens we will see as a natural (spiritual) outcome, ministry expansion.

Ministry expansion is the second area of demonstrated church health. Too often churches start new ministries not out of the need for ministry expansion due to spiritual maturation, but rather out of hope for success, or a wish to be more spiritual and for greater numbers. In many (most) of these scenarios results are fleeting or obscure.

Ministry expansion as a result of spiritual maturation comes out of a desire or necessity. When we as a church are growing spiritually we realize the need for more, new Bible study units (classes), additional worship services, more true discipleship practice opportunities. There is a need for more due to a longing in the hearts for even deeper and greater spiritual growth; people are serving both in and outside the church presenting the need for expansion of ministry. It is not out of a hope, but rather a passion due to recent spiritual transformation and growth.

With ministry expansion the third demonstration of health always reveals itself. This is Missions Awareness. Missions Awareness happens when people are maturing spiritually and the need for ministry expansion is being met. When these two (spiritual maturity & ministry expansion) are evidenced people will realize and discover the need for reaching more and more people for Christ. In too many churches the stated belief is we should reach others, as long as I’m not asked to get involved. The difference is spiritually maturing believers will have a driving desire to be personally involved in reaching others both in the local community and abroad. Where is the burning passion in your life and in your church?

As your church members reach out and have a burning desire to see others come to faith in Christ, the church will experience the fourth area of result: numerical growth. In my opinion, numerical growth is a by-product of the other three demonstrated areas of results. Unfortunately too many churches attempt to by-pass the necessity of order in this process. Most churches attempt to go for the numbers first. “We’ve got to get more people in here.” Declining attendance in the church is not the cause of the state of health in our churches today. It is only a symptom. We must stop treating the symptoms of church decline and poor health and learn to treat the cause.

When we fail to put the spiritual part first, everything else we do is in vain.

For more on this topic contact George Yates and purchase your copy of Reaching the Summit.