What is a Healthy Church?

Principles for our church - part 1

*see introduction for more on these principles

• Prayer-Base Strategy: prayer is the basis out of which everything else flows – Luke 11:1

Prayer is the foundation of a church.  A church cannot expect God to bless them and work with them if they are unable to communicate with God.

• Love Environment Strategy: demonstrating love to those inside and outside our group – Mark 12:28-33

The greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love others.  If the church lacks either of these, they will not accomplish anything for the kingdom of God.

• Mission-Driven Strategy: understanding and applying God’s mission for the church – John 18:36-37

If you go on a trip, you need to know where you are going.  Once you know where you are going, you need to decide how you are going to get there.  Being mission driven is deciding where the church is going and how it is going to get there.

• Worship Service Strategy: intentionally moving people towards intimacy with God – John 4:23-24

When we assemble, our aim should be to glorify God.  The church has become caught up in vain repetition of meaningless rituals that have nothing to do with true worship. 

• Discipleship Strategy: intentionally helping people “walk as Jesus walked” – John 14:30-31

If you are a mature believer, you should be helping someone mature in their faith.  If you are a young believer, you should look to someone to mentor you.  Ideally, no matter how far along we are, we should be able to find someone who can teach us more.

Adapted from the Missionary Church’s Healthy Church Initiative   www.mcusa.org

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