QUESTION #4: What are some things that we can look for in churches, maybe even our own church, to identify whether or not we are spiritually healthy?

Answer:

Dave Kistler:

“…Let me mention three things that I think are the three critical components of what I would describe or define as a healthy church. Number one, Christ-centric. If a church is going to be healthy, it cannot be program-centric, it cannot be focused on anything other than Christ himself. I know that’s easier said than done, but that is a component of a healthy church.

Number two, others-conscious. I could give a very graphic, very powerful illustration and I’ll not take time to go into it except to say this, that recently my family attended a church, it was a mega church, a large church, in the D.C. area. The minute they arrived in the parking lot there were people waiting there in the parking lot to show them, because they were totally unfamiliar with the church and how to get to the main auditorium or to the main building. They were escorted there. When they walked in the front lobby, they were greeted, not with handshakes but they were greeted with hugs from this incredibly others-conscious church. Should we be surprised that they were richly blessed and ministered to though they were visitors there in that church?

Christ-centric, others-conscious, and then I would say this, very clearly gospel-oriented. In other words, the churches that are healthy that I see, Isaac, are churches that filter everything they do, every program they have, every activity in which they participate, they filter it through the filter of the gospel. In other words, is this going to somehow, someway enhance our ability to reach people with the gospel and if it doesn’t accomplish that or it doesn’t facilitate the accomplishing of that, then they tend not to want to be involved in it. That is a good filter through which to filter everything.

Those three things. Christ-centric, others-conscious, and very clearly gospel-oriented.”

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