Healthy Churches

The churches I’m working with in Cyprus face challenges that plague many churches in America. One church is dealing with an ongoing cash flow problem, another is facing a leadership void, and still another struggles to be relevant to the community around it. From a purely organizational standpoint, each of these problems could prove to be fatal to the congregations involved. But are cash, leadership or relevancy the real problems these churches are facing?

In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge writes of organizational tendencies to address fundamental problems with symptomatic solutions. Symptomatic solutions address the manifestations of problems, but don’t address the core problems themselves. Symptomatic solutions tend to focus on solving the current crisis through new programs, strategies, staff or facilities (all of which eventually boil down to needing more money!). In the context of a local church, fundamental solutions generally lie in the area of faith and mission. As I work with the leaders of these churches, my greatest challenge is to help them identify fundamental and not just symptomatic solutions.

The first diagnostic process in helping a church become healthy is to look at its spiritual health. This does not mean rooting out hidden sin, rejuvenating passionate worship, or becoming ‘missional’ – though all those things may eventually happen. Rather, it is about helping a church trust God. We trust God to give us eternal life (salvation), but do we trust Him to lead us (discipleship)? Spiritual health is not primarily a matter of morality, miracles, or mission. It is a matter of faith. Do we trust God with our lives, churches, ministries and community? As Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia, ‘The life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God.’ (Galatians 2:20) Paul’s agenda for his life and ministry had to die, and the man who was born again was a man who could trust God. We must do more than give lip service to faith in God while really trusting in multi-media, dynamic children’s programs, or charismatic leadership to help our churches grow.

After addressing a church’s relationship with God – a relationship grounded in faith and trust – the second diagnostic process is to look at the church’s mission. The mental model that generally needs changing here is a shift from convincing people to go to church to convincing the church to go to people. I have discovered that this shift is also grounded in faith. When Christians recognize that God is at work in their community and not just in their church it opens their eyes to live and minister with Him wherever they might be – the office, the university, the golf course, the pub. Mission becomes a part of our deepest identity when we believe that ‘the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.’ (John 1:9) God is at work everywhere we go! Once again, it is a vision we see with the eyes of faith.

I have a number of friends who are alcoholics. Gin and tonic is a symptomatic solution for them. In the short term, alcohol works to alleviate the pain, anxiety or discomfort they are feeling. But that bad feeling always comes back. Helping them overcome alcoholism means helping them see alcohol as a symptomatic solution and then identify fundamental solutions. It is very difficult for them – as it is for many church leaders – to see beyond the symptomatic solutions to the core spiritual issues. However, a life or ministry of ‘gold, silver and precious stones’ results from honestly facing the fundamental causes of problems.

Basic to these two diagnostic processes is the belief that we serve a God who is more than a gatekeeper at the door of heaven. Rather, He is a God who participates and intervenes in our circumstances, churches and communities. I have discovered that by focusing on the fundamental solutions of faith and mission we reengage with God, and generally the problems that were consuming our energy and resources end up getting solved. This may result in the recreation of a church that looks and acts fundamentally different than it did before, but it is a church full of the life of God, a church passionate about a God-birthed vision for the neighborhood and the world, and a church that is continually growing and changing in Christ.