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by Dr. Rick Thompson
There is broad consensus that God has called the Evangelical Free Church of America to multiply healthy churches among all people. The next great question is, what is a healthy church? Evangelical Free Church of America leaders and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professors held a summit shortly after I became a district superintendent. The EFCA home office presented their new piece that moves toward a strategy for healthy churches: The 10 leading indicators of a healthy church.
- Centrality of God’s Word
- Passionate Spirituality
- Fruitful Evangelism
- Spirit-filled Worship
- Great Commission Driven
- Leadership Multiplication
- Church Planting
- Stewardship of Resources
- Intentional Disciplemaking
- Loving Relationships
One of the TEDS professors asked an appropriate question after the presentation: Where do you find this list in Scripture? I have pondered that question ever since. The professor fulfilled his responsibility to make us think and hold us accountable to the Scriptures. As we learn from purpose-driven churches, seeker-driven churches, healthy churches, and mega churches today, I believe that in the Evangelical Free Church we would be wise to listen to the ancient prophet in Isaiah 51:1.
"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn."
For Israel, that meant, as Isaiah says next, "Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah, who gave you birth." For the church, the rock from which we have been cut is the Lord Jesus Christ our Messiah (Matthew 16). Who is our mother church and the quarry from which we were hewn? Some look to Jerusalem, Rome, or Constantinople. Others look to a mega church in America or a cell church in the third world.
As Gentile churches, would we be wise to look to Antioch, the rock from which we were cut and the quarry from Gentiles churches were hewn? God’s hand was with this church of Antioch to be our mother church. What are the transcendent truths in this church that can cross the centuries into our own? What are the cross-cultural concepts that can be transported right into our cities and countries concerning the indicators of a healthy church? That’s what this work is all about.
Evangelism (Fruitful Evangelism)
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Steven traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was upon them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord (Acts 13:19-21).
Clearly, the first dimension of this church that Luke describes is evangelism. God’s hand is upon everyday Christians who tell others other Christ. Every healthy church is characterized by fruitful evangelism (EFCA), need-oriented evangelism (Natural Church Development), seeker- driven contagious Christianity (Bill Hybels); for we were made for a mission-Rick Warren-Evangelism. Bill Bright and Campus Crusade have the 4 Spiritual Laws, the Navigators have the Bridge Illustration, Billy Graham published Steps to Peace with God, and D. James Kennedy trained thousands in Evangelism Explosion. The tools are many; the essential is evangelism.
The people who planted the church of Antioch were not the apostles and they were not career missionaries. In Acts 13, the Holy Spirit will set apart two proven leaders to begin the modern missionary movement (Saul and Barnabas). But, the church planters in Antioch were persecuted, unnamed, common, contagious Christians. God uses both highly skilled church planters and spontaneous Spirit filled believers.
One of my favorite stories of these twin truths of evangelism is the story of Oleg Shevkun, pastor of our Moscow Bible Church in Moscow, Russia. Oleg grew up in Moscow. In high school during the 1980’s, before Perestroika, Oleg was the leader in the young Communist league in his school in Moscow. One day, there arose a problem in the second grade. The school adminstrator told Oleg to go and straighten it out. The problem was that a seven year old girl from a Baptist family was leading her classmates to Jesus Christ. Over the next several weeks, as Oleg tried to straighten out this little girl, this little girl lead Oleg to Christ. Oleg went on to study at Moscow State University, served as an interpreter at Moscow Bible Church, and we sent him to Dallas Theological Seminary with his family for the four years of training in the Master of Theology program. In the summer of 1997, as our family had to return to America, Oleg and his family returned to Moscow to serve as senior pastor of Moscow Bible Church.
God’s hand is on a church that is characterized by Acts 1:8 evangelism. Healthy churches have healthy Christians who share their faith with everyone, everywhere, everyday. There are cultural barriers of race, religion, age, sex and cultural background right in every city. The Jew-Gentile barrier was high. But, it did not stop the unnamed believers who did evangelism in Antioch everywhere, with everyone, everyday. Acts 1:8 evangelism starts in Jerusalem; our home town; then Judea; surrounding state; then our Samaria; close by cultures and finally the Spirit sets apart some global missions.
Encouragement (Loving Relationships)
News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Acts 13:19-21).
A second dimension of the church of Antioch is loving relationships. God’s hand is upon Christians who love one another. Every healthy church is characterized by loving relationships (EFCA and Natural Church Development). We are formed for God’s family (Rick Warren-Fellowship). Faith, hope, and love remain right now, but the greatest is love. If we love one another, people will know we belong to Him.
Barnabas saw evidence of the grace of God and that evidence had to include the fruit of the Spirit, which is always love (Galatians 5:16). It was love that set apart the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:3) and the lack of love in division that set back the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:10-12).
Every church has relationships. Healthy churches have loving relationships. It is valuable to ask the question, what is the glue in our church?
- The glue in some churches is a strong leader.
- The glue in some churches is a denomination.
- The glue in some churches is a common heritage passed down.
- The glue in some churches is the building.
- The glue in some churches is a special strength in ministry.
- The glue in some is a common conviction like home or Christian schooling.
- The glue in some churches is blood. People are relatives.
There are many different glues; but the greatest glue is God and the glue that He told us to keep strong is a new kind of glue called agape love.
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another (John 13:34,35).
How do we love one another? One of the ways to examine our relationships is to look at our church in the light of the New Testament “one anothers.”
- Carry one another’s burdens(Galatians 6:2)
- Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
- Spur one another on to love and good works (Hebrews 10:25)
- Submit yourselves to one another (Ephesians 5:21)
- Confess your sins to one another (James 5:16)
- Pray for one another (James 5:16)
- Live in harmony with one another (1 Peter 3:8)
Equipping Leaders (Leadership Multiplication)
He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. (Acts 13:24-25).
Every church has leaders. Every healthy church has empowering leaders. Good shepherds seek the lost sheep and they love the little lambs. Many churches have started with joyful Christians sharing their faith and loving one another only to end up with heavy-handed, authoritarian leaders who lord it over and oppress God’s people.
Aesop (EE shapes) fables are a collection of short stories attributed to a Greek slave who died in 565 BC. In 300 BC, an Athenian politician gathered 200 of them into a collection. One of these is the story of the frogs who wished for a King!
The frogs were tired of governing themselves. They began to do nothing but croak for a government that would entertain them with great pomp and circumstance. No milk and water government for them, so they petitioned Jupiter asking for a King.
Jupiter decided to try and keep them quiet and so he threw a huge log into their pond that fell into the water with a great splash. The frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses; thinking the new king was a fearsome giant. But, soon they discovered how tame and peaceable King Log really was. Soon, the younger frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly again to Jupiter about the government.
So, Jupiter sent a Giant Crane to be the King. Soon the crane stalked around the pond making great noises and attracting great attention. All the frogs were delighted with their new King until after a while King Crane began to eat all his subordinates.
Our inclination as sinful people is to want a strong leader we can idolize on a pedestal or someone we can control like a log under our feet. Our Lord sees another path.
But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted (Matthew 23:8-12).
Christian leadership is not being a strutting stork or a lifeless log, but a servant who empowers others. The church in Antioch was wise to not go it alone as an independent church and the church in Jerusalem was wise to send Barnabas, the son of encouragement, to this new church. Barnabas was an empowering leader who was devoted to developing the potential of others.
Intentional Disciplemaking
So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:25-26).
Barnabas and Saul had a focus. Christ likeness! Our calling is to strive to present everyone complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28) and to labor until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19).
Barnabas and Saul were great coaches. The team became so good, it was given a new name. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch (Acts 11:22-26). Not the Barnabasites. Not the Paulists! Not the Lutherans or the Wesleyans, or the Calvinists or the Campbellites. Christians-because the focus of their ministry was Christ-likeness.
The strategy of disciple making in the local church needs a specific process. I see three needed dimensions. First, we need one to one, life on life, personal disciple making. Second, we need small group, community-based disciplemaking. Finally, we need the church gathered each Lord’s day (Hebrews 10:24,25) for disciplemaking.
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One on One
1:1
...iron sharpens iron
(Proverbs 27:17)
Intimacy & accountability
Asking hard questions
Sense of satisfaction
Sensitivity to one another
Truth telling
James 5:16
Developing leaders
Luke 22:24ff
Operation Timothy
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Small Group
12
...not quickly broken
(Ecclesiastes 4:12)
Involvment & acceptance
Asking good questions
Sense of safety
Affinity with one another
Teaching one another
Romans 15:14
Tested leaders
1 Timothy 3:10
Colossians 2:7
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The Local Church
20, 200 or 2000
...spur one another on
(Hebrews 10:24,25)
Identity & affiliation
Listening and learning
Sense of significance
Diversity of one another
Pastor/teacher
Ephesians 4:11
Trusted leaders
1 Peter 5:1-4
Expository Preaching
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My favorite method of disciplemaking through the years has been Operation Timothy (Design for Discipleship) by the Christian Business Man’s Committee for one to one, the Colossians 2:7 Series and the BE series of Warren Wiersbe for small groups, and pulpit-expository preaching for the church gathered in worship. As I write, I meet one to one with a young man named Marat. We are both reading through the Scriptures with a Bible reading program and sharing some of our insights life on life. Every other Sunday night, my wife and I are in a small group Bible study where we are sharing our lives and sharing insights from the book of Acts. We belong to an Evangelical Free Church where we participate in Sunday worship, Wednesday night prayer meetings, and serve using our spiritual gifts. Our 1:1, small group, and local church involvements are vital to a disciple making process.
Great Commission Driven
During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antoich. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) (Acts 11:25-30).
Our congregations must have a clear sense of God’s mission and a compelling vision for the future that is communicated clearly to all members and that drives their programs, budget, personnel, and priorities. We need church structures that facilitate mission and vision. A willingness to change and take risks are crucial to ongoing effectiveness for local church ministry (Beacon Special: 2001).
My wife and I once had a church member who made an appointment to meet with us. We did not know what he wanted. Fifteen minutes into the presentation he revealed that he was an Amway dealer. He had a hidden agenda that he finally brought out. He wanted to recruit us to work in his business. Our church member asked us an opening question: What is your picture of your preferred future? He was hoping that we would talk about the desire for a new house, more travel, and other perks.
Some leaders are set on their own private agenda of new buildings, large staffs, aggressive programs, and other good but personal agendas. Godly shepherds who exercise servant leadership might someday lead toward buildings and budgets, but there is clear evidence that the church has discovered together God’s agenda and not just the personal agenda of a leader.
Servant leaders always keep the focus that our mission must come from the Scriptures and our vision is insight into God’s will. We trust God to reveal to us his agenda and we wait upon God for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is not trying to get God to bless our plans. Prayer brings us individually and as a body into alignment with His plans, His purposes, His agenda, and His power.
Spiritual leadership is moving people on to God’s agenda…God has the vision of what He wants to do. God does not ask leaders to dream big dreams for him or to solve the problems that confront them. He asks leaders to walk with him so intimately that, when he reveals what is on his agenda, they will immediately adjust their lives to his will and the results bring glory to God… (Blackaby and Blackaby: Spiritual Leadership: 20, 29, 75, 130).
It is striking to observe that the famine that the church in Antioch helped was yet future. The church in Antioch moved to meet a yet future need in Jerusalem. God still calls us to meet needs by faith. We do not have all the details when God calls us to step out by faith to fulfill his purposes in a city outreach, church planting, and others forms of service. We have a leading of the Lord to step out by faith and fulfill his purposes and the unfolding of his purposes are only yet future.
Stewardship of Resources
The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:25-30).
Healthy churches are generous churches. The church in Antioch because of a vital experience with God impacted a famine in Jerusalem and a church planting movement in Asia and Europe. Whether it is giving to the needs of the poor in Jerusalem or sending missionaries to another culture, the key is a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit who sets people apart to serve and opens the door of opportunity to give of our resources and our treasures to serve others.
In the history of the church in Russia such a movement started in St. Petersberg in the late 1800’s that is one of the three sources of Russian evangelicals.
Colonel Pashkoff of St. Petersburg (...was part of the revival lead by Lord Radstock of England who came to Russia and taught the Bible in English among the Russian aristocracy) and he served Christ in the later part of the 19th Century. He owned a magnificent palace in St. Petersburg which had several auditoriums. These he made at once available for revival meetings. At first only a few people attended the services, but later on so many people came that sometimes there was no room for all the people and 100s were turned away.
There were usually 1,300 to 1,400 people at each meeting. They represented all strata of society. There were horse drivers, peasants, army generals, people of the aristocracy, university students, and sometimes even some Orthodox priests. On his estate the message of salvation was preached and many of the people were saved, who in turn carried the gospel to their fellow countrymen...New Testaments, portions of the Scriptures, and spiritual literature were printed in great quantities. Colonel Pashkoff dedicated his large fortune to the cause of Christ and the furtherance of the gospel. People were sent out and tens of thousands of Scriptures, tracts, and leaflets were distributed across Russia.
The Colonel opened his house in St. Petersburg for orphans, workshops of various kinds, and restaurants which became favorite eating places for the working people, where they could get abundant and good food for low prices. Thousands of people came to Christ....However, in 1894 the government banished Pashkoff from Russia for his evangelistic activities. He died in Paris in 1902.(Dr. Albert W. Olema: A History of Evangelical Christianity in Russia: 70).
There was a yet future physical need in Jerusalem and the church of Antioch sent gifts by faith before the famine even struck. When God’s hand is upon a church, he motivates people to give to help others! Each one! Not just the rich people! Each one according to his ability! That’s a great church!
Centrality of God’s Word
In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul (Acts 13:1).
Barnabas saw the teaching of the Scriptures as so central to health of the church in Antioch that he went and secured a great Bible teacher in the apostle Paul. God honored this commitment to the Scriptures by multiplying teachers of the Scriptures.
Ray Stedman was the pastor of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, CA. for much of the later half of the 20th Century. He learned how to teach the Bible from great Bible expositors and then he mentored men like Chuck Swindoll who carried on the torch. Ray Stedman describes expository preaching. True expository preaching has these characteristics and goals: (Stedman: Moody Monthly - April 1984: 117-119)
- It seeks to impart the whole counsel of God in sections small enough to understand and obey (Acts 20:26,27).
- It permits the preacher’s personality to become the channel for imparting the mind of God (1 Cor. 2:12-13).
- It awakens hearers to seize and possess the promises of God themselves (Romans 10:17).
- It patterns the minds of God’s people to view life biblically, and therefore realistically (1 Cor. 2:6-8).
- It translates the theological words of Scripture into contemporary parallels without destroying or distorting meaning (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
- It exposes today’s secular illusions and reveals the destructive ends to which they lead (2 Cor. 11:3).
- It balances the truth, preventing extremism and distortion (Isaiah 28:9-10).
- It deals with uncomfortable as well as popular concepts of Scripture (Gal. 4:16).
- It opposes the stranglehold of tradition and corrects it with the authority of God (Mark 2:22).
- It discovers in Scripture the timeless principles of life and identifies their expression in modern culture (1 Cor. 9:9).
- It confronts the paradoxes of revelation without seeking to remove all mystery (Isaiah 55:8, 9;) Rom. 9:19-20).
- It unfolds the majesty and mercy of God in terms of His own self-disclosure (Rom. 11:33-36).
- It arouses in its hearers a sense of worship, grounded in the Spirit and in truth (1 Tim. 6:14-16).
- It enables each hearer to feel he has heard the voice of God speaking to his heart and conscience (Jer. 15:16).
- It motivates hearers to think and live as Christians (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
Spirit-filled Worship
While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting,
People are hungry to experience God in the worship service of the local church. Every church has worship services. Every church that is healthy has inspiring worship.
When I first became a Christian I heard expository preaching from the pulpit of the Chapel in University Park with Dr. David Burnham. Each Sunday morning I was drawn to the worship services because of Bible teaching that fed me.
At the same time, Bible teaching alone is not great worship. The experience of the leading of the Holy Spirit in line with the Scriptures makes for exciting worship. Our spiritual act of worship involves offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, being transformed by the renewing of our minds, and rejecting conformity to this world. There was great worship in Antioch because of the ministry of prayer and the Word of God and because they responded in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit used Agabus to alert his people in worship to a coming famine and the Holy Spirit said to the church to set apart Saul and Barnabas to missionary service.
God is worthy of our highest honor. But, as we enter a new millennium, Almighty God is walking out the door of many hearts, and many homes and many churches. As he said to Malachi's generation, he says to a new generation, "Where is the honor due my name?" In Malachi's day, as in our day, people had developed a rebellious, argumentative, irreverent attitude toward God Almighty.
"How have you loved us?"
"Though we are crushed, we will rebuild."
"How have we shown contempt for your name?"
"How have we defiled you?"
Even though God had loved them as a father loves his son; even though God had rejected their arrogant cousins the Edomites and caused them to suffer crushing ruin; even though God deserved the honor a citizen gives his King, God must ask his people, "Where is the respect due me?"
You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being (Revelation 4:10,11).
It was said of David, And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them (Psalm 78:72). If the church is to have inspiring worship, the worship leaders must have these two elements. The worship leader must be known for integrity of heart and skill in instrument and/or voice. To accept anything less is to communicate that God is not a great King.
Passionate Spirituality
While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting,
It is tragic to talk with people who are "turned off" to Christianity because they have been in a church where sacred trust has been betrayed. They have tasted a rotten church and they do not have a taste for spiritual things.
- Some know of pastors or teachers who have been sexually immoral with people in their own church and have betrayed that a precious trust
- Some know of the privileges which certain church leaders have received because they compromised with business or government official
- Some have been to a church which would not accept them because of their cloths or the color of their skin
- Some have grown up in a churches which is beautiful on the outside, but inside they are empty; religion without relevance
If a person's only exposure to Christianity is to a that has betrayed their trust, everyone who touches them is in danger. I am especially sensitive to this disillusionment because it happened to me. I grew up in an empty church. I went to church as a child, but I never learned the Bible. I heard sermons, but I never heard that I was a sinner that needed Christ as my Savior. By the time I was a teenager, I thought church was boring, irrelevant, and unnecessary.
God in his grace introduced me to a genuine group of Christians through a home bible study. I began to see my sin and my need for Christ. I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I started attending a dynamic local church. They preached Christ! They taught the Bible! They loved one another! They shared their faith in Christ! They had a simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Dr. Bruce Shelley, professor of church history at Denver Seminary, summarizes the growth of the Herodians in Church History.
(In the Middle ages)... there was a wedding of the Christian church and Roman State. In the East the marriage continued for a millennium. A mystical piety flourished under the protection of orthodox emperors (and Tzars)... It took centuries, but the popes and patriarchs, aided by Christian princes and Tzars, slowly pacified and baptized a continent and called it Christendom...Baptized masses, however, meant baptized pagans...The church gained the world but lost its soul (Short Paper-Church History).”
Out of these state churches, the free churches of Europe were born. Our forefathers came to a living faith in Jesus Christ and they left the leavened state churches. Our forefathers said churches should be for believers only (not just baptized pagans) and all believers! Our forefathers in Evangelical Free churches of Europe left the security of the state church and lost their worldly power, but gained their own souls and the salvation of their descendants!
Church Planting
the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:1-3)
Healthy couples are born to reproduce. Healthy churches are born to reproduce. One fruit of the love of a Christian couple is a child. One fruit of the love of a local church is a church plant. In America, there are few pastors who have this vision. Many churches are simply surviving and they never thrive. Many churches seek to be fruitful mega churches, but they have no heart, no vision, and no desire to be not only a mother church, but also a mother church.
Bob Logan once commented that conflict in a church can be a sign that a church is pregnant and does not know it. Many churches refuse to intentionally plant a daughter church and soon there is a church split. There are now two churches, but there is no real relationship between the two churches that could experience the joy of a healthy mother daughter relationship. Still more tragically, I have seen some mega churches that are so dysfunctional that when a group leaves the church to begin a new church, the mother church tries to abort her young. Healthy couples are born to reproduce. Healthy churches are born to reproduce. One fruit of the love of a Christian couple is a child. One fruit of the love of a local church is a church plant. O Lord, give us your heart and the fruit of your love.
I believe that God creates movements that reflect his heart. I embrace the purpose and vision of the Evangelical Free Church of America. The Evangelical Free Church exists to glorify God by working together to multiply healthy churches among all people. God’s promise is for all peoples on earth to be blessed (Genesis 12:3) (Rev. 5:9). God’s plan is for every generation to know the Lord (Judges 2:10)(2 Timothy 2:2). God’s heart is for each church to be fruitful and multiply so that churches can be planted for every generation, every country and culture, and every people group. We must not just be into mega churches, but multiplying fruitful churches.
A movement multiplies churches for the new and next generation. In America, from the post-Civil War era through the 1920’s, the most widely used strategy was designed around starting new congregations to reach younger generations and planting new missions to serve the recent immigrants (Lyle Shaller: Tattered Trust: 37).
So, some of the many indicators of a healthy church are seen in Antioch:
- Centrality of God’s Word: In the church of Antioch there were prophets and teachers...
- Spirit-filled Worship: While they were worshipping the Lord...
- Passionate Spirituality: and fasting, the Holy Spirit said...
- Great Commission Driven: Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them...
- Leadership Multiplication: Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch...
- Stewardship of Resources: the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift ...
- Fruitful Evangelism: He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord...
- Intentional Disciplemaking: So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch...
- Loving Relationships: When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hears...
- Church Planting: So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off (to plant churches).
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