Vital Signs
By Bill Easum
However you describe your church – missional, emergent, vibrant, healthy, thriving, biblical – good health boils down to six traits:
- Biblically grounded - Mobilizes and equips the laity
- Culturally relevant - A community built on trust
- Exists to transform lives - Structured to grow disciples
The problem in most churches is that either one or more of the traits are missing or the church doesn’t know how to measure each one and thus it falls short in the execution of that trait. Determining how to measure each of these triats is crucial to the life of the church. Honestly answering each of these questions should give you an accurate health assessment.
1 – The best way to determine if a church is biblically grounded is by observing the way it makes decisions. Do prayer, discernment and Scriptures guide leaders in their decision making?
2 – A culturally relevant church exegetes its surrounding community to the point that all of its ministries emerge out of that exegesis. Do all of FHCC’s ministries have their origins in the hopes, dreams and needs of the surrounding community of nonbelievers?
3 – The trait, “existing to transform lives,” is the easiest to measure. How many adult baptisms are occurring and how many spiritual giants are being raised up and seint into some form of regular ministry? Are FHCC leaders disappointed if a week goes by without someone giving their life to Jesus?
4 – A mobilized congregation means that 80% of the participants are involved in some form of weekly or monthly ministry and the staff primarily equips others for ministry rather than doing ministry. Who does most of the ministry at FHCC – the staff of the laity? When people need their spiritual needs met, do they go to their small group instead of the pastor?
5 – Measuring the “trust factor” can be done by observing how quickly, without much fuss, decisions can be made; new ministries can be established; and the expected behavior of the leadership. Another way to put it is that bullies and would-be-controllers are shown to the door. Can any one of two people in the congregation derail something that most people want to see happen? Do you trust your leaders when they make a decision, even if it is controversial?
6 – People often ask why Mormonism is growing so fast. The truth is because they are structured to grow. Does FHCC eat, sleep, and dream about making disciples?
