Blueprint for a Healthy Church

Romans 12:3-8
Rom 12:3 Dahil sa kagandahang-loob ng Diyos sa akin, sinasabi ko sa bawat isa sa
inyo, huwag ninyong pahalagahan ang inyong sarili nang higit sa nararapat. Sa
halip, pakaisipin ninyong mabuti ang tunay ninyong katayuan ayon sa sukat ng
pananampalatayang ipinagkaloob ng Diyos sa bawat isa sa inyo.
Rom 12:4 Kung paanong ang katawan ay binubuo ng maraming bahagi, at
magkakaiba ng gawain ang bawat isa,
Rom 12:5 gayundin naman, kahit na tayo'y marami, nabubuo tayo sa iisang
katawan ni Cristo, at tayong lahat ay bahagi ng isa't isa.
Rom 12:6 Tumanggap tayo ng iba't ibang kaloob ayon sa kagandahang-loob ng
Diyos, kaya't gamitin natin ang mga kaloob na iyan. Kung ang ating kaloob ay
pagsasalita ng pahayag mula sa Diyos, magpahayag tayo ayon sa sukat ng ating
pananampalataya.
Rom 12:7 Kung paglilingkod ang ating kaloob, maglingkod tayo. Magturo ang
tumanggap ng kaloob sa pagtuturo.
Rom 12:8 Magpalakas ng loob ang may kaloob sa pagpapalakas ng loob. Kung
pagbibigay ang inyong kaloob, magbigay kayo nang buong puso; kung pamumuno
naman, mamuno kayo nang buong sikap. Kung pagkakawanggawa ang inyong
kaloob, gawin ninyo iyan nang buong galak.
What makes a great church? We hear that expression often–”a great church”–but
no one knows exactly what it means. How do you know when a church has truly
become “great?”

Perhaps it refers to bigness. I think that’s what most people mean. A great church
is a big church with thousands of people attending on Sunday. There’s only one
problem: We all know that not every big church is a great church and many truly
great churches aren’t very big.

Perhaps greatness involves having a famous pastor. It’s true that big churches
usually have well-known pastors who write books, have a radio ministry and
appear on TV. Often, those pastors speak around the country to huge audiences.
Does that mean their churches are “great?”
It could refer to having large facilities-a huge sanctuary, an enormous parking lot,
and a steeple you can see a mile away.

Or greatness might refer to the number of programs in a given church. Some big
churches will have over 300 events in any given week. That’s certainly impressive,
even if it isn’t “great.”

Sometimes people associate greatness with having a good reputation. That’s not
to be sneezed at, since good ministry ought to have a positive influence in the
community.

Finally, some people think that great churches are “market-driven.” By that they
mean that great churches stay in close touch with the wants and needs of the
surrounding community.

What Makes a Healthy Church?

Let me substitute a word at this point. Suppose instead of asking, “What makes a
great church?” we ask “What makes a healthy church?” That’s an entirely different
question, isn’t it? After all, a church may be great in the eyes of the world but not
be healthy at all, and many truly healthy churches may not be “great” in the eyes
of other people. Greatness touches matters on the outside, while health touches
the unseen realities of the heart.

Romans 12:3-8 supplies three essential qualities of a healthy church. While these
three aren’t the only ones we might think of, they are vitally important because
Paul focuses on three qualities that involve the way we look at ourselves, the way
we look at each other, and the way we look at our own personal involvement.

These three qualities allow us to evaluate the church as a whole and our personal
lives.

First of all, a healthy church is marked by …

I. Honest Evaluation
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each
according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (v. 3).

In this verse Paul uses one particular Greek word (and its compounds) four
different times. It’s the word that is translated “think.” A literal translation might
read something like this: “Do not super-think of yourself more highly than you
ought to think, but rather think of yourself with sober thinking.” The idea is that
Christians ought to have a realistic appreciation of themselves—not puffed up with
conceit and not dragging themselves down into the mud.

The key word is humility, which might be defined as the virtue which, when you
think you have it, you’ve lost it. Humility is knowing who you are in God. Pride
comes from “super-thinking” about yourself, blowing your own horn too often,
bragging about your accomplishments one too many times, dwelling on your own
supposed greatness.

Against all that, Paul says, “Know yourself. Know your strengths and your
weaknesses. Know what you can do and what you can’t do. Don’t live in a dream
world thinking you can do it all. You can’t. The sooner you figure that out, the
better.”

Some people struggle with this area because they are afraid to admit their
weaknesses. So they constantly boast about their accomplishments, seeking to win
approval by drawing attention to themselves. Others go to the opposite extreme,
playing Uriah Heep by constantly bad-mouthing themselves. They do it, hoping
you will say, “There, there, you’re really a nice person. Don’t be so hard on
yourself.” Either way pride is the motivating factor behind the comments.

But if you know who you are in God, you don’t have to brag and you don’t have to
beg. You can just be yourself. Your gifts will make themselves evident sooner or
later.
This week Gordon MacDonald wrote a penetrating analysis of the widely-
publicized removal of Ted Haggard as president of the National Association of
Evangelicals and as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. There is no
need to rehearse the sordid details that led up to these tragic events, but it is
worthwhile to ask what we can learn from them. MacDonald writes from the
perspective of a man who has been where Ted Haggard is now. He offers this
telling analysis:

It seems to me that when people become leaders of outsized organizations and

movements, when they become famous and their opinions are constantly sought
by the media, we ought to begin to become cautious. The very drive that propels
some leaders toward extraordinary levels of achievement is a drive that often
keeps expanding even after reasonable goals and objectives have been achieved.

Like a river that breaks its levy, that drive often strays into areas of excitement and
risk that can be dangerous and destructive. Sometimes the drive appears to be
unstoppable.

Times like these call for prayer and honest self-examination. I’m sure thousands of
Christian leaders took a deep breath when they heard about Ted Haggard. What
happened to him could happen to any of us. I cannot explain why he did what he
did, but I am reminded of the English writer who remarked that there is no man
who, if his thoughts were made public, would not deserve hanging a dozen times a
day. To which I reply, only a dozen times? All we like sheep have gone astray, all
have sinned and fallen short, and there but for the grace of God go I. His fall may
be a blessing in disguise to the American church if it produces a healthy sense of
self-examination and a new humility in all of our leaders.

When Jesus said, “I will build my church,” he told us that the church itself is his
creation. He is the General Superintendent of a building project that has been
going on for 2000 years. Sometimes the Lord uses stones that under pressure
crumble into dust. But the church goes on because it is built on the Rock that
cannot be shaken.
We must not give in to despair. Let us join together and ask the Lord to raise up a
generation of pastors who will lead with honesty, integrity, compassion, godly
vision and Christlike character.

There is nothing more important for any of us than to obey the ancient maxim—
Know thyself! This will be the work of a lifetime, to truly know your strengths and
weaknesses, to understand your temptations, to look at yourself with sober
judgment, and to find a way to use what God has given you without falling into the
twin traps of vanity and false humility. When God’s people take Romans 12:3 to
heart, we’ll see a change in the attitudes of people around us. Pride builds walls.
Humility builds bridges.

It’s okay to say, “I don’t think I can do that.” It’s certainly better to say that than to
pretend you can do it all. Healthy churches are filled with healthy Christians who
have a healthy sense of their own limitations. They know they can’t do it all, so
they don’t try to do what they can’t do.

Happy is the man who knows what he can’t do! Therefore, he won’t waste time
trying to do what he can’t do, which gives him more time to do what he can do!
That’s what I mean by honest evaluation. It gives you more time to do what you
can do and sets you free from the impossible burden of trying to do it all. But
honest evaluation is only the first mark of a healthy Christian attitude. It leads
directly to the second important quality.

II. Faithful Cooperation

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the
same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members one of another” (vv. 4-5).

The church is like a body. It has many parts with many functions yet they all serve
a larger purpose. If you want to know what the church is like, stand in front of a
mirror and look at your own body. You will discover three truths about your body
and about God’s church:
1.Your body has many parts—visible and invisible.

2. Every part is important.

3. Every part depends on every other part.

If you doubt that last fact, think about the last time you had a toothache. Probably
you never stop to think about your teeth until they start hurting. But when your
teeth hurt, you can’t think about anything else. It’s the same with every part of
your body. You don’t think about it until it hurts.

The principle involved is unity amidst diversity. We’re not all alike in the body of
Christ. We have different functions, different gifts, different backgrounds, and
different preferences. God didn’t cut us all from the same bolt of cloth. Some of us
are like burlap, others like shiny satin, some are khaki, while others are a bright
plaid. That truth would have been especially important in Rome where Jews and
Gentiles struggled to find a common ground inside the church. Two thousand
years later the struggle continues as black and whites, Asians and Hispanics, rich
and poor, haves and have-nots, blue collar workers and white collar workers, men
and women, young and old, the contemporary crowd and the traditional crowd all
struggle to find a way to work together in God’s church.

A healthy church is one made up of all kinds of people from many different
backgrounds who join together based on a common faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t
have to share the same politics or like the same music or eat the same food or
drive the same cars. That’s not what it’s all about. What we do share, however, is a
deep-seated love for Jesus Christ. That ought to be enough to hold us together in
the hard times. Healthy churches are filled with people who work together in spite
of their differences.

That leads directly to the third mark of a healthy church.

III. Individual Participation

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if
prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who
teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who
contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of
mercy, with cheerfulness” (vv. 6-8).

Paul says we all have different gifts. The Greek word for “gifts” is charismata, from
which we get the English word “charismatic.” That’s a loaded word these days, one
that many of us shy away from. But it’s a good, biblical word. It simply means
“grace gift.” All of God’s gifts are “grace gifts.” None of them come from within us,
but all of them are given to us by God when we trust Christ as Savior. In that sense,
we’re all charismatic Christians. If you’ve got a spiritual gift (and all Christians have
at least one gift), then you are a charismatic believer.

Don’t let that thought scare you. It doesn’t mean you have to speak in tongues or
do anything that makes you uncomfortable. Being charismatic in the biblical sense
simply means that you have been given a spiritual gift by the Holy Spirit.

Here are three basic truths about spiritual gifts:

1.Every believer has at least one spiritual gift.

2. No believer has all the gifts.

3. Your spiritual gift enables you to serve the body of Christ effectively.

Here is the final mark of a healthy church: It’s a church where every believer is
using his or her spiritual gifts for the good of the whole congregation.

Seven Spiritual Gifts

Paul lists seven gifts in Romans 12. In other passages (I Corinthians 12 and
Ephesians 4), he gives other lists, which when you combine them together, result
in a total of about 19 different spiritual gifts. Actually, I think there may be
hundreds of different spiritual gifts, of which we have a small sampling in the New
Testament.

First of all, he mentions prophecy. This gift is the ability to speak authoritative
truth from God. In the first century, it probably referred to receiving direct
messages from the Holy Spirit. Today it refers to those people who can take the
Word of God and make it shine (the root meaning of the word).

Serving is a general term that means to “wait on tables.” People with this gift
prefer to work behind the scenes. They don’t seek the limelight and they don’t
want to be rewarded for their work. They quietly go about their business, finding
ways to help others.

Teaching is one of the most important spiritual gifts, widely distributed in the body
of Christ. Teachers have the ability to take the Word of God, explain it clearly, and
apply it to the lives of the hearers. This gift may be exercised in many venues—on
Sunday morning, in a small group, or in one-on-one discussion.

Encouragers are those Christians who instinctively gravitate to those folks who are
struggling to stay in the race. They see a friend who is faltering and they reach out
a helping hand. This gift has enabled many people to keep on going when they
would otherwise have quit. Thank God for the encouragers who put courage into
us (the literal meaning of the word) when we felt all hope was gone.

Did you know that giving can be a spiritual gift? All Christians are commanded to
give generously, but some believers have been specially gifted by God in this area.
These Christians may or may not be wealthy, but they find special joy in sharing
their resources with others. Very often, these folks do their work anonymously,
giving large sums secretly, neither wanting nor needing any public thanks. Paul
says they should give “generously.” The word actually means “single-mindedly”-—
referring to the fact that they should give “as unto the Lord”—not for any earthly
reward.
Then there is the gift of leadership. The word means “to stand in front of a group.”
This gift enables a person to take charge of a group or a meeting and lead that
group in a positive, productive direction. People with this gift should do their work
eagerly, gladly, with energy and full commitment.

Finally, Paul mentions showing mercy. This gift enables the believer to reach out to
others who are hurting with the love of Christ. In England these people are often
called “hospitallers” because their work carries them to the sickbed. What a crucial
ministry this is. The challenge for mercy-givers is to do their work “cheerfully.” The
word means “with a smile on your face.” One translation puts it this way: “If you
come with sympathy to sorrow, bring God’s sunshine on your face.” A long face
and a sour disposition are no recommendation for the Christian faith. We’ve all
been visited by well-meaning sourpuss believers who made us feel better only
because they finally left us. How much better to come with a smile and God’s love
in our hearts. It will do so much more than being grumpy and unhappy.

Healthy Christians Make Healthy Churches

What makes a healthy church? The answer is not hard to find: Healthy Christians.
After all, the church is more than the building or the organization. The church is
the people and the people are the church.

Healthy churches are made up of healthy Christians who share three crucial
qualities:

Honest Evaluation

Faithful Cooperation

Individual Participation

That leads me to ask a penetrating question: What are you doing with the gift God
gave you? Are you using it for his glory? Or are you letting it go to waste?
Let me put the question another way: Suppose that everyone in the church were
like you, what kind of church would we have? Would we still be able to staff our
ministries? Would we still support missionaries around the world? Would we still
reach people for Jesus Christ? Let that question sink into your soul. If it feels
uncomfortable, perhaps the Holy Spirit wants you to do something about it.

If we want better churches, we need better people in our churches. And that will
not happen by accident. In times like these, when pastoral failures have become
front-page news, we could easily give in to despair, but that is precisely what we
must not do. We all need the Lord desperately, and we need him much more than
we know. Lately I have reciting the Jesus Prayer to myself. Arising out of the
Orrthodox tradition over 1,000 years ago, it is striking in its simplicity: “Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Our churches will be better when
we have better pastors and better church members, and that won’t happen until
we together cry out for mercy from the Lord. The happy news is that God delights
to hear the cries of his people when they call out to him.

The bottom line is very simple. Before we pray for the world to be changed, let us
pray for our churches to be changed. And before we pray for our churches to be
changed, let us pray for our pastors to be changed. And before we pray for our
pastors to be changed, let us pray that we ourselves might be changed. That’s a
prayer God will always be pleased to answer. Amen.