I have spoken to you a number of times about a device we use with staff at the church called the Hartman Profile. We use this profile to measure two things, how well a person understands their own feelings everyday, and how accurately a person picks up the feelings of people around them.
This helps us understand which teachers will work best with students, for example. But you would also hope that as Christians, we will each get stronger in those areas of our lives as we mature in Christ. The two areas again are how well I understand my own feelings, and how well I understand the feelings of others.
The truth is that most people decline in these areas unless they are intentionally involved in getting stronger as Christians. I
was shocked when I first discovered this. 
Unless you are nurturing your soul, you are less
and less prepared for the next steps of life.
Paul describes a healthy church like a healthy human body. The church needs to practice specific things to be more healthy. Just like vitamins and exercise, some churches aren’t strong and others are much more healthy. I believe that Community Church is more on the strong side. We are not an easy church to be part of. Our expectations are high. But that pressure makes us each change and I believe it makes our church more healthy and it makes us more healthy.
We are about to join an event of the Annual Conference called Natural Church Development. This whole idea comes from a group in Germany. They have discovered 8 ways that a church needs to be healthy in order to have a great healthy life that affects individual members to have a healthy life.
What I am saying is that the more we work on our church to make it healthy – its going to affect your own physical, spiritual, and mental health. Doesn’t it make sense that if the church is sick, its going to be of little help to you and possibly even weaken you? If the church is healthy, then every time you get involved, you are surrounded by healthy people who have a good impact on you , encouraging you to greater health.
Natural Church Development has 8 areas that they measure in the health of a church.
Healthy churches have empowering leadership. Remember that I said recently that we need more entrepreneurs to start new ministries? Empowering leadership does not stop things – it trains and coordinates and facilitates people who want to do ministry.
Healthy churches think about people’s individual gifts and try to help members learn their gifts and use them in the church and in the work place.
Healthy churches draw people to passionate spirituality.
Healthy churches have functional structures. They keep changing the structure to make it more convenient.
Healthy churches invest a lot in an inspiring worship service
Healthy churches have small groups for adults that reflect on the scriptures and minister to each member of the group.
Healthy churches practice need oriented evangelism. They get involved in the issues that every day people in their community think about.
And healthy churches enjoy each other. There is a lot of love within the church.
We are going to get a questionnaire in the weeks ahead and ask all who are willing to fill it out. They tell us that when these are fed into a computer, we will get back some unexpected advice on where to build up the health of the church.
The idea of Natural Church Development is that a church needs to be healthy in all 8 areas. I went to the doctor last week for a check. And 95 % of my report was perfect. My blood pressure is a medical miracle and my weight is on target. Did the doctor spend 15 minutes praising all the things that were right? No, he said, Mr. Tompkins, of course your report is ideal in many areas, however – I don’t like your cholesterol.
As I think about our church, I don’t want to just praise you all for all your accomplishments. Community Church is a great church. However
I do worry about our love. We are a church that is greatly diverse. And ethnicity is a powerful force in life. And ethnicity is so visible for most of us. And ethnicity enriches life because it gives small groups of people a chance to be creative in alternative ways and invent the customs, languages, and values that so enrich the world. But there are moments when we have to break across the ethnic boundaries and learn to love and have fun with each other. My prayer for this congregation is that we have more and more fun with each other. I prayed for the Women’s meeting today at 1pm. I know that this is the first one and you will have to experiment. But I pray that it succeeds and that part of that success draws our congregation into more moments where we make friends across lines of ethnicity.
I worry about our need based evangelism. We live in a community with a large gay population. I really don’t know a lot places where a gay Christian can get support. People say that St. Marks has always had a gay priest, but mostly what I hear is that the attendance is shrinking altogether. The pastor of St. Joan’s sent me a letter last summer affirming their inclusiveness with the note that the Pope considers it a disorder repudiated by Scripture. That sounds welcoming.
Every church loves the core group. That makes sense. The core group would stop attending if they weren’t loved. But when it comes to love that’s difficult across ethnic lines, or controversial with the gay community, is Community Church strong enough to make it happen anyway? Or is it like vitamins – we know we should take them but its not my custom to take a pill every day?
We have looked at 8 ways that a church needs to be healthy in order to keep the members healthy. We are actually having events today that try to live out inspiring worship, passionate spirituality, holistic small groups, and love. What is God saying to you? How will you be involved to increase your own spiritual health and build up a healthy Body of Christ that helps others?
In a few moments, we are going to hear about need based evangelism that happens when the church is healthy. And I hope that each heart here is drawn to this passage, drawn to being the Body of Christ, and drawn to a mission together. I believe that God has called Community Church to a special mission in our community. And our healthy Body of Christ together will make you healthier too.
I want to share with you the impact that your life can have when you commit yourself above all else to asking God for spiritual health and find other Christians who support you. I have been much taken with the movie about to appear on February 23 and we have some clips of what will be seen at the theatre. William Wilberforce passionately attacked slavery in England and this is his story.
What I did not know is that he had friends in John Wesley, founder of the United Methodist Church and in John Newton, a slave trader who converted to Christianity and actually went on to become a pastor.
John Newtown discipled William Wilberforce and Wesley used the last phase of his life to support him. You may say that your talents are small, you have obligations that consume you, and you don’t have the time this year. But our community is calling out in need. A man was shot and killed at 82nd and Roosevelt last week. Our community keeps showing ominous signs that the direction is not right. Who will stand up if the church does not get involved with the lives of every day people? And if not Community Church, which church do you think God is calling?
The reflections of John Newton on the hymn Amazing Grace. He enslaved many people and raped and murdered some. I honestly don’t understand the grace of God to give him a second chance and to use him in the life of Wilberforce. But its all true and I hope it calls you and I to seek more spiritual health than we have ever known. God’s grace is there for you.
