Give Your Church a Health Boost

According to Russill Burill and Tom Evans, authors of Creating Healthy Adventist Churches Through Natural Church Development, there are eight universal characteristics that should be found in any healthy church. Let’s look at each of these characteristics and learn about some ideas that have worked in improving these qualities in Adventist churches.

1. Empowering Leadership

Empowering Leadership means having a shared approach to ministry with a sense of teamwork and creativity. The skill of coaching is quite effective when it comes to empowering others. Rather than giving advice, coaching focuses on asking questions to help individuals discover their own solutions. The North American Division Evangelism Institute (NADEI) offers coach training. To find out more, go online to NADEI.org.

2. Gift-based Ministry

Churches with gift-based ministry make an extra effort to ensure members are empowered to serve in their area of giftedness and passion.

To boost your church’s health in the area of gift-based ministry, try switching to a two-year nominating committee cycle and take a fresh approach. Conduct ministry interviews, rather than simply nominating to fill slots. Empower your ministry placement team to interview members and regular attenders regarding their potential role in ministry. Dialogue about past ministry experiences: what was fulfilling and what was not. Identify how they feel God calling them to serve currently. Pray with them about their ministry in the church. Bring the findings back to the team and place people in ministry based on passion, calling and giftedness.

3. Passionate Spirituality

Churches with passionate spirituality have leaders and members who have a vibrant, daily, transformational relationship with Jesus.

Here’s one way to nurture this kind of spiritual passion. Purchase the book, One Miracle After Another: The Pavel Goia Story by Greg Budd, for all of your leaders. This book is available from NADEI or your local Adventist Book Center. Take a month to read through the book individually. At the next board meeting, identify three initiatives to incorporate prayer more fully into the life of the church.

4. Effective Structures

Having an effective structure means knowing how to prioritize what is most important, having a sense of direction and purpose.

Try making evangelism the first agenda item for the church board (before clerk’s report, treasurer’s report, etc.). Share how God has worked recently (divine appointments), development of Bible study interests, etc. Pray together in groups of two or three. By placing evangelism first on the agenda, everything else will fall into proper perspective.

5. Inspiring Worship Service

An inspiring worship service is joyful, spirit-filled and transformational.

Try selecting a worship team to plan the details of the worship service three months in advance. The team meets monthly and is always planning three months ahead. One benefit of pre-planning is the ability to organize worship services based on a theme surrounding the sermon. In this way, special music, children’s story, testimonies, etc. can all focus on the same message.

6. Wholistic Small Groups

Wholistic small groups minister to the entire person, including their emotional and physical needs.

Try improving the small group element of Sabbath School by making classes more wholistic. Ask your adult Sabbath School teachers to include a time at the beginning of class for prayer. Divide in groups of 3-4 individuals to share and pray together.

7. Need-oriented Evangelism

Churches with need-oriented evangelism take time to understand the real needs of the people they are ministering to. Their outreach methods are relevant to the community.

In order to effectively meet the needs of your surrounding community, it’s important that you have a clear understanding of what the needs are. One excellent way to do this is through a demographic study. In the United States, you can obtain free information at Census.gov or City-Data.com. If you would like a more comprehensive study, contact NADEI at 269.471.8304 to order a 27-page demographic study.

8. Loving Relationships

Churches with loving relationships have a welcoming atmosphere that embraces members and guests alike. There are many fellowship opportunities provided on Sabbath and throughout the week.

One way to increase loving relationships in the church is to see it modeled by those in leadership. An effective way to do this is to hold monthly elders’ meetings in a home setting with the families of the elders invited. This can be rotated between willing elders’ homes. A Saturday evening meeting with a meal seems to work best. If there are items that the elders need to discuss privately, this can be done in another room of the home, while the families have time for social interaction.

Why not commit your church to good health by applying these natural characteristics of church health?

By Russill Burill, D.Min. and Tom Evans, D.Min. Burill is professor emeritus of evangelism and church growth at Andrews University, and Evans teaches in the university’s Doctor of Ministry program.

Extrapolated from Creating Healthy Adventist Churches Through Natural Church Development by Russill Burill, D.Min. and Tom Evans, D.Min. (pages 9, 12, 15-16, 19-20, 23-24, 27-29, 32-33, 36-37, 39-40, 42 & 44),which can be purchased from the North American Division Evangelism Institute at NADEI.org.