Church Diagnosis Form
40 days of prayer for revitalization – entering week 5
Matthew 16:18 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not [a]prevail against it.
What is the Biblical definition of a healthy church? We tighten up the definition by 3 levels.
The Biblical word for church is “ekklesia.” The word simply means assembly. A gathering of people. So, technically, any gathering of people could be called an “ekklesia.” There’s going to be a gathering of people down at the ball field, the lake, the swimming pool, and the factory today. Any of them could be called an assembly. That’s the first level. We’re a group of people gathered, and we call ourselves a church. Is that the Biblical definition for a healthy church? I think we would all agree that it is not.
At the second level are assemblies built around faith in Jesus Christ. There will also be gatherings of people today at St. Annes, Asbury United Methodist, the Salvation Army Church, the Jehovah’s witnesses building, Immanuel Baptist, St. George Orthodox Cathedral and countless other places. All of them are assemblies, and as an added bonus, they all claim to be gathered because they follow Jesus. That the second level. Just throw the name Jesus on your door, or your literature and you are a church. But are they healthy churches? Again, I think would all agree that they are not. There needs to be certain core teachings that are believed and taught for a place to be called a healthy church.
So, let’s consider the Baptists, or more specifically the Southern Baptist. There are many Southern Baptist assemblies having services at right this very moment. And they are all aligned with a certain set of Biblical teachings outlined in our doctrinal statement; the Baptist Faith and Message. They agree with Scripture. But does this make them a healthy assembly?
Most of you would shake your head and say “no.” So, what is it then that makes a church healthy? It’s not just the belief, it’s the obedience. Does this assembly do what a church is supposed to do?
We have 3 more weeks of prayer for church revitalization. I have two more sermons. So, I thought I would begin to transition us this morning, and next Sunday morning. As we continue to pray and seek God’s direction, we need to begin looking at our church diagnosis.
When you start feeling sick, there are several steps to your recovery. Sometimes you can ignore symptoms or treat them on your own and kind of just plow through without visiting the doctor. But, if the disease is bad enough, eventually you have to go to the doctor. And the doctor will look at your symptoms and run some tests to determine the state of your health. Then he/she gives you a diagnosis, and a treatment plan.
Our 40 days of prayer are our visit to the doctor. We are praying to the Great Physician acknowledging that we are very sick. And now we come to step two. We need to listen to the doctor in the analysis of our symptoms. That means that we go to God’s Word and ask Him to speak to us about the disease we need to address.
So, today we begin a diagnosis of our church.
And more specifically we are asking a question of ourselves, and of the Lord, concerning revitalization versus replant; remember the analogy is of a tree. Two of the possible pathways for our church were called revitalization and replant. If you look at a tree, you call tell, almost automatically if it is healthy or not. Revitalization is when you are able to diagnose the tree, and you have the tools to treat its disease, and the tree positively responds to the treatment. Replant is when any one of those three conditions are not there; either you can’t figure out the problem, or you don’t have the tools or medicine to treat the problem, or the tree does not respond to the treatment. Under any of those three conditions, you have to consider bringing in a new tree to replace the old one. So, you have to decide if it is too sick to save, or if it is more feasible to replace the tree with a healthy one.
So, to start that diagnostic process for our church we have to have a solid understanding of what a healthy church is supposed to be doing and being.
I. What does a healthy church look like? (What would it take to revitalize?)
I am going to look at a Biblical definition for a healthy church. Sadly, there have been books and seminars about church growth that focus on all kinds of non-Biblical standards. You can read books where all they recommend is changing the window dressing. They recommend changes to the building, changes to the music, changes to the existing programs. And although those kinds of changes would likely occur if we set out on a journey to revitalization, the real changes have to be much deeper than those things.
Jesus said, in Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”
What’s the one criterion for being a church that will not be overpowered by the gates of Hell?
Christ has to be the builder of that church. If it is built by anyone else, according to any other plan than the plan of our Lord, Christ offers no guarantee of protection from evil. And let me say from the get-go here, when I say, “our church” I mean those who have presented themselves for membership in our church and were accepted into membership.
When I preach this sermon about what a church is supposed to do, it doesn’t mean that everyone who walks through these doors has to do these things, or we are not a healthy church. Our doors are open to anyone to come and hear the Word preached and taught. Many who come may not be Christians, or they may not agree with us enough doctrinally to join us. Whatever the reason for not joining us in membership is okay. We welcome you, and we love you.
But once a person makes the commitment to become a member of this church, they are making a commitment to us, and we are making a commitment to them. They are making a decision to be committed to this body of believers and to the Lord. We are making a commitment to them to love them and help them grow in their spiritual journey.
So, if we look at those whose names are listed on our church membership role, there are 4 things that should characterize those people. 1. Relationship with the Lord; A worshipping and vital relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Relationship with each other; A loving, encouraging and exhorting relationship to each other 3. Relationship with the world; Disciples who are making disciples in the world 4. Awe-inspiring results
Do you know how many people are listed as members of our church? The number is 300, with 80 listed as “active” members. So, how many of those have a living and vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? You say, “I don’t know.” Some of them, we know a lot about because they are here, some of them are unable to be here, they want to be here, but they can’t, some of them we know a little about; we know they walked down an aisle, filled out a card, got baptized, attended services for a while.
These are the 4 things that we are going to look at over the next weeks. And I’ve given each of you a diagnosis form that I want you to fill out.
Prayer
A. A worshipping and vital relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ
Acts 2:42 “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
In the 2nd chapter of Acts the first church is born. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled 120 disciples of Jesus, there was a great noise that attracted a crowd, Peter preached, and as a result 3000 souls made a commitment to Jesus Christ and were baptized. This was the first church. And Acts 2 gives us a brief description of these people in verse 42.
“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
“Continually devoting” can be translated, “steadfastly continuing,” “constant,” “devoted,” or “attending continually.” In other words, if you took a peek into any moment of the lives of these 3000, the odds were great that you would find them doing one or all of 3 things.
After they made a commitment to Christ and were baptized, they were “Continually devoting themselves” to three things: Bible study, fellowship and the Lord’s table, and prayer.
In other words, they had a worshipping and vital relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. And that relationship was manifest in their behavior. They wanted to know the Lord, so they listened to the apostles teaching; the Word of God. They had the love of God shed abroad in their hearts so they wanted to share that love with others of faith. That came out in their commitment to meet together, and share their love of the Lord in the Lord’s table. And they had a deep desire to follow and obey the Lord, so they were committed to prayer for His direction and intercession. Let’s look a little further at those three.
And remember as we look at them, this is not just a nice Bible story, this is the diagnostic checklist for our church, and our individual lives. We have to ask ourselves if we each have a worshipping and vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the rest of us could look, at any moment into your week, would we find that vital and worshipping relationship to Jesus Christ. And we will know by seeing what we are “continually devoted” to.
1. They were committed to knowing the Lord through the Word of God; the Bible.
It says that they were continually devoted to the apostles teaching. Let me unpack that. At that time, to be devoted to the apostles teaching was to be devoted to the Word of God; because two conditions existed. First, copies of the Old Testament Scripture were rare. God’s written Word was not available to them. So, they depended on the apostles to pass down the Old Testament Word orally. And second, the disciples were the chosen witnesses to the life and Words of Christ. So, if they wanted to hear the stories, parables, miracles, and teachings of Jesus, they had to hear it from the apostles.
The people of that first church were dedicated to hearing and understanding the whole Word of God. They wanted to know all about Jesus. They wanted to know how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. They wanted to know how the Word of God applied to their lives. So, they went to be taught by the apostles.
That is a primary role of the church.
Paul instructed Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
The assembly of the people of God is to be centered on the Word of God. And it is not just to be a place of Bible Trivial Pursuit. Christ centered Bible study has always had 3 parts to it. Whatever you are studying you have to ask three questions; What did this mean when it was written? What does it mean now? What is the Lord saying to me about my life?
So, when Paul said to Timothy “preach the Word,” he also said that he should “reprove, rebuke, and exhort.” That means that Timothy was not only to teach what the Word means, he was to help his assembly apply the Word personally. He was to point out what obeying the Word looked like, and encourage obedience, and sometimes rebuke the disobedient.
Why was he supposed to do that? Paul says,
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2-3) In other words, there will come a time when those who call themselves the church won’t want to hear sound teaching; the truth. They won’t even desire to know the Word of God. And they won’t want to obey it.
My friends, we are there in the church. The study of the Word and the application of it.
The problem is 3-fold. Biblical literacy, belief, application
Biblical literacy
Many who have their names on some church roll, even our church roll, couldn’t tell you the basics of Biblical doctrine. They may say, “I believe the Bible from cover to cover.” But they haven’t read it cover to cover, heard instruction from cover to cover, or even desired to understand it cover to cover. They don’t regularly read it, study it, or meditate on it. They are Biblically illiterate and Biblically apathetic.
Biblical belief
The second problem is that not only do many on the church roll not study their Bibles, they don’t believe it either. Oh, they say they do. But then if you begin listing the doctrines of the Bible, they begin fudging. One of the most telling statistics I’ve seen, the Barna group—2021 half of the United States professed belief in the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Pretty good huh?
But when the questions become more specific, this is what you find;
Article entitled “Most American Christians do not believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit exist.”
A new nationwide survey of adults’ spiritual beliefs, conducted by The Barna Group, suggests that Americans who consider themselves to be Christian have a diverse set of beliefs –but many of those beliefs are contradictory or, at least, inconsistent. The survey explored beliefs about spiritual beings, the influence of faith on their life, views of the Bible, and reactions to faiths other than their own.
Views on Spiritual Beings
The Barna survey asked questions about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Satan, and demons.
All 1,871 self-described Christians were asked
Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective.
That means that close to 60% of self-described Christians don’t have a firm belief that Satan is real.
Although a core teaching of the Christian faith is the divinity and perfection of Jesus Christ, tens of millions of Christians do not accept that teaching. More than one-fifth (22%) strongly agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth, with an additional 17% agreeing somewhat. 6% did not have an opinion on the matter. All together that’s 45% who will not say that Jesus was without sin.
Much like their perceptions of Satan, most Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force, either. Overall, 38% strongly agreed and 20% agreed somewhat that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.” 58% all together.
Thoughts on Other Faiths
Mormons themselves claim to be Christian, but most evangelical leaders say that they are not. There was no clear-cut perspective among the self-described Christians: four out of ten felt Mormons were Christian (18% strongly agreed, 21% somewhat agreed), three out of ten disagreed (17% strongly, 12% somewhat), and three out of ten were not sure what to think.
That means that 29% can’t determine if a group who believe that they themselves are working to become gods, they can’t decide if they are Christian.
Views on the Bible
A slight majority of Christians (55%) strongly agree that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches, with another 18% agreeing somewhat. That’s 73%. That’s great right?
When faced with the statement that “the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths,” 41% agreed.
Now here’s the important part for us. I don’t know how those who are on our church roll would answer those questions. My hope is that they believe the truth of Scripture. But this article closed by pointing something out that I believe is true of many if not most of even the most Bible-believing of congregations
Inconsistencies Noted
The study also identified a number of instances in which people’s beliefs seemed inconsistent. Among those were the following:
What this says to me is that many who call themselves Christian don’t really know what the Bible says about these topics. And they take a survey, and whatever comes to their minds is what they say. And I suspect that the same can be said of many who are in our roll books.
That is an indication of sickness. Something that is wrong with this tree that needs to be addressed if we are to be revitalized.
Let me say something again. I am not trying to chide with those who visit our church. But rather, with those who have made a commitment and have become members of our church. Do our members know the Word of God, and do they believe it?
Biblical application
I fear that in many churches, our church included, that our study of the Word of God has become just a great big, long episode of playing Bible Trivia. We have a game in our closet at home called “Bible Trivia.” Like “Trivial Pursuit” people compete to know who knows the most “trivia” from the Bible. There are different categories of questions; Old Testament, New Testament, prophecy, etc. Let me share with you one card of questions from Bible Trivia. Answer these in your head. By the way this exercise is not only a good way for us to talk about Bible application, but also Bible knowledge. How many of these 6 questions can you answer correctly? First question; How many people did Jesus appoint and send out two by two? The answer from Luke 10:1 is 72. Question 2. What two books of the New Testament each have 28 chapters? Matthew and Acts. Where was Saul going when a light from heaven flashed around him. Damascus. In the full armor of God, what is worn on the feet? The preparation of the gospel of peace. What was the 8th plague that God placed on Egypt? Locusts. Who was the Roman centurion who sent for Peter to come and preach to him? Cornelius. Who said, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become a Christian? King Agrippa.
How did you do? I missed two out of six. Partially because details slip my mind. I didn’t memorize the order of the 10 plagues, or how many chapters are in each book of the Bible. But all in all, I feel pretty good about my Bible knowledge, and I came away feeling like I learned something new with that little quiz. And that’s kind of what our Bible study has become, in the church, and on our own. I come away with a good feeling for agreeing with the study and learning some new factoids.
But here are what the real question should be concerning those Bible facts; “What would God have me do with the story of the disciples going out two by two? Has the Lord radically changed my life, like He changed Paul’s on the road to Damascus? Do I resist the Word like Agrippa when it is preached to me?
You see, every time we read the Word, the prayer that should follow should be, “Lord, what would you have me learn from this? Lord, what do I do to be obedient to the truth I’ve learned from this?”
And that’s what our church, each of its members, is to be; continually devoted to the Word of God. I don’t know if that is convicting to you. It is to me.
These last weeks have been pretty intense for me. I have a good idea about what we need to do as a church to be revitalized. To be revitalized is to be renewed in our faith. But there is a truth I kept coming back to over these last weeks; that the revitalization has to start at the top. I am the pastor of this church. Revitalization has to start with me. I have to put the Word of God in its rightful place in my heart and life. And God has reminded me over and over again, if I won’t do it, how can I lead this church to do it.
If God is going to save this sick tree, it starts with the pastor.
And that is not only true of the individuals in the church, but it should also be true in regards to our church structure and purpose.
If we are going to diagnose a disease in the membership of our church, the lack of Bible knowledge, belief, and application are huge life-threatening symptoms of disease. Let me get very practical as to why they are huge symptoms. In this, and many Southern Baptist churches, the way we make decisions, is by voting. Every member has a vote. Ideally what that means is that each member is a Spirit-led Bible believer and will cast their vote based on the guidance of the Word of God, and the Spirit’s direction. In an ideal setting, under those conditions, there would be total agreement, and the Spirit of God would empower the efforts of the church.
But if a good percentage of the membership doesn’t believe the Word, know the Word, or obey the Word, we will not be able to find and follow the Spirit’s direction. So, our efforts will be flawed and flaccid.
So now, I want you to look at this survey sheet of paper I handed out and spend a moment answering it’s questions.