Five Further Results on Healthy Churches.

There was such a great response to my health check blog and the healthy church results that I went looking through my archives and found the following 5 categorisations that I found were synonymous within healthy churches both big and small.

1. In all churches visited, fellowship was both strong and warm. Both regular congregation members and visitors were made welcome, felt welcomed. Visitors were made to feel as though they were part of something vibrant and vigorous. They were greeted in the parking area, welcomed enthusiastically at the door and invited to sit near the front of the auditorium. After the service people took time out to speak to them, they felt that people in the congregation were really interested in them as people. Over 80% of congregation members attended a mid week home group. Over 45% were involved in some other sort of ministry within the church.

2. All churches had deep and meaningful discipleship programmes. New converts were taken through basic teaching and connected into a mid week home group in their area. However long term congregation members were also given regular deeper teaching in areas such as basic doctrine, Bible study and even apologetics for a modern world.

3. The music and worship program were strong, healthy and vibrant. It was important that the music sung was modern and relevant to the young. It was also an important part of this department's remit to encourage the creative instincts of its musicians and for new music to be composed. It was important for the music to reflect the journey the church had taken and was taking.

4. Ministry programmes within the church were broad and far reaching. The church was seen not just as a place of worship, but also as a community centre with a number of community outreach programmes. Where possible all age groups within the church were catered for.

5. In all these churches whether large (450) or small (80), Evangelism programmes were evident, encouraged and practiced. In all cases it was felt that evangelism was the main focus and purpose of the church. Church numbers were counted in the number of converts won for Christ rather than those who had moved from other churches.

I hope you enjoyed this series.

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