What Is A Healthy Church?
a Bible study by Pastor Mike Stine
Lots of Christians want
to see their church grow and reach out to their friends and
neighbors. We want to have a healthy church. The trouble
is, most of us don't know what a healthy church looks like, so it is
very hard to work towards that goal.
This study is designed
to look at what Jesus and the New Testament say a healthy church
should look like. It starts by looking at what Jesus came to
accomplish in the church. Then it moves to understanding
discipleship.
 All of this sets the
foundation for the main focus of a healthy church, 10 principles for
your church. This is explained more in depth in the
introduction and will be covered in depth at the end of the study.
This study is deeply
entrenched in the Bible and has very little church theory to it.
Almost every point made has a Bible verse attached to it.
This study is great for
a small group from the same church that wishes to evaluate their
church or for a group of Christians from various churches that wish
to compare what their churches are doing and why they do it.
Each lesson is designed
to be one study, but they work best with group interaction.
Depending on the amount of time allotted and the amount of
interaction you anticipate in your group, you may wish to break the
studies up and stretch them over two or even more weeks. When
my group did this, we took about a summer to cover the six lessons.
Because there are Bible
verses given with most points, you are encouraged to look at each
verse to see that this isn't just another program but instead you
may understand what the Bible tells us about how we should live.
This study is adapted
from material made available from the Healthy Church Initiative, a
project by the Missionary Church
USA. Tons more information on the Healthy Church
Initiative is available there.
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