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Church Health for the Twenty-First Century
Church Health for the Twenty-First Century
Church Health for the Twenty-First Century
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Church Health for the Twenty-First Century

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What does the Bible have to say about church health? In this new resource from John Marshall Crowe, clergy and lay leaders alike will discover:What are the characteristics of churches where Jesus is the head or not?How to disciple church leaders into a healthy team?Are the Great Commission and the Great Commandment connected to ministry for the mentally ill?How can biblical preaching promote church health?All types of churches and all kinds of pastors will find this a useful and inspiring book for individual or small group study. Helpful questions follow each chapter to assist in stimulating thoughtful discussion and meaningful action.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHistria Christian
Release dateMar 21, 2017
ISBN9781632132871
Church Health for the Twenty-First Century

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    Book preview

    Church Health for the Twenty-First Century - John Marshall Crowe

    CHURCH HEALTH

    FOR THE

    TWENTY-FIRST

    CENTURY

    A BIBLICAL APPROACH

    John Marshall Crowe

    eLectio Publishing

    Little Elm, TX

    www.eLectioPublishing.com

    Church Health for the Twenty-First Century: A Biblical Approach

    By John Marshall Crowe

    Copyright 2017 by John Marshall Crowe. All rights reserved.

    Cover Design by eLectio Publishing.

    ISBN-13: 978-1-63213-287-1

    Published by eLectio Publishing, LLC

    Little Elm, Texas

    http://www.eLectioPublishing.com

    5 4 3 2 1 eLP 21 20 19 18 17

    The eLectio Publishing creative team is comprised of: Kaitlyn Campbell, Emily Certain, Lori Draft, Court Dudek, Jim Eccles, Sheldon James, and Christine LePorte.

    Unless otherwise stated, scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1978 by New York International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

    The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

    Publisher’s Note

    The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

    Table of Contents

    CHURCH HEALTH FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

    Endorsements

    Acknowledgments

    Why I Wrote This Book

    Introduction

    Chapter 1 From Hopelessness to Hopefulness

    Traits of Unhealthy Churches

    1. An Absence of a Biblical Understanding of the Church or Ecclesiology

    2. Lack of Spiritual Formation

    3. Running the Church Like a Business

    4. Clergy Abuse

    5. Unhealthy Terminations

    6. Lack of Love

    7. Excessive Individualism

    8. Have it Your Way Christianity

    9. Unhealthy Church Leaders

    10. Unhealthy Church Members Who Are Not Being Helped

    11. Poor Pastoral Integrity

    12. Poor Mental Health of Some Clergy

    13. Has a Weakness Described in Revelation Chapters Two and Three

    14. Weak in Several Areas of Church Life

    15. Weak or Extremist View of Spiritual Warfare

    16. Master, Motive, and Message

    Hope of a Prognosis for Developing a Healthy Church

    A Healthy Church Defined

    Traits of Healthy Churches

    1. Sound, Biblical Ecclesiology (the nature and mission of the church)

    2. Master, Motive, and Message

    3. Christ-Like Love

    4. A Core Group of Healthy Christian Leaders

    5. Clergy Who Are Spiritually Healthy

    6. Clergy with Good Mental Health

    7. A Strong and Balanced View of Spiritual Warfare

    8. Healthy Ministries for a Hurting World

    9. Strong in Various Areas of Church Life

    10. Has Strengths Described in Revelation Chapters Two and Three

    11. Healthy Families

    Questions for Church Evaluation and Application

    Chapter 2 From the Bible to a Church’s Spiritual Anatomy

    The Bible

    Doctrine

    A Biblically-Based Ecclesiology

    Ephesians

    Ephesians Applied

    Tradition

    The Early Church Fathers

    The Ecumenical Creeds

    Jesus Christ and Church Health

    Salvation and Church Health

    The Holy Spirit and Church Health

    Ecclesiology and Church Health

    A Denominational Ecclesiology and Church Health

    Which Approach Helps Develops a Healthy Church?

    1. A Well-Functioning Machine?

    2. A Psychological System of Relationships?

    3. A Vital Spiritual Body in Christ?

    A Church’s Spiritual Anatomy

    Ecclesiology and Church Anatomy

    Questions for Church Evaluation and Application

    Chapter 3 Jesus—The Head of the Body

    Ephesians

    Revelation

    Further Insights into Christ as Head of the Church

    Life

    Identity

    Direction

    Extra Comments and Questions

    Characteristics of a Church in Which Jesus Is Not the Head

    Characteristics of a Church in Which Jesus Is the Head.

    Questions for Church Evaluation and Application

    Chapter 4 The Church’s Musculoskeletal and Nervous Systems

    Spiritual Formation

    Harmonious Community

    The Church’s Nervous System

    Developing Healthy Leadership

    Dealing with Trouble Makers

    Why Troublemakers Are Not Confronted

    Equipping for Works of Service

    Questions for Church Evaluation and Application

    Chapter 5 The Church’s Circulatory System

    Biblical Differentiation

    Whole Persons

    Basic Wholeness

    Interpersonal Wholeness

    Wholeness and Emotional Triangles

    Wholeness and Spiritual Maturity

    Spiritual Gifts

    Spiritual Context

    Questions for Church Evaluation and Application

    Chapter 6 The Church’s Skin

    The Key to Healthy Skin

    The Great Commission

    The Great Commandment and Mental Illness

    Biblical Framework

    The Church and Persons with Mental Illnesses

    A Wide Chasm

    The Overlooked or Ignored

    Why Churches Often Overlook or Ignore

    Change is Coming

    The Church & Families of Those with Mental Illnesses

    The Church Offering Intentional Hospitality

    How to Rate Your Church

    What is Next?

    Questions for Church Evaluation and Application

    Chapter 7 Preaching and Church Health

    Called and Ordained to Proclaim

    Proclaim the Word

    The Inner Dynamic of Preaching

    Preach Christ

    The Value of Preaching

    Preaching Applied and Tested

    Preaching to the Whole Person

    Offering God Our Best in Preaching

    More about Preaching and Church Health

    More Than Preaching Is Needed

    Charts Related to Preaching and Church Health

    Questions for Pastoral Self-Evaluation and Application

    Notes

    Why I wrote this book

    Introduction

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    This is a different kind of book, and one desperately needed. No issue is of greater significance than the health of churches. And Dr. Crowe addresses this concern out of successful pastoral experience, a deep and quite proper conviction that the health of churches is achieved by centering on the Scriptures and especially preaching, and a practicality that discusses specific congregational evaluation and enhancement. At a time when discussions of church growth or congregational health draws heavily from dubious secular models, it is exciting to see a treatment that has a strong theological and biblical orientation.

    David R. Bauer, Ph.D.

    Ralph Waldo Beeson Professor of Inductive Biblical Studies

    Dean of the School of Biblical Interpretation 

    Asbury Theological Seminary

    It is my privilege to recommend this book to all pastors, lay leaders and denominational facilitators. Dr. Crowe is passionate about having healthy, Christ-centered, bodies of Christ. His poignant discussion brings readers to understand that Christ's church is His body. It has a physiology. And its health and weakness can be most effectively understood and addressed by eternal Biblical principles. I have had the pleasure to reflect with John over the years as he developed his book. I know it will be a blessing to all who read it, to their churches, and to the Body of Christ throughout all the world.

    Rev. Thomas F Fischer, M.Div., M.S.A.,

    Director, MinistryHealth.net

    Acknowledgments

    I would like to express my grateful appreciation to several friends and colleagues who have been instrumental in shaping this book. Some have been proofreaders, and some have been sounding boards. No matter the contribution, they have been valuable assets in seeing this come to light.

    My gracious respect and thanks to Judy Hogan, Dr. James Smith, the Reverend Thomas F. Fischer, and the Reverend Darryl Zoller.

    I am also grateful to Jesse Greever, Christopher Dixon, and everyone at eLectio Publishing for the opportunity to share this book and to work in partnership with their creativity and passion.

    Finally, to my loving and supportive wife, Donna: my deepest gratitude. Your encouragement when the times got rough are much appreciated and duly noted.

    Why I Wrote This Book

    At the heart of God calling me into the ministry is my passion for seeing people becoming whole persons in Christ. While attending Asbury Theological Seminary from 1980-1983, I took a course on Healing and the Christian Faith. I read Frank Bateman Stanger’s book, God’s Healing Community (Abingdon Press, 1978; now out of print, but secondhand copies may be available on the internet). It contained a brief testimony about a pastor applying biblical healing steps to a church body through preaching. The story of this pastor preaching on the steps to bring healing into the corporate life of a church served as a seminal experience for writing this book.

    Another major impetus has been my experience as pastor of various churches. I’ve been a pastor at churches in a city, small towns, and rural areas, and was pastor of more than one church at one time in what United Methodists call circuits.

    A third incentive for writing is the lack of church health literature from any other perspective than that of the systems theory. As Anthony B. Robinson wrote, By and large, congregational health seemed, to judge by the literature, not to match much with either the core convictions of the Christian faith, theology or the Bible.¹ To overlook, forget, or ignore the rich deposits of wisdom from the Bible and Christian theology is like building a house upon a foundation of sand instead of a foundation made of rock.

    A fourth motivation for writing this book is the apparent lack of ecclesiology among pastors who graduate from seminary and from those still in seminary. Princeton Theological Seminary professor Ellen Charry boldly states, I am increasingly realizing that a number of our ministerial students have no ecclesiology to speak of. For them the church is a voluntary not-for-profit organization run like a local franchise.²

    My fifth reason is the contribution that the epistle to the Ephesians offers to church health literature. T.J. Addington is a Senior Vice President with the Evangelical Free Church of America. For two decades, he has been a pastor, consultant, denominational leader, and author. On Thursday, July 16, 2009, he posted an entry, Ephesians and Church Health, in his blog, Leading from the Sandbox. I fully agree with his opening sentence: For all the talk about church health, possibly the most underutilized resource is that of the book of Ephesians which is, if nothing else, a primer on church health.³

    Introduction

    Many of the churches I served as pastor received limited benefits from various church growth programs, both prior to my being there and while I was their pastor. Neither 12 Keys to an Effective Church, nor Rose Sims Church Growth Program brought many lasting results. I am not alone in my experience. This experience raises the question about the effectiveness of working on church growth before addressing the church’s health. These books and programs seem to assume a church is healthy. Making such an assumption is likely to be futile and very often wrong.

    Not knowing if a church is healthy enough to use a church growth program is like sowing corn seed in a field that has not been plowed and fertilized. Very little corn will grow, and what does grow will get choked to death by the weeds.

    During my senior year in seminary, I set a goal to work one day on a doctor of ministry degree. I also set up a folder in my filing cabinet with a copy of the application to the DMin program. This degree focuses on some area of the practice of ministry. It entails attending required and elective classes; continuing to serve as a pastor; setting up a committee of church members to work with you; doing a ministry project in which one is a pastor; using research methods to measure the outcome of your project; and writing a dissertation about the whole experience.

    Thirteen years after graduating from seminary, a wonderful church turn around experience at Franklin Memorial UMC helped with my being accepted into the doctor of ministry program at Asbury Theological Seminary in 1996.

    A representative of the seminary dropped by for a visit. Upon hearing how God was blessing my ministry at Franklin Memorial UMC, he encouraged me to look into their DMin program. Not only was the experience of pursuing the degree a journey of faith, it also became a journey of personal and professional development.

    My initial aim was to learn more about equipping churches for ministry and growth. Working on my Biblical Studies paper on Ephesians 4:7-13 broadened and deepened my understanding of the Greek word καταρτισµον, translated equip. I understood the application of its medical usage as focusing on the health of a body of believers.

    When I studied the historic usage of the Greek word in Ephesians 4:13, I learned that it was also ...a medical term referring to the setting of a fracture.¹ Like many pastors, I understood Ephesians 4:13 as a call to equip the church to become soldiers of Christ in terms of numerical growth; however, the word carries a richer meaning. As William Barclay states in his commentary:

    This word’s military usage speaks of fully furnishing an army. Its civic usage speaks of pacifying a city, which is torn by factions. Its medical usage speaks of setting a broken bone or putting a joint back into place. The basic idea of the word is that of putting a thing into the condition in which it ought to be.²

    That paper helped me understand that my theology of healing was too individualistic and my theology of equipping a church was overly program oriented. Thus began my journey of integrating my theology of healing with my growing understanding of the meaning of equipping.

    By then I had moved from Franklin Memorial UMC to a church with a very unhealthy history. The district superintendent and bishop hoped that my ministry would bring that church into better health. I found myself overwhelmed by a flood of health problems. Things were much worse than they had been at Franklin Memorial UMC. That experience, however, did fuel my passion for church health and, now, the writing of this book.

    After a short time at that very unhealthy church, I moved to become pastor of Gibson Memorial UMC. I continued working on my doctor of ministry degree.

    Gibson Memorial UMC had recently split over contemporary Christian music in the worship services. Actually, this music issue turned out to be a symptom of a power struggle. During my first year in 1998, I learned that many in the congregation shared my outlook of church health being a prerequisite for church growth.

    Before launching my church health preaching program, my mentor and I developed four dimensions of a church body that needed biblical preaching and teaching to help a church body have sound health.

    First was the supra-macro dimension, which involves the outer global level of a church body, i.e. ecclesiology that is the doctrinal teaching about the church. Without sound doctrine, there can be no soundness in the body of Christ. At first, my anatomical analogy for this was skin, since it covers the entire body.

    Second was the macro dimension of church health which involves the Christian relationships within the church as a community. Christian teaching can and should

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