Healthy Churches

PART 1

At ICM our passion and priority is to start and strengthen Anglican evangelical churches in Ireland. However there’s no point in attempting to do either of these if the churches we are starting and strengthening are not healthy. So at our recent AGM we focused on the health of our current churches and ministries. We did this by looking at the first chapter of Titus and looked at four signs of a healthy church. These will be released in a short series of articles over the next couple of weeks.

So firstly, a healthy church understands its unique identity (Titus 1:1-4). 

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Saviour; 4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

Paul tells us the reason why he lives and breathes in these opening verses and in doing so gives us a vision for the church that we quickly forget.  It’s not just a group of like minded individuals, who share a quirky interest in something many people seem to consider irrelevant today.  No. He says, it is ’for the sake of the faith of God’s elect, their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness in the hope of eternal life’ (v.1-2).

In other words Paul underlines for the church its origin - God’s elect; its activity - godliness based on the knowledge of the truth and its destiny - eternal life that was promised by God before the ages began.

He gives us a comprehensive summary of the church's identity.  Beginning middle and end.  We could put it like this.  A healthy church acknowledges it comes from God, lives for God and will enjoy eternal life with God.

And that is part of the reason that every church is precious to God. 

It doesn’t matter about its size, its influence, or its perceived success.  This is one of the most important aspects of any healthy church.  It understands its unique identity. If this is securely in place then any church can withstand the pressure to conform. It can live boldly and joyfully even when facing hostility and prejudice. It can constantly serve the whole community without looking for anything in return. And it can point to a certain future when there seems to be no certainty at all in life.

It’s why Paul lived and breathed and it is a vision of church we want to be at heart of our ministries in ICM.