• Home
  • About This Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Subscribe
  • Comment Policy

Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
Home Quotation Randy Pope on a Healthy Church

Randy Pope on a Healthy Church

Posted on August 17, 2019 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment


I ran across this video in byFaith, the official magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and thought I would share it with you.

For convenience sake, I have captured the 12 characteristics of a healthy church that Randy mentions. On some of them I would like to have further clarification but, the following is an attempt at a faithful transcript of the list.

Healthy churches:

  1. Embark on a journey of faith
  2. Choose influence over success
  3. Embrace ministries of the head, heart and hand
  4. Are intentional about making mature and equipped followers of Christ who make mature and equipped followers of Christ
  5. Equip their people to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit
  6. Emphasize the marriage of grace and duty
  7. Destroy the ministry idols of tradition and preference
  8. Don’t compromise spiritual nutrition for the sake of simplicity and growth
  9. Provide healthy environments for worship and feeding rather than environments for entertainment and self-help inspiration
  10. Correctly steward the keys to the kingdom and the sacraments
  11. Underscore all their teaching with the realities of the authentic Gospel and of Christ as the only hope of glory
  12. They allow their pastor to focus on shepherding through his teaching, leading and equipping

I especially liked Randy’s emphasis on taking people into holiness and having a plan for getting them there.

My 50 or so years of church experience has shown me that most churches either have no plan to bring people into maturity or if they do have a plan it is not very effective. This is a shame and there is no good excuse for it.

May we get better at this moving forward.


Filed Under: Quotation

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Follow Attempts at Honesty

Honesty in your Inbox

When the storm hits

The disciples were freaked out by the wind and the waves. They were on the lake at the bidding of their master but it didn’t seem to be working out so well. These men, some of whom were experienced fishermen, were convinced that they were going to die. You can find this story in Matthew […]

Living up to our Facebook Page

We probably all have at least one acquaintance who makes us nuts with their social media posts because we know that their life is not as pleasant as Facebook would make it appear. According to Facebook, every social event they attend is wonderful and they had a great time and were appreciated by all. This […]

The Case for Christianity book cover

C. S. Lewis on going to church

When you got to church you’re really listening in to the secret wireless from our friends: that’s why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery.

Man holding a rock

On being caught in adultery

My point in all this is that we are broken people living in a broken culture and we are called to minister to people like us who have made a mess of life. We must invite them into relationship with Jesus without laying on them the impossible task of cleaning themselves up first.

Rethinking Church

I wonder if the money spent on the large venue is the best use of the resources provided to the church. Not only do you have the expense of building the large venue, there is also a large increase of the maintenance and operating budgets to support the building.

Post Series

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
December 2023
SMTWTFS
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31 
« Nov    

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama

Copyright © 2023 · Focus Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in