I wish I had a hundred dollars from every occasion someone asked me what makes a great church. It happened again several times this week. And I always give the same answer.
Before I reveal it, let me hasten to say there are all sorts of Biblical ingredients that go into making a church what it should be. You could write a book on the subject, and many have.
But what if we could boil it down to something everyone could understand, remember and repeat — In other words, a short but accurate summary?
Here’s my contribution. There are three things a church absolutely must have if it aspires to meeting Biblical norms.
A high standard of teaching the Bible. One of the most tragic mistakes of our consumerist church culture is the idea preachers get that we need to dumb everything down and reduce our comments to a bare minimum, because that’s all people can take these days. And then we wonder why we have churches a mile wide and an inch deep, where people are filled with all sorts of weird and unscriptural ideas, mostly borrowed from pagan culture with a slight Biblical veneer. In the online teaching platform I am involved in, young people are enrolling by the thousands because they’re sick of the pablum they’re getting from seeker-sensitive preachers and want more. Biblical truth properly preached under the anointing of the Spirit changes lives. My goal when I preach is for people to want more when I’ve done. That’s the standard, and it’s achievable.
The presence of the Holy Spirit. We have relegated the Holy Spirit to a dusty corner of our doctrinal filing cabinet. Jesus told us that when he left this earth, the Holy Spirit would be in charge. The Holy Spirit is God on earth. Marginalize the Spirit and you marginalize God. And then we wonder why we have no power. We face an enemy who has no hesitation to throw everything against us he has, and who delights in picking off powerless believers who would hardly recognize the presence of the Spirit if they encountered it. Our pre-packaged services are often human productions with minimal divine input. How the presence and gifts of the Spirit may look in each church may well be different, and that’s fine. But at least let’s let him in the front door!
The cultivation of community. Acts calls it koinonia — the continuous house to house and family to family fellowship the early church lived in. Jesus defined Christians simply as friends of him and of each another. In countless churches, people leave the door one Sunday and see no one from church until the next Sunday. I wonder if Covid has made much difference to the level of fellowship in many churches? Church is intended above all else to be family. No wonder people drop out when they get more fellowship at the gym or the golf club than at church.
Word. Spirit. Community.
Get those things right, and whether it’s big, small or in between, you’ve got a great church. Guaranteed.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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