A Healthy Church

"The Healthy Church" is the title of the Wednesday night series of messages I am preaching. The title is from C. Peter Wagner who wrote a book with that title.  The concept is this, our church will accomplish its mission when the people in the church are spiritually healthy followers of Christ. Here are a few excerpts.

What the Church needs most is health. Spiritual health is measured by relationship with Christ.
--When a church has a few healthy believers it will be a little attractive.
--When a church has a lot of healthy believers it will be quite attractive.
--When a church has all healthy believers it will be irresistible!!!

"The church is a living organism and all living organisms grow. Living things either grow or die." (Rick Warren)
A church of healthy believers will be a growing church.
--A church with some healthy believers will grow some.
--A church with a lot of healthy believers will grow a lot.
--A church with all healthy believers will double quickly!!!

The church had been running 55 on Sunday mornings when I came to First AG Washington in 2003.  In 2009 we had consistently 134-136 worshiping on Sunday mornings.  Our growth has been slow and consistent each year.  Today, we are a church of about 210 on Sunday's.  Three days ago the attendance was 244.  Those numbers are good (praise the Lord!) but our truly healthy Christian core could be as few as 25.  That is alarming!  You can argue that there may not be a direct correlation between numeric growth and the number of healthy believers in a church, but I think there is.  By the way, if you want to know how I define healthy, attend Wednesday nights the next several weeks.

I want to challenge every person in our church to begin thinking about their relationship with Christ.  If you are faithful, you will be fruitful.  Your fruitfulness is your faithfulness to Christ.  If there is no fruit of harvest in your life, can you really say you are a faithful at the level Jesus wants to raise you?  I know that is hard for some to swallow and most will rationalize it away.  As your pastor, your spiritual life coach, it is my job to ask you the tough questions.  Then, I offer you hope because God can do anything in you if you allow him.

Please think about this.  What must you change in your attitude and schedule to be a healthy, fruitful, follower of Jesus Christ?  I love you all and want to help you.  Please let me know what you think would assist you in your spiritual health.  Perhaps some of the fault is mine, I am the Pastor.  Give me a call some time soon and let me know what you perceive as the need or obstacle for growth in your fruitfulness.  Now is a good time to communicate with me.  I am arranging my preaching schedule for 2014 and your comments will help me pray.

Missionary Faith Promise Victory

This year we set a goal of $25,800 for our missions giving faith promises.  Yesterday at our missions convention we received $27,228 in faith promises!  That is a record for our church.  We also have faith promises for Speed the Light at $4976 and Light For The Lost at $3316.

Thanks to all who have chosen to participate!  Now, let's put our faith into action and find out how good God can be to provide.  Faith promise cards without action are dead faith promise cards.  Sounds like the book of James.  God is going to do great things this year!

Our theme for 2014 is, "Our Best Year Ever."  This is a very good start.

Wake Up Early

I am convinced that if you want to have a great life, you have to start early.  Sure, it helps to start early, like when you are young.  But, what I mean today, is that you have to start each day early.  Here are some things that I think we have to do early.

1.  Pray early.  Prepare your day in prayer or you will repair your day in prayer.  The devil wants to own your morning.  Don't let him.  The name "Lucifer" in the Old Testament means, "morning star" or "son of the morning."  My goal is to pray at least one hour every day.  Sure you can pray any time, or even all day while you do other things.  What I mean is praying for one hour doing nothing else.  When you do, take a note pad along to write down thoughts and things to do.  Write them down so you don't forget and so that you can get back to praying.

2.  Read the Word of God early.  My goal is to read the Bible through as many times as I am years alive.  Each time, I read with a pen to take notes and underline.  When a Bible is too full of notes, I save it on a shelf.  I have two full Bibles like this now, and have a third in progress.  I am saving them as wedding gifts for my kids.

3.  Exercise early.  OK, this might not sound as spiritual.  But, the Bible says that, "physical exercise is of some value..."  If you don't exercise early, I think you will most likely not exercise at all.  For three months in 2011 I exercised every day, except the sabbath, at 4:00 in the afternoon.  It was fine for a season, but not sustainable when there are so many other things that need to be done at that time of day for kids, dinner, activities and meetings.

I am not perfect at these things by any means.  Sickness in the home, late night emergencies and various other odds and ends can knock this off schedule easily.  But, it is good to have a strong morning routine.

For you night owls, I know what you think, "I do my best work at night."  Well, I do pretty good work at night too.  I have written three books now, all at night.  But the morning is still important.  I bet if you get up at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, pray, read, exercise and then get th kids up make them breakfaast and go to work, about 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night the spirit of deliverance will set in, and you might go to bed early.

Augur's Keys to Success

Last week I challenged people at Life Stream Church to set some goals for 2014.  Here are some thoughts for being successful at accomplishing those goals.

 

Proverbs 30:24-28

 “Four things on earth are small,

yet they are extremely wise.”

²⁵ Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer;
²⁶ hyraxes are creatures of little power,
yet they make their home in the crags;
²⁷ locusts have no king,
yet they advance together in ranks;
²⁸ a lizard can be caught with the hand,
yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

Ants - Diligence

They are tiny creatures but always have enough through diligence.

Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”  Proverbs 6 says, "Look to the ant you sluggard and be wise, he has no overseer...yet gathers..."

Hard work and follow through will pay off!

Coneys - Accuracy

They are powerless with little to defend them, yet live in safety through accuracy.

Hebrews 12:13 says, “Make level paths for your feet.”  If you want to be successful, be accurate in your relationship with God, it is called holiness.  Always do your best.  Reach for a higher quality in everything and celebrate when you have done everything well.

Locusts - Unity

Though small individually, they advance in a field destroying everything through unity.

Psalm 133:1 says, “How good it is when brothers live together in unity!”  Some great things can not be accomplished alone.  We all need help and team work to reach goals that are bigger than we are.  Know when to get help and get good help.

The Lizard - Creativity

He is easy to catch, but is found in the most unusual places through wisdom.

Luke 21:12-15 says, “But before all this they will lay hands on you and persecute you.  They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.  This will result in your being witnesses to them.”  You never know where God might take you in fulfilling your goals for him.  Be ready and be creative to follow him.

Wednesday Canceled

We are canceling services tonight, 1-8-2014 due to ice and a water supply problem that will not be fixed till Thursday.

COLD!

This cold weather has been quite an adventure!  I hate canceling church.  It is always more work than having church.  Then, add to that, your entire week is messed up.  Sunday morning church has always been the anchor of my weekly routine.  When ever I miss church my week never feels complete.  I love seeing church people each Sunday.  I missed you all.

Then today, we came into work to find that a pressure regulator in our water system had frozen just next to the water meeter.  It was working fine when I left Monday, it froze overnight even with the heat on in the building!  It sits close to the ground and too close to the exterior wall.  I thawed it out with a space heater to find that it now leaks and will have to be replaced.

Well, that is the ministry.  You go to Bible College and get a graduate degree in theology learning lofty ideas, languages, psychology, and history to use it as a plumber.

I am going to post a few extra devotional thoughts for this week.  Stay warm and safe.  Be richly blessed!