More Churches... Healthier Churches

I love church planting. The last two churches I served at were church plants, and they were great models of what church plants can be. A quick look at the numbers in America makes it clear that we need new churches. Even if all of our current churches were operating at full capacity we would still need new churches.

The fact still remains that we also need healthier churches, and that statement applies to many of our recent church plants as well as the 100-year-old church down the street. From my experience it takes a church plant about 5-8 years to begin to look strikingly similar to older, stagnant churches. Even if the numbers are still moving up or looking more healthy than the older church, the systems within the church begin to look more and more similar to its predecessors.

This is true in natural relationships and it is true in churches. Children grow up to act like their parents... even if they swear that they never will. Without serious work and submission to God we all become our parents; it is the way God designed it after all. In fact he promises us many times in Scripture that actions and decisions last for generations.

So, if we want to be planting healthy new churches then it only makes sense that we should be focusing at least as much energy making healthy parents as we are birthing new churches. Otherwise we are just creating more work for ourselves in the future as we will be coming back to these church plants in 10-15 years and dealing with the same issues that currently face their parents.

There is much evidence that when healthy churches are involved in the planting of a new church, that church has a very high probability for success both in the short and long term. So, how do we work to build health into our churches? Better yet, how do we build health into The Church? The fact is this is not an issue that affects single churches here and there; it is something that affects the vast majority of churches across the country.

I believe a good first step is to take a clear look at the way we Call, Train, and Support pastors in America. Next Monday I will start discussing those steps, which are crucial to the System, Structure, Organization, or Organism that we call The Church in America.