Among the dozens of churches I have served as a pastor or consultant and experienced as an observer or a participant, I have seen it all. Even within a single denomination, congregations are remarkably diverse.

I have come to the conclusion that there is no single formula for health. There is no array of attributes that can be assembled to guarantee health. There is no package of fixes that can be applied, no set of workshops that can be attended, no checklists that show a certain path forward.

And yet, you can walk in the door of any church and know fairly soon whether it is healthy or unhealthy. Health and unhealth are different. They sound different, look different, spend differently, serve differently.

Healthy churches make good decisions and handle crises capably. Unhealthy churches, by contrast, consistently make poor decisions, from hiring to spending to values, and the normal crises of community life undo them.

For the past several weeks in this report, I have looked at the basics of health. It is my conviction that a congregation that pays attention to the basics will grow, thrive, serve and transform.

Here is another way to look at those basics. Here are the three markers that a healthy church will show:

Other-oriented

The healthy church is fundamentally oriented toward other people. Sunday worship focuses on visitors, strangers and the not-yet-affiliated. The unhealthy church, by contrast, takes its cues from longtime members.

The healthy church looks beyond its walls to see the surrounding community, to discern its needs, and to serve those needs. The unhealthy church, by contrast, looks inward, worries about keeping members happy, and pays special attention to large givers.

The healthy church talks in the many languages and interests of the world. It is consistently seeking to communicate with people it doesn’t yet know. It spends generously on tech-savvy communications. The unhealthy church, by contrast, serves up insider language to a controlled cadre of known constituents and does so as lazily as possible.

Beyond Sunday morning

The healthy church doesn’t over-spend on Sunday morning. It does Sunday worship, but not to the exclusion of other ways to nurture community, serve emerging constituencies, adapt to changing lifestyles. The unhealthy church, by contrast, spends the vast majority of its resources staffing, housing and supporting Sunday worship.

The healthy church encourages small groups, where people can engage with each other face-to-face and every voice is heard. The unhealthy church, by contrast, channels people toward sitting in a pew on Sunday. An activity is only worth doing if it pays off in putting a “fanny in a pew.”

The healthy church respects its clergy and needs its clergy, but the focus is on empowering all people, hearing all people, helping all people to encounter God in their lives. The unhealthy church, by contrast, is clergy-centered and hierarchical, seeing a few laity as helpers of clergy and all others as an audience.

Change welcome

The healthy church embraces risk, failure and change. It is open to new ideas and willing to spend on unproven projects. Entrepreneurs are encouraged, and failure is seen as an opportunity to learn. The unhealthy church, by contrast, resists new ideas and resents those who propose them. It sees risk as too dangerous to undertake. It pounces on failure and punishes its agents.

The healthy church sees its role as transformational: helping God to transform the lives of God’s beloved. And then helping them to transform their families, neighborhoods and workplaces, and daring to dream of transforming entire communities. The unhealthy church, by contrast, places ultimate value on sameness, consistency, not challenging people, and not making waves in the community.

These markers can be observed and measured. A healthy church is continually measuring itself, learning from its experience, and changing direction. The unhealthy church, by contrast, resists accountability, learns little, and keeps making the same mistakes again and again.
 

About the Author

Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of Fresh Day online magazine, author of On a Journey and two national newspaper columns. His website is Church Wellness – Morning Walk Media