Tag: Marks of a Healthy Church
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8 Qualities of Healthy Churches
Christian A. Schwarz, head of the Institute for Natural Church Development in Germany, conducted reportedly the most comprehensive church-growth study ever, drawn from more than one thousand churches in thirty-two countries. His study revealed eight qualities in healthy churches. 1. Empowering Leadership Leaders of growing churches … do not use lay workers as “helpers” in attaining their…
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Unity: The Fifth Mark of the Church
by James M. Boice The divisions that exist today are too obvious to need comment. They lie both on the surface and within. Battles rage. Even highly praised church mergers not only fail to heal these divisions but also usually lead to further breakups involving those who do not like the new union. So far…
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Mission: The Fourth Mark of the Church
A number of years ago, when the well-known conference speaker Ralph L. Keiper was preaching at a missions conference in Deerfield Street, New Jersey, he told about a little girl who had come to see him early in his ministry. She was about eight years old. She had been to the church’s daily vacation Bible…
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Holiness: The Second Mark of the Church
by James M. Boice Holiness is the characteristic of God most mentioned in the pages of the Word of God and is therefore, quite rightly, that which should characterize God’s church. We are to be a “holy” people (1 Pet. 2:9). We are to “follow” after holiness. Indeed, without it “no man shall see the…
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Marks of a Healthy Church
Over the next several weeks the leaders of Walnut Hill Church will engage in a number of discussions concerning the health and direction of our church. These discussions will cover a wide range of considerations. Walnut Hill, though a smaller church is in many respects already a healthy congregation. I believe that if we were to…
