Image: Rosmarie Voegtli | Flickr

Jesus never told us to make bigger churches.

He told us to make disciples.

When disciples and disciple-makers get together, they create healthy churches.

But sometimes we put more energy into making churches bigger than making churches healthier. Usually because of an agenda that often stays hidden – even to the people who are pursuing it.

But before we get to that, let’s look at what we mean by church health.

Choose a Church Health Model

No church can become healthy without defining what health looks like. We need a plan.

I don’t think there’s one right model for all churches. But it needs to be based on the fundamentals Jesus gave us – namely The Great Commission and The Great Commandment.

Thankfully, there are already some good models to choose from. For example, Natural Church Development is based on a long study Christian Schwarz conducted to isolate the elements all healthy churches have in common. He found these eight:

• Empowering Leadership
• Gift-Oriented Ministry
• Passionate Spirituality
• Functional Structures
• Inspiring Worship Service
• Holistic Small Groups
• Need-Oriented Evangelism
• Loving Relationships

Any church with those elements in balance would be healthy.

The most well known and widely used church health model has been around for centuries, but was brought to most of our attenton by Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Church. It has five elements:

• Worship
• Discipleship
• Fellowship
• Ministry
• Evangelism

A church with those elements in balance would also be healthy.

As long as we don’t make one crucial mistake with them.

The Secret to an Unhealthy Church

Unfortunately, while those lists are what we say we want for our church, too many church leaders have a (not so) hidden agenda. I know, because I’ve had that agenda myself.

We don’t say it out loud. Many of us haven’t even admitted it to ourselves. But here’s the what our hidden agenda often looks like:

• Worship – so the church will get bigger
• Discipleship – so the church will get bigger
• Fellowship – so the church will get bigger
• Ministry – so the church will get bigger
• Evangelism – so the church will get bigger

Any church that does those elements with that agenda behind them will not be a healthy church. No matter how well they do them, how big the church becomes, or how small it stays. After all, there are unhealthy big churches and unhealthy small ones.

But why is that agenda a problem? After all, we want the church to grow, right? Right.