{"id":1953,"date":"2022-03-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/03\/29\/church-health-joined-held-together\/"},"modified":"2022-03-29T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:37:01","slug":"church-health-joined-held-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/church-health-joined-held-together\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can We Think Afresh About Church Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;Why have we reached such a height of madness as to forget that <em>we are members of one another<\/em>?&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>The pastor was frustrated with conflict rippling through the congregation.<\/p>\n\n<p>Clement asked this pointed question of the church of Corinth in the year A.D. 96. Drawing upon Romans 12:5, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newadvent.org\/fathers\/1010.htm\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">challenged<\/a> its tendency to tear to pieces the members of Christ and raise up strife against our own body.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>It can be tempting to idealize the early church. In passages like Acts 2:42&ndash;47, a vibrant and unified community seems to be the epitome of church health. But only a few chapters later, money, deception, and ego disrupt their life together. Conflict, dysfunction, and unhealthy behaviors have been a normal part of church life from the very beginning.<\/p>\n\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">CT Pastors issue<\/a> invites us to think afresh about church health. We explore how pastors can assess the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/love-church-within-limits-bonhoeffer-kelly-kapic.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">health of their congregations<\/a> by looking beyond measures like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/little-church-big-faith-small-congregations-strengths.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">numerical size<\/a> or financial growth. We probe key issues for a pastor&rsquo;s own health, like dealing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/dont-need-thicker-skin-criticism-feedback-ike-miller.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">negative feedback<\/a> or a congregation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/pastors-set-boundaries-too-strategies-michael-mackenzie.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">overstepping boundaries<\/a>. And we look at ways to address specific issues within a church community, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/early-church-racial-cultural-division-acts-15-rasool-berry.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">racial tension<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/missing-point-matthew-18-church-discipline-pennington.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">relational conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>As a lay leader, I&rsquo;ve tended to think of church health by focusing on spiritual maturity&mdash;assuming that a healthy church is one made up of committed believers, deeply formed by prayer and Scripture, who actively serve their community and reflect the fruit of the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n<p>But the pastor of our small mission church has given me a different perspective: A <em>truly<\/em> healthy congregation is one that&rsquo;s made up of people at all different points of the journey of faith. Alongside mature disciples, there are immature Christians, people with all sorts of serious problems, and non-Christians too. <em>This<\/em> is what a church that embraces the Great Commission looks like. So if you&rsquo;re pastoring a congregation with some dysfunctional, conflict-prone, or ego-driven people, good work!<\/p>\n\n<p>Over the past few years, &ldquo;church health&rdquo; hasn&rsquo;t just been a metaphor. The toll on our bodies and spirits is real. But despite the heavy burden, <em>his body endures. <\/em>We can trust the work of the Spirit, through whom the church &ldquo;will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love&rdquo; (Eph. 4:15&ndash;16).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Kelli B. Trujillo is CT&rsquo;s projects editor.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1024\" width=\"753\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1954\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg 2400w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=221,300 221w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=768,1044 768w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=753,1024 753w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=1130,1536 1130w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=1506,2048 1506w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=794,1080 794w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=1589,2160 1589w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=124,169 124w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=249,338 249w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=262,356 262w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=524,712 524w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=324,440 324w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=648,880 648w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=162,220 162w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=303,412 303w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=606,824 606w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=170,231 170w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=340,462 340w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=687,934 687w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=538,732 538w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=1077,1464 1077w, https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128407.jpg?resize=118,160 118w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 753px) 100vw, 753px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><\/figcaption><\/figure><p> <\/p>\n\n<p><em>This article is part of our spring CT Pastors issue exploring church health. You can find the full issue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2022\/spring\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;Why have we reached such a height of madness as to forget that we are members of one another?&rdquo; The pastor was frustrated with conflict rippling through the congregation. Clement asked this pointed question of the church of Corinth in the year A.D. 96. Drawing upon Romans 12:5, he challenged its tendency to tear to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/church-health-joined-held-together\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":1956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[2156],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[142,154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[179,140,566],"tax_ctp_tags":[3601,3609,3610],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-kelli-b-trujillo","tax_publications-2022-ct-pastors","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_publications-his-body-endures_2022-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-church-growth","tax_ctp_tags-church-health"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Can We Think Afresh About Church Health? - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A look inside our spring CT Pastors issue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/church-health-joined-held-together\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Can We Think Afresh About Church Health? - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A look inside our spring CT Pastors issue.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/church-health-joined-held-together\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-29T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-08T02:37:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/128288.jpg?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelli B. 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