The church is in a competition for people’s lives! We don’t (shouldn’t) compete with one another (i.e. against other churches/denominations)! We compete against…

• Stereotypes of the church (e.g. boring, irrelevant, etc. – ask your unchurched/unsaved friends why they don’t go to church)

•  Secular recreation (e.g. activities that take place simultaneously with church that are NOT boring, irrelevant, etc.)

• Spiritual warriors (the Bible says our battle is against the forces of darkness)

In this enormous struggle we must saturate everything with prayer and obedience and then…

• Create environments that will shatter the stereotypes of church as boring and irrelevant! We must create environments that unchurched/unsaved people will say, “I want to come back and experience that again!” I believe that the church should do WHATEVER it takes, without violating Scripture, to create environments that are most likely to connect the disconnected to God! Check out this blog post – Gee, I should go to church today for some further reflection.

• Build teams to serve/lead the church. Bill Hybels teaches that teams should be developed around the “Three C’s”: Character, Competence, and Chemistry. Shawn Lovejoy has a great post about building teams (read it here). When the  team(s) is/are hitting on all three “C-cylinders” life-change will be inevitable!

• Expect to grow. Ben Arment shares a list of Scriptures that make the case that the healthy church is a growing church. (Read it here) Check out this post and these Scriptures too… God Cares About Numbers.

I do not believe that healthy churches are not growing. Said positively, I believe that healthy churches are growing churches.

People that say “healthy does not necessarily mean growing” would not apply that same statement to their children, financial investments, or the vegetables in their garden… so why do they apply it to the church?

Growing numbers of changing lives is normative around healthy churches! Consequently, healthy churches are always…

• Changing/improving their environments to draw and accommodate more people!

• Evaluating/developing their teams to make sure that the best people are in the best places so that we can create the best environments to connect more and more people to God through Jesus!

• Expecting and preparing for more changed lives!

I love the church and continue to believe that the local church, when it’s functioning as it should, is the hope of the world!