Previously, we asked church members to participate in evaluating our health as a church, where we attempted to assess how we were doing in six vital areas of church health: Evangelism, Discipleship, Fellowship, Prayer, Ministry, and Worship.
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The graphic below shows the result of our assessment. There were 24 statements, 4 in each category, with options to strongly agree, agree, neutral/don’t know, disagree, strongly disagree. Strong agreement was worth 2 points, 1 point for agreement, 0 for neutral, -1 for disagree, and -2 for strongly disagree.
In a nutshell, we found that the areas we scored highest were related to what happens inside the building. The areas we scored lowest related to how well we spread the Gospel and ministered to those outside the building.
This is a dangerous trend, typical of many declining churches. We discussed the need to get back to what the church was about: Being disciples who make disciples. We examined Matthew 4 where Jesus called people to follow him, where he would make them fishers of men. Examining this, we looked at what a disciple was:
- Someone who whole heartedly follows Jesus…
- Who is transformed by Jesus…
- And who is committed to the cause of Jesus.
When a church is made up of disciples in this manner, the other areas of church health end up falling into place.