Becoming a Healthy Church

So here's what I'm wondering about. What kind of leadership is needed to bring about a renewal and revival to the Presbyterian Church (USA)? What needs to happen so that our churches can get healthy and grow?

We make the solution to these questions much more complicated than it needs to be.

The other day I was having a conversation with Karis about world hunger. She asked a really simple question: If we have the food, medicine, money, and resources to alleviate abject poverty and starvation, then why aren't we doing it?

At first, I thought about all the political and economic reasons why this isn't being done - how the food gets where the hungry people are, but because of corruption and violence at the local level the ones who really need the food and medicine don't get it. But, the question still remains - what is wrong with us? Why can't we do a simple thing like preserving the life and dignity of a human being when we have the ability to do so?

How come we can put a man on the moon and bring him back, but we can't get food safely to people dying in Africa?

And maybe when it comes to the life of the church, the answer to the question of becoming a healthier church really is simple. The equation has always been to 1) do everything we can to grow new Christ-followers, and 2) do whatever it takes to grow Christ-followers into fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. That's what the church is all about. That is the goal, that is our purpose, that is the product we are trying to produce. For it is when the church is doing that the God is glorified.

So what can the church I am doing to grow new Christ-followers and to grow faithful disciples. Our budget, staffing, planning, visioning has to be about this purpose. And when we start doing this better, the church will be healthier. And when the church starts being the church, the world which churches are in get better.