Oct 1, 2020
By Rev. Dave Stall
What are some aspects of good health in a Seventh Day Baptist church?
What are some indicators or common characteristics of churches that are healthy and thriving?
What are some areas that a sick church needs to look at in order to be revitalized?
These are very good questions that we should all be asking as we consider the vitality, effectiveness, and health of our local churches.
It has been my privilege to work for/with four churches in my adult life of ministry. The first, in Colorado Springs, CO, was a young church plant still picking up speed. The next three were all historic New England churches (200+ years old) that were very sick and near death. In all four churches, I had the joy of participating and leading in a season of revitalization and growth. At my current church in Ashaway, RI, that season and process of growth has extended beyond 10 years. With intentional, common sense implementation of simple Biblical mandates for churches, looking different in each specific context, we saw dramatic improvement evidenced by new disciples of Christ and maturing disciples of Christ.
During those years and in those churches, I have learned from other great leaders and mentors. I have grown in my own understanding of what it takes to bring a church back from the brink. I have labored alongside many other committed Christians as we made the hard decisions to do the right things and hold ourselves to higher standards. Together, we have decided to stop “playing church” and start being the church. I have tasted and seen, several times, the joy of being in a church that God has breathed new life into in response to the faithfulness and pleas of His people. From these experiences and my continued study on the matter, I am highlighting three areas that I think are crucial for SDB Churches to consider. In another time or format, I would love to go over each bullet point and provide more information, explanation, and examples. For now, I hope you can find benefit in some of these points.
1. Conversion and Baptism through Evangelism and Invitation
Every Christian who loves God and cares for other people must be active as a fisher of men. No one is “off the hook” and everyone can play a “reel” part in winning souls. This is not only true for individuals, but also for churches. As SDB churches, I believe it is time for us (corporately) to come out of the shadows, leave the bunker, and go after lost souls.
In your mission as a local church, evangelism should be a primary focus. If it’s a primary focus, it should be a primary activity. If it is not BOTH a primary focus and activity, you have already discovered a major illness that is keeping your church from good health. Evangelism and outreach should not always be separate items from all of your other ministry work, but should be incorporated into all of your ministry work. In other words, don’t think of evangelism and invitation as certain specific ministry activities—but consider how they should be part of every ministry activity.
Since we are limited here on space, let me list a few bullet points of things you might consider for evaluation and improvement in your local church. If you are effective in these areas of evangelism and invitation, then you should be seeing conversions and baptisms.
The Checklist:
• Advertising/press coverage/quality online presence
• Holding outreach events and ministries for highly visible community engagement
• Attractive signs/welcoming, accessible, and comfortable facilities
• Visitor-friendly worship service, culture, and atmosphere
• Neutral space gatherings (coffee shop, diner, restaurant, library, homes)
• Personal ongoing (individual and group) conversations and invitations
• Relevant and applicable Bible teaching and preaching
• Clear and frequent Gospel presentation in worship, preaching, and gatherings
• Testimonies, sermons, and worship times with a direct invitation to respond to the Gospel
• Prayer and deliverance ministry opportunities to help people find freedom in Christ
• Baptism services which are more of an invitation than a graduation
2. Whole-life Discipleship through Authentic Relationships
Most of you would probably list “discipleship” in some form as a top priority and central function of your church. I would agree that it must be near the top of our list when considering church health. Rather than thinking of discipleship as only Bible teaching and understanding, I think we need to consider whole-life discipleship that brings people to more holy and Christ-like mindsets and behaviors in all areas of life. Mature Christians should be helping others (new and developing Christians) understand how life should change as a follower of Christ.
There should be teaching, mentoring, modeling, coaching, counseling, and support in all areas of life including home, family, and work. It is not possible to have this kind of close, relational discipleship process without spending good amounts of time together and getting to know each other personally. If you are going to be in a discipleship relationship with someone, then you should be in their home, have them in your home, know their family, visit their work, know how they like their coffee, understand their background, know what they smell like, and talk often about deep things. Consider your strength or deficiency in these pieces of your discipling relationships and church programs:
• Introduce Biblical concepts one-on-one and in small groups
• Host small group Bible studies, Sabbath school times, Christian book studies
• Help with practical, real-time life application of Biblical principles
• Provide Biblical perspectives and answers to real questions and issues
• Counsel people through deliverance, soul-care, and personal problems
• Provide counseling and support in family and relational issues
• Create a culture of honesty about sin/struggles and expectations of freedom
• Walk with people through crises by going through the messy stuff with them
• Practice hospitality by inviting people into your home and sharing your personal space
• Have meals together, attend family events, share church and non-church experiences
• Assist each other with physical, financial, and practical needs
• Address bad theology, doctrinal distortions, and misunderstandings directly
• Watch over each other with brotherly love and accountability
• Practice covenant living and church discipline to light the path to Christian maturity
3. Effective Leadership through Modeling and Development
Imagine running a business that markets itself as a group of consultants who stand ready to assist clients with leveraging new social media platforms to increase sales and grow their business. For this particular consulting business, let’s imagine that none of your consultants or business leaders have ever run a successful business, succeeded in sales of any kind, or used any social media platforms. Even worse, your consultants show no real interest in engaging in conversation or consultation with clients. Now, even if some terrible lapse in judgment resulted in actual clients, disappointment and failure would be certain outcomes.
So, you don’t like business analogies? Then, suppose you want to run a treatment and rehabilitation program for people coming out of addiction. For your program staff, you recruit a team of people who have never experienced addiction, can’t understand how anyone could be addicted to anything, and have no capacity or training to work with people on overcoming addiction. Again, disappointment and failure would be certain outcomes.
Ok, you just want to hear the church part? Let’s say you are given the task of overseeing a church with the primary objective of the great commission, as in recruiting and raising disciples of Jesus. Imagine for a moment that you appoint several people as church “leaders” in various roles but those leaders cannot, will not, or do not regularly engage in evangelism, invitation, discipleship activities, and authentic relationships as outlined in the paragraphs above. Disappointment and failure would be certain outcomes.
As silly as it sounds, I run into people all the time who have roles or titles that imply they are church leaders, but they are not actually leading anyone in the areas of the stated primary mission of their churches. Please use this list for some personal reflection and self-evaluation.
As a church leader:
• You can’t lead where you haven’t been
• You can’t teach or model things that you cannot, will not, or do not do regularly
• You need gifting, calling, training, and development as a leader within the church
• A title or position of church leader does not make you a leader of the church
• Are you doing and “living out” the activities/functions that are central to the church mission?
• Realize that the church will rarely grow beyond its leadership
• How are you helping other leaders in the church to grow and develop as leaders?
• How are you identifying, equipping, and empowering new and emerging church leaders?
Rev. Dave Stall has served as Senior Pastor at First Hopkinton SDB Church in Rhode Island for more than 10 years. He earned his M.Div. with an emphasis in Church Development at Alliance Theological Seminary in NY where he is also a doctoral candidate, writing a dissertation on “Best Practices for Revitalization of Historic Churches.” He served for several years as President of the SDB Missionary Society and was the SDB Conference President in 2018. Dave has been married to Jennifer for over 20 years and they have five children ages 5-17.