If your church could only have 4 of these, which ones would you have?…
- Anointed Worship music.
- Genuine community/deep friendships.
- Great Bible teaching.
- Making inroads in caring for the poor.
- A church building.
- Effective gospel proclamation.
- Passionate, persistent prayer.
- Large numbers on a Sunday.
- A supernatural healing ministry.
- An inspiring leader.
- A loving atmosphere where everyone is welcome.
- Incarnational living amongst the most needy.
- Radical lifestyles in regard to money and possessions.
- A real expectation of the return of Jesus.
- A commitment to planting more churches.
Great thought-provoker this Nat, thanks. Where I’m at w it all, aft a few yrs of reading ur and Andy’s blogs follows…
- Anointed Worship music. This wd miss t point as we shd be looking for anointed wshp TIMES not music.
- Genuine community/deep friendships. This wd be my no 5.
- Great Bible teaching. Kindof think this is great but we want ppl to be self feeders ultimately, don’t we? If mediocre but Biblical teaching is happening alongside the top four, I think we cd cope. Who defines “Great” anyway? Surely teaching that helps is prioritise top four is necessarily “great” anyway?!
- Making inroads in caring for the poor. Danger of being a bit ‘us and them’; incarbatoonal love shd cover this, see below.
- A church building. Most so-called “new” churches don’t make this a priority except for a season if t opportunity presents itself. As for more trad denominations, it’s a shame they will often cling to an incumbent, crumbling building at t expense of other priorities.
- Effective gospel proclamation. Yes.
- Passionate, persistent prayer. Yes.
- Large numbers on a Sunday. God cares about numbers so we don’t have to,right?
- A supernatural healing ministry. In God’s hands, not ours as a “priority” (per ur next post on y subject)
- An inspiring leader. If a church is doing the top four, this is probably happening anyway.
- A loving atmosphere where everyone is welcome. Can I have a number six?!
- Incarnational living amongst the most needy. Yes.
- Radical lifestyles in regard to money and possessions. Possibly covered under t above?
- A real expectation of the return of Jesus. Priority, but again perhaps top four wd demonstrate this best?
- A commitment to planting more churches. Yes.
Great stuff James! Thanks! I like what you say.