How’s your health?

When did you last see your doctor for a general health check-up?  Too many of us wait until there are symptoms of illness before we get ourselves checked out.  We don’t monitor things like our blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and other tests that might show early detection warning signs that could prevent a major health crisis.  And since we don’t do it regularly, we may miss trends that have been developing over several years.

One thing I realized a couple of years ago is that I didn’t just wake up one morning weighing 240 pounds and having over 90% blockage in the “widow-maker” artery.  It happened slowly over time as I neglected good health practices. It’s an ongoing struggle and sometimes I don’t do it well, but I have learned that I have to pay attention and make adjustments if I am going to live the life I want to live, see my grandchildren grow up, and be effective in serving the Lord for as long as possible.

One of my lessons from Sabbatical was the importance of keeping rhythms and paying attention to ways that I have gotten out of rhythm physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

How’s your church health?

If regular check-ups are important for our individual physical bodies, doesn’t it make sense that regular check-ups are important for the Body of Christ? Instead of waiting for a crisis, what if our churches engaged in a regular rhythm of internal reflection and external examination, not for the purpose of finding “what’s wrong,” but for the purpose of identifying areas that need to be strengthened and even celebrating the good health that exists?

Last week I wrote about the resources that the association churches provide for each other through their covenant partnership.  One of those resources might be described as a Church Health Checkup. We bring the tools to the church to assess strengths, trends, and perceptions (diagnosing the current reality) and then help the church to design a plan to optimize the strengths and address areas that need to get more healthy (prescribing a future health plan).  The whole process is intended and designed to be affirming and optimistic about the future if the church is willing to take the hard look and do the hard work of making healthy choices and developing new rhythms.

This evening, I’ll be sharing an overview of that process with one of our association churches to help them determine a strategic healthy vision for the future of their church.

Please contact me if you would like more information about this and other resources and processes we have available to inspire and assist our churches to engage their communities and expand their kingdom focus with transforming grace.

I’m thrilled to be a mission strategist for you as we work toward our vision of cultivating a kingdom-focused culture of engaging churches who are on-mission to sow seeds of transformation into each local congregation.

Your grateful partner in the work of the kingdom,

Gerry