WELCOME
to
Growing Healthy Churches
How are we as a Church?
Edited by Canon Roger Medley
Mission Forum 2014
Growing a healthy church
Research from many Dioceses
Focus on quality rather than quantity
• Terms:Growing = nurturing the life of the church
Healthy = wholeness, balance, harmony with
God and creation
• Goals, characteristics, values and aspirations rather
than activities
SEVEN MARKS
OF A HEALTHY CHURCH
expressing the life of Christ
through the local church
HEALTHY CHURCH CHECKLIST
Mark
1. energised by faith
2. outward-looking focus
3. seeks to find out what
God wants
4. faces cost of change
and growth
5. builds community
6. makes room for others
7. does a few things – well
1
low
2
3
4
5
6
high TOTAL
scoring grid
√ the number that best describes what
you see is happening in your church
1.
weakness and holding us back
2.
only a few signs
3.
some evidence of this
4.
making progress
5.
evidence of much of this
6.
this is a strength
Let’s go!
1. Energised by faith
rather than just keeping things going or trying to survive
 worship and sacramental life move people to experience
God’s love
 motivation: energy comes from a desire to serve God and
one another
 engaging with scripture: in creative ways that connect with
life
 nurturing faith in Christ: helping people grow in, and
share, their faith
2. Outward-looking focus
with a ‘whole-life’ rather than a ‘church life’ concern
 deeply rooted in the local community, working in partnership
with other denominations, faiths, secular groups and
networks
 passionate and prophetic about justice and peace, locally
and globally
 making connections between faith and daily living
 responding to human need by loving service
Have you ever thought…
what Church is?
BAND ONE
The Building is the church
BAND TWO
The Vicar is the church
BAND THREE
We help the Vicar to be the church
BAND FOUR
We are the church
BAND FIVE
We are part of God’s church
These five bands represent a common, if not
invariable, sequence in the growth or renewal of
life in a local congregation
3. Seeks to find out what God wants
rather than letting our own preferences set the church
agenda
 vocation: open to the Spirit’s leading about what we should
be and do
 vision: developing and communicating a shared sense of
where we are going
 mission priorities: consciously setting both immediate and
long-term goals
 able to call for and make sacrifices, personal and corporate,
in bringing about the above and living out the faith
4. Faces the cost of change and growth
rather than resisting change and avoiding failure
 while embracing the past, daring to take on new ways of
doing things
 taking risks: admitting when things are not working, and
learning from experience
 crises: responding creatively to challenges that face the
church and community
 positive experiences of change, however small, are
affirmed and built on
If you are unhappy with your vicar simply have your
church wardens send a copy of this letter to six
other churches who are tired of their vicar.
Then bundle up your vicar and send him to the
church at the top of the list in this letter.
Within a week you will receive 16,435 vicars,
and one of them should be all right.
Have faith in this chain letter for vicars do not
break the chain.
One church did and got their old vicar back!!
5. Builds community
rather than functioning as a club or religious
organisation
 relationships are nurtured so people know they are part of a
community of faith (often through small groups) with
opportunities for service
 leadership: lay and ordained works as a team to develop
appropriate expressions of all seven marks of a healthy
church
 lay ministry: the different gifts, experiences and faithjourneys of all are valued and given expression in and
beyond the life of the church
6. Makes room for others
being inclusive rather than exclusive
 welcome: works to include newcomers into the life of the
church
 children and young people are helped to belong, contribute
and be nurtured in their faith
 enquirers are encouraged to explore and experience faith in
Christ
 diversities: coming from the social and ethnic backgrounds,
mental and physical abilities and age differences are seen as
a strength and sought after
There are 56 members in our church.
But 10 are frail and elderly
That leaves 46 to do all the work.
But 8 are young people at college
That leaves 38 to do all the work.
But 15 are tired businessmen
So that leaves 23 to do all the work.
And 15 are housewives with children
That leaves 8 to do all the work.
And A further 2 have important other
interests
That leaves 6 to do all the work.
But 2 live too far away to come regularly
So that leaves 4 to do all the work.
And 2 say they’ve done their bit
So that leaves
YOU AND ME
AND I’M EXHAUSTED
GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!!
7. Does a few things – and does them well
focused rather than frenetic
 doing the basics well: especially public worship, pastoral
care, stewardship and administration
 occasional offices: make sense of life and communicate
faith
 enjoyed what we do and being relaxed about what is not
being done
You may wish to keep a record of your
scores by writing them on the other half
of the Healthy Church Checklist
then…
Hand your score sheet in
After coffee you will create a church
profile
To continue…
HEALTHY CHURCH CHECKLIST
Mark
1. energised by faith
2. outward-looking focus
3. seeks to find out what
God wants
4. faces cost of change
and growth
5. builds community
6. makes room for others
7. does a few things – well
1
low
2
3
4
5
6
high TOTAL
Exploring together
How did you get on
with scoring your church?
What strikes you most
about your church
from doing this Exercise?
Exploring together
what is holding us back
- and why?
Exploring together
Where there is
a wide spread of scores
- what does this tell us?
Exploring together
what needs working on?
In your table groups discuss the
areas of church life that need
working on-using the check list.
• Remember today is part of your church life
• At sometime in the near future you should
revisit all these points as a Church
• They are fundamental to you Church Health
• May God bless you in your journey of faith and
mission together