A Healthy Happy Church Pt1

Rick Warren has stated, “The key issue facing the church in the 21^st century is church health.  Putting growth first is the wrong focus.  If we will focus on developing healthy churches, they will grow automatically.”  One indication of church health is happiness, a sense of well-being, wholeness, warmth and spontaneity in interaction.  An article appearing on the Ministry Health website gives 15 characteristics of a dysfunctional church.  The ninth dysfunction was: “Dysfunctional churches can’t loosen up, let go, play, have fun – any humor used is used to hurt.” (Thomas F. Fisher – Ministry Health website)

When we think of creating church culture, do we think in terms of creating a healthy happy culture?  People thrive in this environment.  This may prove to be a worthy consideration especially since we disciple after our kind?  Too often leaders find themselves seeking to engage and encourage an unhealthy and unhappy congregation.

A healthy happy church begins with a healthy happy God

Don’t dismiss this too quickly.  The church can aspire to rise no higher than her concept of God.  Raise the churches level of thinking about God and you raise everything about God.  Correct the wrong thinking and solve a number of our problems.  “What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.  Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders were thinking of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the church will be tomorrow.”  A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

1.         A Great Part of God’s Glory is His Happiness.

“There is a beautiful phrase in 1Timothy 1:11 buried beneath the too familiar surface of Bible buzz words.  Before we dig it up, it sounds like this: the gospel of the glory of the blessed God – after you dig it up it sounds like this: the good news of the glory of the Happy God.  God’s glory consists much in the fact that He is happy beyond our wildest imagination.  It is good news that God is gloriously happy.  John Piper, The Pleasures of God

If God isn’t happy, no one is happy.  Since God is happy, we all have the hope of being happy.  This is no small matter.  God is infinitely happy within Himself and desires that we share His joy.  God is happy and we can share in His happiness.

OH! The implications of such a reality.

2.         God is Both Holy and Happy.

God is perfect in holiness.  He is also perfectly whole and perfectly happy.  The Son, according to Hebrews 1:8-9, loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore God anointed him with the oil of gladness above his companions (NKJV).  The holiness of the Son resulted in the joy of the Son.  Holiness and happiness are not mutually exclusive.  Bible holiness will result in Bible happiness.

3.            Wholeness and Holiness is a Process for God’s People.

While God’s people enjoy an imputed righteousness at conversion, the imparted righteousness (righteousness lived out in personal application in all of life) is a process.  The process is enhanced when we understand that the more whole a person becomes, by and through the redemptive process of sanctification, the more holiness they will manifest and the more happiness they will experience.  Herein lies the key to vibrant believers and churches.

To continue to challenge God’s people to holiness without equipping them for wholeness results in a life of frustration and failure.

The more accurate our thoughts of God and the more understanding we have of “the process” of sanctification, the more effective we leaders will be in developing a healthy, happy church producing after it’s kind.  Any discipleship effort must include instructions in the process of wholeness, leading to holiness, resulting in a healthy happy Christian and church.

SELAH,

Frank P. Adams    

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