HEALTHY CLERGY + HEALTHY CHURCH = HEALTHY COMMUNITY
Our vision, is “to raise up healthy pastors who will build healthy churches to create healthy communities”. Healthy churches come in all shapes and sizes but neither the shape nor the size necessarily means a church is healthy. So, what does a healthy church look like? More to the point, what would a healthy PFWB church look like? Among other things, we believe a healthy church is one with:
1. Leaders who have a clear sense of purpose & mission and an ability to craft and cast a compelling vision.
2. Relevant, practical ministries that meet the needs of the church & the surrounding community.
3. Inspiring, passionate worship that reflects the culture of the local church and draws people toward God.
4. Loving relationships both within the church and in the community.
5. Effective methods of evangelism that result in soul winning and baptisms.
6. A clear model in place for producing disciples that are growing and serving.
7. Sound Biblical stewardship principles that are understood and adhered to.
8. Appropriate systems for assimilating new people into the church and into ministry.
A Good Assessment Tool
The starting point toward becoming a more healthy church is to assess the current health of your church. As with going to the doctor, he or she can’t diagnose your illness, must less prescribe the cure, without first assessing your current condition. When it comes to the local church, there are a number of good Health Assessment tools out there. If you would like to obtain one, we recommend the following: Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz, Reveal by WillowCreek, and CHAT by Stephen Macchia. Our Resource Center is familiar with all of these tools and we’ll assist you in selecting the one that’s right for your church. Let us help walk your church through the all important and very necessary step of health assessment.
A Proven Discipleship Model
Once a churches overall health has been assessed and its weak spots have been identified, it’s time to come up with a plan for improving those areas. Several of the organizations mentioned above, in addition to offering assessment tools, also offer programs to help a church improve or get healthy. In addition to these, one that we recommend is produced by the Assemblies of God. It is called “The Acts 2 Process” and it is based on five elements evident in the early church. Beyond helping a local church assess their current situation, The Acts 2 Process helps you establish an intentional plan for continued development by focusing on connecting to God and others, growing in discipleship, service, sharing the good news of Jesus with the world, and worshiping God. This is an excellent discipleship program and we encourage you to take a look at. Contact our Resource Center to find out more about this resource.
