HEALTHY CHURCH: Church Health Requires God’s Perspective
The road to spiritual health requires healthy habits and the correct perspective of who God is and what He desires to accomplish in your life and ministry. A godly perspective changes everything in leadership because not all optimists are leaders, but all leaders must be optimists. We are not talking about unrealistic optimism based on our abilities and the power of positive thinking but optimism with a deep trust and faith in our omnipotent God. It is believing without wavering that God can save any soul, revive any heart and revitalize any church, no matter how dead it may appear to us.
This first requires discerning and executing God’s plan for your ministry. You must prioritize (discern the most urgent item to address) and execute His plan by determining your pace (how fast you can implement the needed changes). After priority and pace, you must address your perspective and whether your expectations and those you lead are aligned. There are many landmines of ministry, but one of the most significant and dangerous is unrealistic expectations. Faith can sometimes be confused with presumption or wishful thinking. Henry and Richard Blackaby remind us that “spiritual leadership is moving God’s people on to God’s agenda.”
You may have such a burning desire for a large, dynamic church that you begin to believe God is guaranteeing you certain numerical goals, and anything less would be a failure. Instead of rejoicing in what God is doing, you may experience a depressing feeling. Ministry is much like raising children, and you are a family (Titus 2:4-8). Every child is unique, and each one has its own growth rate. Every child grows to a different size and shape. Parents love each child for who they are. Comparison with other children is unwise and unhealthy. Rejoice in what God is doing in your church family. Learn to celebrate. How do we do that?
• Adopt a vertical perspective, not horizontal. A horizontal viewpoint is very humanistic, where your conscious experience determines your reality. It is not consumed with prayer, rarely looks up and does not listen closely to God. You must make sure God’s voice is the loudest in your life and never surrender the authority of His voice to any other voice speaking into your life. People can say stupid things and give unbiblical advice and counsel. Look vertically, not horizontally, by crying out to the Lord and asking Him for help, or panic, anxiety and confusion will control you. A vertical perspective is described in Psalm 73:16-17.
• Refuse to give in to pessimistic reasoning. None of us know the future, and many of God’s ways are beyond our ever figuring out. The temptation is to continually focus on the downside of the future. That promotes uncertainty, skepticism and negativity. Pessimism always sees the worst-case scenarios and assumes that evil will win. Disappointments will come, but you must still believe you will make it through. Multiple disappointments can lead to discouragement, where you are not sure you will make it. When discouragement becomes depression, you are convinced you will not survive. Don’t allow pessimism to win.
Pessimism occurs when your eyes are on yourself, your situation and your suffering during tribulation. Your eyes need to be vertical on the Savior as described in Heb. 12:2. You must choose to invest in hope. The more you invest in hope, the greater hope will develop and grow over time. What one thing could you focus on to change in your ministry that could cause the flywheel of hope to start moving and create godly momentum?
• Refuse to give in to rationalistic logic. Rationalism will make hard days longer and more miserable, and the darkness will become even darker. Rationalistic logic says, “This is not fair! This hurts too much! This is just too hard! God has deserted me!” If you are not careful, you will be a believer on the inside but look like and act like an unbeliever on the outside. Why do we tend to run faster when we have lost our way and usually in the wrong direction — away from the Lord, His church and His truth? If you do run in the wrong direction, you play into the adversary’s hand, and he can use you for his purposes.
• Beware of relational sabotage. Solitude is a gift (Mark 1:35), but isolation is not. Relational sabotage occurs all too often. If you are not careful, your disappointment, discouragement and disillusionment will cause you to drift away slowly. When you look back on the difficult times and the greatest trials, can you name someone who came alongside you and helped you make it through — a family member, friend, mentor, pastor or someone who simply cared enough to step in? Nobody, and I do mean nobody, takes their lumps alone. Your choices and decisions are based on your perspective, and you take others with you on the journey.
Beginning the road to being spiritually healthy causes you to remember and realize that adopting God’s perspective changes everything. For example, if you are listening to the father of lies, he is trying to convince you that someone else could lead your church or ministry better than you, and that is a lie. If God placed you there, no one can do it any better as you look to Him, lean on Him and lead others to His agenda. Realism, detached from optimism, can only describe a situation without prescribing a solution. Godly optimism assures you and your church that you don’t have to stay where you are, and you can move forward!
Start pursuing the mission of God right where you are, right now and with the people God has given you to work with. Make prayer your top priority as you discern God’s plan, execute God’s plan and remain surrendered to His direction. Lead by example and trust God to do exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond all you can ask or think (Eph. 3:20).
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Larry Barker
Director of Church Planting and Church Health Larry Barker submits a weekly column titled, Healthy Church Solutions, designed to strengthen and encourage the local church.
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