Healthy Disciple-making Churches

by Terry Shanahan, Northeast Regional Minister

Luke 10:17–20

As I travel about and visit various churches, I run into a few who are apologetic about their limited size or resources. Some churches have developed an attitude that says, “We are not a large church, we can’t do too much.” But that thought needs to change to, “We are God’s church and we can do anything.” Unfortunately, many churches measure their health and success by societal standards, size of bank accounts, numbers of parishioners, beautiful buildings, multiple programs and pastoral staff. But Jesus himself measures these things in a different way. Our individual health and our health as a church need to be measured in terms of our faith and sharing that faith with others by making and growing disciples.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out seventy-two of his followers to evangelize in people’s homes. The seventy-two come back with glowing reports. Verse 17 reads like this.

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Jesus’ response to this is interesting. He says, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” Then he adds in verse 20

“However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

What truly counts is your faith. There is no better thing than to have a faith that gets your name written in heaven, and there is no better ministry than assisting others in getting their name written in heaven as well.

We live in a culture that worships success, even in church.  The evangelical world was shocked when Bill Hybels, leader of the megachurch movement, made the surprising announcement that they were not effective in their ministry approach. After conducting extensive surveys in their church, called “The Reveal,” their effectiveness in making disciples for Christ was rated very low. They had numbers, they had money, but they didn’t have a proportionate number of disciples of Christ. Essentially, what Pastor Hybels was articulating was that they had bought into the societal model of success.

Congratulations to Pastor Hybels for taking a hard look at his church’s effectiveness and health and making efforts to change it. We must do the same. The CCCC as a Conference has taken a hard look at this and is implementing strategies to grow healthy churches that make disciples.

Let’s be careful, though, about judging the quality of faith, by whether it is successful or not in the world’s eyes. The issue is not, how successful are we in the world’s eyes; the question is, are we faithful in our service to Christ and are we making disciples as he called us to be. The scriptures remind us that Christ was faithful unto death. There are many congregations in the CCCC that are serving Christ faithfully who can barely pay their bills. They will not make anyone’s list of the top ten churches in America,

But they worship God faithfully, and they are in ministry to the community, and they are seeking through their mission efforts to minister to the least and the lost. They are faithful, disciple-making churches. Jesus said, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Jesus sent his messengers out with a task and a purpose. They were to make disciples.  As a church, and in your personal walk with the Lord, success will always be measured by your faith and by your name and the names of the faithful being written in heaven.

Don’t let anyone tell you that small churches can’t be successful in the eyes of the Lord. Our Conference has many small churches that in obedience to Christ are disciple-making churches.