10 Principles of a Healthy Church

[Ref. Sermon-Witness in Jerusalem: The New Covenant Community, Acts 2:43–47, January 22, 2023]
What are principles of a healthy church?

This question is different than what is the Church?  The universal Church is made up of all those called out from the world and united into the body through faith in Christ. The local church is where this is made visible through the ordinances, public worship, the preaching of the word, regenerate membership and discipline, pastoral care and discipleship, the ‘one anothers,’ evangelism, etc. True churches may be weighed as more pure or less pure depending on their faithfulness to the Scriptures.

There are many principles we might ascertain from Scripture as to what a healthy church is (vs. the human intuition and wisdom many church growth specialists rely upon [though this has its place]). However, an excellent near one stop shop is to find the principles of a healthy church is Acts 2:43–47. Luke provides a cameo of life in the early New Covenant Community that provides measurable principles by which later generations of the Church may fairly be tried. So, how does our/your church compare to the early Jerusalem church?

​After reading this passage take the following test to find out.

A DEVOTED COMMUNITY, v. 42
The Church was devoted, committed, to the Lord, each other and the things He had ordained for church life.

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AN APOSTOLIC COMMUNITY, v. 42, 43
The teaching and practice of the church was that of the Apostles and Jesus Himself as we find faithfully recorded in Scripture.
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A FELLOWSHIPPING COMMUNITY, v. 42
The Church was committed to the fellowship (membership) and to fellowship (sharing in the bond of the Spirit).
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GATHERING COMMUNITY, v. 46
Day by day, in formal and in informal ways, the church met together.
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A LEARNING COMMUNITY, v. 42
Topping the list the church studied together and grew spiritually.
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A WORSHIPPING COMMUNITY, v. 42, 46, 47a
The church was marked by gladness and expressed this in personal and public worship.
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A PRAYING COMMUNITY, v. 42b
They not only prayed, they prayed together (“the prayers”).
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A GENEROUS COMMUNITY, vv. 44–45
Related to fellowship, the church met one another’s needs as the family of God. Living as God would have them live as redeemed humanity.
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AN EVANGELISTIC COMMUNITY, implied in v. 47b
Since ‘faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God’ (Ro 10:17) they had to share the Gospel in order to grow. There good works adorned the Gospel (Tit 2:10).
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A GROWING COMMUNITY, v. 47a
Just as healthy organisms grow the Church grew as they did what they were supposed to do.
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Out of 100, how did you do? What areas must you devote your attention to become a healthier Church/Christian?