My friend and colleague from the Florida Conference, Dr. Guy Brewer, states the dangers of doing church without healthy skin.

Over the course of three years I worked day and night to build the congregation and physical facility that became Edgewater United Methodist Church. Although I devoted virtually no time to prayer, I averaged eighty hours per week in committee meetings, visitation, sermon preparation, and the work of the ministry. By the end of those three years, Edgewater United Methodist Church was a success according to the standards of the annual conference. We had gathered a congregation of 200 plus persons and completed construction of a church building and a parsonage. Under the veneer of performance standards, this fledgling congregation was exhausted, under-nourished, and fearful with a worn-out, depressed pastor. Edgewater United Methodist Church appeared to be a success but lacked the marks of congregational health such as joy, unity, patience, and enthusiasm. We relied on ourselves and achieved exactly what we set out to do. We built a church under our own power. (5)

Churches without healthy skin also have a weak prayer life. Brewer writes a very bleak description of such unhealthy congregations.

When God's healing is not a living reality through prayer, the church can become a back ward of chronically ill people waiting to die. This form of spiritual illness is subtle but deadly. People bring crippling fear and enormous control needs into the life of the church. In such a situation, the church may become more of a leper colony than a hospital. Without the power of God through prayer, ministry to the sick and dying may become little more than compassionate commiseration with their suffering. Instead of making the sick well, churches that do not pray condemn themselves to catching the illnesses they are commissioned to heal. (13)

Without healthy skin empowering loving relationships and healthy unity in Christ, little else will happen when you seek to equip people for ministries of service and outreach.

Unfortunately as Dawn points out, "Often the worship of a congregation is undermined by the power of false accusations and deceptions...’I’ve heard that many people don’t like this style of worship…’ Rumor and the tastes of the public become more important in making planning decisions than the skill and training of qualified theologians, pastors and musicians" (53). Such an idolatry of power blocks any healthy dialogue between traditional and postmodern worship styles.

Dawn adds some important insights to a postmodern theology of worship. An important part of understanding the emerging culture involves discerning its idolatries. The church needs to do this in order to be in touch with the culture but not accidentally bow down to its idols. Postmodern technology invades many churches with the idolatrous idea that the worship of God must finish in an hour like a TV show. Whenever worship services bow down to this, the people’s intimacy with Jesus Christ and community with each other is disrupted. Worship then becomes a performance in the worst sense of the word.

Another idol is money. It is too easy for churches with financial struggles to push those that plan and lead worship into making them “attractive”. Why? Whenever a church’s worship service bows down to money, it selfishly compromises itself in order to raise the budget.

On the other hand, the idolatry of traditionalism is just as deadly to a church’s well being. It is any wonder that while Baby Boomers are returning to churches, they are not going where dead traditional worship is worshipped as a powerless form.

Our contemporary culture is heavy into numbers and feeling good. Pastors and worship leaders need to stay alert toward the idolatry of numbers and media hype. How unbiblical for a church to define successful Christian discipleship in terms of how many attended and how good everyone left feeling. Such idolatry is a far cry from growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ along with being sent forth equipped to serve and minister in his name.

While using good traditional hymns and some modern praise courses is important, there is more to worship. Although there is nothing wrong with the use of modern technology in worship, there's more to worship. I agree with Dr. Dunnam that worship leadership is about paying attention to God and leading the congregation to do the same. People need to be lead to praise God for who he is and not just for what he does. If we are not worshipping God, we may be worshipping worship (Dunnam)

Along with worship wars erupting from unhealthy skin, so does poor pastor-church bonding.

The Bible’s organic approach to Church Health lifts up the importance of relationships. As a living system, a congregation draws its life from our supreme relationship with the Church’s head—Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:15-16). Overflowing from our being in Christ, God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The New Testament also encourages us to stir one another up to love and good works by regularly assembling together (Heb. 10:24-25). The healthy inner harmony of a church breaks down whenever our relationships deteriorate.

Hansen comments about pastor-church bonding that brings a new perspective to the relationship.

            When a church and a pastor do not bond, the church cannot grow—in numbers, in commitment to one another and to God, to mission, to worship, and to a deeper spirituality (61).

Given our American individualism, your heart might rush to the idea of individual spiritual renewal via having people participate in a Lay Witness Mission, Walk to Emmaus, revival services, retreats or attending a spiritual renewal conference. While these have their place and do help, they provide very little in the way of building the spiritual life of the congregation as a body. (Stanger)

The important question is not how many members does your church have or even how many attend? The most important question is what kind of members do you have? It is far more important to weigh sheep spiritually than just count them physically!

Methodist spirituality rotates on the axis of a disciplined will instead of riding the roller coaster of emotions or remaining detached via an over emphasis on reason. Our Methodist spiritual heritage teaches us that the means of growing spiritually (prayer, Scripture, fasting and Holy Communion) are more than just instruments of individual spiritual formation. They are also important means for spiritual formation through Christian fellowship in small groups. Some parts of one’s spiritual journey takes place best in active relationship with others. It is all too easy to fall prey to spiritual pride when spiritual formation is separated from either daily life or our local congregation. 

One important aspect of building or rebuilding such a passionate spirituality is for the church’s prayer life to both “expect and experience God’s action in response” (Hunter, 29). While Galloway offers some suggestions to build up a prayer life of a church, Cymbala’s Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire illustrates how a church can return to its first love—Jesus Christ. “It will encourage pastors to disciple a core group which desires to pray and which believes nothing is too big for God to handle” (Crowe 23).

            Jim’s primary point is that “...God is attracted to weakness. He can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him” (19). As the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church desperately called out to God in prayer, they came to see themselves “...as a ‘Holy Ghost emergency room’ where the people in spiritual trauma could be rescued” (29)  (Crowe 23).

Cymbala realized that without God, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church was doomed. He knew the church was so weak that it could not organize itself or market itself or program itself out of the hole they were in. From their healthy skin or passionate spirituality, healthy churches like Brooklyn Tabernacle overflow with love for Jesus Christ, each other, and the unchurched.

Another means of spiritual renewal involves worship and the Lord’s Supper. Worship and the Passover Feast was central to the health and corporate spirituality of Israel. It is even more central for us as congregations of Christians given our bold freedom in Christ. 

In the Old Testament Tabernacle and later Temple, the people could only enter the courtyard. The priests could go into the holy place. However, the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies only once a year on the day of atonement. 

Now, through the she blood of our risen savior, we can come boldly to our Heavenly Father’s throne of grace in the spiritual Holy of Holies. We celebrate not an ark of the Old Covenant, but the meal of the New Covenant—Holy Communion in remembrance of Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. 

John Wesley strongly desired for Methodists to celebrate the Lord’s Supper weekly. The communion ritual found in The United Methodist Hymnal reminds the congregation of the Church’s foundation—the love of God displayed in Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. The congregation is also reminded of the Church’s mission—to be the body of Christ for the world. The spiritual formation of a congregation can be strengthened through a more frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

The communion service asks for the Holy Spirit to make the congregation one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world (12-14). As a church participates in communion services, spiritual unity with each other and God can grow. Very often, a deeper love for God and each other develops as well. Sometimes, a congregation finds itself refocused on being in mission as the body of Christ in the world by having participated in the Lord’s Supper.

V.    Jesus’ Prescription for Congregational Skin Problems?

Before Jesus ascended back into heaven following his resurrection, he told his disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit empowered them to be his witnesses throughout the world. Those who minister in today’s culture need the Holy Spirit’s empowering, indwelling, inspiration, and instruction for effective ministry.

Jesus also told his disciples that as the Father had sent him, so sent he them into the world. The Bible tells us that the Father sent Jesus into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it. It is crucial in this postmodern age that our preaching and worship leadership shares this same compassionate focus on salvation and not the judgmental focus on condemnation.

One day in a synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1-3. The same Spirit of the Lord who anointed Jesus for his earthly ministry also anoints us who preach and lead worship. We need to ask the question, “What can we expect God to do through Methodist clergy and laity in these postmodern times?” We can expect the Holy Spirit to provide our motivation to proclaim and live the Gospel. The poor, captive, blind and bruised of our postmodern world is our market both within and outside of the church. We can expect Jesus to minister through us to bring release, sight and liberation to others. So for the joy of fulfilling our heavenly calling in the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the positive impact our ministries will oftentimes have by his grace, let us endure the hardships, pains and sacrifices of ministry in a postmodern world. 

Otherwise, position, salary, prestige, or power will become our focus. When any of these worldly things become our focus, then clergy and laity will become embittered due to unhealthy skin. Such bitterness will lead clergy and laity to become religious functionaries. Such unhealthy skin ceases to feel for it has ceased to learn. The numb become dumb. As the late Dr. Frank Stanger said once, “One’s personal spiritual life will determine one’s effectiveness for that which is in our hearts will be in our ministry” (Stanger  “The Call”). While this is true of each individual Christian, it is also true of the spiritual life of the entire congregation as Stanger wrote about in his last book.

Two questions will help a church discern Jesus’ prescription for the health of its skin, “What is Christ’s relationship to the Church?” Second, “What is the Church’s relationship to Christ?” (Ogden 35).

A church struggling with the first question comes to see itself as the sacramental people of God who bear the presence of Christ. Through their witness, believers, as well as the unchurched, encounter Christ. Thus the Church comes to “grasp the unspeakable truth that Jesus extends his life on earth through the corporate people that can literally be called ‘the body of Christ’” (Ogden 32).

A church that struggles with the second question comes to see itself as reliant upon Jesus as the source of the life of the church. Such a church participates in the source of its life through the public and private worship of God. It also submits itself to the ultimate authority of the Church. “Jesus as head of the church means that he arranges life in the body” (Ogden 35).

From a vision of the congregation’s relationship to Christ, a congregation gains a healthy passion to fulfill both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Private and public worship are no longer performed as a religious duty but as an expression of a vital relationship. Even disciple making becomes an opportunity for glad sharing of the Good News. To help churches gain such a vision, pastors can preach biblical sermons to address these two questions.

Addressing people’s spiritual needs also calls for proclaiming that, as the church, we “see our relationships of interdependence in three ways: 1. We belong to each other; 2. We need each other; and 3. We affect each other” (Ogden 36-43).

As both the corporate and individual spiritual formation of a congregation matures, its skin becomes healthy enough to offer wholesome ministries to a hurting world. This article is already long enough. The second meaning of healthy skin for the church as the continuation of Christ’s incarnation will be the focus of next month’s article. Thus, I will close with just a few comments about spiritual warfare in response to growing spiritually and the pastor as spiritual guide of the individual.

VI. Prepare—The Empire Will Strike Back.

The Epistle to the Ephesians reminds us that our struggle to live faithfully for Jesus in our day to day lives is a spiritual battle. Although not as dramatic as the movie, “The Empire Strikes Back”, the spiritual forces of evil will attach any church seeking to improve the condition of its skin. 

Moeller points out that as a pastor “I could almost predict the appearance of trouble in my church according to how much progress we were making spiritually” (64). This insight would mean that any church making significant progress toward health should expect a spiritual crisis. Thus, “churches must utilize spiritual resources to deal with spiritual problems, not just in crisis, but as a regular part of their life together” (Moeller 193).

VII.    Skin Care for the Individual

One forgotten role from the days of the early church is soul care or pastor as spiritual guide. Without this spiritual aspect of equipping staff, elected officers, and influencers, these relationships will train people as religious functionaries and focus on political brownie points (See chapters five and six). Apart from the dynamic of a passionate spirituality, pastoral spiritual guidance in preaching, worship, and group leadership fall into the trap of a slick performance.

Although a pastor’s personal soul care of others will mostly focus on spiritual guidance, it probably will fall into one of the other types of Spiritual Companionship in the chart below:

VIII.  The outward analogy of the Skin.
     

The skin system also represents the connection of our hands, arms, feet, legs to our torso to the world as  Christ’s continuing ministry in the world through the Church as God's Healing Community mending broken lives.

A  Healthy Church in Action offering radical hospitality to individuals with mental illness and their families.

The content of this article comes from my dissertation: “PREACHING FOR A WHOLE PERSON RESPONSE IN DEVELOPING A HEALTHY CHURCH.” Diss. Asbury Theological Seminary, 2001. The contents are protected by copyright.

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