ESTABLISHING A HEALTHY CHURCH

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Contents

Preface..........................................................xiiiI. Gospel Communication..........................................1II. Love - Hearing and Obeying the Word..........................13III. Transformation..............................................25IV. Maintaining Unity............................................34V. Practicing Spiritual Discipline...............................50VI. Resolving Doctrinal Disputes.................................59VII. True Spirituality...........................................71VIII. Understanding Women's Idenity..............................87IX. A True Understanding of the Resurrection.....................98Bibliography.....................................................113

Chapter One

Have you ever thought about the power that lies in communication? Gospel communication is even more powerful. It is the power of God.

When we read the book of Acts we see an account of Gospel communication. It is the history of the early church, which reveals that Christianity is a universal faith. It shows us the dynamic power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit in the lives of all people, everywhere. It was written to give an account of the birth and growth of the Christian church. Acts presents a chronological record of the powerful growth of believers from Jerusalem to Syria, Africa, Asia and Europe. In the first century the church spread from believing Jews to non-Jews in 39 cities and 30 countries, Islands and provinces.

I believe when the Holy Spirit works, there is action or activity, energizing stimulation and growth. This verifies what is told to us in (Acts 1:8), "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth." I know we have heard and read, and also for the most part, felt the impact of this verse. However, we must understand exactly what this power means to the believer from the spiritual perspective. Power from the Holy Spirit is not limited to strength beyond the ordinary, as many Christians view Holy Ghost power. When people limit the power of the Holy Spirit to just strength beyond the ordinary, they have a tendency to keep their whole view on the supernatural, which, in turn, causes their effectiveness for God, in the natural, to be limited. The results, there is no effective witnessing. The Holy Spirit is a person by whom we are supernaturally empowered, but we are empowered to operate in the kingdom of God in a natural world. We are in the kingdom of God but we are not in heaven yet. There is no other way for the church to communicate the Gospel. You have heard the term heavenly minded but no earthly good.

As Christians if we are going to fulfill our mission and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we must not limit the Holy Spirit to just strength beyond the ordinary. To do this we must understand how courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability and authority fit in. I included the word authority and I want to put a pin here. Christians can often have the wrong understanding of power, because they don't associate it with authority. When we think of power alone, from the human point of view, it can lead us to believe we have something to prove. So we try to demonstrate our power. Power from a spiritual view will let us see that we have already been given authority or the rights from God. This means we have been given influence power that has already been proven by God Himself. So if we have power (authority) from the Holy Spirit we are to be influentially as well as authoritatively powerful for God in this world.

We have been given the official rights from God to be witnesses for Jesus without having anything to prove.

We can understand now why power in the church is often misused, and, on the other hand why authority is misunderstood. We often take power, in the church, that man gives, and uses it to try and overrule the power (authority) that God has given. That's misuse and misunderstanding of power. Misuse and misunderstanding of power (authority) in the church can cause people to miss out on true spirituality, unity and witnessing with powerful results. When this happens we see the results, an unhealthy church and a lack of Gospel communication. Again Jesus told us, "but ye shall receive power (authority) after the Holy Ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts 1:8). This is a key verse in the book of Acts because it shows that the Holy Spirit gives us the motivation, energy and ability to communicate the Gospel to the whole world. There are many themes on the book of Acts, but the main theme can be the "transformation and communication of Biblical faith." You see up to the resurrection of Jesus, biblical faith was narrowed and held tightly by the Jewish people, namely Jewish men. Then transformation of that faith to a universal religion was accomplished, and a new community was formed through Gospel communication. This was a community of new believers, which cut across the religious, cultural, social, racial, economic and sex barriers that had divided mankind for so many years. The Jewish community had made religion a selfish ambition that they did not understand themselves. Luke gives us an account of the first preaching of the gospel messages to the Jews and growing fellowship, (Acts Chapters 2-7). He tells of the unexpected conversion of many in Samaria, (Acts 8), the conversion of Paul, (Acts 9). He presents the stunning conversion of Cornelius, the first Gentile to come to Christ, (Acts 10 and 11), the establishment of a Gentile Church at Antioch and the first Missionary Journey, (Acts 13 and 14). He presents the meeting of the church council in the first Church Conference, (Acts 15). These chapters can be labeled as mission history.

But in (Acts 16-19) we see mission principles. This helps us understand the fundamental doctrine practiced by the early missionaries in establishing healthy new churches, which are vital to the life and mission of Christ's church in our day and time. Paul did what missionaries today argue should be done in our outreach efforts. What did Paul do you may be asking? Well Paul did something so simple that many Christians fail to see it; therefore, they fail to get involved in it. Paul actually contextualized the Gospel so it can be communicated right. Contextualize or contextual is all about depending upon the context of interrelated conditions or on that which exist or has occurred. It has to do with earlier conditions or events that help to explain the outcome of such events (background or framework). Notice if you will, how Paul never changed the message of Jesus and the resurrection. This is one of the biggest problems we have with Gospel communication today. Instead of changing the Gospel message of Jesus, Paul put the message in forms suited to the thought pattern of his listeners. He wanted his listeners to understand why they needed Gospel communication.

Gospel communication is actually the contextualized core truth of religion. We have already mentioned contextualize. However, when we talk about "core" we are focusing in on the central part, the heart, spirit, soul or most...