WIth all due respect to Casting Crowns... if we are the body... why are my feet hurting... why is my back aching...

Last week, i woke up - always a good sign - felt great, no fever, no internal signs of being sick BUT every joint in my body was swollen. I am not a "husky" person (when i was a kid, there were "regular" jeans for boys... and then "husky" for the large boned) but i could not see my knuckles on my hand, my ankles were huge, and I could feel my feet filling my shoes. Now, this is not a plea for assistance - the best minds of medical and non-medical science - that are free - have been sought and are on the case - and with some change in diet, etc., the swelling has gone away. However, I was disconcerted and my wife made sure the life insurance was paid up (a pragmatic girl, to be sure)...

But this got me thinking - I knew something was "wrong" because I am conscious of how my body feels when it is "healthy". This got me thinking about the Body of Christ - the church... and then individual "churches" as a whole. What IS a healthy body when it comes to the church? How do we know when we are off and "sick"?

I think a great place to start is to look at the Bible (duh!) (CAVEAT: I am no scholar by any stretch of the imagination, so I would encourage you to do your own search in the Bible and THEN look at your church). I am thinking about, in general, Acts 2 and 6. The Acts 2 church, in my simplistic mind, taking care of one another, the sharing of resources and skills; just that overall feeling of belonging and of one body. It reminds me of the start-up church I was a member of - everyone really pulling together and building a great community even though we changed venues every couple of weeks (well... it felt like that). And then in Acts 6 you have growth, people who are "different" and here is **gasp** conflict... which is resolved by putting in a more formal organizational structure. In Matthew 28, we are called to go and make disciples. And as I was praying about this, I was looking at John 17 where Jesus prays that we will be one with the Father as He is one.

So... in a simple way, healthy from these perspectives could be a place where everyone is cared for and resources and skills are not squandered but used for the benefit of the community; there is healthy conflict and a flexible organization built to handle the inevitable challenges and produce disciples ultimately demonstrating a "oneness" with God that is undeniable.

Ok... no pressure... right?
Now, please, I KNOW that there are smarter and more knowledgeable bible scholars and I probably over-simplifying this - but i would challenge that the church needs to at least go through this process and really nail down a definition.

Once there is an understanding of what "healthy" is - now you have to take a look "inside" and understand "how does my church match up?" There are some great assessments and some great consultants out there who can help. You have to be able to "measure" what is going on however - and that may require some tools and some investment in technology or people or ... The point I'm trying to make is that we cant know whether or not we are healthy unless we know what "healthy" looks like and where we are in relation to that "ideal".