A late night blog trawl and I saw something that sounded like I ought to have read it - a reference to What is a Healthy Church? a USA publication that picks up 'nine marks of a healthy church' as follows: -
- Expositional preaching
- Biblical theology
- Biblical understanding of the Good News
- Biblical understanding of conversion
- Biblical understanding of evangelism
- Biblical understadning of Church Membership
- Biblical church discipline
- Promotion of Christian Discipleship and growth (one for you Kez?)
- Biblical Church leadership
I have no idea what the book actually says, but these 'marks' sound somewhat different from those in the UK published Healthy Churches Handbook which are as follows: -
- Energised by faith
- Outward looking focus
- Seeks to find out what God wants
- Faces the cost of change and growth
- Operates as a community
- Makes room for all
- Does a few things and does them well
I know which set I prefer, and it's not American! So I don't think I'll feel too bad about not having read this imminent new work or its predecessors in time to write about it.