Building a Healthy Church in Belfast

This week we began our new teaching series, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, continuing on from our launch Sunday: Christ is the Foundation.

Building a church is one thing; building a church that is healthy – one that stands up to the test of time – is quite another. As St. Paul teaches, it is possible to build a church with all kinds of materials: wood, hay, straw, gold, silver and precious stones; but not all will build a structure that lasts.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it. (1 Cor 3:11-13)

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

And so over the next nine weeks, we will be examining nine essential materials (marks) for building healthy churches:

1. Expository Preaching
2. Biblical Theology
3. The Gospel
4. Conversion
5. Evangelism
6. Church Membership
7. Church Discipline
8. Discipleship
9. Biblical Church Leadership

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the things church should or even could be doing. But they are important building blocks that need to be in place so that all church activities are placed within a healthy framework, allowing a church to flourish along any number of directions.

What we dream of is more healthy local churches planted in Belfast and throughout the world!