This is the sixth post of a series looking at the health of our churches. Read the first post if you haven’t already.

Living things must also respond to changes in the surrounding environment to maintain homeostasis. If a cold environment causes the body’s temperature to drop too low, muscles shiver to generate heat. If a hot environment causes the body’s temperature to rise too high, the body sweats and dilates blood vessels near the skin to help cool the blood. The body responds to a break in the skin by closing the injury with a blood clot and then sending white blood cells and antibodies to fight against the pathogens that invaded through the injury.

Deadly pathogens from the surrounding culture are constantly finding their way into the body of Christ. Wealth and prosperity shifts our focus from using our resources to serve others to heaping up treasures on earth. A focus on the individual causes to us to serve ourselves and adopt the attitude that no one can tell me what to do. The surrounding culture influences us to follow their habits of consumption and pursuit of pleasure and entertainment. We only have to look at our waistlines and how we use our time to see evidence of this. If we are to remain true to the Gospel’s call to live selflessly for others and for Christ we must fight against these influences of materialism, individualism, and hedonism.

Currently we are struggling with the rapid changes in digital technology and how the influx of personal devices has given us access to whatever we desire. This onslaught has damaged our churches, but it has also revealed that perhaps our immune systems weren’t as robust as we thought they were. What will we do with this knowledge?

If a church is sick or dying, it will be unable or unwilling to address dangers to the church. But, if a church is alive and healthy, it can respond and adapt to protect itself from the surrounding culture and to maintain the correct environment inside the church. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Pet 5:8, 9)

A healthy church responds to the conditions and influences around it.