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

It is not enough to fight off attacks and remain healthy, living organisms must produce more of themselves for their species to thrive. The eastern cottontail rabbit reaches maturity in three months and has three to five litters per year, with an average of five kits per litter. A forest elephant produces her first calf at around twenty-three years old and has one calf every five to six years. Even though rabbits are much more vulnerable to predators than forest elephants, there is much less chance that they will become extinct due simply to their rate of reproduction.

The last command that Jesus gave His disciples was to go and make disciples in all the world. A church can grow from the inside, but Jesus’ command shows us that this growth is not enough.

It is easier to focus inward and try to preserve the good things we have in our churches. It is often presented as a choice, we must either try to keep our young people, or we can be a church that reaches out to the lost. While it is true that some outreach churches have lost young people, the focus on preservation instead of growth has unintended consequences. If a church focuses on preservation, it will typically build walls around itself until it is almost impossible for a searching person to make their way into the church. It also breeds an attitude of suspicion and distrust of outsiders, instead of the loving sacrifice that Jesus showed toward sinners.

A healthy church produces more believers.

Is Your Church Alive?

Jesus spoke to the church at Sardis in Revelation 3. “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect (or complete) before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.”

Sardis had a reputation as a lively church, but Jesus knew their dead hearts. He asked them to be vigilant and to look for those areas that were dead, to work on the areas that were about to die, and to remember and hold fast to the truth they had received and repent of their sin.

I greatly value my Anabaptist heritage, and there is no other religious community I would wish to be born into (but maybe I’m a bit biased). I love our people, and I’m grateful for the biblical teaching we receive from childhood through adulthood. But, if you love something, you want it to become the best version of itself.

Our Anabaptist churches have life, but there are some areas that are sick, or even dying. The work of maintaining the church will not be done until the Lord returns for His Bride. Each of us is responsible to work in our corner of the global Church to be sure that there will be life when He returns.