It would be awesome if every church in the world was a completely healthy and thriving faith community, wouldn’t it? While many churches definitely appear to be in that category, unfortunately not every church is. Regardless of how you define a “healthy church,” most of us can probably name at least one church we know of that’s pretty unhealthy.

But what if the church you serve is an unhealthy place? What if you look around and you’re a part of a mess that you wish you could help clean up?

A few months ago at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference I had lunch with a Mark Eades and a few youth leaders from his team. Mark is a youth pastor in Iowa and together, he and his leaders told stories about their church that are often uncommon of most stories I hear from youth workers about their church. Obviously no place is perfect, but Mark and New Covenant Bible Church are intentionally heading toward health instead of dysfunction.

Over lunch I asked Mark to help those of us who may be in an unhealthy church environment know how we can best contribute to moving our churches back to a healthy place. So he went home and shot this video with another local youth pastor they answered these questions.

• What is a healthy church ministry?
• What contributes to your church’s healthy environment?
• What role do you play in contributing to it?
• How can other youth workers help their churches move toward being a healthy place?

Above is a video of their responses. I trust it helps enable you to be a blessing to your church community by playing an active role in contributing to your church’s overall health.

QUESTION: If you’re in a healthy church, share your responses to these four questions in the comments below. Let’s help other youth workers who may be struggling in an unhealthy ministry context.

Posted on June 26, 2012