Signs of a Healthy Church: Part 3 - Celebration

As we continue this week to look at some of the ingredients found in healthy churches, today we turn to celebrations.

This is kind of a weird one. Typically, you find churches that either love to celebrate (the healthy ones), or would rather run from any kind of glee (the unhealthy ones). You don't really find churches that do a mix of celebrate and un-celebrate.

But, celebrations are a great signal as to the health of a church. The healthy church loves to see victories come through the ministry of the church, while the unhealthy church puts out an air that says "who really cares."

In my 35 years, I've had my fair share of both types of churches. I've seen people that enjoy hanging out together, sharing their trials and victories, and who love working alongside each other in the ministry. I've also seen folks that enjoy their closed group of friends, don't really desire to hear about trials or victories, and could care less if they ever fellowship together.

The celebration level of a church is an important thing when determining whether a church is moving forward or falling back. The church that celebrates looks forward to seeing people come to Christ; spending time getting to know more and more people; and working together inside and outside of the church to further the ministry of the organization. These people cannot wait until the next service or ministry activity.

But, what if your church is anti-celebration? I was once accused of preaching a "soft" message once when I was trying to get people to recognize the victories God had worked amongst them, so I'm familiar with the anti-party mentality.

I do have good news for you. There is hope. I believe there are three key ingredients to developing an atmosphere of celebration in any church:

• Prayer: God has to be the central part in establishing an atmosphere of celebration. Why? Because the celebration is directed toward Him. We don't just have fun and party together for our own benefit. Instead, we do it as an act of worship to God. So, ask God to assist in developing a heart of celebration among the church.
• It Takes One To Get It Done: The move to change a non-celebrating congregation to one that can't wait for the next celebration begins with one person. In fact, every idea, activity or social movement has always begun with one person who is willing to set aside fears and people's perceptions of them to get the job done. We get a clear, contrasting picture of this in 2 Samuel 6. David had a heart of celebrating God. His wife did not.
• Time: For an institution that does not value victories or spending time together, it will take quite a while to change attitudes and work toward a healthy church. Over time, more people will be won over to a celebratory heart and mind. They'll begin to see the world around them differently. Eventually, they'll be leading the celebration charge.