In the coming weeks, I will begin a new sermon series titled “Sustained Health: Becoming the Church God Designed Us to Be.” The six-part series will take us through September and into October as we consider what Scripture teaches us about the characteristics of a healthy church. 

The series grows out of our Executive Council, Deacons, staff, and other key leaders’ recent study of The Unstuck Church by Tony Morgan. In Chapter 4, Morgan explores the idea of sustained health and encourages churches to look beyond the activities they are doing and consider the fruit those activities are producing. That is an important distinction. We can be busy doing many good things, but the deeper question is whether our lives and ministries are producing the kind of fruit God desires. 

Throughout this series, we will consider six characteristics of healthy churches: making disciples, continuing to grow, establishing and maintaining unity, mobilizing others, embracing new changes, and practicing generosity. These aren’t simply organizational principles. Each one has deep biblical roots and invites us to reflect on why we exist and how we can thrive as God’s people. 

I’m excited about this new series and hope you’ll join us each week as we explore these important themes together. Here’s the schedule: 

• September 6: Part 1 “Healthy Churches Make Disciples” Matthew 7:17–18; Matthew 28:19–20 

• September 13: Part 2 “Healthy Churches Continue to Grow” Acts 2:42–47 

• September 20: Part 3 “Healthy Churches Establish and Maintain Unity” 1 Corinthians 10; John 17:21–23 

• September 27: Part 4 “Healthy Churches Mobilize Others” 2 Timothy 2:2; Acts 1:8 

• October 4: Part 5 “Healthy Churches Embrace New Changes” Ecclesiastes 7:10; Isaiah 43:18–19; Mark 2:22 

• October 11: Part 6 “Healthy Churches Are Generous” Matthew 6:21; 2 Corinthians 9:6–8 

As we move through this series, I hope we will approach these weeks with both humility and hope. The purpose is not simply to ask, “What are we doing right?” or “What are we doing wrong?”  

Instead, I hope we will ask a deeper question: What kind of church is God calling us to become?  

Please pray for God to do a mighty work through our church, that our community will be transformed because we listened to Him.  

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV) 

God’s Blessings,