The Mark of a Healthy Church
Dr. John Snyder is the pastor of Christ Church New Albany, director of Media Gratiae, host of The Whole Counsel podcast, and author of multiple multimedia Bible studies including the Behold Your God series, Living with the True God: Lessons from Judges, and Behold Your God: Seeking Him Early.
In The Sermons of Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, Dr. Snyder describes the preoccupation with Jesus Christ that characterizes a healthy biblical church.
wherever you find a healthy church, you will inevitably find that it is Christ-centered.
As we read church history, we find that in seasons of spiritual vitality, the church is focused on Christ. Whenever and wherever you find a healthy church, you will inevitably find that it is Christ-centered. It is Christ-centered in its teaching, singing, praying, giving, fellowshipping, and serving. It is even Christ-centered in its evangelism. When we find a healthy church, we always find an overriding preoccupation with Christ.
If Christ is not the throbbing heart of our focus, we do not possess biblical Christianity.
When we explore periods of spiritual health in the church, we don’t find just a few isolated statements about Christ. Entire books were written. Books are always a good thermometer of the age in which they are authored, especially books of a religious nature. During seasons when the church is healthy, the books that are the best sellers are the books that speak most of Christ. These books demonstrate that Christ-oriented Christianity is the norm, and self-oriented Christianity is not. If Christ is not the throbbing heart of our focus, we do not possess biblical Christianity.
…They understood that knowing Jesus, loving Jesus, and following Jesus are not simply small parts of the Christian life. They are not even large parts of the Christian life. This is the Christian life. To know God in Christ—to be preoccupied with the glory of God as viewed in the face of His Son—that is Christianity; that is life.
We hear a lot about Jesus, but it tends to be about the things Jesus can do for us.
What has happened to us?
It would be hard to prove that we live in a day when the most interesting thing a local church has to offer, the thing it promotes most on its website, is Christ Himself. Many of us have spent a lifetime listening to sermons and yet we have never heard one serious sermon series on the glory of Christ. We hear a lot about Jesus, but it tends to be about the things Jesus can do for us. Have we ever really given careful study to those Old Testament passages which most clearly reveal Christ? How many of us have deliberately and carefully studied the gospels to see Christ from all four angles? Have we ever gone to the epistles and ransacked them for their explanations of Christ? When we read the book of Revelation, do we resist the common and less important questions such as, “What’s going to happen in the end times?” and “Where is my country going to be?” preferring instead to ask, “God, will you show me the glory of the victorious Lamb?”
What are the titles of the books that are written in our day? A quick walk through a Christian bookshop might reveal top-selling titles like these: “How to Find Contentment,” “How to Find True Love,” “How to Find Joy,” “How to Rescue Your Marriage,” “How To be the Man You’re Supposed to Be,” and “How to Live Your Life to the Fullest Right Now.” While these books are not necessarily bad, they reveal that we are a people whose focus is not on Christ. When this sermon was being written, only one of the twenty top sellers was primarily about Christ—and that one focused on following Christ, not Christ Himself. The truth is, all the problems these books are trying to fix are the consequence of people focusing on themselves, on their entitlement, instead of focusing on Christ.