November 2025 A Healthy Congregation
What does a healthy congregation look like? At the recent General Assembly, we were put into dialogue groups of twenty people, and this was one of the questions we were asked to discuss.
When the question was first asked my eyes lit up because at Greyfriars we have spent time thinking about this and so the answer was on the tip of my tongue. I said, a spiritually healthy church lives in love, grows in faith, creates community and unites in worship. A young woman in our group responded, the way you said that sounds like it is your church motto. She wasn’t wrong. These are signs of spiritual health we hold at the heart of our church life.
Some in the dialogue group spoke of declining congregations who cannot support a full-time parish minister. Others reflected on elderly congregations who are struggling due to frailty and age. While many of our dialogue group were able to identify the symptoms of an unhealthy church I don’t think anyone else really had a picture of a spiritually healthy church. I have sat in many such groups over the years where the problem of church health is obvious and easy to define because it is our shared reality. Yet people seem to have little idea about the signs of health beyond “bums on seats” and a balanced budget.
I am not saying we at Greyfriars have solved the issues we face, but spiritual health has been a consistent theme in my ministry, and our elders have constantly promoted this through our prayer morning, our growth groups, various ministries, and of course our Sunday services. Our desire for spiritual health was particularly evident in our decision to take part in the City To City re-visioning process. Through that process we found a sweet spot of identifying goals, direction and vision which enthused and engaged us.
I invite you to take a moment to reflect on this question – What does Greyfriars church family do best? If you are anything like me, your mind will probably wander from this to ask, what could we do better? But don’t wander down that path, instead take your mind captive and focus on what we do best. Don’t focus on the problems, focus on the areas we are doing well, and thank God for that.
I think you will find the thing or things we do best are closely connected to our spiritual health. The best will be an expression of love, faith, unity, fellowship, or service that flows from the gospel of our Lord Jesus. As we seek to walk with the Lord we should continually focus on our spiritual health because that will have a positive impact on our lives.
It is not long until my retirement and I want to leave with you, what I began to sow among you from the time I arrived here. So, I invite you to take a little time to reflect on your own spiritual life, and that of our church family using these signs of spiritual health:
Living in Love – Ephesians 5.1-2 (live a life of love)
Growing in Faith – 2 Thessalonians 1.3-4 (your faith is growing more and more)
Uniting in Purpose – Philippians 2.2-3 (being one in spirit and of one mind)
Devoted in Worship – 1 Chronicles 22:19 (devote your heart & soul to seek the LORD)
Creating Community – Heb 10.24f (meeting together encouraging love and good deeds)
Sharing in Fellowship – Acts 2.42-47 & 4.32 (All the believers were together)
Proclaiming the Gospel – Mark 16:15 (Go into all the world and preach the gospel)
Serving with Compassion – Galatians 5:13 (serve one another humbly in love)
And having reflected on this take a moment to ponder: How might we, as a church family, continue to grow in spiritual health so that our life together reflects more fully the gospel of Jesus Christ?
God bless you
John Malcolm
When the question was first asked my eyes lit up because at Greyfriars we have spent time thinking about this and so the answer was on the tip of my tongue. I said, a spiritually healthy church lives in love, grows in faith, creates community and unites in worship. A young woman in our group responded, the way you said that sounds like it is your church motto. She wasn’t wrong. These are signs of spiritual health we hold at the heart of our church life.
Some in the dialogue group spoke of declining congregations who cannot support a full-time parish minister. Others reflected on elderly congregations who are struggling due to frailty and age. While many of our dialogue group were able to identify the symptoms of an unhealthy church I don’t think anyone else really had a picture of a spiritually healthy church. I have sat in many such groups over the years where the problem of church health is obvious and easy to define because it is our shared reality. Yet people seem to have little idea about the signs of health beyond “bums on seats” and a balanced budget.
I am not saying we at Greyfriars have solved the issues we face, but spiritual health has been a consistent theme in my ministry, and our elders have constantly promoted this through our prayer morning, our growth groups, various ministries, and of course our Sunday services. Our desire for spiritual health was particularly evident in our decision to take part in the City To City re-visioning process. Through that process we found a sweet spot of identifying goals, direction and vision which enthused and engaged us.
I invite you to take a moment to reflect on this question – What does Greyfriars church family do best? If you are anything like me, your mind will probably wander from this to ask, what could we do better? But don’t wander down that path, instead take your mind captive and focus on what we do best. Don’t focus on the problems, focus on the areas we are doing well, and thank God for that.
I think you will find the thing or things we do best are closely connected to our spiritual health. The best will be an expression of love, faith, unity, fellowship, or service that flows from the gospel of our Lord Jesus. As we seek to walk with the Lord we should continually focus on our spiritual health because that will have a positive impact on our lives.
It is not long until my retirement and I want to leave with you, what I began to sow among you from the time I arrived here. So, I invite you to take a little time to reflect on your own spiritual life, and that of our church family using these signs of spiritual health:
Living in Love – Ephesians 5.1-2 (live a life of love)
Growing in Faith – 2 Thessalonians 1.3-4 (your faith is growing more and more)
Uniting in Purpose – Philippians 2.2-3 (being one in spirit and of one mind)
Devoted in Worship – 1 Chronicles 22:19 (devote your heart & soul to seek the LORD)
Creating Community – Heb 10.24f (meeting together encouraging love and good deeds)
Sharing in Fellowship – Acts 2.42-47 & 4.32 (All the believers were together)
Proclaiming the Gospel – Mark 16:15 (Go into all the world and preach the gospel)
Serving with Compassion – Galatians 5:13 (serve one another humbly in love)
And having reflected on this take a moment to ponder: How might we, as a church family, continue to grow in spiritual health so that our life together reflects more fully the gospel of Jesus Christ?
God bless you
John Malcolm