Healing

After church yesterday I was talking with someone who shared what came to their mind as I talked about Natural Church Development. He said that talking about creating an environment for growth reminded him of the medical profession. So many times we give doctors credit for healing our bodies, and I don't want to take away from what they do because doctors are important and well trained.
However they really do not heal our bodies, they create an environment for our bodies to heal themselves. And most doctors will tell you this themselves. God has given us amazing bodies that heal themselves. What a doctor does is help create the right environment for the healing to occur. They keep the injury clean. They realign bones and put on a cast. They do the best they can to help the body heal properly, but they do not cause the healing.
If we are to have a fully healthy church we are to do the same kinds of things. We are to create an environment where God can heal us, strengthens us, and grow us. This is our job in the Natural Church Development Process.
I want to give you the areas we will be looking at as the 8 characteristics that help create the right environment in the church: Empowering Leadership, Gift-Based Ministry, Passionate Spirituality, Effective Structures, Inspiring Worship Services, Holistic Small Groups, Need-Oriented Evangelism, Loving Relationships. Think about which you think we do well at St. Paul's UMC and what you think we need to work on. Over the next three weeks I will share what a survey tells us about ourselves.

MISSION: Think about the environment that blesses you in our church and share this with someone else.