The Making Of A Healthy Congregation How A Healthy Congregation Operates

Mission Statement Beth Ariel’s Mission is to: Make Devoted Followers of Messiah Yeshua In A Healthy Messianic Congregational Environment

Mission Statement Four Key Ideas: 1.The Task Is Making Devoted Followers a. Bringing Individuals Into A Relationship With Messiah b. Building Individuals Up In Their Relationship With Messiah

Mission Statement Four Key Ideas: 2. The Focus is Messiah Yeshua 3. The Goal is “Healthiness” 4. The Context is that of a Messianic Congregation

We Need To Be Committed To A Congregation Hebrews 10:23-25 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

We Need To Be Committed To A Congregation And it would be great if the congregation we are committed to is a “healthy” one “Healthiness” is the important thing: Not size Not the facilities Not programs Not the music All congregations struggle with this because all congregations are made up of people, and people are not perfect

What Does A Healthy Congregation Look Like There are five metaphors used in the Bible to denote the congregation of believers: 1. Body – “The Body of Messiah” 2. Temple – “You yourselves are God’s Temple” 3. Kingdom – “He…brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” 4. Bride – “I promised you to one husband, to Messiah” 5. Family – “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

A Healthy Congregation Operates Like A Body The congregation is the “Body of Messiah” “Now you are the body of Messiah, and each one of you is a part of it” (I Cor. 12:27) The Body of Messiah has “many members” “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,…” (Romans 12:4)

A Healthy Congregation Operates Like A Body Members of the Body of Messiah Must Fulfill Their Function “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Messiah. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:15-16)

A Healthy Congregation Worships As In The Temple The Congregation of Believers is the “Temple of God” “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (I Cor. 3:16) The Congregation of Believers are “Priests” that offer Sacrifices and Praises to the Lord “…you also,…are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood…” (I Peter 2:5)

A Healthy Congregation Recognizes It Is Representative of Messiah’s Kingdom The Congregation of Believers is a Kingdom “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

A Healthy Congregation Recognizes It Is Representative of Messiah’s Kingdom “I John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Yeshua…” (Revelation 1:9)