Building The Body By Gary L. McIntosh And Phil StevensonSample

Day Two

A Lifelong Pursuit

Scripture: John 4:24

Muscular strength influences everything the body does—from getting out of bed in the morning to getting back in bed at night and everything in between. Churches need muscular strength to overcome the resistance society exerts against them. They need muscular strength to serve the community, to preach the gospel, and to build up their members. Personal ministry, God-honoring stewardship, and leadership development provide muscular strength. 

While muscular strength deals with exertion in a single effort, muscular endurance relates to doing something repeatedly. The characteristics that provide for muscular endurance are Christ-exalting worship, disciple-making strategy, and pastoral leadership. These characteristics provide the needed strength to continue for the long haul. 

Churches also need to be flexible to adapt and stretch to embrace new challenges. The more flexible a muscle group, the less likelihood of injury. Likewise, the more flexible churches are, the more likely they will adapt to disciple-making opportunities. The characteristics that contribute to flexibility are a loving community, vision-directed systems, and divine enablement. When the Spirit guides churches, their agility and flexibility help avoid injury brought on by shortsightedness and stubbornness. 

Five core beliefs guide the move toward church fitness: (1) all fit churches are healthy, but not all healthy churches are fit; (2) fitness enhances overall health; (3) fit churches are missionally minded and externally focused; (4) fit churches are multiplying churches; (5) the primary motivator for moving from health to fitness is dissatisfaction.

Fitness requires discipline. Little effort is required to sit on a couch watching television three hours a day. However, working out moderately for thirty minutes a day, five days a week takes immense discipline.

Likewise, a church can maintain a low level of health with little effort, but moving toward a high level of fitness takes immense effort. Thus, the five components of fitness—cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition—can be improved through disciplined effort. 

Fitness is a lifelong pursuit for an individual or a church. It requires measurements to track progress. In the areas where your church tracks well against the characteristics of fit churches, you can rejoice. Where it does not track well, you can learn the necessary adjustments to make to continue on the road to fitness. 

Do you believe your church and its leaders are ready to exert the effort to move toward greater fitness? Why or why not?