What are the church priorities in ministry? This is up there on the charts in the category of mistakes that could be life-threatening to a church. The concept is that there are certain non-negotiable purposes given to us in scripture that no matter what culture, no matter what context, no matter where you are geographically, these are non-negotiable God-given purposes that are to be in the church.

There are a lot of things in a lot of churches in a lot of different cultures that can be in one and not be in another. We're actually talking about those things that must be in any church, in any culture, and in any context to be healthy, to be biblical.

The concept here is every one of us individually, in light of what we'll look at (these biblical purposes that must be in a church) those are actually biblical purposes or ministries that should be manifested in our lives personally as well. Normally, if you are not very consciously aware of which of these particular priorities are areas of passion and you're drawn to and you're attracted to, and other ones, quite frankly, you're not drawn to.

A big part of this is that old Greek axiom, "know yourself." Do you know which of the biblical non-negotiable purposes are really your area of passion and focus and interest because of your unique background and ministry experiences?

I can tell you right away, of these biblical priorities, of these biblical purposes, I can tell you one that lights my fire. I can tell you one that excites me, or if not just one, we can usually find two in the list of priorities of purpose. When you're beginning to gather a core group around you and your goal is to establish a church that has all of these purposes as a part of the church, you better be acutely aware of what those purposes are and what your propensity is toward naturally developing and what it is not. That's the big idea.

We begin by actually looking at "what are those purposes?" Now, please don't take too seriously the number here, five. Notice that even these five categories have two in each one of them. Don't get locked into the categorization paradigm that's here, but do get locked into the principle that there are certain biblical priorities that are essential for every church. We're going to use

1) worship and prayer

2) learning in discipleship

3) fellowship and community

4) outreach and evangelism

5) mercy and social concern

Notice preaching is not there. Notice leadership development is not there. I'm saying that to you so you get the big idea and not grab hold of the specific five categories because these five purposes of the church are clearly set forth in scripture. All churches, as I said, all cultural contexts must always have these purposes as a priority.

These purposes should also be seen as vital signs of a healthy church. This will carry you forever in church ministry if it's implanted deeply in your heart and mind now. When one or more of these purposes are neglected, the church will become unhealthy, but when all of these purposes are given appropriate emphasis in the ministry of a new church, that church will normally grow and make a kingdom impact on the world normally.

It's not a formula, but normally when churches focus on a healthy manifestation of these biblical purposes, God normally shows up, lives are changed, societies are changed.

Every year my wife schedules a physical examination with our general practitioner. She knows I hate it, but every year I go in and I have this physical and it takes a while. He takes tests, and he pokes and he prods, and he analyzes, and he gets lab reports on me, and then I have to come back a second time after I do all the lab reports and has this little printout.

Now, I want you to think about what he does. Notice a parallel here. He has learned as a physician what are the vital signs of a healthy human being, cholesterol, blood pressure levels, weight and height. His job is to understand what those vital signs are, and then when I come in once a year, he checks me versus these vital signs.

It's fascinating, the shift from the era of the Reformation to the era of the Puritans. The Reformation pastors were the preachers and the teachers, and in the era of the Puritans that followed, there was more of an emphasis among the Puritans on the pastor as a physician of the human soul. The pastor wasn't just a preacher or a teacher of sound doctrine against the Roman Church. It wasn't all about just orthodoxy, but in this new era, there was more of a focus on the pastor as, yes, teacher and preacher, but also as physician of the human soul. That's where a lot of this rich Puritan literature comes from with John Owen and others.

The vision I want to cast here for you is that you actually become a physician for the health of the church. Your task is not to focus on growth. Your task is to focus on health. Those who focus on growth, how much money is being given and how many people are attending, inevitably fall. Church planters who focus on health normally succeed, and that's because of this simple principle: healthy churches grow. I hope you've already seen in the botanical universe, in the biological universe. God has designed the ecclesiastical universe the same way.

If you had a young child and that young child seemed to be a little bit shorter than the other children in school, can you imagine how bizarre it would be to say, "Come here, little Johnny. I see you're about 2 inches shorter than the other children in your classroom. Your father and I want to have a talk with you. We want you to grow, and we're going to focus on you growing," or trying to talk to a plant, tell a plant, "Grow!" What does a parent do? What does a gardener do? You provide a context for health. You feed Johnny well, healthy. Johnny gets rest. Johnny gets exercise.

There are certain vital signs of health, and so it's critically important that you understand that's actually not only your role as a parent, but if you're a pastor or a church planter, you should be always analyzing. Now, you could be more specific and focused once a year if you want to, but you're always analyzing the health of the church in light of the vital signs. If you have this grid in your mind because you know what those vital signs are, then please understand this is not rocket science.

How do you lead a church to growth? You understand what the vital signs are. You compare and contrast that local church body, no mater how small or large, with those vital signs. You find those biggest areas of discrepancy and then you learn to focus, not on all of them, but on maybe one or two, do a few things well. That simple concept is actually a summary of how you lead a church to growth.

Now, what I want us to do is just take a brief survey of what these purposes are. Let's first look at a very classic passage of scripture that gives us one of the best snapshots of the early church that we see in the New Testament, Acts chapter 2:42-47.

They devoted themselves to certain things. They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching. They devoted themselves to fellowship. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and to prayer or the prayers. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to one another who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They praised God, and they enjoyed the favor of all the people, and notice the way this ends, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

I want you to see how many of the purposes you can actually find in this one section of scripture. This is an excellent exercise as you begin to teach about the primary purposes of this church that we are asking Christ to build in this place. Look at Acts 2:42-47, and see how many of these primary purposes you can actually find, and by that, I mean you could actually say, "In this verse in the first part or the last part, I see this purpose."