Churches need to discover what the signs of a healthy or unhealthy church are. It is difficult to achieve a healthy church and maintain it over the years. Is there any hope for unhealthy churches?

Let’s begin.

I.. Signs of a Healthy Church

A.. Scriptural basis for a healthy church

Luke writes this report about the earliest Christians. Context: the wonderful sermon right after Pentecost and three thousand Jews got saved.

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 42-47)

In an even longer passage, Luke also reports this gathering of the earliest church. The context: a lame man over forty years old got healed, and Peter and John preached a powerful sermon about Jesus and how the chief priests and elders unjustly crucified him. The Sanhedrin, the highest court and council in Judaism and based in Jerusalem, arrested and interrogated them. Peter replied, to them after he was once again filled with the Spirit in 4:8, and he had been filled at Pentecost, too. He testified before them with great conviction. Then the two apostles just got released. Luke now writes:

²³ On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. ²⁵ You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
²⁶ The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one. [Ps. 2:1-2]

 ²⁷ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸ They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. ²⁹ Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:23-31)

B.. Sixteen Characteristics of a Healthy Church

Based on those two long passages, watch for these sixteen qualities in your local church.

1.. Apostolic teaching

Devotion to apostolic teaching in the Gospel, Acts and the epistles and even the Revelation, when it is taught properly and in balance. It should be pointed out, however, that when Paul instructed Timothy and Titus in his epistles to them, he told him to appoint elders, not apostles or prophets. When he summoned church leaders from Ephesus to meet with him near the city of Miletus, he sought for elders, not apostles or prophets (Acts 20:13-38). During Paul’s and Barnabas’s first missionary journey (Acts 13-14), they appointed elders in each church (Acts 14:23). In no place in the Roman provinces and the churches he planted there did he appoint apostles. In 2 Corinthians he denied the authority of the super-apostles who tried to take over (2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11).

So, this situation in Jerusalem, where the twelve apostles led, is unique. But there were Christian elders in the city as well (Acts 15). It seems the apostolic teaching is gaining ground and turning into Scripture, so that is why the earliest Christians devoted themselves to it (2:42),

2.. Regular meetings

The earliest Christians met regularly, in fellowship (2:42, 46). They did not meet only on Saturday or Sunday. They also met in the temple daily. In today’s busy world, it may be impractical for the whole church to meet together daily. But the earliest church’s devotion to gathering regularly is admirable, and we can draw some lessons from this practice, at least. I note that in some revivals people do gather daily, and the Jerusalem church was experiencing revival. May God send a revival to the global church!

3.. Large communal meals and communion

The healthy early church enjoyed communal meals together that ended in communion. However, the communal meals may not be feasible in the modern church at every meeting. At that time in Jerusalem the needs were great, and people needed to eat (Acts 6). But the church should regularly take communion together, the breaking of bread and drinking the fruit of the vine, like grape juice (2:42).

4.. House churches and communal meals and communion

The healthy earliest church also met in houses and shared common meals as a kind of potluck (2:46).  The house meeting  ended with regular communion. As for the potluck, it may be too much to do this every week in a modern society. But potlucks are always fun, but the house leaders and people can decide how often communal meals are done.

5.. Regular community prayer

In 2:42; 4:24-28, they prayed out loud, in a group. The earliest church did not do quiet prayers all the time in community (see also 1 Cor. 11:5 and women praying and prophesying in the assembly). In their prayer, they acknowledged God as sovereign and the Creator (4:24). Good theology.

6.. Honoring Scripture as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The earliest church depended on the Old Testament and considered it inspired by the Holy Spirit (4:25). They narrowed their focus on the verses about the Messiah, so Jesus is called the Anointed One (4:26). Therefore, it would be wrong to unhitch the Old Testament from the New, as at least one pastor today says we should do. The apostles would have spoken a firm no. Consider Jesus who gave a lengthy Bible study and opened the minds of the disciples to understand the flow of salvation threaded through the Old Testament and accomplished now in Jesus (Luke 24:25-27, 44-45). He too would tell postmodern pastors who ignore the Old Testament—no!

7.. Trust in God’s plan about the crucifixion

The church acknowledged that God had a plan which entailed the crucifixion of his Son. No, God did not directly cause the unjust crucifixion, but he orchestrated circumstances so that the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel would carry out the plan, motivated by their own evil hearts. The earliest church trusted in God and his sovereignty and saw the ultimate benefit of his Son’s death, that is, salvation and redemption.

8.. Servanthood

They called Jesus God’s holy servant (4:27), and also called themselves servants (4:29). This puts things in perspective. When Jesus was on earth, he was his Father’s servant and submitted himself to his Father. He was also the Lord. Now the church prayed that they, his servants, themselves, would also work signs and wonders (4:30).

⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:44-45)

9.. Generosity

The earliest church had no greed but were generous with each other when someone had a genuine need. Their grip on their possessions was light (see also 4:32-37). I urge people not to give to ministries in which the leaders take the money and buy luxury items with it and enrich themselves in gimmicky, unjust, unscriptural hyper-prosperity. The money should be used to meet the needs of the people.

Does Book of Acts Teach Modern Communism or Socialism?

Apostle Paul Traveled on Cargo Ships

10.. Joy and sincerity

The earliest church had sincerity and glad hearts (2:46). Paul wrote: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4). Does your church produce joy or sourness because the main pastor is either encouraging and gentle (joy) or mean and oppressive (discouragement and gloom)? “Let your gentleness be evident to all” (Phil. 4:5). Gentleness is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23). Pastors should not be oppressive. Joy is one of the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22). Please, churches, be sure the people experience sincerity and gladness of heart. It begins with the pastors and elders.

11.. Praise

They praised God together, regularly (2:47). Praise is important, and today we have worship leaders. It is not known whether the earliest church had them, but according to the Psalms, songs and hymns do not violate Scripture but fulfill it. Ancient Israel had worship leaders. Recall that the early church raised their voices together in prayer before God and called God the Creator (4:24). The church got a clear picture of who God was. This post is about those two passages in Acts, but I cannot resist planting this Scripture:

[…] Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:18-20)

12.. Church growth

This was caused and prompted by God (2:47). They did not depend on church growth consultants. Revival was happening, and that was enough.

13.. Favor and persecution

They enjoyed favor with the people (2: 47), and the outsiders were in awe of the signs and wonders (2:43). In contrast, the Jerusalem leaders persecuted the apostles (4:23, 27-29). The persecution was intense and menacing. The Sanhedrin ordered them not to speak the name of Jesus, but the apostles did not obey the order that denied God’s mission for them (see also 5:29).

14.. Signs and wonders

The people prayed for signs and wonders, which in Acts seems to have been limited to healings and deliverances and two resuscitations or raising from the dead (9:32-35; 20:7-10). In 2:43 the apostles worked the signs and wonders, but in 4:30 everyone worked them. So there is the democratization of the gifts of the Spirit.

Cessationism (the belief that certain gifts in 1 Cor. 12:7-11 have ceased) is unscriptural and erroneous. It is a characteristic of an incomplete, unhealthy church (see below).

15.. Infilling of the Spirit

Everyone was filled with the Spirit (4:31). They were filled in Acts 2:1-4. Peter was refilled in 4:8, just before he delivered his powerful speech before the Sanhedrin. And now the church is filled yet another time. “Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 4:18). The imperative “be filled” is in the present tense, so there is a continuous infilling envisioned. We should regularly seek God to fill us often.

16.. Outreach

As God caused the growth (2:47), the church, particularly the apostles, ministered the good news or gospel to the people. They reached out to the lost, speaking the word boldly (4:31). God answered their prayer for boldness to speak his word (4:29). The old saying I heard back in the 1970s is still relevant: “healthy sheep reproduce.’

II.. Signs of an unhealthy church

A.. Brief intro.

These signs are pervasive throughout the American church and elsewhere around the globe when other churches borrow heavily from it.

B.. Sixteen characteristics of an unhealthy church

1.. Arrogance

I see large swathes of the American church as arrogant at this time in its history. We need to repent. However, if anyone calls for repentance, then he is ignored or is accused of being negative. “Don’t rock our luxury American cruise line and love boat!” they seem to say.

And so I see no one proclaiming that the church needs to repent of arrogance, because no one seems to be able to spot it. A little self-reflection is rare with Americans generally and American Christians in particular. Arrogance blinds a person from seeing his arrogance. Vicious circle.

2.. Insufficient study of Scriptures

Just for clarity, here are samples errors in the next points, which flow from a deficient study of Scripture. American Christians don’t take the time to do this or their leaders come up with nonessential, distracting teachings, like the Jewish year, or the shape of Hebrew letters means something deeper. Sound exegesis is ignored for the latest novelty.

3.. False prophecies

Youtube prophets are often wrong. How much good does it do for Christians to listen to wrongheaded prophecies? It seems that many Christians cannot sort them out and are being deceived. They even send the youtube prophets money (see below).

4.. Churches = private fiefdoms

Intelligent Christian men have taken over God’s Son’s church and are treating it as their own private fiefdoms. Their quick minds are very active, dreaming up ways to keep building. It is their personal kingdom projects, as if they are real estate developers. The more campuses, the greater the status. One journalist calls them “Evangelical Warlords.” Perfect.  Now they can walk around with puffed out chests when they meet with other pastors.

Further, they have almost daily control over their kingdom of campuses. The campuses log on to the video feed on Sunday (or record it and later require their churches to show it on another Sunday); then these super-leaders decree and declare their vision for the year. Result: everyone has to salute and get in line, so to speak. The super-leader writes many words for their vision statement, for their churches, even though Jesus himself already told us what his vision is for his Church. (See, for example, Luke 24:45-49, Acts 1:8; and Matt. 28:18-20.) It is arrogant to disregard his vision statements for his church.

The solution is to go down the path of Calvary Chapel or the Vineyard. Each church formed its own leadership and elders. I don’t recall Chuck Smith or John Wimber barging into the local churches with video messages or swapping out pastors to speak at another of their churches every week (or every two weeks), like the Musical Chairs for Pastors. Now the people cannot get to know their own undershepherd. Instead, Calvary Chapel and Vineyard churches were independent or quasi-independent, yet they belonged to the larger movement and shared the same theology and ministry practices and values. Regional overseers then simply encouraged the pastors or solved problems that the local church leaders could not solve. No doubt this structure encouraged Smith and Wimber not to micro-manage and to keep their sanity and stay focused on the main thing God called them to do without global or national day-to-day distractions.

As I recall, both Smith and Wimber were humble men of God. No puffed out chests and inflated egos.

5.. Church growth consultants

They are taking things too far. They may mean well, but pastors need to return to Bible basics. Search the Scriptures to find out how Jesus and his apostolic community grew the church–by the power of God, that is, anointed, Bible based preaching and healings and deliverances. The Book of Acts is a good start for research.

6.. Doctrinal errors

Doctrinal errors are cropping up from the pulpits of mega-pastors in their mega-ministries and mega-churches. One of them said, for example, that Jesus laid aside all of his divine attributes during his incarnation to earth. The pastor reemphasized it. All.  No. Another mega-church pastor said there are three Gods. No. Arrogance can lead to doctrinal errors. The mega-leaders may believe that God so strongly backs their mega-ministries that they can say whatever they want. They do not telephone a theologian to check their theology.

7.. Don’t touch the Lord’s anointed

To protect themselves, apostles, prophets and pastors also misapply Psalm 105:15: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.” Or they misapply the David-Saul conflict, in which David did not want to kill the Lord’s anointed (1 Sam. 24, 26). However, Psalm 105:15 s talking about waging war and doing other physical harm to God’s ancient people. (Note the plural “ones” and “prophets.”) And David did not want to “touch” Saul, evidently a euphemism for kill.

Yet as a consequence of their misapplication of these verses, a wall of isolation is built around them now. No one can “touch” them. No meaningful correction for them. Arrogance again. At the same time, The Julie Roys Report (a journalist website which puts the wholesome fear of God in you) has all kinds of stories of pastors misbehaving: sexual abuse of children, affairs, false prophecies unrepented of, manipulative prophecies, or embezzlement.

8.. Greed

Hyper-prosperity preachers try to squeeze every last dime out of the people’s salaries (out of their gross pay!) by haranguing them to give more and by making false promises.

Why Tithing Does Not Apply to New Covenant Believers

The preachers manipulate Scriptures to enrich themselves. One even boasts that he owns the biggest house in Louisiana. He’s not ashamed of it, either, and says so. Another one, after teaching about his own hyper-prosperity, actually said in front of his donors, “I’m doin’ all right!” (His donors seemed middle-class or working class, and now he is upper class.) These hyper-prosperous preachers are super-rich because they get on TV and ask for money, not because they tithe into another hyper-prosperity preacher’s ministry (as one of them falsely proclaimed), But what about their average donors? Are they as rich as their favorite TV hyper-rich preacher because they tithe into his ministry? No.

The writers of the NT never got rich from their Scriptures. Prove to me that Paul and the other apostles lived in a house as big as a Roman senator’s villa, or in a house that was the biggest in any Roman province. Prove to me that they bragged about it. Repeat: No writer of the NT ever got rich from his own writing or writings.

Apostle Paul Traveled on Cargo Ships

A prosperous speakers’ circuit has emerged, in which the speakers at huge conferences repeat the same sermon over and over. The richer ones even jet around in their private jets to speak at them. How much in fees or honoraria do they get for the same teaching? It must be nice to get all that money for a rehashed, half-hour to forty-minute sermon that has been on continuous loop for years. Do they seek the Lord for a word for that gathering? Years-old manna is worse than day-old manna. Complacent, jet-set preachers.

9.. Wild platform displays

Some preachers like dancin’ and prancin’, and shriekin’ and freakin’ and yellin’ and sellin’ the gospel on the platform, believing this is the anointing. The platform performers love the spotlight. In charismatic circles, the platforms speakers also allow wild displays in the audience too. However, they break the parameters that Paul established in 1 Corinthians 14, like this verse:

^33 “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people” (1 Cor. 14:33). Order and decorum should be the defining characteristic of the church service. Confusion must stop. I don’t see Jesus in the four Gospel and the apostolic community in Acts performing with outlandish displays.

And this one: ⁴⁰ “Let everything be done with decorum and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40, my translation). Paul opposed charismania in the assembly. But do these hyper-charismatics care? It seems to me that they eagerly run roughshod over the Scriptures. Repeat: I never read about Jesus doing wild displays while teaching the Sermon on the Mount and Sermon on the Plain.

What 1 Corinthians 14 Really Teaches

10.. No fear of God

Disrespecting God’s word by continuously violating it is arrogant. The arrows mean “leads to” or “produces.”

Arrogance → No fear of God → Ignoring his word → No repentance.

11.. Apostles everywhere

Leaders in the Renewal Movements are desperate to find these two ministry gifts, in order to restore and establish the fivefold ministry (as they call it), based on Ephesians 4:11-13. (Two of the ministry gifts are apostles and prophets.) And now we have all sorts of pastors and church planters eagerly declaring themselves to be apostles. But as I see things, they don’t know what they are doing. Deception thrives because they do not do a thorough exegesis of Scripture. Why would they? They have their own agenda, and biblical strictures stymy their goals. They outpace God, however, in establishing their fivefold ministries. This is arrogance of the first order.

Yes, I believe apostles exist, but now they are missionaries who plant churches in unreached, unevangelized areas, where people never heard the name of Jesus or the gospel before. If you want to see apostles in action, just read about Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13-14. They went into totally unevangelized areas.

Planting churches in America does not qualify someone to be an apostle because the name of Jesus is known, even if people do not follow him. And most people who attend a new church plant come from other churches, anyway!

12.. Prophets everywhere

Youtube prophets speak in vague generalities even when they say they do not. But they do. If something is about to shake the country next month or in the coming year, be specific. Tell us who, what, when, how, and where. Who will get voted out and voted in? Name them. If not, your prophecies are useless.

Other self-appointed teachers and talkers exhort us on their youtube channels. They have another rapture dream! I wonder why their subscribers don’t learn all of this in their home church. Why don’t the talkers tell their beliefs in a small group? Why go online and up the responsibility exponentially? I genuinely fear that the chatterboxes are sinning with their abundant words and consequently talking themselves into a stricter judgment (James 3:1).

13.. Cessationism

This is defined as denying that specific gifts are in operation today, such as prophecy, healing, miracles, visions, and tongues. Hence the name cessation or a ceasing. It is a debilitating error. It has no support in Scripture, while its opposite, continuationism, does (and in church history). Cessationists need to repent of their deficient research and come back to a reasonable interpretation of Scripture. It is a bad idea to stand before God at final judgment after teaching the people that they have to be deprived of every gift God has available for them to complete their mission in a tough, resistant world. I shudder to think what God must think and how he will judge them.

1. Gifts of the Spirit in Early Church Fathers

2. Healing and Deliverance in Early Church Fathers

3. Prophecies, Visions, and Hearing from God in Early Church Fathers

14.. Novelties and gimmicks.

Novelty and hot trends are a huge source of deception. We live in the nation of Disneyland and Disney World (and lesser-known amusement parks), Silicon Valley, NASA, military technology, Wall Street, Hollywood, thousands of new inventions, and thousands of startups. There is nothing wrong per se with innovation in those listed areas.

However, the church should not absorb these fast-paced innovations and trends. We should influence culture morally and spiritually, not the other way around. Novelty that drifts from Scripture is wrong. The “First Church of Disneyland” is too far. Maybe we should do a new thing, which is to return to the old thing–the Bible. But it cramps their style. They ignore it, except for passages that please them.

The arrow means “leads to”:

Feverish minds → foolish, silly churches

No more so-called creative teams.

15.. Moral degradation

Pastors are endorsing same-sex marriages and relationships. If we don’t (so they tell us) people will leave the church in droves or never come. Some even assert that cross-dressing and trans-rights should be normalized. No, these people need help. As noted in the post on repentance, the NT Greek noun for repentance means “change of mind” (metanoia). They need their minds healed and changed by the power of the indwelling Spirit and long-time discipleship.

Then other pastors are falling into their own sexual sins, some of which are particularly egregious, like using prophecy to manipulate people. Their use of the gifts and their popular mega-ministries lead them to believe that they are extra-powerful, so they become arrogant. They seem to believe they are alpha males. Once again, may everyone subscribe to the The Julie Roys Report. It will put the wholesome fear of God in sensible Christians.

16.. Sound, biblical themes have become “hyper.”

Grace, faith, prosperity, charismata (gifts), and sovereignty are biblical themes. But hyper-faith and hyper-grace and hyper-prosperity and hyper-charismata and hyper-sovereignty preachers over-emphasize their favorite Scriptures and ignore the ones that contradict their one-theme Bible teaching. They do not proclaim the “whole counsel of God ” (Acts 20:27, my translation). No one seems to stop or correct them. They certainly don’t correct themselves. Maybe they are too powerful. After all, they have large churches, so God obviously endorses their teachings (or so they seem to believe). Never mind that entire religions (e.g. Mormonism or Islam, to cite two extreme examples) are built on doctrinal errors.

These popular teachers are out of balance.

III.. Application

A.. Brief intro.

In this section, the applications are the solutions. The best solutions are found in the sixteen characteristics of a healthy church. But before we get there, let’s lay down the groundwork.

B.. Solutions

1.. Humility

Major sections of the American church are arrogant. They need to see the problem and repent. ⁶ “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Can the arrogant see their arrogance and humble themselves?

2.. Repentance

If they do not see the problem, they see no need to repent. But they have to. Humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God would lead to repentance.

3.. Partial prophecies

Prophets must acknowledge their prophecies are only in part. First Corinthians 13:9 says: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.” We don’t have complete knowledge or prophecy. This should teach all of us to be humble about prophecy.

4.. Judging prophecies

Prophets must be humble enough to have their prophecies judged in the local church. ²⁹ “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said” (1 Cor. 14:29). Most prophets should get off youtube until they can prove the church commissioned them, just like the Jerusalem church commissioned Agabus and his team. He was not a lone wolf who sat in his car prophesying the same things: acceleration, new level, shift, turnaround, wealth transfer, breakthrough, favor, new thing, big changes, financial miracles, and so on. On youtube, these wonderful things are vague and scattered. But in a local church and in a home group and spoken to one person there, they can be a great blessing.

5.. Belong to a local church

Prophets must belong to a local church. Independent youtubers put themselves in danger of deception because of lying spirits and their imagination (1 Kings 22, Jer. 23, Ezek. 13). Their prophecies are not judged in the local church. However, there is safety in numbers. If the prophet leads the church, which is a bad idea to begin with, he too must submit to a board of godly and wise men and women, not “yes men.”

Woe to a church that is led by a prophet! A teaching pastor should lead it. He can have a prophetic gift, like prophecy or a word of wisdom or word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:7-11; 14:1), but teaching should be his mainstay. See the sixth point. Prophets restricted to prophesying only in the local church would solve many problems.

6.. Scriptural leadership

Apostles and prophets must come back into Scriptural order in terms of leadership. Elders lead the local church, as later posts will show.

7.. Renounce the title of apostle

Today’s apostles need to repent and renounce their title. They act like the super-apostles of 2 Corinthians. They did not plant churches in unreached, unevangelized territories, but proclaimed their leadership over churches that they never planted. Instead, true apostles are missionary church planters in unreached areas, like Corinth. Paul said they were false-apostles who masqueraded as apostles of Christ. But they did not belong as leaders at Corinth. Evidently, the super-apostles swept in with bluster and fake authority. It looks like an attempt at a church takeover. Paul pronounces judgment over them (2 Cor. 11:12-15). The elders who allow these outsider apostles to take over their church should repent and kick them out. Now.

8.. Shut down their socials

The vast majority of Christian youtubers must shut down their channels. They have set themselves up as teachers and leaders and are chattering their way into a stricter judgment (James 3:1). They need to go back to their local churches and share their prophecies and teachings in their home group. But will they shut down their channels? No, because they believe God gave them their channels. But human imagination and a lying spirit can play tricks on their minds. There is safety in relationships, and the local church can provide it.

9.. Live modestly

The hyper-prosperity teachers need to sell what they have and live modestly.  Paul traveled only on commercial cargo ships. Nor did he own a horse, another luxury item. If he had taken an offering to buy either one, he would have been laughed at. The New Testament writers never got rich from their own writings by manipulating them, as the hyper-prosperity preachers do.

Apostle Paul Traveled on Cargo Ships

You cannot get hyper-rich by twisting Scriptures and ignoring others. God will judge you for this, at final judgment.

10.. A mighty revival

Maybe some things are stirring right now. But more, Lord, more! But more of what exactly? After Peter was filled with the Spirit, he preached a powerful message. Here are the results:

⁴⁰ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹ Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:40-41)

In Acts 3 Peter and John and a crowd in Jerusalem saw the risen Jesus through the two apostles heal a lame man. Jesus healed him. Peter preached another anointed message. Here are the results in the next post:

⁴ But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand. (Acts 4:4)

For revival to flourish as it did in the book of Acts, we need healings and deliverances and outpourings of the Spirit on “all people” (Acts 2:17). But what kind of continuationist churches would the new converts join? Excessive and foolish and outlandish? Or churches with firm foundations and clear Bible teaching and a balanced use of the gifts of the Spirit? Let’s hope that God is not delaying revival because too many churches are excessive and foolish and outlandish.

11.. A new generation

Most of the troubles in the American church began many years ago. The men who started these trends are either old or have passed on. We need to raise up the next generation, fed on the previous ten solutions, and the next one. So with repentance and revival and the next generation, I see hope for the American church, but the journey will be long and difficult.

12.. Heed these warnings

¹⁹ Sin is not ended by multiplying words,
but the prudent hold their tongues. (Prov. 18:19)

³⁶ “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. ³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36-37)

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (James 3:1)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works Cited