Approximately once a year my doctor will look at me and say: “We need to do your annual physical at your next appointment.” As you know, medical physicals usually include blood work, a series of tests, some probing, and a final report or evaluation. While the actual physical may include some minimal discomfort, I don’t have any real difficulty completing the regiment of needles, electrodes, and cold instruments. I even show up on time and don’t try to cancel the appointment or hope my doctor forgets that it is physical time.

However, there is one part of this annual ritual that I fail with great regularity. The final report or evaluation always contains a list of behaviors or habits that I need to change to improve my general health and extend both my quality of life and my life expectancy. A change in my dietary habits, a need for weight loss, and an increase in exercise always seem to make my top three needed changes. I readily agree that these are needed changes, but I have a difficult time taking the necessary steps to get out of my old, unhealthy routine and move into a healthier way of eating and living. The similarity between my annual report and yours may be alike or radically different. But while both of us know what we need to do, we may both be struggling to make the changes.

Just as our bodies need a physical checkup, so do our churches, the body of Christ. This church physical can be done by the church’s leadership or with the help of an outside person or group. Regardless of who leads the process, several questions need to be answered including:

• Is the Sunday School or Small Groups Ministry reaching new people regularly or do they just wait for someone to join?
• Are people truly being discipled or do they just attend church?
• Does the church minister within the community or only inside its own facilities?
• Is there unity within the church or just an unstable truce?
• Do members give financially to meet a budget or to change lives?
  

To begin this process and to find the right person or resource to help with a church physical, contact our associational office. Not every person or resource is right for every church. We can help you make the right choice for your church based on size, style, culture, and history.

Conducting a church physical can be a great tool to help a church move forward, but it can also be a waste of time. Gathering information is useless if you don’t use it. Most churches need a team assigned the responsibility of implementing the changes and a coach or consultant to provide motivation, encouragement, and perhaps

some expertise in staying with the task. Again, there are many resources to help with that process, but the association is a good first stop to help sort out what would be best for your church.

Why is it important to act on the results of a physical? Just like a medical physical, the information gained from a church physical can mean the difference in either the quality or length of life. The majority of churches in our nation and in our association are either plateaued or declining. While the Kingdom has an eternal aspect, the local church exists in time and space with no guarantee of length of life.

I personally want to live long enough and healthy enough to enjoy my grandchildren and perhaps to even have some time with great-grandchildren. Likewise, I want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to have the job and blessing that results from being part of a Christ-centered body of believers that actively share their faith and disciple new believers through the Word of God.

My next medical physical is November. Now is a good time for me to start making the changes I have procrastinated from my last physical. When is your next church physical? When will you start making the changes you already know need to happen? The church is not just for us. It is also for the generations yet to come. Let’s make sure it is alive and healthy for them.