What is a Healthy Church Member {A Book Review}

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What is a Healthy Church Member by Thabiti Anyabwile is the second book about church membership that I've read recently. The first book is I am a Church Member by Thom Rainer, and I wrote about it here.  

Similar to I am a Church Member, Anyabwile also outlines some specific attitudes and habits a healthy church member should strive to cultivate. Several of these attitudes overlap with and expand on the ones mentioned in I am a Church Member.  

This entire book is solidly Biblical in how it argues from Scripture why church membership is important. After I finished reading it, I couldn't help but feel like I had just had a spiritual battery recharge concerning my understanding of my role within the local church and why I should want to serve and be involved with the other believers who attend the same local church. Combine this book with I am a Church Member and you have two outstanding books on the importance of church membership! 

With that said, here are a couple things I was personally challenged by from What is a Healthy Church Member: 

1. My continual need to grow spiritually

Concerning characteristics of a healthy church member, Anyabwile discusses several areas for personal growth: I should be learning to be an expositional listener, as well as a Biblical theologian, to name a couple areas. Each of these things apply to me personally, for I am to be exercising personal discernment as I listen to teaching from God's Word; I should also be exercising personal diligence in a consistent study of God's Word. 

But even as this happens on an individual level, it plays out within the context of the local church as a body, for the Body of Christ is made up of individuals. 

2.  My attitude is influential

Another area that challenged me was understanding the significance of my personal attitude towards the local body I am a part of, particularly my attitude towards those in leadership. 

I believe Anyabwile says it better than I can: "The health of a local church may ride exclusively on the membership's response to the church's leadership. How the congregation receives or rejects its leaders has a direct effect on the possibilities of faithful ministry and church health.... In the final analysis, church members are the people who generally make or break a local church. And making or breaking a church has a lot to do with the membership's attitudes and actions towards its leaders" (page 95).

I'd never really thought about how my attitude can impact the health of the local body of believers I gather with. After all, I'm just one person...and a girl, occupied mostly with caring for my toddler daughter. What kind of impact can I really have in the grand scheme of things?  

Nevertheless, I am slowly learning that nothing I do happens in a vacuum: as a member of the Body of Christ, and more specifically, a member of the local church I attend, my actions and attitudes do have an impact on those around me, whether for good or for bad! 

Once again, we can see the parallel between how the physical body functions in comparison to how the spiritual body of the local church functions: each member is important and has a role to play. A failure to "do my part", does, in fact, affect the health of the entire body! 

3. The weight of responsibility for those in leadership 

I have become increasingly aware of the incredible responsibility it is for one to be in a position of spiritual authority, such as a pastor, elder, or deacon. God has designed the local church to have leaders. These leaders must not take their role lightly, for they bear greater responsibility before God for their position of authority. It is for this reason that Scripture has specific instructions concerning how we are to treat those in authority over us.  

When it comes to our individual responsibility towards those in spiritual authority over us, Scripture directs us to, at the very least, be praying for those in spiritual authority over us. However, Scripture also instructs us to honor them, love them, follow their example, receive their instruction, and submit to them, to name a few!    

Once again, this points back to the significance of our attitude and actions and reveals that there is so much more to "church" than simply showing up, singing some great songs, and listening to a stirring sermon! 

With all that said, What is a Healthy Church Member? is outstanding. After reading it, I could not help but ask myself: "Am I a healthy church member?"

So if you struggle with understanding what "church" is all about, I would highly recommend you read this book (as well as I am a Church Member.) Both of these books do a fantastic job of helping us see past the misconception that church is just another social gathering that religious people do on Sundays. At the same time, they help nurture a greater love and appreciation for God's marvelous design of the local church!  

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