The congregants of Olinda Community Hall would agree that the sermon of Rev. Dr. Rowland Croucher was more engaging than the beautiful gardens and luxury hideaways in Dandenong Ranges.
The engaging sermon was on the 'Signs of a healthy Church' taken from Mark CH 9: v 38 - 49.
Rowland the Director of the John Mark Ministries outlines four vital components of a healthy church.
Tolerance for accepting diversities, initiates Rowland, is a mark of a healthy church. He recounted when visiting the Sunday Service in Papua New Guinea, all the congregants jumped up and down for three-quarters of an hour as they worshiped God; except for both him and another missionary, he quipped. However in the U.S.A, he was in a German Charismatic Presbyterian Church when every time ushers moved to the next row they would collect the offering with military precision.
From both these personal anecdotes, he explained that regardless of the style of worship or the structure of Sunday worship the unifying factor was the acknowledgement that God was perfectly revealed through the life of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God who works in unison with the Father and the Holy Spirit. “Everything else is up for grabs,” he said.
Another symbol of a healthy church, he continued, was its commitment to social justice where the strong help the weak and not exploit them.
Earlier, Dr. Croucher told the story of Dawn Rowan who was brought to court by those in power, the State and Federal Governments along with two TV channels, for alleged nefarious activities, even though she was innocent and operated a women’s shelter in the 1980’s. Though Ms. Rowan was vindicated, she was still made liable for hefty legal bills incurred by both her and the other parties and as now is facing bankruptcy.
This was a clear example, he said, of when the strong had exploited the weak. Recently, Ranges Community Church had participated in a prayer vigil outside Lindsay Tanner’s office in Melbourne urging Dawn Rowan’s legal bill to the Commonwealth Government be waived.
Dr. Croucher warned that when judgment comes, the Almighty will ask what you have not done for the least among you.
The third sign of a healthy church is the requirement of its members to be committed to individual holiness. This was where he illustrated the depths of the Bible in relation to whether the passages from the Scripture could be taken either literally or metaphorically.
Quoting from Mark CH 9 v 43 to 47, he described how Jesus commanded Christians to separate the parts of body that causes to sin.
From his sermon notes, Dr. Croucher wrote this should not be taken literally. Instead, it was a metaphor. Thus, he wrote if something was weighing you down then it should be dealt with quickly.
But, he did continue to emphasis about the issue of the Scripture being taken literally. Recalling the time when he invited an atheist ‘shock-jock’ to attend the Billy Graham Crusades in the 1950’s, the announcer then made a tirade against Christians after the invitation asking:
1. Is God so merciless that by deferring your personal decision to make Christ your savior you will go straight to hell for eternity?
2. Are Christians so cruel that once they are in heaven and as such can see through hell, they will still continue ‘having their party’?
Not giving the response, he smiled and asked the listeners to think about what answers they would give to the announcer and encouraged them to visit his website.
Concluding, he said the final sign a healthy church displayed was when its members could live with one another peacefully.
Life
Sermon enumerates ‘signs of healthy church’
By: Szeleng Chan
Thursday, 11 June 2009, 15:54 (EST)
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