7.15.2026

To be honest, the conclusion of last Sunday’s sermon was sort of tacked on at the last minute. Paul warned the church about unhealthy religion, and I gave examples of unhealthy religion in our day . . . but I didn’t want to stop there! We were getting ready to sing, “Since Jesus Came into My Heart,” so I had to end the sermon on a more upbeat note! I hurriedly tacked on some quick examples of healthy religion (which I don’t think satisfied anyone) and afterwards someone asked me to clarify what I said a little more. So . . . here goes! 

Much of unhealthy Christianity centers around power - but not the power of the Holy Spirit! Unhealthy power is centered in leadership that determines who is in and who is out, and the sign of belonging is often expressed in “boundary markers.” Boundary makers are those things that create a clear division between “us” and “them.” They can be as diverse as dictating the way women wear their hair to forbidding any criticism of a “pastor’s authority.”  Those who violate the human-made (and often literally “man made") boundaries are no longer welcome. 

But the key to being a healthy church is to be a church that is completely sold out to God. In other words, and to use a good, biblical word, the key to being a healthy church is to be a holy church — to be a congregation who gives “heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings.”

We don’t hear the words “holy” and “holiness” very much anymore. “Holy” can seem scary and foreign to us 21st century believers — like the word “saint,” which is ironic because the Greek word is the same for both, hagios. A saint is a person who is holy . . . but we’re not comfortable with that. Holy sounds too saintly and saint sounds too holy. 

But they mean the same thing. 

A holy person (a saint) is  someone who belongs to God. In the Old Testament, the temple and all the objects used in temple worship were holy because of their relationship to God. 

We are holy because we belong to God. Back in Exodus 19, God told his people, “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” And in I Peter 2:9, Peter says this promise is fulfilled: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,* in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” Did you notice the change from “you shall be” to “you are”?

Early Methodism certainly was not frightened by holiness! In fact, a group grew out of Methodism in the 19th century that called itself the “Holiness Movement.”   

The problem came when too many in the holiness movement bought into exactly what I preached on last week. I’m sure they initially scared Satan with their experiences of consecration and close, personal relationships to God. 

True holiness is the last thing Satan wants for a church. 

So Satan began to dangle toys in front of believers — non-scriptural boundary markers or badges (mostly about how women dress and wear their hair) that let people know for sure who was outside and who was in. Then those boundary markers became as important (if not more important) than the love of God. 

Don’t confuse hair and holiness. 

True holiness is about relationship. In fact, you could even say that true holiness is about love. Holy people are the people whose lives, through the power of the Holy Spirit and their commitment to intentional transformation, reflect God’s holy love into the world, offering a loving alternative to the lives of those around them.

In other words, loving God . . . loving others. 

And, so, healthy churches are concerned with the things that concern God: reconciliation, taking care of those unable to take care of themselves, the unity and equality of God’s people . . . all those things that Paul wrote about in his letters, and all those things that can be summarized in Jesus’ prayer “thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

 I love this quote from Tara Beth Leach, “God is love – Love lived out through the power of the Holy Spirit in a community of gifted individuals playing one musical piece in different parts, a holy symphony.” 

A healthy church, where all its members are rooted, built up and established in Christ, who acknowledge Christ as its head and who are nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, growing with a growth that is from God, will be that symphony of love, where each individual is an instrument of God’s peace. 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry