An unhealthy church is one that doesn't have life in the Spirit at the center of its being. When we start to make purely human decisions without God's direction, we begin to morph what should be a redeemed entity into a human institution. This is most easily evident in leadership. Some churches do not have the spiritual leaders as the physical leaders of the church. This causes an unhealthy situation in which the spiritual reality is in all-out conflict with the physical reality of what should be the redeemed and beautiful bride of Christ.
In our lives, the spiritual reality is always in conflict with the physical reality. And vice-versa. A healthy spiritual person faces a constant barrage of temptations to taint the physical reality they are beautifying. We, as Christians, crate a healthy physical reality that can help combat the dark spiritual reality of our own and other's souls. Both spiritual and physical can be corrupted. And both spiritual and physical can be redeemed.
To relegate the redeeming power of Christ to just the spiritual or the physical has always been a constant battle in the history of the church. We need to always keep both in perspective. God is always at work trying to redeem everything.
He is an idealist. We just need to get a glimpse of that ideal and allow Him to use us to help bring it about. He doesn't want us to just participate in mental exercises. He wants the spiritual processes to change our physical reality.
Watch out for the potholes.
Credit: ceremonial-magic.blogspot.com
