Healthy Church Co-Ops

Is Your Church Healthy?

When churches work right, everything changes.

Explore the Seven Systems of a Healthy Church

The Skeletal System
The Digestive System
The Respiratory System
The Cardiovascular System
The Muscular System
The Nervous System
The Reproductive System

The Skeletal System

Governance, Leadership, and Structure

Good leadership provides a solid structure that enables growth. Strong leadership is the invisible “backbone” of the church, providing systems and structures to ensure needs are met and resources are stewarded well to advance the work. Just as “good bones” ensure that a house will stand, good leadership and solid systems ensure both individual believers and the church-at-large receive the support they need. This system includes building high-quality elder (through recruitment) and staff (through hiring) teams, ongoing leadership development, creating good policies and bylaws, confronting unhealthy people, leading change management, and building trust. All of the seven systems are critical, but getting this one right really does help all of the others to be healthy.

The Digestive System

Nourishing the Church through the Word

The Church exists to save the lost and to help believers grow in their faith and commitment. Growth occurs when believers are fed a healthy spiritual diet of relevant biblical teaching, are encouraged to follow personal spiritual disciplines, and are given opportunities for service that energize them to fulfill God’s calling in their daily lives. Most American Christians are under-fed, because most American churches believe that the sermon is the only mechanism for feeding the flock. While great Bible preaching is crucial for spiritual growth, a thirty-minute meal on Sunday (no matter how great it is) will never be enough nutrition to carry a believer through the week. Churches feed their flock well when the preaching, group study, and individual devotional time work together to supply each person with a healthy diet of God’s Word.

The Respiratory System

Worship and Prayer

Worship and giving are vital to congregational life and to the growth of individual believers. Large-group gatherings give believers a chance to “catch their breath” at the end of a long week, providing a time to reset, connect with others, and listen to God’s voice. Sometimes you can see it, if you stand in the back of the room: shoulders unclench, people stretch out their back and take a deep breath before singing out to God. Everything we do is an act of worship, but churches that worship well in all areas usually start with a hunger to worship together. This often feeds practices of private or personal worship, including worshiping God through our giving. As a form of worship, giving provides members an opportunity to demonstrate their faith in God’s provision and their commitment to God’s work.

The Cardiovascular System

Soul and Congregational Care

Proverbs 4:23 says “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” A church with a “healthy heart” makes people feel welcome, connected, and cared for. Healthy relationships are the glue that holds any organization together. These feelings generate a deep sense of belonging and lay a foundation for the positive resolution of conflict. This system includes things like helping people create emotionally healthy rhythms of spending intentional time with God, having a few close friends with whom they can be vulnerable, and reading strategic books that deepen healthy habits that come from healthy hearts.

The Muscular System

Volunteering and Engagement

The time and skills provided by faithful volunteers are the “muscle” that moves a church’s mission. Service opportunities help individual believers grow as they use their gifts while also providing vital human resources to support the work of the church. Churches with a healthy muscular system ask the question “what can people do” instead of “what does the church need done?” A key goal of this system is to engage as many people as possible in the work of the church. Serving faithfully is essential for people’s spiritual growth. Healthy churches create new serving opportunities to engage everyone in the body. Don’t assume that because the chairs are set up and you have enough hands to hold babies in the nursery that you’re done. Give everyone the chance to provide real service and flex those healthy muscles.

The Nervous System

Connections and Groups

Connection and communication are vital to feelings of belonging and to healthy relationships. A functional network of groups, and of communication channels and patterns within and between groups, is the central nervous system of a healthy church body. Everyone who attends a church already thinks that their church is a friendly place. Of course it is, for those who are already a part of it! But how easy is it for people to join in and get connected? Do new people attend the church briefly but then disappear after a few weeks? Connection isn’t just about new people. If someone “falls off the radar,” how long would it take you to know or notice? How do people find out what’s going on or what’s coming up? What types of connections can people make at your church? All of this is a part of a healthy nervous system… the connections that let us feel pleasure and pain throughout the body.

The Reproductive System

Evangelism and Multiplication

It’s common among preachers and churches to say that “healthy things grow.” Sometimes this is true, but it’s perhaps more true to say healthy things reproduce. Healthy churches grow numerically as they develop and mobilize members to effectively reach the people around them. Reproducing churches make disciples who make disciples, and they focus on the world beyond the walls rather than simply serving their own needs and preferences. Even if numerical growth is not a particular church’s primary goal, it will often be a natural outcome of good health. On the other hand, focusing on church growth can often lead to unhealth instead of health. Chasing numbers is an easy way for church leaders to end up either compromising their principles or getting down on themselves for their supposed failure to grow. Don’t try to grow. Try to reproduce. If people are coming to Christ, the rest will take care of itself.

Meet the Team

David Vaughan

Program Director

Summerville, SC

Born in Ashland, KY, David feels privileged he grew up as a pastor’s kid, constantly watching with great admiration as his father’s heart for ministry spilled over onto everyone around him. A graduate of Cincinnati Christian University, David devoted his own life to ministry.

After serving churches in Chesapeake, VA and Lexington, KY, David would become Senior Minister at the Westwood Cheviot Church of Christ in Cincinnati, OH. For the next 20 years, he helped serve a turnaround congregation which changed their name to Whitewater Crossing Christian Church. Beginning with an average weekly attendance of about 350, the congregation began to thrive, taking the weekly attendance to over 2300.

David is passionate about helping churches become healthy and more outward focused. He currently coaches leaders and churches as Program Director for the Healthy Church Initiative with the Christian Church Leadership Network.

David and Donna, his wife of 43 years, reside near Charleston, SC, have two children and three grandchildren. David enjoys a good cup of coffee and will not likely turn down the offer of a golf game!

Paul Snoddy

Church Coach

Pataskala, OH

Since November 1990, Paul has been the Senior Minister of the Tri-Village Christian Church in Pataskala, Ohio (near Columbus) and has seen the congregation grow in numbers and health from 65 to approximately 700 in worship attendance.

Paul is a 1986 graduate of Kentucky Christian University, receiving his B. S. degree in Communication, Bible, and Preaching. In 2016, Paul completed a Master’s Degree from KCU in Christian Leadership, with an emphasis on Preaching.

Paul has been married to Barb for 39 years and they have one adult son, Adam, who resides in the Cincinnati area. He enjoys traveling, reading, and connecting with other preachers.

Greg Bondurant

Church Coach

Sunbury, OH

Greg Bondurant's story began in Ohio and took a significant turn in 1984, the year he graduated from Kentucky Christian College and became Youth Minister at the First Christian Church in Odon, Indiana. This church proved doubly special, as it's where he met and married his wife, Tricia. Greg's journey led him to Westerville Christian Church where he ultimately served effectively as the Lead Minister.

He and Tricia have two adult children. After a total of 40 years in ministry in two churches, Greg retired in August 2024. He is a lifelong, Cleveland sports fan which means he is familiar with pain and suffering!

Dave Roberson

Church Coach

Greenfield, IN

David received his undergraduate degree from Cincinnati Christian University in 1976 and his Master’s Degree in Practical Ministries in 2001. David and Monica have been married for 50 years. They have two children and two grandsons.

David served as the Sr. Minister of White Oak Christian Church in Cincinnati for 27 years. Under his leadership, the church was very healthy and became a multi-site congregation. David also served as Sr Minister at the Worthington Christian Church in Columbus, Ohio for almost 10 years and helped the church transition to become an outwardly focused church.

In June of 2019, David retired from his ministry at Worthington Christian and began to serve with The Christian Church Leadership Network. David’s desire, in this stage of life and ministry, is to help other ministers not only survive, but thrive!

David and Monica are now enjoying their grandchildren and living Hoosiers.

Frank Goehringer

Church Coach

Jefferson City MO

Born and raised in Delaware, Frank developed a heart for the kingdom of God. He graduated from Central Christian College of the Bible in 2007 with a preaching degree and also earned a Master of Arts degree in Homiletics from Liberty University. Frank served on the staff at Capital City Christian Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, for 20 years and now currently serves as Lead Pastor.

He’s been married to Kendy since 2007, and together they have four awesome kids. He’s a big baseball fan, loves music, traveling, and has a deep passion for teaching God’s Word. More than anything, he wants to see God’s Kingdom grow and thrive, one life at a time.

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