The Three Pillars of a Healthy Church in Jesus

 

Three Things a Church Must Be

When I sat down to prepare this message, I asked myself: What should I share? I decided it was best to communicate, by the grace of God, where my heart is when it comes to leading any church or family of faith.

There are three qualities I believe must be present in a church for me to be a part of it. If I didn’t see these at Harvest—or at least see that we’re ready to move in this direction—I wouldn’t be standing here speaking to you today.

You might be asking, “What are they, Pastor Dwayne?” I'm so glad you asked—that tells me you're paying attention!

1. Harvest Must Be a Biblically Serious Church

This means we love the Bible as the only life-giving, 100% accurate Word coming directly from our Heavenly Father. We're going to:

• Preach the Word.

• Sing the Word. The lyrics of our songs will come from Scripture or be rooted in sound doctrine.

• Be people of the Book. That can never change.

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” — 2 Peter 1:2–3

Everything we need for life and godliness is right here in these pages. Praise God!

2. Harvest Must Be Spiritually Alive

Being doctrinally sound but spiritually dead is not praised in the Bible—it’s rebuked.

The point of the Word is not just knowledge, but love—love for God and for others. It leads us to exalt Jesus as Lord over our lives.

Any “knowledge” of Scripture that doesn’t lead to an active, transformed life is not true knowledge of God.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

Being alive in Christ means we love God deeply—and we love all others on His behalf. That’s the Great Commandment.

3. Harvest Must Be a Sent People

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” — Matthew 28:19

At Harvest, our mission must be to take Jesus from our Neighborhood to the Nations.

But we must also remember: our neighbors are hurting. This local body is hurting. Our mission begins here and moves outward.

If these three pillars—biblical faithfulness, spiritual vitality, and missional focus—are not present or fall away, then I am not the guy for the job. I don’t know how to operate outside of this foundation.

There are other important things in Scripture, of course. But these three—the Word, the Spirit, and the Mission—are what we’ll come back to again and again.

---

Learning from Ephesus

Let’s look at the church in Ephesus as our model. In Acts 19, we see the church born. In Ephesians, it’s encouraged. In 1–2 Timothy, it's challenged. In 1–3 John, it's corrected. And in Revelation 2, it’s warned by Christ Himself.

This church had a powerhouse leadership legacy: Paul, Timothy, and John the Beloved all poured into it. Yet even with all those blessings, the church drifted.

Let’s start at the end of their story in Revelation 2 and work our way back. My prayer is that their journey helps shape our prayers, hopes, and goals as a church family.

---

Revelation 2:1–7

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance… But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first…”

At first glance, Ephesus sounds like the kind of church I’d want my grandkids to grow up in:

1. They were serious about holiness – “You cannot bear with those who are evil.”

2. They were serious about doctrine – “You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not.”

3. They endured faithfully – “You are enduring patiently… you have not grown weary.”

Sounds like a glowing Google review from Jesus, right?

But then comes the critique that changes everything:

“You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember the height from which you have fallen.”

Despite their orthodoxy and endurance, they had fallen—because they had lost their love.

You may think, “Well, it’s just love,” but love is the whole point.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind… and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” — Matthew 22:36–40

Who is my neighbor? Even the Good Samaritan. Even your enemy. That’s the call.

When a church loses love, it loses everything.
A church can be doctrinally correct and spiritually disciplined, but if it does not love Jesus above all, it is already in decline.

If a church only knows about Jesus but is not captivated by Him, it won’t last. It may keep the lights on for a while, but it’s just marking time until someone else buys the building.

---

The Power of God’s Love

After 26 years of walking with Jesus, I’m convinced: most of us still don’t grasp the power of God’s love in our lives.

“Perfect love casts out fear.” — 1 John 4:18

You don’t overcome fear by boldness or courage—you overcome fear by growing in love.

In my words: Only God's love can stabilize us in this broken world.

“We love because He first loved us.” — 1 John 4:19

Only received love can become given love.

This is my passion: that we truly understand and receive God’s love—because only then can we actually love others on His behalf.

If you believe you have to fix yourself before God can love you, then you’ve missed grace.
And if you don’t feel loved by God, it will be impossible to genuinely love others.

The Beauty of First Love (Part 2)

We don’t need just Southern hospitality—we need a Spirit-empowered empathy. The kind that causes us to sit with others, to weep with them, and to rejoice with them.

The danger for any church is this: we can do a lot of things well. We can get our doctrine right, theology sound, hold the line on spiritual gifts, holiness, and sanctification. We can even stand firm for truth. But… love can still fall away.

1 Corinthians 13:13 says:

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Let’s pause there for a moment—because faith is important!

I’ve had moments where I stood in faith like Gandalf shouting, “You shall not pass!”

I’ve had times where hope alone kept me going—where I felt one Thanos snap away from dissolving into nothing.
(Okay, search committee, that’s at least one Marvel and one Lord of the Rings reference. We good now? I can preach? 😄)

Faith and hope are powerful, but love is greater.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

You can know every mystery of the universe, but if you don’t have love—you’re just noise.

Let’s be real—when was the last time you requested a song and said, “You know what I want? Just some loud cymbals clanging together!”
Exactly. No one says that. Why? Because love is the point.
A love for Jesus that spills out into a love for people.

The Warning from Jesus to Ephesus

In Revelation 2:5, Jesus says:

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

This is serious.

Jesus is saying, If you’re going to build a church on your own gifts, your own image, your own platform—without Me—I will remove My presence. You can keep your man-made kingdom, but it won’t be mine.

That’s terrifying.

But David saw the boundary lines of God differently. Psalm 16:6 says:

“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

God’s boundaries aren’t barriers—they’re blessings.
They’re the shape of His love. They help us live with Him at the center.

So What Were the First Works?

Jesus said, “Repent and do the works you did at first.”
So, let’s go back. Back to where the church in Ephesus started.

Acts 19—The Beginning in Ephesus

Paul preached the Gospel daily for two years in Ephesus.
We show up once a week and complain. Paul was doing it daily, and Acts 19:10 says:

“All the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”

And then God started doing something extraordinary.

Acts 19:11 says:

“God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul…”

People were touching pieces of Paul’s apron and being healed.
Demons were cast out—not even by Paul directly—but through cloth he had touched. This was rare, even for the New Testament.

Why?
So there would be no confusion: the glory belonged to God alone.

Then we meet the seven sons of Sceva, who try to do ministry without relationship. They say, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims…”

And the demon responds, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

Then the man leaps on them and beats them so badly, they run away naked and bleeding.

Now look—I grew up in the South. I’ve been in a few fights.
But if you go into a fight fully clothed and leave that fight naked?
You lost. (It’s in the Bible, folks!)

And yet God used even this embarrassment to bring fear and reverence back to the people. Ephesus was never the same.

First Work: Jesus Was Magnified

Acts 19:17

“Fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.”

The supremacy of Jesus was the heartbeat of the early Ephesian church.

No celebrity pastors. No ministry branding.
Just Jesus. Magnified.

Second Work: Confession and Transparency

Acts 19:18

“Many who believed came confessing and divulging their practices.”

This wasn’t surface-level, vague prayer requests.

The word “divulging” in Greek means “to declare fully, to expose after a process.”
It was real. Transparent. Costly.

They didn’t gossip. They didn’t weaponize one another’s brokenness.
They supported one another like Roman soldiers interlocking shields in battle.

This is what the church should be—a place of protection, not performance.

Third Work: Radical Repentance

Acts 19:19

“They brought their magic books and burned them… worth fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

They didn’t play with sin.
They didn’t try to tame it.
They burned it.

James 1:15 reminds us that sin, when full-grown, brings death.
Sin isn’t something you master—it just hasn’t killed you yet.

Like riding a 2,000-pound bull at a rodeo. Just because you stayed on for 8 seconds doesn’t mean you’re in control. You're just surviving.

Ephesus wasn’t having a symbolic CD-burning moment.
This was an economic and cultural revolution.

The city turned from idols. Imagine Vegas shutting down every casino, club, and brothel because Jesus was proclaimed so powerfully.
That’s what happened in Ephesus.

The Result? Revival

Acts 19:20

“So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”

That’s the church we want to be:

• A church where the name of Jesus is lifted up.

• A church built around the Word of God.

• A church known for confession, accountability, and real community.

• A church that doesn’t play with sin.

• A church where the Word of God grows and prevails.

• A church serious about being sent—to our neighborhoods and to the nations.

These aren’t two different moves of God—Word and Spirit.
They’re one. Together. Unified.

God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1), and the Spirit hovered over the deep—but nothing moved until God spoke.
Then came life, light, and everything good.

Jesus said in John 4:24:

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

We need both.
The Word and the Spirit.
That is the captivating beauty of God.

---

A Final Word to Fairbanks

If God blesses my family to serve here, we would look back often to Ephesus—both their beginnings and their warning.

We would build our foundation on:

• The magnifying of Jesus

• A culture of confession and accountability

• A deep seriousness about sin

• A Spirit-filled passion for reaching the lost

• And a Word-centered pursuit of truth

Let’s keep the fire burning—not just in emotion—but in obedience.

---

Let’s Pray

Father God, thank you for this beautiful body of believers in Fairbanks. Thank you for your grace at work in every life.
Help us be a church captivated by the name of Jesus. A people marked by transparency, accountability, and repentance. A people who take sin seriously.
Let your Word grow and prevail in us and through us.
Let your name be lifted up above all else.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.