Church Litmus Tests

There are various "litmus tests" that people apply to the Church -- ministers, too -- rules of thumb as to how it is with a Church's health and well-being. For instance: Church attendance, Church finances, or commitment to missions. A vital litmus test, for me, is the cultural composition of a Church -- in a way, not because the cultural composition is important, but precisely because it is not. I have attended many Churches -- Black, Coloured, and White -- some of which stood in the midst of mixed (so to speak) parishes. Yet, as I have in fact already revealed in the last sentence, they were Black, Coloured, and White. OBSERVATION: Why should it be so important? In many such Churches, the following tends to be true: (a) Christ is not large enough to put culture in the shade, and (b) the priesthood of believers is not seriously applied. One needs to think further also on "composition". I am not speaking merely of numbers.