9marks Introduction

CAVEAT: I have taken liberty in this introduction to really expound the introduction of some of Mark Dever’s 9marks books to introduce these study guides.

I want you to understand the importance and so what of this series.

So what are you looking for in a church?

You might not have thought about that question lately. But take a moment now to ask yourself, what does the ideal church look like? “The ideal church is a place with …”

Music –

a. Beautiful music that Glorifies God (no drums or guitars)

b. Music that is contemporary, up-to-date, that people can relate to (drums and guitars)

Good Preaching –

a. Good Meaningful, but not heavy handed.

b. Biblical, but not boring.

c. Practical, but not legalistic.

Preacher -

a. Scholar, but not academic.

b. Funny.

c. Family counselor who has “been there”.

People -

a. People who are at the same place in life (young people want young people, old people want old people, kids want kids)

b. Real people you can connect with.

c. Like similar hobbies as you (cars, hunting, thrift shops, …)

Opportunities –

a. Is the church big on evangelism?

b. Is it big on missions?

c. Is it big on the Gospel?

d. Does it have children ministries that hold the attention of your kids or teens?

The Feel of the Church –

Abstractly

a. Passionate

b. Authentic

c. Big

d. Intimate

e. Trendy

f. Exciting

g. Hardcore

Concretely

a. Coffee house feel

b. old chapel

c. country church

d. Professional Conference

Now, I understand at some level these issues do matter.

- They matter personally because this is what we like.

- These matter because we have been affected by perceived are actual deficiencies in the church.

But how many of these are necessary for a healthy biblically established church?

Are there others we neglected that are essentially for a healthy biblically established church?

How many of these are preferences that can come and go?

The 9marks series is meant to answer these kind of questions regarding the church.

What does a healthy church member look like?

What does a healthy church look like?

What is essential for a healthy church?

Fundamentalism

- In the years since the Modernist controversy of the 1920s, Fundamentalism (which in the 1920s would have been synonymous with evangelicalism) has been rebuked in many cases for being unbalanced.

- Even Fundamentalism since the 1970 has likewise struggled with what is a healthy church. We know that there are some essentials to the Gospel, but we have been out of balance on other issues.

Broad Evangelicalism

- The consumerism of many members of churches within Evangelicalism.

o They have called for a church that makes them feel good, keeps them entertained, and at the same time helps them grow without being too harsh.

- The church has followed by being seeker-sensitive and market-driven. We change propositional preaching for theatrics, drama, and entertainment.

We as churches need to understand

- what the essentials of a healthy church are

- and what are not essentials to a healthy church.

We as members need to look for and support not our preferences, but the healthy marks of church as God describes in His Word.

Perhaps you are sitting here and saying,

This is for Pastors, why do I need to go through this.

Understand,

Most of the Epistles were not written to Pastors,

but church members.

Take for example,

(ESV)

No Other Gospel

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

- “you” is the everybody

- and he is warning against false teachers

- It is not addressed to Pastors, but members.

So yes, every Christian should be concerned with what a healthy church and with supporting a healthy church as a member.

This is the aim of the 9 Marks;

Mark Dever -

“Whether your Christian life began yesterday or thirty years ago, the Lord’s intent is that you play an active and vital part in his body, the local church. He intends for you to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well.

This little book is written in the hope that you might discover or rediscover what it means to be a healthy member of a local church, and what it means to contribute to the overall health of the church.”

Anyabwile, Thabiti M. What Is a Healthy Church Member?. 9Marks. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008.

CLARIFICATION:

This series is focused on the role of the church member within Christ’s established church.

It is not necessarily the essentials of the Christian faith. Sometimes these are related, but the topics and focus are not necessarily intended to do so.

So what are the 9 Marks that Mark Dever has proposed?

Expositional Preaching:

Encourages “expositional listening” to the Word of God. Healthy church members are those who listen in a particular way to the Word of God as it is preached and studied—they let God set the agenda by seeking always to hear the true meaning of the text so that they can apply it to their lives.

Expositional preaching gives life and health to the church. It shapes, forms, and reforms the church, and it reveals the character of God. Participants will learn to understand their joyful responsibility in sitting under a pastor’s teaching, and pastors will be encouraged to preach expositionally from the Bible.

Biblical Theology:

Church members are encouraged to dedicate themselves to learning the overarching themes of the Bible. In other words, they are asked to become “biblical theologians” in an effort to protect themselves and the church from false and unsound teaching.

Only right theology can lead to right worship and right obedience. Every church should strive to believe, confess, and live in light of a truly biblical theology and sound doctrine. This study looks at why biblical theology is important, then shows participants how biblical theology can fuel their love, holiness, worship, witness, and unity.

Gospel:

This guide invites church members to be saturated in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel that saves us (), and it is the gospel that will sustain and motivate us in our daily Christian lives.

A healthy church is a church in which every member—young and old, mature and immature—unites around the wonderful good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Toward that end, this study pays close attention to the Gospel as defined in . Participants will learn the Bible’s teaching on God, man, Christ, and our response, and see how these truths apply to the practices of the local church.

Conversion:

This study explores what God does when he saves someone, answering questions such as: What is the change we need? How does conversion happen? What are the fruits of salvation? Participants will gain a biblical understanding of conversion and the implications both for themselves and for the church.

Evangelism:

There is no way to listen expositionally to the Scripture, to master its overarching narrative and themes, and to live a gospel-saturated life without also desiring and endeavoring to become a biblical evangelist.

The Bible calls all Christians to share the good news about Jesus’s death and resurrection with those who don’t believe in Christ. Yet this task can often seem daunting. This study helps participants have the right perspectives on evangelism and shows them how to share the good news with others.

Church Membership:

This study guide is a call to make a serious and active commitment to membership in the local church. This study answers the question: Why join a church? By seeing the Scriptural reasoning for becoming a church member, participants will also learn what it looks like to be a healthy member of the body and how to serve in their local congregation.

This study answers the question: Why join a church? By seeing the Scriptural reasoning for becoming a church member, participants will also learn what it looks like to be a healthy member of the body and how to serve in their local congregation.

Church Discipline:

This study guide provides one reason why committed church membership is important: the local church is where Christians experience the shaping and correcting discipline of the Lord.

While church discipline is never easy, it is sometimes a necessary, albeit painful, part of the Christian life. This helpful study guide tackles the difficult topic in six chapters designed to focus discussion on the interpretation and application of biblical texts. Participants will discover the role of church discipline and learn how to practice it in a gracious and loving way.

Discipleship in the Church:

This study guide examines spiritual growth from a biblical perspective,

Discipleship was one of the central themes of Jesus’ teaching, yet it is not a major emphasis today for many churches. This short study guide explores the Bible’s teaching on discipleship and covers such topics as the need for discipleship, the demands of discipleship, and the enemy of discipleship. With discussion questions at the end of each chapter, participants will work through guided reflection as they learn about the centrality of discipleship in the Christian life.

Church Leadership:

This study guide focuses on how to effectively support the leadership of your local church.

Because it can be abused, leadership is a risky business—both for those in it and those under it. But God has good plans for leadership within the church. This study explores God’s plans for authority by focusing on God’s revelation of himself as shepherd, and how God calls leaders to image him. The rest of the study looks at the special responsibilities and roles within the church, fulfilled by elders, deacons, and church members themselves.

Now admittedly,

- none of these are new, but a challenge to evangelical and Baptist churches to give these marks the proper attention they deserve.

Tim Challies, August 10, 2004,

“On the whole I think these marks are, indeed, the essentials for healthy churches and certainly have not received due attention in the contemporary evangelical churches. Traditionally Reformed doctrine has spoken of three marks of a true church – preaching of the Word, Biblical church discipline and proper administration of the sacraments. These nine marks fit quite closely with the traditional three: Marks one through five parallel the first traditional mark; Marks six and seven parallel the second traditional mark; Marks eight and nine stand alone, though eight could probably fit into the first traditional mark. Glaringly absent, then, is the emphasis on the proper administration of the sacraments. Mark Dever of 9 Marks Ministries explains this by saying that most churches still place sufficient emphasis on the sacraments. Therefore that is not a “lost” mark that needs to be rediscovered …

Despite that small quibble, I think the 9 marks are all important marks that have been lost to many evangelical churches. I continue to spend lots of time on 9 Marks’ site reading, listening and learning.”