Is Mark Dever’s “9 Marks of a Healthy Church” True?

Have you read or heard about Mark Dever’s book “9 Marks of a Healthy Church?”  If so, do you think it’s true?

Marks of a Healthy Church

The book “9 Marks of a Healthy Church” by Mark Dever is an exceptional book that clarifies what a healthy church should look like.  He covers nearly every essential for a biblical church to feed and equip the congregation, from biblical preaching, church discipline, what is true conversion, biblical principles on church leadership and membership, and having the right understanding of the gospel in order to be effectual in evangelizing.  Here are 7 of the 9 marks that Mark Dever brings up that should be found in every church if they want to be biblical.

Church Discipline

The call to grow in holiness is for every believer and must be part of the discipleship process. Part of what most miss in the Great Commission, which was the imperative command given by Christ in Matthew 28:18-20, is to make disciples of all nations. Many churches might have an Outreach program but few have a discipleship process for their members.  This involves a mentor-mentee relationship and reflects the mentoring relationship between Paul and Timothy.  Every Paul needs a Timothy and every Timothy needs to have a Paul.  This allows each individual to grow in the knowledge of God, not simply with head knowledge but as part of the sanctification process, one in which members are growing more and more like Christ.  This should produce strong Christians with a determined will to live holy lives that reflect Christ.

Church Leadership

The pastor is not the one and only leader of a church.   Even a small church should have the office of an elder and/or a deacon.  From the biblical perspective, every pastor is an elder but not every elder serves as a pastor.  The office of elder aids the pastor in the position of leadership as does the office of deacon, if a church has that position at all.  The deacon is more concerned with those who are sick, those who are in need, and those who cannot do for themselves like the widows and the orphans of the church.  Church leadership is essential to the proper functioning of a church.  The elder can deal with areas of church discipline and might even back up the pastor behind the pulpit when called upon.  The church will never go where the leadership is not first willing to take them.  They must lead before anyone is willing to follow.

Church Discipleship

If a church is following the Great Commission that means that they are making disciples of others and being discipled.  The person who is saved is to be discipled but when that person matures in the faith, they should be discipling others.  It is a self-replicating mechanism within the Body of Christ, the church.  Have you ever noticed that Jesus didn’t say “Go into all the world and save as many as possible,” but rather He said “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20a).  Jesus says we are to go into all the world, even if it’s next door. When a person repents and trusts in Christ, they are to be baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which essentially means that they are to be identified with them but how do you make disciples?  It is by “teaching them to observe all that [Jesus] commanded” them.  That is discipleship.  Go, make disciples, baptize them (to be identified in) in the Father’s, Son’s, and the Holy Spirit’s name, and them to teach them the very same thing that Christ taught His disciples.  That is the Great Commission.

Expository Preaching

The church depends on the pastor to feed the flock.  Starving sheep are more likely to stray from the flock and find pastures elsewhere. This also under-nourishes the flock and sets them up for disease and illness.  Expository preaching, although it might be missing in some churches, is an essential of a healthy church.  Pastors are commanded by God to feed the flock the Word of God and are held responsible for their care because they really belong to the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  Pastors are simply an under-shepherd.  Much of what you hear preached today is topological, where a subject or topic is expounded.  The congregation must do biblical gymnastics in order to keep up and the context of the chapter and book are often lost.  Context is always king.  The risk of topical preaching is that text can be taken out of context and made into a pretext and possibly a false one.  This may result in “proof texting” in order to build doctrines. I heard one old seminary professor say that we should never read only one verse by itself because the context of what the author was writing can possibly be lost.

Biblical Understanding of Conversion

Are you familiar with the “sinner’s prayer” that supposed to be repeated in the hopes that they really mean it.  The phrases “Just let Jesus come into your heart” or “Just accept Jesus” are neither biblical nor effectual. None of these two are supported by Scripture.   Have you heard of the story of a young boy as he entered the kitchen?  When his mom heard him rummaging around in the utensil drawer and when she entered the kitchen she screamed.  The boy had a knife pointed toward his chest.  His mother asked “What are you doing!?”  The boy simply said that he was going to let Jesus could come into his heart. What is rarely talked about is the necessity for repentance which where the first things Jesus and John the Baptist mentioned.  Peter’s command for those who were deeply convicted of their sins on the Day of Pentecost wasn’t “just accept Jesus” (whatever that means) or “God loves you” but “repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins” and then “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).  The necessity of being born again (John 3:3) and that no one can even see the kingdom unless they are born again (John 3:35) seems to have disappeared in much of today’s evangelism.  The fact that a new creature in Christ is created and that they will, by necessity, bear fruit worthy or proving conversion (John 15) is nearly non-existent.

Church Membership

Last year the board and the general congregation had a vote to disfellowship someone.  The only ones who could vote were those who were members of the church.  Church membership is not simply being on a roll or ledger somewhere but having responsibility to the church to live a holy, sanctified life and being held accountable to one another.  The fact that there are dozens and dozens of “one another’s” in the New Testament confirms the idea of many members comprising one body…the church. All of the members constitute the Body of Christ.

Biblical Evangelism

The idea that someone can be saved and not changed creates a lot of false converts.  Having a watered down version of the gospel where nothing is required except to believe has created far too many false converts already in the church.  When a person hears the good news of the gospel without first hearing about the bad news that God’s wrath is upon them (John 3:17-18; 3:36b) and that they need the Savior, they have been duped into believing that they are saved but a simple head knowledge of Jesus only qualifies someone to be a demon because even they believe but that doesn’t mean they’re saved (James 2:19).  Unless you tell people that they’ve broken God’s law, they’ll never see the need to repent and trust in Christ as Savior.  That’s because “The law simply shows us how sinful we are” (Rom 3:20). Their lives must be placed against the holiness of God and shown the impossibility of ever being saved without the atoning work of Christ at Calvary and His righteousness being imputed to us (2 Cor 5:21).

Conclusion

Is your church biblical?  Is it dogmatic on the essentials of the faith (e.g. Acts 4:12, Rom 10:9-13)?  Does it have ongoing discipleship among the membership?  Are the church members held responsible to one another and to the church for how they live their lives?  Does it have proper church discipline when needed?  Does the preaching contain expository verse by verse preaching or is it more topical?   Is there a church leadership presence within the body?  Do the members understand what the gospel really is and what conversion really looks like?  If you can’t answer all or most of these questions, then your church might need a “well check” and Mark Dever’s book can help.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon