Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 4th ed.
Overview
Mark Dever’s Best-Selling Book, Newly Updated in Its Fourth Edition.
There is no such thing as a perfect church—but there is such a thing as a healthy church. So what distinguishes a healthy church from an unhealthy one?
Now in its fourth edition, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church is designed to walk readers through this very question. Expanding on each of the 9 marks—expositional preaching, gospel doctrine, concern for discipleship, and more—this classic text offers tried-and-true biblical principles for leading a church toward health. A must-read for pastors, church leaders, and laypeople, this updated edition features a new preface and added content on prayer and missions.
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Expands on each of the 9 marks
- Offers tried-and-true biblical principles for leading a church toward health
- Features a new preface and added content on prayer and missions
- Preface to the Fourth Edition (2020)
- Preface to the Third Edition (2013)
- Preface to the [2nd] “New Expanded Edition” (2004)
- Introduction
- Expositional Preaching
- Gospel Doctrine
- A Biblical Understanding of Conversion and Evangelism
- A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership
- Biblical Church Discipline
- A Biblical Concern for Discipleship and Growth
- Biblical Church Leadership
- A Biblical Understanding and Practice of Prayer
- A Biblical Understanding and Practice of Missions
- Appendix 1: Tips for Leading the Church in a Healthy Direction
- Appendix 2: “Don’t Do It!” Why You Shouldn’t Practice Church Discipline
- Appendix 3: The Original 9 Marks Letter
Top Highlights
“Expositional preaching is not simply producing a verbal commentary on some passage of Scripture. Rather, expositional preaching is preaching that takes for the point of a sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture. That’s it.” (Pages 45–46)
“He calls us more fundamentally to a relationship of trust with him than to a full understanding of him and his ways.” (Page 33)
“Biblically, we must realize that the size of what our eyes see is rarely a good way to estimate the greatness of something in the eyes of God.” (Page 33)
“If the church is a building, then we must be bricks in it; if the church is a body, then we are its members; if the church is the household of faith, then we are part of that household. Sheep are in a flock, and branches are on a vine. Biblically, if we are Christians, we must be members of a church. This membership is not simply the record of a statement we once made or of affection toward a familiar place. It must be the reflection of a living commitment, or it is worthless.” (Pages 141–142)
“To charge someone with the spiritual oversight of a church who doesn’t in practice show a commitment to hear and to teach God’s Word is to hamper the growth of the church, in essence allowing it to grow only to the level of the pastor. The church will slowly be conformed to the pastor’s mind rather than to God’s mind. And what we want, what as Christians we crave, are God’s words. We want to hear and know in our souls what he has said.” (Page 47)
- Title: Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Fourth Edition)
- Author: Mark Dever
- Edition: Fourth Edition
- Series: 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Pages: 304
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subject: Church › Marks
- ISBNs: 9781433578113, 9781433578137, 9781433578120, 9781433578144, 9781433540004, 1433578115, 1433578131, 1433578123, 143357814X, 1433540002
- Resource ID: LLS:NNMRKSHLTHY4THD
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:52:21Z