After reading Dever's 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, what 3 do
you/your church need to work on the most? Why? What steps could
you/your church take to implement those areas?
d d d Two marks that I need to work on are evangelism (mark 5)
and a concern for church growth (mark 8). In many ways evangelism is the
path and church growth is the result. Unfortunately, I do not prioritize
evangelism and therefore, I do not contribute to the growth of my church.
Dever himself makes this clear in the eight chapter of his book by
emphasizing that God alone causes a church to grow, but there is an
important human component which requires God’s people to evangelize and
share the Gospel message.[1]
d d d Evangelism is extremely difficult for me because I work as a
healthcare chaplain so it is strictly prohibited to evangelize, witness, share
my faith, or reference the Bible. My work is extremely important to me and
it is a major part of my life, which has caused my work restrictions to
transfer into my personal life. Since it is against the rules to evangelize at
work, it has begun to feel “wrong” to evangelize in my personal life as well.
This is something I really need to work on and get more comfortable with
because it is extremely important to God and His kingdom.
d d d In his book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Dever
emphasizes the universal responsibility which is shared by all of God’s
people. Dever writes that, “The Great Commission is a commission for all of
Jesus’s disciples—those who heard his words directly, and we who read his
words today… All Christians, not just the professional clergy, are to spread
the good news… Christians should tell everyone the good news. And we
should all evangelize.”[2] As Dever highlights, all Christians are expected to
evangelize, not only because God commanded us to, but also because it is
essential for church growth. God uses His people to evangelize and share
the gospel message so that they can enter into a relationship with Him,
receive salvation, and grow His kingdom.
d d d Dever emphasizes the direct relationship between personal
evangelism and church growth by writing, “The New Testament idea of
growth involves telling people a serious message about their condition before
God, and about the tremendous news of the new life God is offering them
in Christ. And we’re inviting them to enter into that life by dire and
desperate means—repentance and faith… Working to promote growth is
working to bring glory not to ourselves but to God. This is how God will
make himself known in the world.”[3] This means that church growth is from
God, but there is a very important human component which requires God’s
people to evangelize and increase God’s kingdom through converting others,
sharing the biblical message, and inviting new members to attend church.
d d d Reading Dever’s book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church,
provided me a wake up call, reminded me the importance of evangelism,
and revealed my failure to uphold the Great Commission. I now realize that
I desperately need to become a better disciple of God by evangelizing and
growing God’s kingdom. I plan to begin improving immediately by regularly
seeking God’s strength through prayer and through creating an evangelism
plan which will remind me to share the gospel message, and hold me
accountable if I backslide again. Evangelism and church growth are
extremely important to God and I need to make them a priority to me as
well.
Word Count: 629
References
d d d Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. 3rd ed. S.l.:
Crossway Books, 2013.
[1] Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. 3rd ed. S.l.: Crossway
Books, 2013.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
