Topic:After reading Dever's9 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?
The three marks of a healthy church that could use some work are
a biblical understanding of evangelism, church membership, and church
leadership. Many church members believe evangelism is the pastor's
responsibility but in reality, all Christians are called to evangelize the lost.
Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV) teaches that all believers should share the gospel
of the good news of Jesus Christ. “Christians should tell everyone the good
news. And we should all evangelize. We should do so with honesty,
urgency, and joy, living a life that backs up our message — and doing it all
for the glory of God.”[1]The church in general has to do a better job of
embracing this biblical precept in all aspects of life, at home, in our
communities, and the workplace.
Church membership also needs to be taken more seriously. The majority
of church congregations do not serve the ministry or tithe to the church
regularly. These things are part of the responsibilities for the body of
Christ and in the modern church, they are severely neglected. “Church
membership means being incorporated in practical ways into the body of
Christ. It means traveling together as aliens and strangers in this world as
we head to our heavenly home.”[2] If church members do not serve
Christ as they should and do not reflect the attributes of Christ then they
will not have a positive impact evangelizing and discipling others for
Christ. Church leadership that reflects biblical precepts and the love of
Christ is essential for evangelism and discipleship, this type of leadership
needs to be demonstrated from top to bottom within the church. Church
members need to be ready to do their duty for Christ whenever an issue
needs to be addressed. “Paul appealed to these Galatian Christians and
made it quite clear that not only were they competent to sit in judgment
of a message presented as the gospel, but they were required to do
so.”[3]Paul made this clear when addressing many issues within the
church including false teachings. Too often many of these duties are seen
as things the pastor or elders of the church should handle but the church
is called to carry each other’s burdens and travel together towards
heaven. Most churches could benefit from work in these three areas.
These three areas of ministry are areas that I need to work in and strive to
be better with in the future.
Bibliography
Dever, Mark.Nine Marks of a Healthy Church.Wheaton, IL: Crossway
Publishers, 2015.
