The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

by Mark Dever

Christians face lots of practical questions when it comes to life in the local How is the gospel displayed in our lives together? What are we supposed to do and believe? Different followers answer differently—even as they preach the same gospel! What should we think about such differences?

A church’s life, doctrine, worship, and even polity are important issues. Yet they are so rarely addressed. The Church is Mark Dever’s primer on the doctrine of the church for all who see Scripture alone as a sufficient authority for the doctrine and life of the local church. He explains to the reader what the Bible says about the nature and purpose of the church— what it is, what it’s for, what it does.

Indeed, Scripture teaches us about all of life and doctrine, including how we should assemble for corporate worship and how we’re to organize our corporate life together. God has revealed himself by his Word. He is speak- ing to us, preparing us to represent him today, and to see him tomorrow! A congregation of regenerate members, fulfilling the responsibilities given to us by Christ himself in his Word, regularly meeting together, led by a body of godly elders, is the picture God has given us in his Word of his church.

Genres: Church, Ecclesiology, Theology, Christian, Christian Living, Nonfiction, Christianity

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Mark E. Dever serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Since his ordination to the ministry in 1985, Dr. Dever has served on the pastoral staffs of four churches, the second being a church he planted in Massachusetts. Prior to moving to Washington in 1994, Dr. Dever taught for the faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University while serving two years as an associate pastor of Eden Baptist Church.

In an effort to build biblically faithful churches in America, Dr. Dever serves as the executive director for 9Marks (formerly The Center for Church Reform, CCR) in Washington, D.C. 9Marks encourages pastors of local churches look to the Bible for instruction on how to organize and lead their churches. Dr. Dever also teaches periodically at various conferences, speaking everywhere from South Africa to Brazil to the United Kingdom to Alabama. Feeling a deep burden for student ministry, Dr. Dever often addresses student ministry groups at campuses throughout the country. He has also taught at a number of seminaries, including Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, AL, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL. Dr. Dever’s scholarly interests include Puritanism and ecclesiology.

Dr. Dever currently serves as a trustee of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; he also serves as a member of the board, vice-chairman, and chairman of the Forum for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. From 1995 until 2001, he served on the steering committee for Founders Ministries, a pastoral movement for biblical teaching and healthy church life within the Southern Baptist Convention. As Guest Senate Chaplain for two weeks in 1995, Dr. Dever opened the daily sessions of the United States Senate in prayer. He is a member of the American Society of Church History and the Tyndale Fellowship. He also held the J.B. Lightfoot Scholarship at Cambridge University from 1989 to 1991.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book 3-4 times now. It's still good.

[Daniel Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Clearly stated, concisely-argued, and non-academic.

[Salvador Blanco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant writing for Christians to consider as they think about ecclesiology. Great challenges for Baptists. Just excellent (07.24.23).

Re-reading for the internship was phenomenal. So many things popped that didn't at first. Re-reading this after a semester of synoptic reading on ecclesiology reminded of the lost, but needed practice of re-reading books! Once again, clear writing with broad historical citations. A great representation of Baptist ecclesiology, but also a great resource for anyone wanting to read a modern, shorter work on ecclesiology (12.07.23).

[Keith Gandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an easy book to read, well documented and a healthy call to be the church - as defined by the One who birthed the church. I loved it!

[Pig Rieke · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Bunyan willfully spent 12 years of his life in prison because of his beliefs on church polity. While the reason for his imprisonment was in element related to his refusal to give up preaching. Bunyan could have easily became an Anglican and continued preaching. Thus, at the substance of Bunyan’s willingness to suffer the hardships of an English prison in the 1600s were his convictions that the Bible clearly and authoritatively taught a form of church polity that was not Anglicanism. Today, John Bunyan sounds like a glutton for suffering. But what if Bunyan was onto something? What if Christ who purchased the church by His own blood also has directed her in how she is to assemble and worship?

…dramatic theme music…

The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

In this book, Mark Dever shows that God has given regulation and order to how His people are to congregate and what they are to do. Beginning with the Scriptures, Dever shows that God has given direction to his church that includes her nature, attributes, purpose, and more. After devoting much of the book to what Scripture says in regards to the church, Dever then briefly discusses what Christians have historically believes. The concluding portion of the book looks to bring the various details together in a picture of a New Covenant church.

For anyone looking to learn more about church polity, Dever’s book is an excellent one. The only reason that I haven’t given it 5 stars is that for me it doesn’t constitute a “must read” but a “should read.” Regardless, any saint will be blessed if they “take up and read.”

[Jonathan Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, and accessible. This is a valuable book for both pastors and church members. This is not an academic treatment of ecclesiology, but rather an introduction to church polity and why it matters. I could foresee using this in the future for a church teaching series or something like that.

[Ben Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular! This book is Mark Dever at his very best.

[Míriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esto es un libro de estudio. El contenido está trabajado, es conciso, profundo y claro. El ritmo, lento. Ahora toca reseña. Yuhu.

[Austin Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biblically sound and concise. A great primer for evangelical ecclesiology. His emphasis on membership and church discipline is important for Christians to understand as true biblical accountability can often be lacking today.

[Marc Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, concise primer on Baptist ecclesiology. Dever’s greatest strength is his clarity, conviction, and historical awareness. All three of those shine in this book. His section on freedom of religion and critiquing multi-site and multi-service were very illuminating.

[David J. Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is the local church and how ought it to function? That is the question this book addresses. So many conversations about church life involve people relating what they like or don't like, what they prefer or don't prefer about their congregation or others. As Christians (and particularly Baptist church members) we need to step back and think about what church is in the first place. This book does just that. The Gospel Made Visible is a book about church polity that is not too academic or dry for the average reader, but is not simplistic or shallow either. It's a great book for anyone, Baptist or not, who wants to know what Baptists believe (and what the Bible teaches) about church structure.

[Stephen Angliss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all of Mark Dever’s writings, I appreciated the love and clarity with which he uses Scripture to teach on the Church. Unlike other shorter works in the 9Marks series, this book exhibits a deeper long form account of ecclesiastical history and doctrine that’s better suited for vocational pastors and students than laymen.

I give this work four stars because of Dever’s belief in fencing Communion to those that are both baptized and covenanted members of the local church. While the logic is coherent, it goes beyond what Scripture commands and hurts the catholicity of the Church by defining Communion with Christ as dependent on communion with a local Body, as opposed to communion with Christ through regeneration.

[Timothy Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up no one ever really taught me what the church is. I knew what is was by familiarity, but the essence of the actual church can become dull, especially in America where we are numbed by the extreme availability of the church. Devers knocks it out of the park with this one, he does a beautiful job of holding scripture up to the timeline of the church and how Gods will and word should shape how the church operates today. The church is more than just a gathering, BUT it is never less than. The church is the tip of the spear and plan A for the sanctification of Gods people.

[Eric Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doing para-church ministry for a while has made me a bit indifferent about the church, so I’m super glad I read this book! It’s quite dry/reads like a textbook, but I have a much greater appreciation for the church now.

[Jacob Twaddell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good intro for a solid Baptist ecclesiology.

[Levi Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big fan.

[Saolomon Mouacheupao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content is great. Dever is not my favorite author to read. Matter of fact, bland, but truthful.

[Michael Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every pastor should probably read this once, and then keep it on hand for reference.

[Parker James Lipetska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview

[Mark D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives great detail on the church. Dever always writes in an informative style. This book is very readable.

[Bennett Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid on defending congregational polity. Would’ve wished some things were phrased differently, but I get why he’s adamant in word choice.

[Michael Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Mark Dever believes the Bible teaches that a rightly ordered church is a gathered church, a congregational church, and a baptist church. Not only does he believe that a church’s life, doctrine, worship, and polity are important issues, he also believes that the Bible addresses them. Dever wants to move away from Christians today only having two gears on their theological bike: essential and unimportant. He argues that ecclesiology, among other doctrines, fits in a third category: important.

The most important part of the book is Part 1, where Dever goes through what the Bible says about the church. What is the nature of the church? What are the attributed of the church? Should the church have membership? Is there a particular polity the New Testament prescribes? What is the purpose of the church? These are all questions Dever answers with the Bible.

To support his beliefs, the second part of the book is a historical proof for his assertions. Dever considers, “What has the church historically believed?,” in regards to the church, ordinances and organization.

This is a short and helpful introduction to ecclesiology. One may not agree with all Dever’s assertions, but the study of the church appears to be a forgotten doctrine for evangelicalism. Utilize this book to drive you deeper into the Word and begin asking the same questions Dever seeks to answer.

2. Read again in December 2018. This is a really helpful book. After spending five months reading ecclesiology, this book is all the more clear. Read it with a friend or pastor.

3. Read again in December 2022 for the CHBC internship.

4. Read again in May 2023 for the CHBC internship.

[Bill Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a seminary class on ecclesiology. I generally choose NOT to read Mark Dever books these days, so like some of my other reviews, it's hard to know how to rate something that I would never really want to read in the first place.

It's not that I dislike Mark Dever so much as I swam far too long in the Southern Baptist, neo-Reformed circles that he's in and I just struggle to stomach it anymore. Not that I think they're wrong per se so much as missing the forest for the trees. And this book certainly falls into that category. But he was also rather enjoyable to read and far more gracious toward views that differed from his own than I expected.

And for those with WAY too much time on their hands, here's the book summary I wrote for class. Might as well put it in since I bothered to take the time to write !



Mark Dever’s The Church: The Gospel Made Visible is an accessible, popular-level book which describes the definition, nature, and purpose of the church. While the book is clearly aimed at a non-technical audience, the book is deeply researched and widely footnoted for those who would want to explore the topics more deeply than Dever’s survey allows. The book presents a fairly standard Reformed Baptist view of the church (xii) , well-defended and structured in three main parts.
OVERVIEW OF THE CONTENTS
The first section of the book is a biblical overview of the church in Scripture. From the standpoint of a baptistic/free church theology, it makes sense that Dever would start with the Bible’s teaching on the topic (xvi) rather than historical or practical theology. Dever’s overview of the nature, attributes, marks, membership, polity, discipline, purpose, and hope of the church (the main nouns for each of the first eight chapters of the book) lays a strong, biblically-based foundation for an understanding of the church: “The church is the body of people called by God’s grace through faith in Christ to glorify him together by serving him in his world” (3). While he indeed writes from a Baptistic standpoint, he is fair and even with his descriptions of other traditions and understandings. Most of what he lays out in this section would be unoffensive to most Protestants, though there might be some quibbles here and there, especially from the non-Baptists. The strength of this section comes not from its innovation, but from its clarity and simplicity.
The second section delves into historical theology, helping to lay the groundwork for the historical influences that inform the biblical defenses he gave in Part 1. He covers three historical threads: the development of ecclesiology, ordinances/sacraments, and polity. He rightly points out the uniqueness of the Baptist view that “the visible church composed only of the baptized regenerate is the hallmark of Baptists” (105). As he moves into a discussion of ordinances—sacraments in most other traditions (27)—his historical review helps give clarity to the differences between the different church traditions (99-101). Finally, his discussion on polity skirts briefly over non-Baptist views (116-118) before spending the majority of the time on Dever’s tradition and understanding (118-121).
The third and final section of the book is centered on practice. This is probably the heaviest Baptistic section of the book, since moving to particular practices starts to draw lines between different yet similar theological stances. Thus the discussion in chapters twelve through fifteen will be of less relevance or even convincing to those not generally persuaded by Baptist thought. That’s not necessarily bad, but loses much of the quasi-ecumenicism that marked the first section especially.
CRITIQUE AND INTERACTION
As already stated above, the clarity and simplicity of the book is probably its greatest strength. The book neither talks down nor oversimplifies the subjects under discussion. Yet within that, the increasingly Baptistic views presented makes one wonder if perhaps the book should have been titled The Baptist Church instead of simply The Church. Yet Dever seems unafraid to assert why he can stick with the shorter title since “it seems clear that a biblically faithful church is a Baptist church” (153). While writing polemically is certainly not just acceptable but noble, such a view nearly pigeonholes this entire work in such a way that it holds little value for someone who is not Baptist. And honestly, holding that statement until near the end of the book feels a tad bit like burying the lead.
Further, Dever is himself not advocating for a majority Baptist position nor even necessarily what could be called a historically Baptist position. The former point is true since Dever, an unashamed Southern Baptist, by no means holds positions that would be considered majority in those circles. As to the latter point, Baptists are notorious for not having well-defined or coherent theological stances—an unfortunate by-product of the free church mindset. Thus, while his arguments are internally cogent, these views are most certainly his own and lose some of their power for that fact, especially when he attempts to appeal to historical or even present-day precedent.
Unfortunately, in a book that seems so concerned with presenting a “biblical” view of the church—an endeavor truly to be commended—Dever’s effort seems to fall short. He can’t seem to help finally appealing for the ongoing moniker “Baptist” (153), a “senior pastor” (142), written church covenants (121), and “members’ meetings…where decisions are made by voting” (142). While these may be good and prudent things, they are not “biblical” in the same sense that he lays a foundation in the beginning. And the inability to draw a strong enough distinction there waters down the impact of the entire book. In the end, this feels like a book by a RC Cola-Baptist trying to get his Coke- and Pepsi-Baptist companions to join him. And in that, it perhaps has merit. But for anyone playing on non-Baptist teams, this book holds some interest, but little persuasion or sway.

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is unintentionally hilarious. Mark Dever, a Baptist minister, walks the reader through all the essential components of what makes a true church and finds, to no one's surprise, that Baptist churches are the best examples of true Christian churches.

I am not Baptist but Catholic, and so I heartily disagree with the author. But, I did appreciate his passion for the importance of "church" in living out faith. Too many Christians think that faith is just as meaningfully lived out as an individual endeavor, but it was always intended to be lived out fully in community.

[RT · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a clear, short, concise, well thought-out book on the local church, Dever provides that here.
If you’ve read or listened to Mark Dever on the local church much of what you’ve read and heard will likely be found in this book.
This is perhaps probably one of the better and more clear books I’ve read on the subject. It’s an easy read with logical flow. Dever moves virtually anything that would slow to the reader down into a footnote, which this reader found remarkably wise and helpful.

[Samuel G. Parkison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book, and I enjoyed revisiting it these past couple of weeks. Stylistically, Dever is kind of a boring author (am I allowed to say that?), and this little book can be pretty dry. But in general, Dever succeeds in what he sets out to do; he develops a helpful and succinct ecclesiology and he gives some formidable arguments for the standard debated and neglected areas in evangelical churches (i.e., membership, discipline, congregational polity, church priorities, etc.).

[Claire Breedlove · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite books for residency so far! I love the chapters in part 1 (the nature, attributes, marks, membership, polity, discipline, purpose, and hope of the church) that clearly break down what Baptists believe in each topic. Honestly a 5 star book, but I cannot give it 5 stars because Mark Dever does not know how to use a comma appropriately.

[Allyson Howell (Todd) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kick-started several polity-based conversations that helped eventually shape my current understanding of the church. It's a good place to begin for someone who doesn't know much about church polity, but definitely not a place to stay.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful look into the Biblical teachings about what and who the church is and which draws upon the wisdom of past saints to sharpen how we can apply those truths today. -4 stars

Read again in March of 2025

[Jonathan Klimek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the church.
- What the church is.
- What the church believers.
- And how the Church operates.