Entendendo a Grande Comissão (Entendendo a Igreja)

Church Basics

by Mark Dever, Vinicius Musselman Pimentel (Editor), Camila Teixeira (Translator)

Como os apóstolos e as igrejas do Novo Testamento obedeceram à Grande Comissão? Reunindo cristãos em igrejas. A igreja é o plano de Deus para o evangelismo, o discipulado e a Grande Comissão. Essa conexão entre a Grande Comissão e a igreja afeta drasticamente a maneira como líderes e membros devem pensar sobre seu trabalho de fazer discípulos. Este obra mostra de forma breve, simples e bíblica como Deus quer cumprir sua Grande Comissão através de igrejas locais.

Genres: Ecclesiology, Church, Christian, Theology, Evangelism, Christian Living, Discipleship

83 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2016

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

[Joseph Potts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book that shows the importance of church’s in the great commission

[Bobby James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish I could give it 3.5 stars. It’s in between for me. Much of the material is a repeat from other 9 Marks books on church polity and membership. But I appreciate Dever’s brief yet careful walkthrough of Acts and seeing how the Apostles themselves understood how to fulfill Matthew 28:19-20. That is, “The local church is the normal means God has given us to fulfill the Great Commission.” (5)

[David Shoemaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very helpful in understanding how the Great Commission is carried not on the backs of individual Christians but on the back of local churches. This is a very helpful book for this day in age when Christians are trying to do everything apart from the church, but we must do everything by the church because that is how God designed it for His glory and our good.

[Derric · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The local church is the normal means God has given us to fulfill The Great Commission.”

Good and helpful. As the local church and its centrality to the mission is the main point, there are also many good sub-points that help understand church authority and church polity. I recommend reading it.

[Mark D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suggest this entire series for church leaders. I also suggest that you make them available to your congregation. In Understanding the Great Commission, Dever encourages the church to take the Gospel to the world. A couple of quotes I loved. "We need to quit being so turfy about our churches, and look for ways to promote the gospel's advance throughout our cities, including other churches. Also Dever addressed an issue which he faces as pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. He relates that a problem the church faces is the transient membership. Many people live in DC for a few years and move on. Instead of worrying about that condition, he said that as a church they have "embraced the transience." "We asked ourselves, assuming we have a person for two to four years, what's all the content for the Christian life we want to put in his or her backpack?" I love this thought. As a pastor of a church in rural Ky, where most teenagers leave for college and never return, I am thinking of embracing the situation instead of bemoaning it. I think I will lead our church to prepare our young people to be the best Christians they can be to help the new church they will go to when they move to a more progressive community.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, Biblical, and Practical

This is the first book in the Church Basics series that I have read, but I’m excited to read the others. This book is short and easy to read. It is biblical, but also accessible. It is incredibly practical and intentional, with a plethora of examples of what Mark Dever and Capitol Hill Baptist Church do to advance Jesus’ kingdom throughout all nations.

[Kyla Schooling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small volume is part of the Church Basics series and addresses the topic of the Great Commission. Probably the most important point of the book is that the Great Commission is not the task of individuals working alone, but rather members of a church body working together. It is a very informative and quick read.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mostly good overview of the great commission and the Christian's responsibility to fulfill it. As Dever shows, this begins first with the church and moves outward from there. This is pretty much a broken down and slimmed up version of Dever's "The Gospel and personal evangelism."

[Esther Kim Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking

I have never seen Great Commission in light of the author's explanation (corporate local church planting vs. individual evangelism). Awesome read!

[Jordan Shelvock · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 9 marks guys just have a way of making big concepts seem easy and obvious. Especially when it comes to practically living out what you believe.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second time I have read this book and I know I will go back and read it again. It is a quick read and a great reminder of how to obey the Great Commission today in our churches.

[Nate Weis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these little books. Can be read in a few hours and are filled with vital content.

[Ashley McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, concise primer to the Great Commission and the role of the local church in it.

[Jay Budzilowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and Helpful

--- Great insight on how the local church is to fulfill the the great commission.---- -- -- -- -- --

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, putting into a nutshell of our (Christians) responsibility associated with the Great Commission.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, nothing earth shaking, meaning it sticks prety well to Biblical truths.

[Alan Giles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. Most of the material is also covered in his other works. This is a great starting point for investigating the church’s call as a whole to fulfilling the great commission.

[Emma Schramm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in preparation for a church missions trip and found it helpful, concise, practical, and short.

[Caroline McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, clear, and profoundly helpful, especially if you want to think wisely about church planting, and building up other churches.

[Ryan Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will help re-train your instincts to see fulfilling the Great Commission as something we do through the church, not just individually.

[Luke Schmeltzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good little book on how the Great Commission is accomplished in and through the local church.

[Ben Wales · Rating 5 out of 5]

This booklet presents the Great Commission not as a mission for individuals but through the operation of the local church.

[Joel Rockey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concise but good.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reminder to not be a spiritual lone ranger, but to value and be involved in the local church.

[Jennifer Putney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reminder that the Church is important, and we're not supposed to play the lone wolf in our Christian life.

[Pedro.Lopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma leitura agradável, clara e encorajadora que nos motiva a levar o Evangelho às nações através do ministério da Igreja Local.

[Jónatas Rafael Lopes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro interessante embora sendo muito pequeno.
É apenas um aperitivo.

[Chris Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a helpful helpful orientation of the long-term strategy of any church.

[Shane Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020 reads: 36/52

Rating: 4 stars

How did the apostles and the churches of the New Testament obey the Great Commission? By gathering Christians together in churches. The church is God’s plan for evangelism, discipleship, and the Great Commission.

Dever offers a really helpful and brief introduction to how churches should go about understanding and obeying the Great Commission (see Matt. 28:18-20).

Dever rightly locates the Jesus' commission in the local church whose task it is to faithfully preach the word and make disciples; this is what the apostles did with Jesus' command.

Vital to faithfully obeying this commission is healthy leadership and membership (i.e. congregational responsibility).

This is a great read for a new Christian who perhaps doesn't see the importance of the local church in God's plan of mission.

[Michael Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished reading this for the second time. For the most part there are no surprises in this booklet. Mark Dever argues that “the Great Commission is normally fulfilled through planting and growing local churches." Churches planting churches, churches sending missionaries to plant more churches, churches partnering to strengthen other churches... no surprises there.

But at the end of the book, in a book about the Great Commission, Dever leaves the reader a bit confused. He says, "staying in our culture is often the countercultural thing to do, especially among the younger generation. With all the career and educational transitions that characterize modern urban life, the radical thing to do for some will be to stay in one place for decades."

Now I actually agree with Dever's argument. But the inclusion of this at the end of a book on the Great Commission–a commission that includes the bold command "go" in it–seems misplaced at best.