Sam’s Reviews > Nine Marks of a Healthy Church > Status Update
Sam
is 84% done
7th Mark: Biblical Church Leadership
Long, distracted, opinionated. It had some good points, though: about authority and trusting it. However this chapter had its distractions: section on spiritual gifts that did not belong, a bad mnemonic device; and its strong opinions: non-supernatural spiritual gifts, egalitarianism as the biggest underminer of the authority of Scripture, & a distinction between elder and pastor.
— Jun 19, 2023 06:10PM
Long, distracted, opinionated. It had some good points, though: about authority and trusting it. However this chapter had its distractions: section on spiritual gifts that did not belong, a bad mnemonic device; and its strong opinions: non-supernatural spiritual gifts, egalitarianism as the biggest underminer of the authority of Scripture, & a distinction between elder and pastor.
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Sam
is finished
The last two marks on prayer and missions felt more like a list of things you could try in order to encourage your church to care more about them. Felt a lot less emphasis and necessity than i got from the other chapters.
— Jun 24, 2023 04:35PM
Sam
is 73% done
6th Mark: A Biblical Concern for Discipleship and Growth
Honestly I was surprised when I wrote down the title of this chapter because there wasn’t any discussion on what discipling someone else looks like. A more apt title would be “A Biblical Concern for Growth.” This one didn’t feel like its own mark. It was more of an expectation to be followed within the other marks.
— Jun 13, 2023 04:06PM
Honestly I was surprised when I wrote down the title of this chapter because there wasn’t any discussion on what discipling someone else looks like. A more apt title would be “A Biblical Concern for Growth.” This one didn’t feel like its own mark. It was more of an expectation to be followed within the other marks.
Sam
is 63% done
5th Mark: Biblical Church Discipline
"But it is only the church that may and must finally enforce discipline." Good teaching on church discipline from 8 biblical passages as well as a brief historical perspective on discipline.
— Jun 12, 2023 10:47AM
"But it is only the church that may and must finally enforce discipline." Good teaching on church discipline from 8 biblical passages as well as a brief historical perspective on discipline.
Sam
is 54% done
4th Mark: A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership
“Church leaders often ask, how inclusive should we be? ... But the question of how apparently exclusive we should be perhaps gets to the point more quickly.”
It seemed to me Dever’s point was mainly semantic, not actually calling for a lot of specific changes to how churches function, but rather the perspective in which we view them.
— Jun 10, 2023 04:20PM
“Church leaders often ask, how inclusive should we be? ... But the question of how apparently exclusive we should be perhaps gets to the point more quickly.”
It seemed to me Dever’s point was mainly semantic, not actually calling for a lot of specific changes to how churches function, but rather the perspective in which we view them.
Sam
is 43% done
Third Mark: A Biblical Understanding of Conversion and Evangelism
This one was definitely my favorite so far. Dever elegantly expressed the dichotomy between the need to call on the the Lord and the Lord's sovereignty in first calling us. He also has a nice part calling churches not to keep their members too busy as to not allow them time build relationships with non-believers.
— May 15, 2023 06:23PM
This one was definitely my favorite so far. Dever elegantly expressed the dichotomy between the need to call on the the Lord and the Lord's sovereignty in first calling us. He also has a nice part calling churches not to keep their members too busy as to not allow them time build relationships with non-believers.
Sam
is 32% done
2nd Mark: Gospel Doctrine
Overall, Dever was spot on for content, but this chapter was structured very poorly.
These are going to be a little shorter because of space, expect an essay for a review at the end though ✍🏼
— May 12, 2023 05:35PM
Overall, Dever was spot on for content, but this chapter was structured very poorly.
These are going to be a little shorter because of space, expect an essay for a review at the end though ✍🏼
Sam
is 25% done
1st Mark: Expositional Preaching
I honestly thought I would disagree with this a little, but he defines expo-preaching well. Not as some rote, culturally irrelevant ritual how I have sometimes seen it argued, but simply that content should be drawn from scripture, rather than finding scripture to back up a point. He also makes allowances for occasional topical preaching, which he says can be done expositionally.
— May 07, 2023 05:01PM
I honestly thought I would disagree with this a little, but he defines expo-preaching well. Not as some rote, culturally irrelevant ritual how I have sometimes seen it argued, but simply that content should be drawn from scripture, rather than finding scripture to back up a point. He also makes allowances for occasional topical preaching, which he says can be done expositionally.
Go off 💅👏😤
