9 Marks of a Healthy Church

What makes a church strong and healthy? How can we know if our church is on the right path? What should be the concerns of the church and what should not? These are questions that have recently come to the forefront of our family's discussions as we struggled with where God would have us meet weekly to worship Him.

Mark Dever's 9 Marks of a Healthy Church does much to answer these questions by holding the church to biblical standards. In this day and age of conflicting standards it is good to be reminded that there is only one truth, and that is the standard we need to hold. God has a plan for his bride, and we forget that to our detriment.

Ex positional preaching, Biblical theology, the Gospel, a Biblical understanding of conversion, evangelism and church membership, a concern for discipline, discipleship and growth, and Biblical leadership are those things that Dever's feels mark a healthy, Biblical church. Healthy churches are not concerned with conforming to the culture, but to the Bible. They do not worry that the church is too formal, too "churchy" or too uncomfortable for those who are lost, but rather depend on God to fulfill his promise that His Word will not return void.

I found this book to be very helpful in evaluating churches as we looked for a new church home. I think that every Christian would want to sit down and have serious look at the church they are involved in. Ask yourself, " Is my church healthy?" If not, look at the standards and figure out what you can do to improve the health of your church. It is our responsibility as Christians to hold all churches to the Biblical standard. Sometimes that job is best done from within the church, but sometimes it requires that we "saturate the church with our absence" in order to find a healthy home. Remember too, that just because your church is healthy today, you can't sit back and relax. We must be ever vigilant against the lies that the enemy will use to move us off the right path.