Below is an insightful excerpt from Mark Dever, Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus, 9Marks (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 101–3. I bolded the most punchy paragraph and underlined the sentence that made me laugh out loud. So true.
7. Encourage Godly Authority [Read more…] about When people are skittish over complementarianism, apologizing for it, I know they are probably thinking about authority in a wrong way.
I love Mark Dever’s resources on the church, so I’m not sure why I don’t recall hearing about Church Essentials, which Lifeway published in 2012.
The Leader Kit includes two DVDs, which feature six thoughtful interviews with Mark Dever. Mark is incredibly gifted at speaking off-the-cuff clearly, directly, wisely, and winsomely.
DVD contents:
Two preachers talk shop:
Mark Dever and Greg Gilbert. Preach: Theology Meets Practice. 
9Marks. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2012. 212 pp. 27-page sample PDF.
Excerpts:
What expositional preach is and is not (pp. 36–38):
Expositional preaching is preaching in which the main point of the biblical text being considered becomes the main point of the sermon being preached. . . . [Read more…] about Preach: Theology Meets Practice
Mark Dever. The Church: The Gospel Made Visible. 9Marks. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2012. 16-page sample PDF.
This book is intended as a popular primer on the doctrine of the church, especially for Baptists but also, in so far as the arguments are convincing, for all of those who see Scripture alone to be the sufficient authority for the doctrine and life of the local church.
The book grew out of a chapter I wrote almost a decade ago on the doctrine of the church. [Note 8: Daniel Akin, ed., A Theology for the Church (Nashville: B&H, 2007); see chap. 13, “The Church,” 766–856.] The volume containing that chapter imposed a certain structure that is retained here. (p. xii) [Read more…] about A Popular Primer on the Church
Guest post by Matthew Hoskinson
Next week 9Marks Ministries is hosting a two-day workshop on church health. The host is Gallery Church, which meets on the fifth floor of 1160 Broadway (on the northeast corner of 27th).
Leading the speakers’ list is Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and author of numerous philosophy of ministry resources like 9 Marks of a Health Church, The Deliberate Church, and Polity. Other speakers include Jeramie Rinne, Garrett Kell, and Shai Linne.
The event begins tomorrow evening and runs through the day Thursday. The cost is just $45 and includes breakfast and lunch Thursday.
If you live in or near the city, I encourage you to attend. The sessions will help you as you consider the place of the local church in your life and growth in Christ.
For more information and to register for the event, check out the workshop’s webpage and the video below:
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Update. Online registration is now closed. You can still register at the door.
Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church? (IX Marks; Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), p. 79:
Quick Tips: How to Find a Good Church
1. Pray.
2. Seek counsel from a godly pastor (or from elders).
3. Keep your priorities straight.
- The gospel must be truly affirmed, clearly preached, and faithfully lived out. A serious lack in any of these expressions of the gospel is very dangerous.
- The preaching must be faithful to Scripture, personally challenging, and central to the congregation’s life. You will only grow spiritually where Scripture is treated as the highest authority. [Read more…] about How to Find a Good Church
Calvary Baptist Seminary hosted the Advancing the Church Conference a few weeks ago, and the conference audio is now available.
Mark Dever was the keynote speaker, and he interacted with Dave Doran, Kevin Bauder, and other fundamentalist leaders in two panels:
Kevin Bauder shares his perspective on the conference in “Reflections after the Encounter: Considering the Current Situation of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism; or, Why I Am Still a Fundamentalist (And How I Am Not).”
So writes Mark Dever in a new book based on a conference honoring J. I. Packer at Beeson Divinity School on September 25–27, 2006:
Timothy George, ed. J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought. Beeson Divinity Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009. [Amazon | WTS Books]
Sample pages as a PDF include the TOC, preface, and opening chapter by Alister McGrath.
Here’s the opening paragraph of Mark Dever’s chapter, entitled “J. I. Packer and Pastoral Wisdom from the Puritans”:
There are some people for whom it is an honor to be asked to honor, and J. I. Packer is certainly one of them. And this is a surprising honor, considering that I disagree with him on baptism, church, and the resources of and prospects for rapprochement between Protestants and Roman Catholics. After all, I am a fundamentalist, Calvinistic, separatist Baptist—I barely believe in rapprochement with Presbyterians! (p. 87)
In the final section of his essay, titled “Puritans on the Definition of Justification and Questions of Church Cooperation,” Dever respectfully disagrees with Packer on Evangelicals and Catholics Together (pp. 93–96).
In Packer’s response to this book’s essays, he playfully picks up a metaphor in which he is Robin Hood, Timothy George is “Little George,” etc. He writes,
I saw in my Baptist brother Mark Dever a latter-day Sheriff of Nottingham, giving me a passing grade on the doctrine of grace but a firm “F” in ecclesiology. (p. 172)
Related: Mark Dever interviewed J. I. Packer ten years ago.