This book was for me a book of two halves. The first half outlined the thesis of the authors, namely that it is God’s word and in particular the gospel that should be allowed to set the direction of the church. The opening chapters were quite simply outstanding. I liked the fact that Dever is clear that we do actually need to do something quite deliberate if we want healthy churches that will grow in the right way. The following quote is in my opinion worth its weight in gold-
“In whatever we do we want to be careful about allowing Gods word to set our trajectory, power our progress and govern our methods……..When the gospel enjoys functional centrality, the church gains traction in the culture, because the gospel is the power of God for salvation…….The gospel fights the church’s enemies, such as doctrinal error and moral wickedness….. In short. Gods word, encapsulated in the Gospel, builds the church……… Our goal as preachers and leaders is to keep our methods basic and plain so that the Gospel is cast in bold relief against the backdrop of our own admitted weakness”
Mark Dever outlines and explains 4 Ps which he told his church was what he would rely on to build the church- Preaching, prayer, personal discipleship and patience.
When I finally get to sharing my thoughts on Rick Warren, you may be surprised to see the overlap between what Warren and Dever actually say. Take this example: Warren encouraged pastors to stay put for the long haul. He believes that God is always playing the long game, and sometimes we need to learn to do the same. God is not in a hurry, and according to Rick
“We tend to overestimate what can be accomplished in a year and underestimate what can be accomplished in a decade.”
In his book, Dever says
“The best way to lose your place of influence as a pastor is to be in a hurry, forcing radical (even if biblical) change before people are ready to follow you and own it. It would be wise for many of us to lower our expectations and extend our time horizons……..God is working for eternity and he has been working from eternity. He’s not in a hurry, and we shouldn’t be either. So it is wise to show care for the congregation and concern for the unity of the church by not running to far ahead of them that people start falling behind. Run at a pace that the congregation can keep. Of course, there are some things you might need to change rather quickly. But as much as possible, do these things quietly and with an encouraging smile, not loudly and with a disapproving frown…… Make haste slowly……and kindly…..patience in the pastorate requires thinking in terms of twenty, thirty, forty or even fifty years of ministry”
You might also be surprised to know that Rick Warren describes preaching as the number one factor in how healthy your church will be. Mark Dever says
“The one thing necessary is the power of Gods word. That’s why preaching and prayer will always be paramount- no matter what fad tops the charts. Stake your ministry on the power of the Gospel”
Mark is also passionate about us ensuring our hearers actually understand the gospel rather than assuming they know what it is-
“…when we assume the Gospel instead of clarifying it, people who profess Christianity but don’t understand or obey the gospel are cordially allowed to presume their own conversion without examining themselves for evidence of it- which may amount to nothing more than a blissful damnation…..being a Christian in name only has spread in our churches like gangrene, and misunderstandings about the gospel abound among professing evangelicals.”
He sums up the gospel in four words “God, man, Christ, response” and says “Remember its not evangelism without the evangel”
“Benefit evangelism fills our churches with people who are taught to expect everything to go their way just because they became christians. But Jesus promises persecution for following him, not worldy perks”
He is dismissive of gimmick and techniques-
“The gospel of Christ has never needed the gimmicks of man to effect conversion in the soul”
“Churches are most healthy when the gospel is most clear, and the gospel is most clear when are evangelistic methods are most plain”
Mark describes his approach to ensuring his people are genuinely Christians. On his arrival at the church not only did he decide to interview personally every new member, but also to work through everyone already in the church- to ensure they had all responded to the gospel. In these interviews he asks to hear their testimony and for them to explain the gospel in 60 seconds or less. He describes his motivation for this process by referring to 1 Tim 4.16.
As you can probably tell from the number of quotes in this review, I was deeply impressed by this book, particularly its first half. Placing the preaching of the gospel at the centre of our church life is absolutely vital. This book does a fantastic job in sounding a clear call for a restoration to our churches of the centrality of the good news of Jesus. I would commend this book to any Christian to read, particularly the first few chapters.
The second half of this book seemed slightly less relevant to me since it became increasingly focused on being the main full-time pastor in a a particular kind of church structure. Not coming from such a church, nor being a pastor the rest of the book was not as engaging as the first part. Having said that, for those who are in such a position I think you will not find many books on running a church that are as practical and as thoroughly biblical as this one, and I would thoroughly commend it based on my limited understanding of the principles Mark Dever explains.
This review is part of a group of reviews at diet of book worms where you can find out what other bloggers thought of it.
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