What Is a Healthy Church Member?

by Thabiti M. Anyabwile

Biblically and practically instructs church members in ways they can labor for the health of their church. What Is a Healthy Church Member?  takes its cue from Mark Dever's book  What Is a Healthy Church? , which offered one definition of what a healthy church looks like biblically and historically. In this new work, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the natural next "What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?" God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well. This book explains how membership in the local church can produce spiritual growth in its members and how each member can contribute to the growth and health of the whole.

Genres: Christian, Church, Theology, Ecclesiology, Christian Living, Christianity, Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2008

About the author

Thabiti Anyabwile (MS, North Carolina State University) is a pastor at Anacostia River Church in southeast Washington, DC. He serves as a council member of the Gospel Coalition, is a lead writer for 9Marks Ministries, and regularly blogs at The Front Porch and Pure Church. He and his wife, Kristie, have three children.

Reviews

[Elliot McComas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, short, practical book that gives believers at any maturity level biblical action they can take by the Spirit to take care of the body of Christ. This book was rich with scripture and had challenging reflection questions at the end of every chapter. If you love the church, read this.

[Evelyn DS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book!! He did a really good job of organizing the material and gave practical advice. I liked the reflection questions at the end of each chapter too. Many people join churches and don’t know how to be one or don’t regard membership as necessary, and this book does a good job of combatting that.

[Caroline Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, simple, and encouraging. This book was practical in the best way. It spoke to the individualistic tendency to want to do these things on your own apart from the body of the church and to the tendency of trying to accomplish these things apart from grace. Reminders like this help me redirect my thoughts to what God’s design is for Christians and His churches.

My favorite part was how every chapter made me think of friends at my church who model these things so well! Praise God!

[Edward Meshell · Rating 5 out of 5]

After recently moving to DC and joining a new church body, I thought it'd be good to read this book I've had on my shelf for a while. Really convicting to read and helped me to understand my role as a member of a local church body. Highly recommend for any Christian in any stage of their walk with Christ!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A healthy Christian is a healthy church member." That is the heart behind Thabiti Anyabwile's "What is a Healthy Church Member?" With a heart for developing healthy churches and healthy Christians Anyabwile's book is intended to encourage Christians to set themselves to the calling of growing as Christians within a local body.

Anyabwile suggests ten marks of a healthy church member:
1. A healthy church member is an expositional listener.
2. A healthy church member is a biblical theologian.
3. A healthy church member is gospel saturated.
4. A healthy member is genuinely converted.
5. A healthy church member is a biblical evangelist.
6. A healthy church member is a committed member.
7. A healthy church member seeks discipline.
8. A healthy church member is a growing disciple.
9. A healthy church member is a humble follower.
10. A healthy church member is a prayer warrior.

You can see in this list an emphasis on discipleship and the ministry of the Word. Anyabwile argues that, "His Word, his voice, becomes sweet to us; and as it does, we are better able to push to the background the many voices that rival God's voice for control over our lives."

And yet Anyabwile is not envisioning the church as a sterile environment, but a place where love thrives. "There should be a sweet exchange of affection between pastor and congregation. As they live, grow, and labor together, their hearts are to open increasingly wide to each other."

Anyabwile's "What is a Healthy Church Member?" is a solid introduction to the idea of commitment to a local church--a notion which is becoming increasingly irrelevant. I'm grateful for the clear invitation to reconsider the place of church membership in our discipleship. I do wish that Anyabwile's list would have been a little more well-rounded. I'm sure if I would have chosen ten attributes my own list would have weak spots as well. Anyabwile's weaker spots are service, friendship, and generosity. It's not that he doesn't address those within the book, but I would have loved to see those underscored a bit more.

All in all, "What is a Healthy Church Member?" is a helpful introduction to an important topic for all Christians.

For more reviews see thebeehive.live.

[Andrew Vance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this book, it is short yet substantial, brief yet thoroughly practical, accessible yet academic. Chapters 6,7, and 10 were especially impactful and this book is a great impetus for further study of Ecclesiology on my part, and for an increased desire in corporate sanctification (I have no idea if others have used that term, the likelihood is yes), and as an additional resource to an upcoming Sunday School lesson on Church Membership.

I love the saints at Cleveland Road dearly and am glad that this book is readily available on the free shelf there.

May Christ’s bride be made more beautiful for the King of Beauty.

Ephesians 5:26-27

[Aiden Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good helpful book on how to be an active church member!

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a short, easy to read book. the author not only talks about what church members ought to be looking for in a church, but the mindset of church members and how as a body, we all work together to love, served, and grow. it quickly dives into how certain qualities in our personal walk and corporate worship should be mixed together. good read!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! There is a lot of great information and spiritual challenges packed into thus little book. Potential to fundamentally reform the local church if readers take the book seriously. Grab a copy and check it out.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, easy to understand, and helpful introduction to what it means to live as a church member (aka a Christian). Solid questions at the end of each chapter help the reader consider how they are living out that mark. Would be great as a small group read.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more...something. This book is a basic overview of attitudes, actions, etc. of a healthy church member. It's pretty solid and has some good material, but it's basic and not as insightful/impactful or practical as some of the other 9Marks books I've read.

I also didn't like that the chapter on how a healthy church member should have good biblical theology is all based on the presupposition of covenant theology. This is obviously a common theme in the 9Marks books but some emphasize it more than others and I'm just kind of over it.

Topics covered are:
Expositional Listening
Biblical Theology
Gospel Saturation
Genuine Conversion
Biblical Evangelism
Committed Membership
Seeking Discipline
Growth as a Disciple
Humble Following
Prayer

This is a good primer for being a healthy church member, but it doesn't say much that I wasn't already familiar with. It would be helpful for new believers or for churches that are going through a transition. I like that it has questions at the end of each chapter for personal or group study.

[Benjamin Razey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyabwile’s What is a Healthy Church Member is an interesting read. The heart of the book is really strong - the assertion that every healthy Christian is necessarily pursuing the ideal of being a healthy church-member, and exploring fundamentally what this looks like. Additionally, the nine marks presented in the book are all really helpful and worth consideration.

However, it felt as though the recommendations were often quite similar (buy commentaries, read more, etc.) and others were too abstract (such as “cultivating humility” in chapter 1). Although the book was helpful in engaging discussion, it felt as though our Bible Study (we went through it a chapter each week as a group) was often left wanting more, or disagreeing with particular emphases in that week’s chapter.

Overall, the book is useful for prompting discussion, and the marks themselves remain important for every church member. In spite of the areas in the book that left us feeling disappointed, the overall goal of the book and the headline for each mark were great.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thabiti Anyabwile does a good job succinctly outlining and describing several marks of healthy church members. At times, this was almost a difficult read in the sense that some of my weaknesses as a patient, compassionate, sacrificial, wise, and prayerful church member seemed to jump off the page. That said, I appreciated the author’s reminder at the end of the book that we will not become healthier members of the body of Christ solely by working hard to ensure that we fit the description of each of these marks. Rather, the same Savior who is acutely aware of all our flaws and yet loves us and gives us a family will make us healthier church members as He sanctifies us. Sure, we still ought to be disciplined as we strive to grow in godliness but it is a sweet comfort to know that it is ultimately God, not us, that gives the growth.

[Lauren Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our pastor gave this to all church members to read.
Built on solid Biblical theology, it is a very enlightening, encouraging, and convicting book*. This is definitely one to keep on the shelf to refer back to again and again.


*Enlightening in showing a full, multi-faceted picture of what a robust and healthy church member looks like.
Encouraging in seeing the ways your life as a church member is hitting the mark set by the Bible.
Convicting in seeing the ways you aren’t fulfilling your duty well as a church member.

[Hannah Dietrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely worth reading. A very short but no punches pulled approach to discussing the responsibilities and expectations for church membership based in scripture.

He does a great job of bringing up the whole-church responsibility related to church discipline-very similar to “9 marks of a healthy church”’s statement about how church discipline is scary because we only notice it when it gets to the elders making a decision side, but good church discipline should start at the peer to peer level.

I didn’t feel like I was shocked or significantly informed by anything in this book but I think it is because I have read similar books and have been an active church member for many years.

[Filo Petric · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great and insightful book! I enjoyed reading and soaking the wisdom in. It is one of those books that I'll have to come back to so that I can relearn and be reminded of how I can serve the church, the body of Christ. Took me a while to read but I read it together with another person from my church and holding each other accountable with how many chapters we were going to read each week. I've learned many things from this little gem and I can't wait to put them into fruitful practice!

[Elizabeth Eflin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An informative, yet concise book on what it means to be a healthy church member. Anyabwile's writing is clear, well organized, and shows his care for Christ's Church. There are also some discussion questions after each chapter if one wanted to read it with other members in their church. Overall, it's a great book, and I would recommend it to any Christian, whether you are currently a member of a church, or in the process of looking for a church.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERY church member should read this book. Talk about conviction. Even the preachers wife can be a better church member. I plan on sharing this with my church family. This is a good to the point read.

[Abby Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for describing the foundation of what it means to be an active member of the body of Christ. Ben and I enjoyed reading this, great resource especially to those who are new to the faith, or who have never seen healthy membership modeled to them.

[Lavon Herschberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this was basic and common sense stuff, which nets the 3 stars. For a new convert or someone used to a “bench warming” idea of church participation and open to a more integrative way: easily recommend.

[Leilani Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and helpful biblical guidelines! Great resource list too for further digging.

[Marc Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book to put into the hands of a new believer or someone who has only thought of their Christian life as a solo affair.

[Hannah Hancock]

See my review here. http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.c...

[Dustin Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does a solid job of answering its titular question in a succinct, Gospel-filled, and highly practical way.

[Cody Jenison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a fan of any book that encourages believers to be more committed to the church. Good practical topics that pretty much mirror the nine marks of a healthy church. Additional chapter on prayer at the end was a good call.

[nate]

I read this in preparation for a sermon series called "Why Church?" Concise, practical, and accessible.

[Greg Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for any believer. Short and to the point, encouraging and convicting. Thanks to my church for handing this book out in our membership class

[Matthew Gasperoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great follow up to the “What is a Healthy Church” book by Mark Denver. Practical, challenging, and biblical, this left me with several takeaways to ponder and pray over in my own life as a member of the body.

I found the chapter on a “Humble Follower” most applicable/challenging to my current stage/period of life right now, both in and outside the church. That being said, each chapter left me with things to reflect on for sure - but the “bonus” chapter on prayer was especially helpful and encouraging.

Worth a read for sure, especially if you question the value of local church membership even slightly.

[Alan Roper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that provides insight into different areas of growth within a church community and how are you can be a healthy church member based on the principles. One of the biggest takeaways for me was in my personal study of scripture, it is helpful to find commentaries that will help paint a clearer and broader picture of the historical context in which you are reading.

This book was given to me at my Elder meeting prior to becoming a member of my church. I am thankful for a church and church community that values the spiritual growth of its members from day 1!

[Jordan Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. I loved the section on the biblical case for Church Membership in here, small, yet effective.