Nine Marks of a Healthy Church Quotes

“...the first step toward the one true God is to acknowledge that we are not that God.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“When you understand that evangelism isn’t converting people, but that it is telling them the wonderful truth about God, the great news about Jesus Christ, then obedience to the call to evangelize can become certain and joyful. Understanding this increases evangelism, as it moves away from being a guilt-driven burden to being a joyful privilege.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“Friend, what are you looking for in a church? Good music? A happening atmosphere? A traditional order of service? How about: a group of pardoned rebels . . . whom God wants to use to display his glory . . . before all the heavenly host . . . because they tell the truth about him . . . and look increasingly just like him - holy, loving, united?”
― Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church?

“John Newton, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“Our individual lives alone are not a sufficient witness. Our lives together as church communities are the confirming echo of our witness.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“Many Christians will have honest questions about God's sovereignty. But a sustained, tenacious denial of God's sovereignty should concern us. To baptize a person who is so antagonistic to God's sovereignty may be to baptize someone who in his heart still isn't really quite willing to trust God. That, after all, is the issue when it comes to God's sovereignty. Are we willing to trust Him? Are we willing to acknowledge, finally, that we are not God? That we are not the Judge? That we are not the ones to say what is fair and unfair? Are we willing to put our whole lives in God's hands and to truly trust Him? That is what's really at issue in this discussion about the sovereignty of God.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“Being united to Christ means being united to every Christian. But that universal union must be given a living, breathing existence in a local church.”
― Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church?

“One of the most painful tasks pastors face is trying to undo the damage of false converts who have been too quickly and thoughtlessly assured by an evangelist that they are indeed Christians”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“The topical sermon begins with a particular matter that the preacher wants to preach about. The topic could be prayer or justice or parenting or holiness or even expositional preaching. Having established the topic, the preacher then assembles various texts from various parts of the Bible and combines them with illustrative stories and anecdotes. The material is combined and woven together around this one topic. The topical sermon is not built around one text of Scripture but around this one chosen theme or idea.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“But if you establish the priority of the Word, then you have in place the single most important aspect of the church’s life, and growing health is virtually assured because God has decided to act by his Spirit through his Word.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“The preaching of the Word must be absolutely central. Sound, expositional preaching is often the fountainhead of growth in a church.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“The Word is so central and so instrumental because the Word of the Lord holds out the object of our faith to us. It presents God’s promise to us—from all kinds of individual promises (throughout the Bible) all the way to the great promise, the great hope, the great object of our faith, Christ himself. The Word presents that which we are to believe.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“A igreja não recebeu autoridade para estabelecer mandamentos; ela tem o dever de obedecer aos mandamentos já estabelecidos. Não é prerrogativa nem privilégio de nenhuma igreja modificar, minimizar ou obscurecer, de algum modo... Quaisquer dos mandamentos de Jesus Cristo.3”
― Mark Dever, Nove Marcas de uma Igreja Saudável (9 Marcas)

“The church has not been given authority to make commandments; it is the duty of the church to obey the commandments already made. It is not the prerogative nor the privilege of any church to modify, minimize or in any way obscure . . . any commandment, of Jesus Christ.8”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“I know the vanity of your heart, and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small, in comparison with those of your brethren around you; but assure yourself on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ, at his judgment-seat, you will think you have had enough.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“Our churches, too, must recover the centrality of the Word in our worship. Music is a biblically required response to God's Word, but the music God gave us was not given to build our churches upon. A church built on music - of whatever style - is a church built on shifting sands.”
― Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church?

“A healthy church is a congregation that increasingly reflects God's character as his character has been revealed in his Word.”
― Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church?

“Evangelism is not a making of proselytes; it is not persuading people to make a decision; it is not proving that God exists, or making a good case for the truth of Christianity; it is not inviting someone to a meeting; it is not exposing the contemporary dilemma, or arousing interest in Christianity; it is not wearing a badge saying “Jesus Saves”! Some of these things are right and good in their place, but none of them should be confused with evangelism. To evangelize is to declare on the authority of God what he has done to save sinners, to warn men of their lost condition, to direct them to repent, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“We cannot finally judge the correctness of what we do in evangelism by the immediate response that we see. It is important to understand this truth, because a failure to understand it can distract well-meaning churches into pragmatic, results-oriented endeavors and it can transform pastors into neurotic people-manipulators.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“The truly changed, truly converted, truly Christian heart can say with John Newton, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

“God created the church, we have said, so that it might increasingly reflect the character of God as it's been revealed in his Word. In keeping with the storyline of the entire Bible, then, church discipline is the act of excluding an individual who carelessly brings disrepute onto the gospel and shows no commitment to doing otherwise.”
― Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church?

“You and all the members of your church, Christian, are finally responsible before God for what your church becomes, not your pastors and other leaders - you. Your pastors will stand before God and give an account for how they have led your congregation (Heb. 13:17). But every single one of us who is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ will give an account for whether or not we have gathered together regularly with the church, spurred the church on to love and good deeds, and fought to maintain a right teaching of the hope of the gospel (Heb. 10:23-25).”
― Mark Dever, What Is a Healthy Church?

“Membership is the church's corporate endorsement of a person's salvation.”
― Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church