Today, I finished 9 Marks of A Healthy Church by Mark Dever. Many who have talked to me in the past about certain subjects are probably aware of my opinions on Dr. Dever. Truthfully, outside of our church, Mark Dever has been one of the more influential...influences on my thoughts; particularly in relation to the church.
I had long wanted to read through this book and finally got around to starting it several weeks ago. I had meandered through a couple of chapters prior to vacation in July, but I really only started reading it in earnest over the last two weeks.
It is, quite simply, excellent. There's very little here, if anything, that I would disagree with, let alone change. Frankly, if you want to know what it means to be a part of the church and are uncertain, he makes it quite clear. It is not exhaustive in any way. What Dever does is go through 9 basic areas that are foundational to the church, but in which we have, in recent generations, dropped the ball.
Those areas are: 1 Expositional Preaching, 2 Biblical Theology, 3 Biblical Understanding of the Gospel, 4 Biblical Understanding of Conversion, 5 Biblical Understanding of Evangelism, 6 Biblical Understanding of Church Membership, 7 Biblical Church Discipline, 8 Biblical Understanding of Discipleship, 9 Biblical Understanding of Leadership.
Do you have a clear understanding of what the Gospel is? Would you be able to present it clearly? Do you know what it isn't?
Do you know what the responsibilities are for you as a member of the church? Do you know what the consequences of neglecting those responsibilities has been in past generations?
Do you understand what discipleship is and how you are involved in that?
If you want to have a clear understanding of any of those fundamental points (and they are fundamental), it is well worth taking time to read. Lord willing, October will be our month to read books about the church. I would highly recommend this one.
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Recommendations for September:
This month Dad and I will be reading books relating to the Christian life and/or sanctification (they're essentially the same thing. The difference being that the former is from our perspective and the latter is more theological: relating to God's perspective - the point is we're leaving it somewhat open in terms of what applies).
I've got a number of books that I'd like to read, among those are:
The Mortification of Sin by John Owen - This one is part of the Puritan Paperbacks collection. Small book, but don't interpret that as meaning an easy read. Puritan works, small or not, are not quick reading material.
Many puritan works would fall into this month's category. One I'd like to finish is Dying Thoughts by Richard Baxter, but that'll probably be held back for later.
The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes is another excellent puritan title.
I'd like to read Holiness by J.C. Ryle at some point, but I'm not certain that that will happen this month. It is long.
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges is another one I've wanted to read for some time.
Others that I have read and would recommend include:
The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies is a good book on...surprise: discernment.
The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur.
The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards by Steven Lawson. Not a biography strictly speaking. Lawson takes positive elements from Edwards' life example and uses those to exhort others to follow his lead. Short, but worth reading.
Humility by C.J. Mahaney is a good, easily readable short work.
Most books by Wayne Mack would fall in this category.
This month is probably the easiest to find books that fit the guidelines. The basic goals of this challenge are to encourage reading, and by reading the same types of books to jumpstart conversations on what we're reading. In future months, the goal will be to encourage reading types of books we might not ordinarily get into.
The challenge is for two books this month. For the most part, the year is split up with 2 books per month. If you can't get through two books in the month or you don't have enough time available to finish two books in a month, don't stress over it. #1: Devotions are primary - Make sure you're not cutting devotions time to make room for other books. #2: If you're feeling short of time, dedicate 15 minutes a day, or even every other day, to reading. That's not a lot of time, but you'd be surprised how much you can get through in a month by spending 15 minutes a day.
In setting the guidelines, I wanted the setup to be fairly loose so that we could read either shorter or longer books, depending on how much time is in our schedule.
My personal desire in setting this up initially, was so that I could supplement my devotions time with other christian works. The key is to be reading something: Not how much you can read, or how much you can wish you could be reading, but actually sitting down and spending time and doing it.
God bless.
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