Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (4th Edition) (9Marks)

Product Description
What Makes for a Healthy Church?
You may have read books on this topic before but not like this one. Instead of an instruction manual for church growth, this classic text points to basic biblical principles for assessing and strengthening the health of your church. Whether you’re a pastor, a leader, or an involved member of your congregation, studying the nine marks of a healthy church will help you cultivate new life and well-being within your own church for God’s glory.
This revised edition includes two new chapters; updated material on prayer, missions, evangelism, and the gospel; and a foreword by H. B. Charles Jr.
Review
“I cannot say enough about how Nine Marks of a Healthy Church was used to shape my personal understanding of the biblical church and the local church I was planting when I first read the second edition of the book. Amidst so many controversial ideas and methods presented to church planters by church-planting best sellers, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church simply brought me back to Scripture, centered my heart on what a biblical church must be and do, and also relieved me from the perspective that I had to shape the congregation before me Sunday after Sunday. Don’t misunderstand me; I knew all these marks before, but they were not appropriately connected and applied. In practice, the use of these nine marks were tainted with foreign ideas and a lack of intentionality that prevented them from bearing the right fruits. I am glad for Dever’s reshaping of the content to consider two other marks that are also neglected in the contemporary church: prayer and missions. The book still has nine marks. If you are wondering how, you will have to read it! Do not hesitate!”―Mauro Meister, President, Andrew Jumper Graduate Center, Brazil; Senior Pastor, Presbyterian Church Barra Funda; author, Law and Grace and The Origin of Idolatry
“I don't remember who put Nine Marks of a Healthy Church in my hand almost twenty years ago, but it’s a resource that shaped me deeply. I return to it frequently as I try to faithfully shepherd at the Village Church and plant healthy churches through Acts 29. The church needs a strong ecclesiology if she will faithfully fulfill her God-given mission, and this book is a foundational read for pastors across denominations and philosophies of ministry.”―Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church
“From my early days as a football coach, my football mentor instilled in me a sense of urgency to be clear on what we were looking for as we set out to build championship teams. All championship teams own distinctive marks that we look to reproduce year after year. In my formative days as a pastor, Mark Dever has helped me gain biblical clarity on what a healthy local church looks like through Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. As leaders of our local churches, it is critical that we are clear on how Christ is building his church so that we can faithfully come alongside him in his work.” ―Rocky Seto, Senior Pastor, Evergreen Baptist Church of San Gabriel Valley
“Here are the timeless biblical truths that inform what the church is, how God creates and nurtures it, and how its pastors and members participate in that work. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church has helped me as a young pastor see through the fog of church growth models to the essential architecture of ecclesiology. This book is far and away the clearest and most biblical account of what the church is that I’ve come across. Most importantly, the vision of the church displayed here is so God-centered that it places the magnificent responsibility of sustaining and leading it back on the right shoulders, namely, his.” ―Samuel D. Ferguson, Rector, The Falls Church Anglican
“I was an ambitious Capitol Hill staffer when I was first handed this book twenty years ago. In retrospect, it was this moment that totally upended my estimation of the local church and changed the trajectory of my life toward ministry in it. The p