Membership
Mailbag #46: Tricky Membership Question about Immigration; Pastoring a Church with Lots of Divorcees
By Jonathan Leeman | 12.23.2016— A woman who came to the United States under false pretenses wants to join our church. What should we do? — How should a pastor proceed when he inherits a church with several divorcees?
Churches in Great Britain: Living with the Legacy
By Mike Gilbart-Smith | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016Conservative evangelical churches in Britain benefit from the legacy of faithful expositors of the Word. However, clarity on the centrality of the gospel is accompanied by confusion on the importance of secondary matters.
Churches in China: Growing Healthier Under Threat
By Joshua Fang | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016For many churches in China the idea of being healthy is a luxury. Yet in recent years there is a growing trend of pursuing not only the survival, but the health of churches.
Churches in India: A People “Formed for God”
By Aubrey Sequeira | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016As a result of a low view of preaching for many years, the health of churches in India has suffered. Yet through a growing number of faithful shepherds, faithful preaching, and your prayers, the Lord may bring to India the reformation its churches need.
Churches in Israel: Proclaiming the True Messiah
By David Zadok | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016Churches in Israel are growing in evangelistic confidence and doctrinal care, even as they wrestle with the cost of being identified with Gentile believers.
Churches in South Africa: Hoping in the Word, Not the World
By Gustav Pritchard | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016Despite unhelpful Western influences, over-spiritualized leadership, and even a struggling economy, the Lord is establishing his kingdom in South Africa through churches feasting on his Word.
Churches in Spain: A Smoking Flax He Will Not Quench
By Andrew Birch | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016Though many of the churches in Spain often confuse or lose the gospel in their preaching, there is a small and growing network of churches who love gospel clarity and church health.
A Guide for Praying Nation by Nation
By Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.12.2016One of our hopes for this Journal is that it will spur you on in prayer for our brothers and sisters around the globe. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of prayer requests from our contributors.
Churches in the United Arab Emirates: Lights in the Desert
By J. Mack Stiles | 9Marks Journal: Healthy Churches around the World | 12.09.2016Through the faithfulness of Christian doctors a generation ago, God gave churches favor in the eyes of the rulers of a nation in the heart of the Middle East. Through the recovery of one church, now many healthy churches are springing up in this desert country.
Mailbag #44: Applying “Husband of One Wife”; Leaving the Church but Attending Bible Study; Women Voting in the Church
By Jonathan Leeman | 12.09.2016— What does “husband of one wife” mean? That a prospective elder must have never been divorced? — Someone who left our church still wants to attend our church’s ladies’ Bible study. Is that okay? — Does 1 Timothy 2:12 forbid women from voting in congregational matters?
Mailbag #43: Relationship to Excommunicated Members; Baptism & the Developmentally Disabled
By Jonathan Leeman | 12.02.2016— How does your church care for an excommunicated member when they show up at church? — Can a person who wants to be a member of the church but is functionally at the level of a child be baptized?
Preach About the Church to the Church
By Keith Collier | 11.16.2016But despite the trend of growing expository preaching, what if a blind spot—a byproduct of 20th-century evangelicalism—exists in our preaching?
Mailbag #40: Too High a Standard for Church Membership; Where Are Churches Commanded to Gather Weekly
By Jonathan Leeman | 11.04.2016—You say the standard for church membership is nothing more than simply “being a Christian.” But that’s not entirely true, is it? —Where in Scripture are local churches commanded to gather every week?
25 Years Ago, “Nine Marks” Was Born
By Mark Dever | 10.28.2016On October 30, 1991—25 years ago this Sunday—Mark Dever wrote a letter to a church in Massachusetts. They needed a new pastor and wanted to know what they should be looking for. Mark responded with a list of nine must-haves—a list that has since become known as “nine marks of a healthy church.”
Is There Such a Thing as Church Authority?
By Greg Gilbert | 9Marks Journal: Authority: God's Good and Dangerous Gift | 09.30.2016Here are seven points regarding the keys of the kingdom, and how local churches exercise authority through their use.
