Kayla Wilson
CHR 365
December 10, 2014
Final Exam Response Paper
The purpose of this paper is to use Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church to answer the following questions: What are the nine marks of a healthy church? What do each of them mean? How would you use them to build a healthy church? The first mark of a healthy church is Expositional Preaching. It shows the church’s belief in the authority of Scripture and is a commitment by the church to hear and submit to God’s Word. Preaching should be expositional because it reflects that God’s Word is central. Expositional preaching is essential to show the importance of God’s Word in preaching. Expositional preaching can be implemented by finding church leaders and pastors who…show more content… The church is a collection of people who have made a commitment to Christ and each other. Christians are called to love one another, be a family, and seek peace and unity with each other; this can only happen through church membership. Responsibilities of church members should include attending services regularly, attending communion particularly, attending members’ meetings consistently, praying regularly, giving regularly, and evangelism. The first step to using a biblical understanding of church membership in building healthy churches is prayer that church membership will mean more to churches and individuals. The value of church membership and the responsibilities of a church member should not be taken lightly by the church or its members. Stressing the importance of church membership through the teachings of the New Testament will encourage members to be active in the growth of the…show more content… The Bible always gives a congregational context for church leadership where the congregation is the decision maker in decisions of the church. While God calls the church as a whole to function in some aspects, it is also important for the church to trust God to give gifts to people to serve as church leaders. Church leadership should be recognized as a gift of God’s grace. As the head of the body of Christ, Jesus is the true leader of the Church and of each congregation. Leaders in local congregations should show the character of Christ in his role as boss who instructs, in his out front role as one who sets an example, in his supply role as one who supplied his disciples with the tools they needed, and in his serving role as one who served His people. To use biblical leadership to build a healthy church, the church must support the leaders it has, place leaders in leadership roles who are qualified based on their biblical understanding and biblical qualifications of leaders, help new members understand the congregation’s role in leadership, and help the church body understand who the true leader of the church is: Jesus