Mark Dever

Mark Dever says that he does not have the gift of evangelism, and that he often misses opportunities to evangelize. In fact, he even fears that if evangelism was graded, he might get an “F.”
This makes him a strange candidate to write a book on evangelism. However, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism is one of the more helpful and encouraging books on the subject. It goes significantly beyond his material on evangelism in his other books, and I am thankful for his labor here.
To be a show more good book on evangelism the essential elements of motives, message, and method all must be addressed. Dever covers these in a way that is encouraging and not condemning. It is more difficult to be long and convoluted than concise and clear. While it is easy to be comprehensive, it is often more difficult to be direct. This book is just over 100 pages, and yet it is not lacking. It is clear and compelling.
Dever explains what the Gospel is, who should evangelize, why they should, and why they don’t. He uses appropriate Scripture and yet does not get bogged down in tangential doctrine. His points are illustrated with experiences from his own life, used as examples of both success and failure.
Dever paints a view of evangelism that is Biblical. He sees evangelism as something you live—that is backed by your lifestyle—as well as something that is spoken. He stresses the importance of clearly proclaiming the essentials of the Gospel, and he also stresses the importance of doing this in a conversation. “Don’t tell people something; talk with them. Have a conversation.”
One of the most helpful sections is where Dever discusses the contextualization of the Gospel. This is a word that has been recently hijacked by the emergent church movement, but Dever rescues it. He defines “contextualization” as explaining the Gospel “in such a way as to be understood.” He adds that rightly understood, contextualization should “give the Gospel more bite, not less.”
There is an appendix in the book, a few pages long, that deals with pastors and the particular opportunities and hindrances to evangelism that are unique to their occupation.
All Christians are called to evangelize, even if they are not particularly gifted. Many, if not most, Christians do poorly at this task. This book is an excellent tool to help Christians who recognize their insufficiency to be faithful in our task.
“The call to evangelism is a call to turn our lives outward from focusing on ourselves and our needs to focusing on God and on others made in his image who are still at enmity with him, alienated from him, and in need of salvation from sin and guilt.” This book helps us with our calling. show less

I'm not a Baptist, so there's much that I disagree with here. However, the discussions about the need for church polity, discipline, etc. are pretty good.

The Church is a wonderful, compact, academic treatment of ecclesiology from Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. This book is essentially a slightly expanded version of Dever's chapter in A Theology for the Church, a fantastic systematic theology edited by Danny Aiken.

Dever dares to ask the tough questions in this short book. He lays out a strong case for congregationalism and a plurality of elders in the local church. I particularly enjoyed Dever's discussion on multi-service show more and multi-site churches. I'm not sure I agree with his conclusions, but his thoughts are interesting and have caused me to think deeper about my own ecclesiological presuppositions.

I strongly recommend this book for the pastor, church leader, and advanced lay person. Again, if you already have A Theology for the Church, purchasing this book is unnecessary. show less

If you look for church revitalization books, they are few and far between. And while Deliberate

Church by Mark Dever was not marketed exclusively as that, it is a great help for pastors who are thinking purposefully about implementing a healthy philosophy of ministry into their church.

Mark Dever is pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and has been so since the early 90's. Dever certainly brought new life to CHBC and did so while keeping grounded in the gospel, and in the show more local church. He is known as author of the popular book 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, and this book is a help in putting those 9 marks into practice. He also heads 9 Marks Ministries, a great encouragement to many pastors worldwide. Also, a deeply informative follow on twittter.

The name of the book informs us of the nature of the book, and Dever wants us to think deeply about church and be deliberate about the way our churches our ordered. This covers from main service, to business meetings, polilty, children, youth, worship, and everything in between. Perhaps no one has written more or researched more about the church in recent times that Mark Dever. And Deliberate Church starts with a clear theology of the church that is helpful for planters and revitalizers. Namely, that God intends for the local church to be a corporate display His glory and wisdom. Dever builds on this biblical framework to to remind us that "we are building a corporate organic structure that will accurately magnify God's glory and faithfully communicate His Gospel.

Dever is immensely helpful in getting a solid foundation for the theology of the church, as it is the basis of everything else that a church does. Whether a church is new or old it must have a solid theology that undergirds all that they do and help guide their decisions.

He then turns to remind us of several truths regarding methods:
1. Theology drives methods
2. God's methods determine ours
3. The Gospel both enables and informs our participation in God's purposes'
4. Faithfulness to the Gospel must be our measure of success, not results.

Over the next few chapters Dever covers many topics, from "What should a pastor pray for his church", reverse membership interviews, sermon planning, worship service planning, and more.

Some quotes that stood out to me:

"Much as you must eat a varied diet from all food groups, so must you vary the worship meetings of church to satisfy different needs."

"Worship is a total life orientation of engaging with God on the terms that He proposes and in the way that he provides"

On transition in an established church: at least 5 years, lots of exposition, and recognition of small victories.

Growing a congregation to "spiritual maturity is not simply about quiet times, but about their love for other belivers, and their concrete expressions of that love."

This book is helpful for pastors of established churches to think about their methods and strategies in a way that will honor God and move their churches to be effective in their communities, and not do things "because we've always done it that way"

This book is helpful for church planters because it will give them a head start on establishing polity and methods to reach their communities. show less