Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! This is the last article in a series on the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (as described in Mark Dever’s book of the same name). We have already looked at the need for expositional preaching, Biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, and church membership. This article is going to round out the series by looking at church discipline, discipleship, and leadership.
- Church Discipline
Dever describes church discipline as “simple obedience to God and a simple confession that we need help.” Church discipline is the practice of maintaining purity in the church as described most clearly in Matthew 18:15-17. Jesus told the disciples “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Every step of church discipline is to be done in love with the goal of restoring relationships in the church family. The first step is unique because the offended individual initiates the restoration by going to the other person and lovingly telling him he has been offended. This is an important detail because sometimes we say or do things without knowing the pain it has caused others (i.e. a poorly worded comment or a joke that went too far).
The second step only comes into play if the first step does not go well. The second step is for the offended party to take one or two others along to lovingly share their concern for restoring the relationship. If the person does not respond to this then the issue begins to affect more people in the church family so the next step is for the whole church to be told what is happening so that the person who is unrepentant recognizes the seriousness of the issue and apologizes for what took place. The last step is difficult for any church to experience, but it has a purifying effect on the church family because the unrepentant individual is lovingly told they cannot take part in the full benefits of the church family until they repent and seek reconciliation.
Dever does a good job of explaining the history and importance of church discipline. This is one of most neglected parts of healthy church life because of the perceived awkwardness holding church members accountable. Jesus made it clear that it needs to be a part of church life so that the purity of the church will be maintained.
2. Discipleship
Dever describes this mark of a healthy church as “A Concern for Discipleship and Growth.” All believers are expected to grow spiritually. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) The healthy Christian life is marked by the believer continually being transformed into the image of Christ. This is not to be done alone. The Christian life is to be lived in community with other believers (Hebrews 10:24-25). The unity that believers have with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is reflected in the unity believers have with other brothers and sisters in Christ. When a church is functioning in a healthy way there will be countless opportunities for spiritual growth by the many interactions each believer has with others.
Discipleship is the term used to describe the way Christians grow spiritually in the church. It is modeled after the way Jesus trained disciples to become the leaders of the church. Those men learned what it meant to be a follower of Christ by interacting with him, face-to-face for a prolonged period of time. That is how discipleship is to happen in healthy churches today.
There are many different ways Christians can be discipled. There are informal methods that encourage people to interact together. There are more formal classes that help believers understand the full counsel of God as revealed in his word. The leadership of local churches need to have a plan for how to equip believers to grow in their knowledge of God’s word and in their commitment to obey God’s word. The church as a whole needs to recognize that they are responsible to love one another and that includes helping each other grow in godliness.
3. Church Leadership
Mark Dever makes the argument that church leadership needs to have five aspects. He starts by writing that biblical church leadership is done in a congregational context. He cites several different passages to support his view that the congregation of each local church has the final authority on decisions in the church. There are several different views on the issue of authority in the church. Dever doesn’t spend much time explaining other views of church polity. He cautions against modeling church leadership from what the apostles did in the early church because “we present-day church leaders might ascribe too much authority to ourselves, without deserving such authority.” I would recommend that readers of this article do their own study on this important issue before coming to a conclusion.
The other aspects of biblical church leaders are that they are biblically qualified, that they are charismatic leaders, that they are Christlike, and that their leadership is modeled after God’s authority. The biblical qualifications for elders leading a church are listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 2. The qualifications describe different aspects of having a character that is “above reproach” along with the skill of being able to teach God’s word. Dever’s description of churches needed “charismatic” leaders does not refer to a leader’s engaging personality or his ability to teach. It is a reference to the original Greek idea of “charisma,” which refers to the gifts of grace that God has given the church. A charismatic leader is one who seeks to lead by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to equip the saints for the work of the church.
The Christlike model of church leadership is necessary in healthy churches because Jesus Christ is the Shepherd of the church and all the other leaders are his undershepherds. Healthy churches need to focus their energy on pursuing Christ and helping others to do the same. The last aspect of healthy church leadership is connected to the authority of God. Many people have a corrupt view of human authority. This can create a skepticism towards all human authority. Dever makes the argument that healthy churches will teach a biblical view of authority that creates a sense of safety and security for those in the church because they understand the leadership is seeking the growth of the people instead of seeking to control them.
