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The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel
 
 
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The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel [Paperback]

Mark Dever (Author), Paul Alexander (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 9, 2005

"Here is one of the most faithful and insightful pastors of our time, addressing the most crucial issues of church life. Mark Dever refuses to separate theology and congregational life, combining pastoral insight with clear biblical teaching. This book is a powerful antidote to the merely pragmatic approaches of our day-and a refutation to those who argue that theology just isn't practical."
-R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

"This book is the perfect example of what a truly practical book on church health and growth should be-it gives concrete guidance for and examples of biblical principles being put into practice in the life and ministry of the local congregation."
-J. Ligon Duncan III, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi

"Rare indeed are books on the church that begin with the Gospel. Rarer still are books that derive methodology for building the church from the Gospel. This excellent book does both."
-C. J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries

"The Deliberate Church shares many of the ministry lessons that Dr. Dever and his colleagues have learned from Scripture and sought to implement in the life of their church community. This book is for anyone who wants to get serious about following the biblical pattern for the church and is looking for down-to-earth practical help."
-Philip Graham Ryken, Senior Minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia

"Here is a novel idea: use the Bible as a handbook to gather and guide the church! And The Deliberate Church is a novel volume indeed, standing amid the spate of 'church-as-corporation, pastor-as-CEO' manuals that glut church life. Here is a book that wafts a radical, refreshing breeze from the pages of Scripture that will breathe life into the church. A crucial read."
-R. Kent Hughes, Senior Pastor, College Church in Wheaton (Illinois)


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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Here is one of the most faithful and insightful pastors of our time, addressing the most crucial issues of church life. Mark Dever refuses to separate theology and congregational life, combining pastoral insight with clear biblical teaching. This book is a powerful antidote to the merely pragmatic approaches of our day—and a refutation to those who argue that theology just isn’t practical.” —R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary “This book is the perfect example of what a truly practical book on church health and growth should be—it gives concrete guidance for and examples of biblical principles being put into practice in the life and ministry of the local congregation.” —J. Ligon Duncan III, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi “Rare indeed are books on the church that begin with the Gospel. Rarer still are books that derive methodology for building the church from the Gospel. This excellent book does both.” —C. J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries “The Deliberate Church shares many of the ministry lessons that Dr. Dever and his colleagues have learned from Scripture and sought to implement in the life of their church community. This book is for anyone who wants to get serious about following the biblical pattern for the church and is looking for down-to-earth practical help.” —Philip Graham Ryken, Senior Minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

"Here is one of the most faithful and insightful pastors of our time, addressing the most crucial issues of church life. Mark Dever refuses to separate theology and congregational life, combining pastoral insight with clear biblical teaching. This book is a powerful antidote to the merely pragmatic approaches of our day-and a refutation to those who argue that theology just isn't practical."
R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

"This book is the perfect example of what a truly practical book on church health and growth should be-it gives concrete guidance for and examples of biblical principles being put into practice in the life and ministry of the local congregation."
J. Ligon Duncan, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi; President, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

"Rare indeed are books on the church that begin with the Gospel. Rarer still are books that derive methodology for building the church from the Gospel. This excellent book does both."
C. J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries

"The Deliberate Church shares many of the ministry lessons that Dr. Dever and his colleagues have learned from Scripture and sought to implement in the life of their church community. This book is for anyone who wants to get serious about following the biblical pattern for the church and is looking for down-to-earth practical help."
Philip Graham Ryken, President, Wheaton College

"Here is a novel idea: use the Bible as a handbook to gather and guide the church! And The Deliberate Church is a novel volume indeed, standing amid the spate of 'church-as-corporation, pastor-as-CEO' manuals that glut church life. Here is a book that wafts a radical, refreshing breeze from the pages of Scripture that will breathe life into the church. A crucial read."
R. Kent Hughes, Author, Disciplines of a Godly Man; Senior Pastor Emeritus, College Church, Wheaton, Illinois


Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Crossway Books (September 9, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1581347383
  • ISBN-13: 978-1581347388
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
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4 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Prioritize church health over church growth, January 17, 2006
By 
Neal Stublen (Leawood, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel (Paperback)
What's wrong with church growth? Nothing, necessarily. But here's an excellent book to encourage pastors to pursue church health and allow the growth to be a natural result of a healthy church body.

Mark Dever and Paul Alexander advocate a strong dependence on the Word of God and prayer to build a healthy church. Even better, they share how they have sought to promote these aspects of pastoral ministry at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. It is evident that Mark Dever has sought to be "deliberate" in his service as a pastor and he has done a great job of sharing some of the practical wisdom that he seeks to live by in this book. You will find that even when he departs from some more popular approaches to pastoral ministry and church growth (e.g. multiple services, pastoral specialization), he expresses his views with humility and kindly invites you to consider the reasoning behind his position.

Among other things, you will learn how the pastoral staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church conducts public worship, evangelism, membership interviews, discipleship, church discipline and elders meetings - and you will see that it is all done in an attempt to "deliberately" display God's glory to one another and the world around them. Most importantly, you will see that they are always seeking to base their practices on biblical teaching, keeping the proclamation of the Gospel central and relying on the power of God's Spirit to make their work effective.

If you are a pastor, I would encourage you to read this book. If you are not a pastor, I would encourage you to read this book and give a copy to a pastor you know.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on church life/growth in recent years, November 4, 2005
This review is from: The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel (Paperback)
Finally--a book that commends true church health in the context of a church that is growing! This is a book that describes a church (Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.) that can serve as a model for churches large and small who want to minister relevantly in a postmodern world without sacrificing numerical growth. This book moves beyond the "modernist" accounts of church life and growth--with all their facts and figures and statistics and styles and trends and scientific formulas. But it is truly "postmodern" in recovering Reformation ecclesiological wisdom and contextualizing it in a contemporary environment. Yet it does this in a way that does not fall prey to so much that is faddish in the postmodern or emerging church movement (a movement, which, in effect, criticizes the seeker-sensitive movement by saying, "I'm tired of the church marketing to a baby-boomer niche market. I'm twenty-something. I'm the seeker now. Market to me.")

This book transcends so much of the same old Christ-of-culture, capitalistic market talk we read these days in church-life and church-growth books. Yet at the same time it is a real-world book that gives real answers and a model by which real churches can attain real growth (numerically and spiritually!). There is an obvious backlash in our time against niche-market Christianity, and this book will be a leading voice in that backlash.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not you're CEO Pastor!, July 13, 2007
This review is from: The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel (Paperback)
We live in a day and age where biblical preaching and good old theological teaching has taken a back seat and the CEO Pastor is in the front! This is not the case with Mark Dever. I read this book right before I became an elder, which helped me greatly.

Once I finished the book, I thought, is this really, how this church functions? I had to find out, so I took a trip to Capital Hill Baptist to see for myself. It was nice to see that Capital Hill Baptist operated in the exact way described in Devers' book. Not only that, but I "interrogated" one of the interns, and he described their elder's meetings exactly the way the book did.

If you are a church leader, I would highly recommend that you read this book. This book was intended to be the sequel to Devers' previous book, 9 marks of a healthy church, which is also fantastic!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
When I was interviewing with Capitol Hill Baptist Church before they called me to be their pastor, someone asked me if I had a program or plan to implement for growth. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jesus Christ, Grand Rapids, New Testament, Banner of Truth, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Downers Grove, Applying the Regulative Principle, Beginning the Work, Biblical Eldership, Doing Church Discipline, Doing Responsible Evangelism, Holy Spirit, The Role of the Pastor, The Roles of the Different Gatherings
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