In his preface to the revised (2004) edition of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church , Pastor Mark Dever has a very interesting potential ‘tenth mark’: “If I had to add one more mark to what you’re about to read, it wouldn’t be missions or prayer or worship; but it would touch on all of those things. I think that I would add that we want our congregations to be outward-looking. We are to be upwardly focused – God-centered. But we are also, I think, supposed to reflect God’s own love as we look out on other people and on other congregations. This can show itself in many ways. I long for our congregation to integrate better our vision for global missions and our efforts in local evangelism. If we have a commitment to help evangelize an unreached people group abroad, why haven’t we done a better job in trying to find members of this people group in our metropolitan area? Why aren’t our missions and evangelism better integrated? We do pray in the pastoral prayer each Sunday morni...
Living and preaching at the foot of the Cross