Healthy
CHURCH MEMBER?
Thabiti M. Anyabwile
CROSSWAY BOOKS
WHEATON, ILLINOIS
What Is a Healthy Church Member?
Copyright © 2008 by Thabiti M. Anyabwile
Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.
Cover design: Josh Dennis
Cover illustration: iStock
First printing 2008
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Mobipocket ISBN 978-1-4335-0457-0
PDF ISBN 978-1-4335-0456-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anyabwile, Thabiti M., 1970–
What is a healthy church member? / Thabiti M. Anyabwile; foreword by Mark Dever.
p. cm.—(IX marks series)
ISBN 978-1-4335-0212-5 (hc)
1. Church—Marks. I. Title.
BV601.A59 2008
248.4—dc22
2007051434
For Jesus Christ, the Head of the church,
For his body and each member doing its part,
For local churches that have shaped me:
First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman,
Capitol Hill Baptist Church,
Church on the Rock
and
For the church that lives in my home:
Kristie, Afiya, Eden, and Titus
A Healthy Church Member Is an Expositional Listener
A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Theologian
A Healthy Church Member Is Gospel Saturated
A Healthy Church Member Is Genuinely Converted
A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Evangelist
A Healthy Church Member Is a Committed Member
A Healthy Church Member Seeks Discipline
A Healthy Church Member Is a Growing Disciple
A Healthy Church Member Is a Humble Follower
A Healthy Church Member Is a Prayer Warrior
Appendix: A Typical Covenant of a Healthy Church
The 9Marks series of books is premised on two basic ideas. First, the local church is far more important to the Christian life than many Christians today perhaps realize. A book called What Is a Healthy Church Member? might also be called What Is a Healthy Christian? We at 9Marks believe that a healthy Christian is a healthy church member.
Second, local churches grow in life and vitality as they organize their lives around God’s Word. God speaks. Churches should listen and follow. It’s that simple. When a church listens and follows, it begins to look like the One it is following. It reflects his love and holiness. It displays his glory. A church will look like him as it listens to him.
By this token, the reader might notice that all “9 marks,” taken from Mark Dever’s 2001 book, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church ...
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About What Is a Healthy Church Member?What Is a Healthy Church Member? biblically and practically instructs church members in ways they can labor for the health of their church. Following the theme of Mark Dever’s book What Is a Healthy Church?, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the next natural question: “What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?” God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well. This book explains how membership in the local church can produce spiritual growth in its members and how each member can contribute to the growth and health of the whole. |
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