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Mark Dever and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, September 9th 2005. 221 pp.
5 out of 5
Purchase: Westminster | Amazon
Both authors Mark Dever and Paul Alexander have written a helpful book for pastors and church leaders on doing church ministry according to the Bible and centered on the Gospel. As the book states on page 28, “The Gospel alone shapes and evaluate must both shape and evaluate any ministry method we use.” This is a great antidote to the seeker sensitive church method or other marketing gimmick that is driven more by man-centered pragmatisms instead of the Word of God. I love how this book is both biblical and practical since I believe there is a real need of resources on practical ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). Too often one find two kinds of extreme: practical works without it being biblical or biblical works on the church without a deeper practical picture of what does it look like. Dever and Alexander writes from being biblically informed and years of wisdom and experience which through their 9 Marks ministry have greatly helped many other local churches including the one I minister at.
The work begins with a very encouraging introduction. The main body of the book is divided into four section with each containing about a half a dozen chapters. Section 1 is on gathering the church while section 2 is on when the church gathers with section 3 on gathering elders and finally section 4 is on when the elders gather. The book ends with an encouraging conclusion that is fitting to be a chapter in its own right followed by an appendix on church membership interview form.
Perhaps the section of the book that I benefited the most from is section 4 on elders’ meeting. I wished I read this book much earlier in the beginning of my ministry as that would have made me think more consciously of what a leadership meeting would be like. But then I also believe in the sovereignty of God that it is meant to be that I read this book the time I did and would have benefited the most at this moment in time than I would probably have appreciated what I was reading during the beginning of my ministry. Dever gave a good advice of emailing the leadership agenda a week in advance and also giving packets with sealed envelope with elder’s name on it to reinforce the seriousness and confidentiality of the meeting. I also appreciated Dever’s point of having a time of Bible and prayers before the business of the meeting. I thought it was helpful to see the meeting organized in Dever’s church in the order of membership, administration, ministry, missions, communication with deacons and between elders, etc. I thought it was good for Dever to say that the meeting ought to be encouraging and the suggestion of having a board to write down what elders were encouraged with at the church; it was a good advice for me to hear as ministry can easily become critical in a ungodly way since we are dealing with sin and sinners.
There were many other precious insights from this book. For instance I enjoyed chapter 9’s discussion of the roles of different gatherings. It was extremely helpful to hear how Mark Dever’s church Capitol Hill Baptist Church go about doing there various gatherings throughout the week and the purpose of each one. Also as an expository preacher I take a long time in preparing my sermon and I often wonder if I’m taking too much time studying. Yet as a pastor I also meet a lot with our people and sometimes it feels like I’m burning both ends of the candle. Here I was encouraged with Mark Dever writing that young pastors spending about twenty five hours a week studying and prepping for Sunday Sermon is normal. That greatly encouraged me. Section three of the book on raising elders was very helpful especially with Dever’s point that “recognize before training” elders is a better model than just trying to train one up from scratch. I’ll admit I have made this mistake in ministry and while I have always gone slow to recognize people for offices nevertheless the training from scratch approach I used to do drained a lot of time, money and my own personal pain. The qualification quadrants on page 141 was also helpful.
I went through this book as part of a discipling tool with one of our deacons as preparation for him to serve our church. It was immensely beneficial for both of us and we learned things together. I recommend this work for pastors, elders, deacons, other church leaders and church interns. If you are not any of the above this work would also be edifying to read as well as being given as a gift to those in church leadership who have a desire to lead the church according to God’s Word.
The Domain for Truth 
Thanks, Jim. I read a short book from Dever about church polity a few years back and appreciated the wisdom. Yes, a church needs some organizational structure or it ends up spinning its wheels unnecessarily. I remember the first church we attended had zero structure, e.g., I was asked if I wanted to be a Sunday School teacher and was then handed a lesson plan. That was it. No guidance, no oversight. I was then asked if I wanted to be a deacon over the phone. Once again, no guidance, no process. My take was the pastor didn’t put any effort into polity because it was always going to be a one-man show.
Wow that’s crazy. Having no structure can be very dangerous as well that allows lack of care to watch the doctrines of those who are teaching, being deacons, etc. Biblically informed structure with wisdom’s guidance is important and this book is probably the best one of the many books out there on this. What was the Dever book you read a few years back?
It was “A Display of God’s Glory,” only 84 pages long but very good.
Thanks for this review, Pastor! I’d love to read this, as we’re about to be in one place long enough to need a new home church. Do you think it would be helpful for my husband and I to discern whether or not any given church is running Biblically?
Hey sister,
For me I am more concern about any given church’s doctrinal statement of faith and whether they take their own doctrinal statement seriously. That to me is the first priority before how a church is run. While I have very particular views of how churches are run I try to be gracious over the details. But somethings are important concerning how churches are run and for me the basics is that the pastor alone is not the one with the whole power and also a leadership that he’s accountable to no matter what that leadership is called (elders, board, deacons, etc) though of course I think it is ideal he’s accountable and equal with those who are elders material. I am realistic to realize that churches might not have a elder material among the leaders right away but its important to see if there are men growing in that direction. I think in all things realize a church running biblically is going to be a process and as a Pastor myself trying to reform our church to run more biblically I really see God’s work by being first committed to the Gospel and the Bible. Let me know if there are any other specific questions you might have sister!
Thank you so much, brother! That was very helpful, I’m going to read this to my husband. I’m sure this is one of those decisions that can be difficult for the head of the family. Since he works at the hospital he’s often working weekends or on call, which means there will be times Kk and I go to church without him. That puts a little extra pressure on him to ensure it’s not a place we’ll be led astray. I know you’re advice here will be a blessing to him, it sure blessed me! I can’t thank you enough for taking the time out of your busy schedule to write that all down. Grace and peace to you!
I wished more pastors and leaders read this book