The Deliberate Church...A Very Small Book

So, the book really is not that small. For some reason, I can't find a decent picture of most books to post on here. It's either CBD's picture which includes a "23% off" tag or Amazon.com's photo which has a "look inside" thingy with an arrow on the front. Not diggin' the small pics. However, that is not what I want to write about. I just finished this book this evening and thought I'd give me two cents on it...because at the end of the day I know these authors really do want to know what I think. Not really, but I still like to talk about books.

This book is Mark Dever's (Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, D.C.) sincere effort to share what he has learned in growing a healthy, bible-loving church. He covers everything from expositional preaching, spiritual disciplines, worship, evangelism, membership, eldership, and church structure. The book is geared toward a pastoral audience, so much of the wisdom shared is for the express purpose of helping out new pastors, or even old pastors who are in a situation where reformation is needed in an old and dying church. Also, I think this book may have been a response to "The Purpose Driven Church" by Rick Warren. Warren's book caused a wave of implementation among churches all over the world, achieving almost a cult-like following and a formulaic church administration. Sort of a "plug in Warren's formula and abra-cadabra...your church will grow like a chia pet" mentality. Dever's concern is that the gospel should be our churches' focus in ministry, not a particular method. And when methods are needed (and they are) we should consult scripture; not what necessarily worked in some neighborhood for some pastor in some city 8,000 miles away. Methods can easily glorify man, whereas the Bible and the gospel will glorify Jesus; not to mention the fact that if the gospel is our focus, the church will be built by Christ - not by us. And that is what we want.

So, I liked it a lot. Pastor Dever seems like a man who is living out his faith, applying it to the church he pastors, and - in this book - bearing his heart for the edification of Jesus' people.