Midlane Park Baptist Church

I have just finished reading an excellent book that I wan to commend to you as your pastor. The book is entitled, “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” by Mark Dever. I received this book last week at the Together for the Gospel Conference that I attended and have been wanting to read this book for a while now. In order to (1) spur you on to possibly purchase and read this book and to (2) instruct you in some wonderful teaching on evangelism, I have divided this book into 10 summaries that I will post on this site in the coming weeks. This being the first of ten, I want to take the opportunity to provide you with some background to Mark Dever, the author, and his work through 9Marks Ministries.

This book is published by 9Marks, which is based out of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., of which the author, Mark Dever, is pastor. 9Marks has made it their mission to help pastor and layperson alike seek to develop healthy, biblical churches. In fact, they have identified 9 marks (hence 9Marks Ministries) that characterize a healthy church. It should be noted that a biblical understanding of evangelism is the fifth mark of a healthy church.

If this is indeed the case, that a healthy, biblical church has a correct view of evangelism, then you can see the importance of reading and studying this topic from a scriptural stand point. I believe a healthy, biblical church is one that has a correct view of evangelism. I believe that if we do not possess a correct view of evangelism then we are an unhealthy church. What do you do if you or a loved one is unhealthy? Do you seek the remedy from a doctor? Or do you allow the illness to take over? We will seek to understand evangelism from the Bible. Mark Dever will help us to accomplish that!

I trust that you will enjoy the coming series on The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. I trust that you will purchase the book and read for yourself how you may acquire a healthy understanding of this fifth mark.