What is a Healthy Church? by Mark Dever was first published in 2005 and the 2024 revised edition just came out—testifying to the continuing need for books on church health and the continuing influence of this book in particular. What is a Healthy Church? is part of the IX Marks series, which identifies and exposits the core characteristics of biblical churches. I’ve read a few of the other IX Marks books and highly recommend them to anyone who is looking to get the most out of church involvement—which, frankly, should be all of us. All the books in this series are concise, accessible, and insightful. Plus, the newer editions by Crossway are just lovely.
What is, What is a Healthy Church?
True to its title, What is a Healthy Church? focuses on defining and describing a healthy local church. This definition is twofold, containing both a pragmatic side that recognizes that no church will be perfect this side of eternity as well as a teleological component that clarifies the goal toward which all healthy churches must strive.
First, Dr. Dever acknowledges that no church is perfect. However, he does not throw up his hands in defeat. Rather, he clarifies that healthy churches can and do still exist. Much like people, churches can be healthy and growing organisms even as they are not completely perfect:
“I like the word healthy because it communicates the idea of a body that’s living and growing as it should. It may have its share of problems. It’s not been perfected yet. But it’s on the way. It’s doing what it should do because God’s word is guiding it.”1
He then articulates the goal of healthy churches. This is the end that keeps these local bodies moving forward, learning and growing and maturing rather than stagnating:
“A healthy church is a congregation that increasingly reflects God’s character as his character has been revealed in his word.”2
This is the type of church Dr. Dever encourages pastors to lead and Christians to join. Our goal as leaders and laypeople is to be part of a church that looks more and more like the One it worships.
But how do we get there? In the above definition, Dr. Dever is explicit: we cannot have healthy churches if we are not seeking to reflect God’s character, and we cannot reflect God’s character accurately without hearing and understanding his Word.
This brings us to expository preaching. Expository preaching (coupled, of course, with gospel doctrine) is so integral to the maturity of Christians and congregations that Dr. Dever includes it as one of the nine nonnegotiable marks of healthy churches. He goes so far as to write:
“Take away expositional preaching and gospel doctrine, and you’ll watch that church’s health decline quickly and radically. In fact, expect it to expire soon (even if its doors are technically open).”3
My husband is a teaching pastor at a Bible church and we live in an area with many mainline church buildings. I have to wonder, though, whether there are as many stable mainline congregations in those buildings. We are in the trenches. We’ve seen the reality that Dr. Dever so powerfully communicates: walking verse-by-verse through Scripture and preaching the central, plain meaning of the text is oxygen to breathing, growing, living congregations.
I personally was most encouraged by Dr. Dever’s writing on expository preaching, but he also devotes chapters to gospel doctrine, conversion and evangelism, church membership, church discipline, discipleship and growth, church leadership, prayer, and missions. Each of these is helpful and, together, these chapters present a robust vision for the church’s life and ministry. The chapter on prayer in particular made me grateful for our church’s commitment to being “a church of prayer, not just a church that prays.”
Overall, this book reminded me how much I love our growing, living, breathing, maturing church body.
Who should read this book?
Most urgently, those who are considering leaving their current church or joining a new one should read this book. Dr. Dever properly reorients readers, helping them realize that church is not about their wants as individual members but about joining and serving a body of distinct yet unified members. He offers questions to help readers decide whether to leave or join a local church and advice for how to do so in a respectful, humble manner.4
I would most strongly urge professing Christians who are not members of a local church to read this book and to take its admonition to heart. In the first chapter, “Your Christianity and the Church,” Dr. Dever emphasizes the utter necessity for Christians to be involved in local church bodies—not as occasional attendees or MIA members but as regular, serving, growing participants.
Dr. Dever does not argue this point based on legalism but on identity. Essentially, if you are in Christ, you are in the Church Universal—whether you like it or not. Joining a local church body is an expression of who you already are: a redeemed member of Christ’s body. Read the following in a Texan accent to soften the blow: Being a Christian is not simply a “me and Jesus” relationship but a “Jesus and me and all y’all” covenant. Dever explains:
“A Christian is someone who, by virtue of his reconciliation with God, has been reconciled to God’s people.”5
A few pages later he writes:
“When a person becomes a Christian, he doesn’t just join a local church because it’s a good habit for growing in spiritual maturity. He joins a local church because it’s the expression of what Christ has made him—a member of the body of Christ.”6
If you claim Christ but refuse regular fellowship with other Christians, you are negating your own claim. You are not living in alignment with your own professed identity. Be in a Church, Christian. Be who you are.
Even for those who are regularly involved in Bible-preaching churches, this is a useful read. It’s always good to get a check-up. Just as a functional person should still visit his physician now and then, this book is useful not only for those looking for or leaving a church but those who are content in their churches. We should all do spiritual inventories now and then. What is a Healthy Church? helped me check in on our church and my own membership, discerning areas in need of growth and thanking God for areas that are no longer sickly.
Where can readers purchase this book?
I received a copy of this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review. If you’re interested in reading this book, consider purchasing it either directly from Crossway or on Amazon.
Ryanne Molinari 