02/05/23 A Note from Pastor Ben

Not too long ago I read that Charles Spurgeon, who is known as “The Prince of Preachers,” was once asked what it felt like to be the best preacher in England. His response was simple: “I don’t know; but if I meet him, I’ll ask him.” Most assumed, and still do today, that he was the greatest preacher of his time. However, he refused to believe the notion that success or greatness could be measured in worldly terms. How can you measure a preacher or a church? What makes one good or great? There is often an assumption that big churches are better, but the Bible corrects such thinking.
We’ve seen tremendous growth in the last decade at First Baptist Enterprise. We praise God for more people coming to faith in Christ, more baptisms, and more people joining FBC. However, all of this growth begs a question: are we successful? Of course, such a question is loaded with a further question: What is success in church life? Who gets to determine successful and unsuccessful. After all, if you can’t define winning, how do you know
when it happens? According to the Bible success is far different than the standard metrics Westerners often assume—the 3 B’s: Budgets, Baptisms, and Be-hinds in the seats.
Mark Dever’s classic, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, outlines nine metrics of determining success or health for a local church. The nine marks are listed below. In the following weeks, I want to unpack each one and consider how we as a church may increasingly lean into each one.
1. Expositional Preaching
2. Biblical Theology
3. The Gospel
4. A Biblical Understanding of Conversion
5. A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism
6. A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership 7. Biblical Church Discipline
8. A Concern for Discipleship and Growth 9. Biblical Church Leadership
May the Lord be gracious to us as we seek to be a healthy church.
- Pastor Ben