Anyabwile - What Is a Healthy Church Member?

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign-up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

Facebook
Twitter
Google +

What Is a Healthy Church Member? fills an enormous gap in the literature of practical Christian living. The book is extremely valuable as a straightforward, easy-to-read users guide to the church. It is also a profound and thoroughly biblical digest of practical ecclesiology, written with a compelling sense of passion and urgency. As such, it is a valuable resource for every church memberfrom the beginner to the seasoned pastor alike. In an era when Christians in general seem confused about what kind of community the church ought to be, heres a helpful handbook outlining the churchs true biblical priorities, especially as they apply to individual church members.

JOHN MACARTHUR, President, Grace to You

Thabiti Anyabwile has filled a great void in contemporary Christian literature. Books on how to be a faithful pastor or church leader are common, but it is rare to find a book that speaks so directly about being a faithful church member. With a wealth of biblical insight and practical instruction, Anyabwile calls Christians to do more than just attend church, but to be the kind of faithful, engaged church members that God intends them to be. Given the state of so many of our churches today, this book arrives not a moment too soon.

R. ALBERT MOHLER JR., President,
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Some books are so simple they are scarcely worth skimming; others are so complex that, unless their subject matter is extraordinarily important, they are not worth the time they demand. But sometimes one finds a book that is simultaneously simple and profoundand this is one of them. In a generation when many people are talking about the importance of Christians living in community, few have unpacked, in biblically faithful and personally penetrating ways, just what that means. Thabiti Anyabwile closes the gap. Read it, think about it, pray over itand distribute it generously around your congregation.

D. A. CARSON, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

This book provides an excellent and much-needed focus on the individual church member. We can all benefit from this insightful book.

R. C. SPROUL, Chairman and President,
Ligonier Ministries; Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching, Saint Andrews Chapel, Sanford, Florida

A faithful pastor is also a good church member. Thabiti is evidence of this truth and thus has written with pastoral insight and personal experience on what it means to be a healthy church member. Any church desiring to strengthen its membership would do well to get this book into the hands of its members. Being a faithful church member in an age of overindulgence and selfish impulses is not easy. Yet, Thabiti not only reminds us it is possible, but he also challenges us with the biblical reality that it is necessary. I continue to thank God for the mind and heart of Thabiti Anyabwile.

ANTHONY J. CARTER, pastor; author; editor,
Experiencing the Truth: Bringing the Reformation
to the African-American Church

Thabiti Anyabwiles What Is a Healthy Church Member? asks the right questions about the offer of church membership, calling each local body of believers to cultivate and sustain practices of an assembly formed by the gospel. It is a most practical manual, yet it is free from the religious utilitarianism that often marks seeker-oriented works in this genre. Any leadership and laity that would elect to read this book together and embrace its exhortations would find their life as the family of God increasing in its wisdom, power, love, and witness in the world. What a balm we all will find in the words of this book!

ERIC C. REDMOND, Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, Maryland

CROSSWAY BOOKS

WHEATON, ILLINOIS

What Is a Healthy Church Member?

Copyright 2008 by Thabiti M. Anyabwile

Published by Crossway Books

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Josh Dennis

Cover illustration: iStock

First printing 2008

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Mobipocket ISBN 978-1-4335-0457-0

PDF ISBN 978-1-4335-0456-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Anyabwile, Thabiti M., 1970

What is a healthy church member? / Thabiti M. Anyabwile;
foreword by Mark Dever.

p. cm. (IX marks series)

ISBN 978-1-4335-0212-5 (hc)

1. ChurchMarks. I. Title.

BV601.A59 2008

248.4dc22 2007051434

LB 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Jesus Christ, the Head of the church,
For his body and each member doing its part,
For local churches that have shaped me:

First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman,
Capitol Hill Baptist Church,
Church on the Rock

and

For the church that lives in my home:
Kristie, Afiya, Eden, and Titus

The 9Marks series of books is premised on two basic ideas. First, the local church is far more important to the Christian life than many Christians today perhaps realize. A book called What Is a Healthy Church Member? might also be called What Is a Healthy Christian? We at 9Marks believe that a healthy Christian is a healthy church member.

Second, local churches grow in life and vitality as they organize their lives around Gods Word. God speaks. Churches should listen and follow. Its that simple. When a church listens and follows, it begins to look like the One it is following. It reflects his love and holiness. It displays his glory. A church will look like him as it listens to him.