Answers for Pastors

What are some messages that people falsely claim are the gospel?

9Marks

What is the gospel?

9Marks

The gospel is the good news about what Jesus Christ has done to reconcile sinners to God. Here’s the whole story:

How can I grow my church?

9Marks
The short answer is, you can’t. You can faithfully scatter the seed of the Word, but only God can make it grow (1 Cor. 3:6). You can faithfully call people to turn from their sin and trust in Christ, but only God grants faith and repentance (Phil. 1:29; Acts 11:18). You can alert people to the danger of their state, but only God can raise them from spiritual death (Eph. 2:1, 5).

What weight should be given to the preferences of non-Christians for what Christians do in their gatherings?

9Marks

There are four biblical principles to keep in mind here.

Should church services primarily be for evangelizing non-Christians or building up Christians?

9Marks

First Corinthians 14 provides us with some of the most detailed instruction about the corporate gatherings of Christians in all of the New Testament. In this chapter, Paul explains that church services should primarily be for building up Christians.

What weight should pastors give to numerical growth?

9Marks
Pastors should consider dozens of different factors in evaluating their ministry. Numerical growth should be one of the items on that list. However, it should probably fall pretty low on that list, under things such as: Faithful preaching Faithful praying Faithful living Faithful evangelizing A congregation’s spiritual health

What is success in ministry? How can it be measured?

9Marks

That’s a tough question to answer because competing principles are at play.

1. Measuring the supernatural? Supernatural fruitfulness cannot always be measured.

2. Success equals faithfulness. One of our most important criteria for success should be whether or not a man is faithfully preaching the Word and living a life of conformity to the Word.

What can we learn from Fundamentalists?

9Marks

From Fundamentalists, we can learn

To contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). To evangelize. To insist on the importance of penal substitutionary atonement. To vigilantly guard against false teaching. To work for the moral and doctrinal purity of the church. To separate from those who teach a false gospel.

How do we discern when new doctrinal boundaries are needed?

9Marks

False teaching changes, so old doctrinal boundaries do not always protect against new problems. But how can we know when we need new boundaries? We can discern when we need to erect new doctrinal boundaries when:

Why should churches draw doctrinal boundaries?

9Marks
False teaching harms the church. Paul calls right doctrine “sound” or “healthy” (1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3). False teaching, by contrast, is spiritually destructive (2 Pet. 2:1). False teaching spreads. The New Testament warns us that false teaching spreads like gangrene (1 Tim. 2:17). Churches should draw boundaries for the sake of their health and even their very lives.  

How do we determine which doctrines are more important and which are less important?

9Marks

The answer to that question depends on how closely related to the gospel a doctrine is and how much practical impact it has on the Christian life.

How much theological agreement is necessary in order for Christians to work together in ministry?

9Marks
In order to work together in a ministry context, Christians need to agree about the gospel. How are we saved? What are we saved from? What is the basis of our right standing before God? If Christians disagree about the gospel itself, no true cooperation in matters of ministry is possible.

Should Christians cooperate with those with whom they disagree theologically?

9Marks
First things first. There’s no true unity except in the truth. Therefore, all Christian cooperation must be based on doctrinal agreement. The question is then, how much? Do Christians need to agree about every nuance of every doctrine—or the interpretation of every single passage of Scripture—in order to work together?

What are some weaknesses in current missional thinking?

9Marks
Historical revisionism. Many missional authors make a far bigger deal out of our culture’s move to postmodernity than a sober biblical assessment warrants. 

The Bible promises that God will transform human culture in the end. Doesn’t that mean we should be engaged in that work now?

9Marks

No. Just because God is doing something doesn’t mean we should or are able to do it.

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