Lessons Learned from a Church Planter’s Wife

By Jenny Manley | 9Marks Journal: Church Planting | 10.25.2023

Here are five lessons I have learned in the decade since I first arrived in an unfamiliar city with my husband, who had the task of planting a new church.

Sending Out Future Leaders Strategically

By Matt Rogers | 9Marks Journal: Church Planting | 10.20.2023

Pastors developing future leaders can help using these seven diagnostic questions.

Church Planting Roundtable: Counting the Cost 

By C. Greggsen, J. Joseph, J. Chatman, T. Ross, W. Forrest, Z. San | 9Marks Journal: Church Planting | 10.19.2023

Six church planters—national and international—explain how they wish they had counted the cost, which yields counsel for the rest of us.

The Role of Women in Healthy Church Formation

By Madeline Arthington | 10.19.2023

Here are twelve examples of how women can help the church based on Madeline Arthington’s experience in a Central Asian congregation.

Partnering Together to Plant

By Nate Akin | 9Marks Journal: Church Planting | 10.13.2023

While churches are independent and autonomous, they also are interdependent for the sake of those who don’t know the Lord.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Advice for Members on Church Plants

By John Joseph | 9Marks Journal: Church Planting | 10.11.2023

Here are four clear reasons why you should consider not joining a new church plant.

Cooperating Under Persecution 

By Paul Plantinga | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 10.10.2023

I see a strong and growing catholicity among persecuted churches in China that churches in freer environments could learn from.

Pastor, Not Entrepreneur

By Nathan Knight | 9Marks Journal: Church Planting | 10.06.2023

Emphasizing the acumen of Wall Street and the values of Silicon Valley in what to look for in a planter distracts us from paying attention to the New Testament’s emphases—who a man is.

Book Review: The Shepherd Leader at Home, by Timothy Z. Witmer

By Paul Alexander | 10.05.2023

Tim Witmer’s book is timely; but it’s not social critique or theological treatise. It’s simple, practical, Christian wisdom, rooted in biblical truth and love.

How Catholicity Compels Missions

By J. Kelly, J. Bowman | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 10.04.2023

Catholicity is not only an anchor to help the church remain faithful to the apostolic faith, but it also provides a theological basis for global missions.

What Is Catholicity and What Does It Require?  

By Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 09.29.2023

What do our churches mean by “catholic” when we recite the Nicene creed (381) and declare our belief in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church?

Are Ecclesiological Convictions and Catholic Affirmations Mutually Exclusive?

By Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 09.25.2023

The charge of anti-catholicity, when used to critique ecclesial convictions, evinces an inadequate understanding of catholicity.

Ecclesiological Triage

By Michael Lawrence | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 09.19.2023

How do we decide when and to what extent to cooperate with churches that are more or less like-minded?

Fundamentalism May Feel Safe, But It’s Shortsighted

By Phil Newton | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 09.11.2023

A narrow fundamentalism blinds us to healthy catholicity and theological error due to pride in a sterile, tightly-packaged belief system.

A Catholic Church

By Mark Dever | 9Marks Journal: Catholicity | 09.05.2023

The church’s catholicity is the simple acknowledgement that the church is not confined to any one place or people.