What Is a Workshop?

If you’ve ever seen the 9Marks mission statement, you know that our goal is to cultivate and encourage churches to reflect the character of God, something we believe they will do as they institute several, often-overlooked biblical practices. Basically, the 9Marks Workshop is one of the things we do to accomplish that mission. We travel to different regions of the United States and abroad in order to present approximately six sessions on building healthy (that is, biblical) churches. And primarily, these sessions are for pastors, church leaders, and seminarians.

Typically, the 9Marks Workshop will be presented over one, two, or three days.


 Who are the speakers?

Depending on which Workshop you attend, you will probably find a different set of speakers. But most often they will include at least one full-time pastor and one full-time 9Marks representative.


What will I hear?

To some extent, different speakers will tailor the sessions to their own experiences, but the content will remain generally the same. Our goal is not to make your church look just like ours. It’s to say, “Here are the biblical principles. Here is how we have applied them. Now you have to figure out how to apply them in your location.”

The six Workshop sessions are divided into the following parts:

Foundation

Session 1: Displaying God’s Glorious Gospel

Construction

Session 2: Preaching & Biblical Theology

Session 3: Gospel, Conversion & Evangelism

Session 4: Membership, Discipline, and Discipleship

Session 5: Leadership

Life Together

Session 6: Covenanting Together

In all six, we aim to present pastors and church leaders with a little theory and a little practice, kind of like moving between your high school chemistry lecture room and the laboratory. Pastors want to “get the point”—that’s the theory. But they also want to know how to “get the church from here to there”—that’s the practice. We try to address both.

We also try to build in lots of time for Q&A.

Day 1

11:00am  Check-In
1:00pm  Introduction

Foundations of a Healthy Church 

1:30-2:20pm  Session 1: Display God’s Glorious Gospel
2:30-3:20pm  Session 2: Listen to God’s Word
3:20-3:50pm  Q&A for sessions 1 and 2

Building of a Healthy Church

4:15-5:30pm  Session 3: Preaching & Biblical Theology
7:30-9:00pm  Session 4: Conversion & Evangelism

Day 2

Life Together in a Healthy Church

8:30-10:00am  Session 5: Membership/Discipline
10:30-12:00pm  Session 6: Leadership


When and where do Workshops occur?

Most often, Workshops occur when and where we are invited to address groups of pastors, church leaders, or seminarians.


Can I host a 9Marks Workshop in my area? How?

Perhaps! Two steps are involved to request a 9Marks Workshop in your area:

Step 1:  Review the 9Marks Workshop Partnering Opportunities document. Hopefully this document will answer some of the questions you might have about what’s involved in hosting a 9Marks Workshop in your area.

Step 2: Complete a 9Marks Workshop Request form. 9Marks reviews Workshop requests on a quarterly basis