Mercy Ministry

How Programs Fit into an Ordinary Means of Grace Ministry
By Mike McKinley | 9Marks Journal: The Ordinary Means of Grace—Or, Don’t Do Weird Stuff | 07.26.2021Our programs are helpful only to the extent that they put people in contact with the God-ordained means of grace

Life, Ministry, and Books with Tim Keller—Part 2: Ministry
By M. Dever, T. Keller | 02.17.2015Mark Dever interviews Tim Keller about his pastoral legacy, what a typical Sunday morning looks like for him, his dichotomy-refuting “third way-ism,” and much more.

Book Review: Reforming Mercy Ministry, by Ted Rivera
Review by Timoteo Sazo | 01.05.2015Thought-provoking and challenging, this book is a guide that church leaders and church members will find helpful as they seek to form, or reform, their own mercy ministries.
Word Ministry and Deed Ministry (1 of 3)
By Jonathan Leeman | 06.11.2014About a year ago, a group of us at 9Marks decided to meet together semi-regularly to discuss that thorny bramble of a topic—the mission of the church. It’s a … keep reading…
Word Ministry and Deed Ministry (2 of 3)
By Jonathan Leeman | 06.11.2014At the risk of redundancy with the first post in this series, here’s an excerpt from something I wrote which explores a little more deeply this question of whether … keep reading…
Word Ministry and Deed Ministry (3 of 3)
By Jonathan Leeman | 06.11.2014Here’s part 1 of this series, and here’s part 2. Now, here’s part 3: The word “mission” gets caught up in this question about the relationships of words and deeds. Some people say that … keep reading…

Planting Churches in Hard Places
By M. Dever, M. Spandler-Davison, M. McConnell | 05.02.2014What does it take to plant churches among the urban poor? What role do women’s ministry and mercy ministry play?
Obligation, Stewardship, and the Poor
By Kevin DeYoung | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 07.01.2012It’s easy (and biblical) to insist that Christians should “do something about the poor.” But how can we sort out whom we should help, and how much?
Facing Up to Sex Trafficking
By Justin Holcomb | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.27.2012Should Christians pass off victims of sexual trafficking to non-Christian counselors? Send them to someone else’s church? What? What should pastors know about this world and what can they do?
Adopting a School
By J. D. Greear | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.27.2012Here’s how the Summit Church learned to love their neighbors, and what that did for their witness to their community.
Loving the Unlovely and Unwanted
By David Apple | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.27.2012This is the story of one urban church’s efforts to serve its community through both mercy and pointing to the source of mercy.
How to Start a Mercy Ministry in your Church
By Layla Wilder | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.27.2012If you want your church to help poor people, decide how you are going to help, find people to serve, and tell them about Jesus as you do.
Church Mercy Ministry as Integrated Auxiliary
By Jamie Dunlop | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.26.2012If a mercy ministry in your church grows to the point where it needs some real structure, consider making it an “integrated auxiliary.”
How to Have Gospel Conversations with Torn Up People
By John Lauber | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.26.2012How can you talk to someone with whom you seem to have nothing in common? By seeing their life and yours through the lens of the Bible’s grand narrative.

We Need to Be Careful, but We also Need to Care
By Mike McKinley | 9Marks Journal: Mercy Ministry in the Church | 06.26.2012Theological nuance is important, but it should never mask disobedience.