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