The Deliberate Church

a review by Adam Pohlman

The Deliberate Church proposes that we do not need to be constantly changing to be attractive to the culture, but to focus on faithfulness to God's "methods" laid out thousands of years ago in the message of the Gospel that is a timeless truth. Today's evangelical culture has become its own little social club and corporation rolled into an organization that reflects the world instead of shaping it. In order to reach the world, we have adopted worldly strategies and marketing methods to attract unbelievers. "Before you start reading in earnest, let us clarify what The Deliberate Church is not, just for truth in advertising. First, it's not new. It's old ... really old. ... Second, it's not a program. It's not something you can just plug into your church and press PLAY. ... Third, it's not a quick fix. In other words, don't expect to read this book, implement its suggestions, and see immediate, observable results" (page 20).

Mark Dever and Paul Alexander search the pages of Scripture to find out how a church should be built and what it should be made of. The extensive use of Scripture in context reveals the dedication of the authors to be faithful to God's design. There are no cliché references to church-growth and culture-sensitivity. Their attention is centered on being a biblically, healthy church that loves God by obeying His commands and spreading the Gospel around the world.

Divided into four sections; Gathering the Church, When the Church Gathers, Gathering the Elders, and When the Elders Gather, the book focuses on the meat of each part of the local church, members and leadership, describing how people join the church and leadership then how they function together. Dever and Alexander cover the basics of building a church with the emphasis on magnifying the Gospel. The book is further divided into chapters that offer practical information (based on Scripture) explaining evangelism, membership, leadership, preaching, ministry, discipline, and teaching. It is very helpful in understanding a healthy church and laying out a vision for a new church or one redefining its purpose.

Many books are written on how to grow churches or be culturally relevant to get the Gospel out, but most often fail to clarify what they mean by "Gospel." In The Deliberate Church, the authors, trying to build a church around the Gospel, spend half of a chapter at the beginning of the book making sure the reader understands the biblical gospel. "Our ministries are ultimately about 'ensur[ing] salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you' (1 Tim 4:16)... [N]ominalism (being a Christian in name only) has spread in our churches like gangrene, and misunderstandings about the Gospel abound among professing evangelicals" (pg. 43). Too often we presume that everyone we know already understands the Gospel (whether professing believers or unbelievers) and we allow them to continue on in ignorance which "may amount to nothing more than a blissful damnation" (pg. 43). Nearly every page says that everything we do in the church, even the mundane, should be done for the glory of God with an emphasis on the Gospel.

The shape of evangelicalism has changed so much over the past few decades that no one can really define what "traditional" means. We have moved from old-fashioned, to seeker-sensitive and contemporary, and now to organic and emerging. Dever and Alexander say that if we focus on faithfulness to God and the Gospel laid out in His Word, that he will grow His church throughout the world according to His timing and His will, not by our style, charisma, methods, or programs. "What you win them with is likely what you'll win them to" (pg 44.) "Churches are most healthy when the Gospel is most clear; and the Gospel is most clear when our evangelistic methods are most plain" (pg. 55). Even though they reject the many new and exciting culturally-relevant trends, the authors make it clear that we are commanded to engage the culture and do more than be a reflection of it, but shape it to the image of Christ.