Built upon the Rock: The Church (Healthy Church Study Guides)

Anyone who loves Jesus will love what Jesus loves. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus loves the church. He knows about and cares for individual churches and wants them to be spiritually healthy and vibrant. Not only has Jesus laid down his life for the church but he has also given many instructions in his Word regarding how churches are to live and function in the world. This series of Bible studies by 9Marks shows how Scripture teaches these things. Any Christian who works through this curriculum, preferably with other believers, will be helped to see in fresh ways the wisdom, love, and power of God in establishing the church on earth. These studies are biblical, practical, and accessible. I highly recommend this curriculum as a useful tool that will help any church embrace its calling to display the glory of God to a watching world.

In America today we have the largest churches in the history of our nation, but the least amount of impact for Christ’s kingdom. Slick marketing and finely polished vision statements are a foundation of sand. The 9Marks Healthy Church Study Guides Series is a refreshing departure from church-growth materials, towards an in-depth study of God’s Word that will equip God’s people with his vision for his Church. These study guides will lead local congregations to abandon secular methodologies for church growth and instead rely on Christ’s principles for developing healthy, God-honoring assemblies.

This is a Bible study that is actually rooted in the Bible and involves actual study. In the 9Marks Healthy Church Study Guides Series a new standard has been set for personal theological discovery and corresponding personal application. Rich exposition, compelling questions, and clear syntheses combine to give a guided tour of ecclesiologythe theology of the church. I know of no better curriculum for generating understanding of and involvement in the church than this. It will be a welcome resource in our church for years to come.

Bobby Jamieson has done local church pastors an incredible service by writing these study guides. Clear, biblical, and practical, they introduce the biblical basis for a healthy church. But more importantly, they challenge and equip church members to be part of the process of improving their own church’s health. The studies work for individual, small group, and larger group settings. I have used them for the last year at my own church and appreciate how easy they are to adapt to my own setting. I don’t know of anything else like them. Highly recommended!

9Marks, as a ministry, has taken basic biblical teaching about the church and put it into the hands of pastors. Bobby, by way of these study guides, has taken this teaching and delivered it to the person in the pew. I am unaware of any other tool that so thoroughly and practically helps Christians understand God’s plan for the local church. I can’t wait to use these studies in my own congregation.

Today’s evangelical world abounds with hidden, worldly assumptions about the nature of the church which, in turn, have led to wrong-headed approaches to pastoral leadership and practice. Whether we like it or not, western culture has conditioned us to view successful churches and their ministries in terms of size and numbers. We have created a toxic culture where pragmatism rules and self-promotion flourishes. Bobby Jamieson, Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman provide the antidote by giving us a healthy dose of the doctrine of the church in Built upon the Rock: The Church in a way that is thoroughly biblical, personal and accessible. Church leaders will discover that this is an important resource that will challenge and enlarge our understanding of the church and invites us to recalibrate our views and expectations about ministry. I will be recommending this book to our students as a must-read.’