Healthy Church, part 3

(We are summarizing Mark Dever's little book What is a Healthy Church over the next several weeks. These articles appear in our weekly Forerunner at First Baptist Church, Thomasville.)


The second mark of a healthy church (congregation), according to Dever, is “biblical theology”.

He writes, “That’s why a second essential mark of a healthy church is sound biblical theology, or theology that’s biblical. Otherwise we will interpret individual verses to mean whatever we want them to mean.” (p. 70)

See, we are all theologians--everyone. The question is not whether we are theologians, but what kind of theologian are we and from what frame of reference or foundation do we build our theology.

For the ccongregation (the people of God in all her endeavors as His people) to be healthy, our theology must be grounded in scripture--the whole of scripture.

Here is a good paragraph: “Soundness is an old-fashioned word. Yet we should cherish soundness--soundness in our understanding of the God of the Bible and his ways with us. Paul uses the word “sound” a number of times in his pastoral writings to Timothy and Titus. It means “reliable,” “accurate,” or “faithful.” At root, it is an image from the medical world meaning whole or healthy. Biblically sound theology, then, is theology that is faithful to the teaching of the entire bible. It reliably and accurately interprets the parts in terms of the whole.” (p. 70)

Sometimes we are going to disagree on points of theology, even though we are reading the same bible, even among believers in the same congregation. So, how do we deal with those disagreements.

The following paragraph may be helpful: “There’s a principle running through all of this: the closer we get to the heart of the faith, the more we expect unity in our understanding of the faith--in sound biblical doctrine. The early church put it this way: in essentials, unity; in nonessentials, diversity; in all things, charity.” (p. 72)

Personally, I might nuance that just a little bit, particular when discussing issues within a local congregation, but it’s still a good place to start.

Now, a question: what kind of theologian are you? From what foundation do you build your theology---the bible or something else?

Always a challenge to remain faithful to the bible in the midst of our chaotic world; therefore, hold fast because you are held fast.