Searching for Management
When Mark Dever first acquired to Capitol Hill Baptist Church in 1994, the deacons had been speaking about closing the church down. They’d been going by means of a extremely laborious time. The church had gone by means of a tough cut up when a pastor left and took a variety of younger households with him out to the suburbs, leaving the older era behind questioning who was going to guide them.
A brand new pastor got here to the church who was extremely gifted, however his godliness didn’t replicate his giftings. His ministry ended after only a few quick years in scandal, as he disqualified himself in a horrendous manner. The church was reeling. The church was questioning if they need to simply divide up the belongings and provides the cash to missions. Round that point, Carl F. H. Henry, the founding father of Christianity At the moment and longtime member of the church for the reason that Fifties, wrote a letter to Mark Dever.
He had recognized Dever for the reason that Eighties, when Dever was a grasp’s scholar at Southern Seminary. Carl Henry took an curiosity in Mark, Al Mohler, and different college students on the seminary who he noticed as leaders of evangelicalism in America for the long run.
This partaking Capitol Hill Baptist Church biography shares the real-life tales of extraordinary folks in a unprecedented place, revealing how God works by means of devoted church our bodies.
It was when Dever was over in Cambridge, England, ending up his PhD, Carl Henry stored him apprised of the occasions within the church, and he wrote to him after the earlier pastor disqualified himself, questioning if Mark would take into account coming and making an attempt out preaching in view of a name at Capitol Hill Baptist Church.
The church was not on Mark’s radar. He had his sight set on instructing church historical past, and but he had respect for Carl Henry. He was keen to come back and preach. And when he did, the Lord remarkably turned his coronary heart towards this seemingly dying church on Capitol Hill. It had an extended, devoted historical past, however was critically declined in quantity, and but he thought the Lord could be main him there.
A Dedication
When Dever got here because the official candidate to the church, they requested him what his imaginative and prescient for the church was. What was his plan for turning the church round? He mentioned that in his quiet time, he had simply 4 phrases: preach, pray, love, and keep.
These have been the 4 issues he was dedicated to. He wasn’t positive that it was going to work. He wasn’t positive that the church was going to have the ability to flip round. He wasn’t positive that the church would develop once more. However he was dedicated to preaching the phrase, to main the church, to praying and counting on God, to loving discipling relationships with each other, and he was dedicated to staying.
He and his spouse, Connie, talked about shopping for cemetery plots, so to talk—simply placing down roots and saying, “We’ll keep right here so long as it takes.” And within the years which have adopted, the Lord has remarkably blessed these extraordinary technique of grace. Simply the dedication to preaching the phrase, to loving the saints, to praying, and to staying.
There have been instances when the church was rising so shortly that the elders have been eager about including a number of providers and even going multi-site. And but as they considered this, Dever was insistent, and he mentioned, “Our job is to not make our affect as massive as potential however to make sure that the gospel is faithfully stewarded for generations to come back.”
And so they thought one of the best ways to do this was to lift up leaders inside the church, practice pastors, and ship them out to plant and revitalize church buildings. He famously known as this in a memo, “doing nothing and planting church buildings.”
He mentioned he was eager about Luther’s well-known line from the place he says “I did nothing. The phrase did the work.” That that was the imaginative and prescient. Let’s preach the gospel. Let’s see leaders raised up. Let’s plant church buildings. And let’s ensure that the gospel isn’t depending on a single individual or a single church in Washington, DC.
Over the previous a long time, dozens of church buildings have been planted. Pastors have been educated, geared up, and despatched out. I believe the imaginative and prescient has labored. Really, the gospel isn’t depending on a single individual or a single church. Christ has promised that he’ll construct his church. We are able to belief him to do it.
Caleb Morell is the writer of A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism.
