Quote

As a pastor, I have the opportunity every week to share the gospel publicly in a way that most of the members sitting in our church do not. However, that doesn't absolve them of the responsibility for reaching others with the gospel.

Mark Dever

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Mark Dever
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: August 28
Erudite
Missionary
Pastor
Preacher
Theologian
Writer
the United States of America
Share
Publicly
Responsibility
Pastor
Church
Reaching
Opportunity
Gospel
Doesn
However
Others
Members
Every
Sitting
Way
Week
Absolve

More quotes by Mark Dever

Image
The more you come to know the Bible - both in reading it extensively and also meditating on it deeply - the more integrated your understanding of all of life will be. And this means that there will be fewer steps between what you are doing at work and sharing your faith in Christ.
Mark Dever
Image
Worldliness in the church is a lot more pervasive than a lack of passion for evangelism. Nevertheless, one of the results of worldliness is a waning enthusiasm for evangelism.
Mark Dever
Image
We do not fail in our evangelism if we faithfully tell the gospel to someone who is not subsequently converted we fail only if we do not faithfully tell the gospel at all.
Mark Dever
Image
Suffering can serve us. Suffering tests our trust in God's promises. And we have a great interest in knowing the truth about our trust in Him.
Mark Dever
Image
Membership is the church's corporate endorsement of a person's salvation.
Mark Dever
Image
As long as quick numerical growth remains the primary indicator of church health, the truth will be compromised. Instead, churches must once again begin measuring success not in terms of numbers but in terms of fidelity to the Scriptures.
Mark Dever
Image
We can't know at any given time how God will bless our faithful witness. So the apparent numerical growth of the church is never a good guide to how faithful we have been in evangelism.
Mark Dever
Image
There are opportunities around. It takes time and motivation to take them.
Mark Dever
Image
We mustn't be content to just sit around pointing out the errors in others we actually need to be sharing the gospel and praying for people to be converted.
Mark Dever
Image
The truly changed, truly converted, truly Christian heart can say with John Newton, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.
Mark Dever
Image
God can use even stray, honest comments to bring people to himself.
Mark Dever
Image
Avoiding the doctrine of Hell is one step away from denying it altogether.
Mark Dever
Image
Evangelism is not simply looking at someone and saying, Look, you have to become a Christian. Instead, an evangelist tells us the truth about who God is, and explains where we stand as a result of that. People can ignore us - indeed, they have every legal right to do so.
Mark Dever
Image
Our culture is becoming more hostile to the gospel. This trend may be more established in Australia than in the USA, but it's now certainly the case that the postmodern mindset is dominant, particularly in the media. Therefore, when we start speaking in terms of certainties, we sound scary to other people.
Mark Dever
Image
According to the New Testament, the church is primarily a body of people who profess and give evidence that they have been saved by God's grace alone, for His glory alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Mark Dever
Image
When a person becomes a Christian, he doesn’t just join a local church because it’s a good habit for growing in spiritual maturity. He joins a local church because it’s the expression of what Christ has made him—a member of the body of Christ.
Mark Dever
Image
By the grace of God I am what I am
Mark Dever
Image
I guess I tend to see divine appointments everywhere. I am always on the alert for opportunities. So I prefer to err on the side of witnessing too often than not enough.
Mark Dever
Image
Too often preachers want to deal with people simply at the level of publicly accessible reason. We participate with them in their own epistemology. But this is not New Testament preaching. We have a message that is not from this world it is from God. We don't know it by our own cleverness we know it because God has revealed it.
Mark Dever
Image
I think that there are many things in the New Testament that show us that the godliness of our conversation plays an important evangelistic role. The apostles are clear that we mustn't limit the explicit sharing of the gospel to formal preaching. It can also happen in ordinary conversations.
Mark Dever