9Marks

10/07/2025

An elder must instruct all the sheep, strengthen the weak ones, guard the vulnerable ones, rebuke the obstinate ones, and bear with the difficult ones.

The Basics: An elder is a man who (i) meets the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9, (ii) is recognized by his congregation as an elder, (iii) and leads the congregation by teaching the Word (1 Tim. 3:2), praying for the sheep (Jas. 5:14), and overseeing the affairs of the church (1 Pe...

10/06/2025

Patient application of the ordinary means of grace is how healthy, enduring churches are planted across cultures.

Modern missions strategies emphasize the need for speed, but patience and perseverance are key to planting churches that endure.

10/03/2025

God does not call us to be all that we can be on our own. Instead, he calls us to pour ourselves out for others like a drink offering. For it is in emptying ourselves out of love for him and love for others that he can use our frailty as the perfect platform to display his strength.

Ever feel like you have no business playing teacher because you’re still a student? The gospel reminds us that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

10/02/2025

3 Ways to Support Prison Ministry

1. Send Solid Resources
Most chapels have libraries or book tables, but these are often filled with material you wouldn’t want handed out in your church. For example, prison chapels are often inundated with prosperity gospel literature. You can help by donating biblically sound books. A well-placed book can have a lasting impact.

2. Volunteer Your Time
Call your local prison, nursing home, or hospital and ask how you can serve. Lead a Bible study. Mentor a resident. Encourage the chaplain. You don’t need a platform, just a heart for discipleship and a willingness to show up.

3. Pray
Pray for chaplains to be faithful. Pray for administrators to allow gospel work to flourish. Pray for church planters to rise up. Most of all, pray that God would encourage the believers in these places and use them to shine as lights in the darkness.

https://www.9marks.org/article/how-churches-and-chapels-can-serve-one-another/

10/02/2025

For the sake of our marriages, for the sake of the purity of our corporate witness, and for the sake of the person enslaved to sin and self-deception, we must be willing to pursue church discipline for members who unrepentantly persist in engaging in po*******hy.

At what point, if ever, does a persistent pattern of po*******hy warrant church discipline?

10/01/2025

What does Oktoberfest have to do with Missions? Let Matthias explain.

See the link in our bio to get your copy of Prioritizing the Church in Missions.

10/01/2025

In this episode of Bible Talk, Alex chats with Jim and Sam about Isaiah 5, a sobering passage about God’s judgment.

https://www.9marks.org/episode/isaiah-5-on-the-parable-of-a-vineyard-and-a-reprehensible-joel-osteen-sermon/

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

In this episode of Bible Talk, Alex chats with Jim and Sam about Isaiah 5, a sobering passage about God’s judgment.

09/30/2025

Mark and Jonathan talk to Vinicius Musselman Pimentel about christianity in Brazil and book publishing.

Mark and Jonathan talk to Vinicius Musselman Pimentel about christianity in brazil and book publishing.

09/30/2025

God is working here and around the world, and he invites all generations of believers to join him.

God is working in the U.S. and around the world, and he invites all generations of believers to join him.

09/29/2025

Faith in Christ is the only way to be saved because it is only by faith in Christ that we can be counted righteous in God’s sight.

The cultural challenge: People today love to be inclusive. We want everybody to be right. In fact we think that the only way to be wrong is to think that anyone could ever be wrong about anything. So when it comes to religion we say, “All paths lead to God. There’s no one right way. The right th...

09/26/2025

If you want to know God more, you’ve got to know the church more.

If you want to know God more, you’ve got to know the church more.

09/25/2025

In order to fulfill the command Jesus left us, the church cannot reduce its task to world evangelization.

Rather than aiming to "finish" the missionary task, let's unite under the more modest banner of simply being faithful to the task.