I recently finished reading “What is a Healthy Church Member” by Thabiti Anyabwile. I read it as part of the deacon training we have been going through in our meetings. I was responsible to read this book and present its ideas to our deacons. I am going to use a series of posts to highlight key sentences and thoughts that I took away. All the words are from Thabiti (if I may presume such familiarity with him). Here are the first two marks of a healthy church member.

Mark 1: A Healthy Church Member is an Expositional Listener

Expositional listening is listening for the meaning of a passage of Scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives as Christians. Expositional listening gives us a clear ear with which to hear God. Listening to Jesus as it is heard in his Word is critical to following him.

Cultivating the habit of “expositional listening” means meditating on the sermon passage during your quiet time, using a good set of commentaries to help you hear God’s Word with a clear ear. Talk with friends about the sermon after church. Seek answers to questions by searching the Scriptures yourself or with a small group. Listen to the sermon and then act upon it. Seek to meet Jesus each time you come to the Scripture.

Mark 2: A Healthy Church Member is a Biblical Theologian

To practice biblical theology is to know God himself, to know God’s macro story of redemption – the history of revelation, the grand themes and doctrines of the Bible, and how they fit together. Biblical theology helps us to see how God has spoken the same message to his people in diverse places and diverse ways. We follow in the steps of Jesus and the apostles by mastering the unity of Scripture, seeing Christ and the gospel throughout.

Allot some portion of your private devotions to study the Scriptures thematically. The Bible is one story about God’s redeeming for himself a special people. Train yourself to link what you learn in the New Testament to the Old Testament. Ask yourself how the Old Testament fits together with the revelation of the New Testament. Study the books of prophecy in the Old Testament. Commit yourselves to upholding the doctrinal integrity of your church. Know the difference between beliefs that are essential to biblical Christianity and beliefs that are nonessential. Avoid strife and contention over things that are not essential to the gospel.