Christian conferences are often strong on the great matters of the gospel but offer little guidance as to the nuts and bolts of church life.
9Marks Ministries, headed up by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., majors on local church related issues and Tuesday 1 September saw the first 9Marks conference in this country. With around 100 church leaders in attendance, it was hosted at Duke Street Church in Richmond where the pastor is John Samuel. The main mover behind the day was Jonathan Worsley of Kew Baptist Church, himself a former intern at Capitol Hill.
Wide audience
Mark Dever began the day by explaining that although he is a convinced Baptist and the issues of church structure which he was about to touch on fitted most naturally into a Baptist polity, he wasn’t there to make everyone into a Baptist but to highlight principles which could be translated into the thinking of different denominations. With participants from FIEC, Grace Baptists, Anglican, ACTS29, Sovereign Grace and Co-Mission churches, this eirenical introduction set a good tone for the day.
