In his Body of Practical Divinity, John Gill observes 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 every 𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 has 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.

What a helpful list!

🧵🧵 1. The duty of mutual love among members

Church members are commanded to love one another as Christ has loved them. This love should be fervent, unfeigned, universal, and rooted in their shared identity as brothers and members of one body. It evidences true discipleship, promotes unity, and makes church life delightful (Rom. 13:8; John 13:34–35; 1 Pet. 4:8; 1:22; 1 Cor. 12:25–27; Eph. 1:15).

Mark Dever finishes ever @9Marks weekender conference by talking about nine things he does to seek to raise up and develop leaders.

Here’s all nine 👇

🧵🧵 1️⃣ Discern Qualifications.

In Exodus 18:21, Jethro tells Moses to look out for men who are not in it for themselves, which sounds remarkably similar to the qualifications Paul lays out in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9. These are not extraordinarily high standards; they’re a floor, not a ceiling for what to look for in terms of character qualities.

Not sure what @Eric_Conn ’s angle is here but having spent the last 5 years shadowing and supporting Mark Dever in his sermon prep process, here’s how Mark Dever prepares to preach. 🧵🧵

https://twitter.com/eric_conn/status/1877571131311534220

Regardless of whether or not he is preaching Mark always reads the text that will be preached the following Sunday during his morning quiet time.

If he’s visiting another church, he’ll call them to ask what the sermon text is so he knows what to study that week. He’ll read that text every morning and pick out a few things from the text to pray for church members and others.

This can take anything from 15 to 90 minutes.

I remember talking with a pastor in Germany a few years ago who used to be on staff at CHBC and he told me that he had received a note from Mark every morning for the past twenty years telling him what he was praying for him specifically that day.

“Time spent in prayer is never time lost,” Mark likes to say.

The older he gets, the more Mark is convinced that his morning time in prayer is the most important thing he does each day.

Never read Thomas Brooks' 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑛'𝑠 𝐷𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠? Here's the first section—12 ways Satan tempts us to sin—summarized in digestible form. Each device comes with remedies. Let’s unpack them now. 🧵 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝟏: 𝐁𝐚𝐢𝐭 & 𝐇𝐨𝐨𝐤 🎣
Satan shows the bait (pleasure/profit) but hides the hook (shame/wrath).

𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬:
1️⃣ Keep far from sin—don’t 'dance on the pit’s edge.'
2️⃣ Sin is a bitter sweet: 'It pleases at first but pains at last' (Job 20:12-14).
3️⃣ Sin robs you of divine favor, joy, and peace.
4️⃣ Sin is deceitful and bewitching—'It smiles to betray, like Delilah to Samson.'

Beware the golden bait; the hook always follows.

The opportunities for church-based pastoral training today are incredible! As the director of the pastoral internship at @CHBCdc, I’m often asked about similar programs at other churches. Here’s a list of excellent pastoral training programs I know of! 🧵🧵 1/ Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.)
⏳ Duration: 5 months
💼 Funded (Housing & stipend provided)
💡 Focus: Reading, writing, observing church life, and discussions with Mark Dever.
Distinctive: Deep dive into church polity.
📧 Contact: Caleb Morell – internship@capbap.org
🔗capitolhillbaptist.org/internship-app…

60 years ago today (June 9, 1963) Fannie Lou Hamer was arrested in Winona, Mississippi for registering African American men and women to vote. She was jailed and beaten, nearly to death.

Here's my attempt to share her story.

🧵🧵 Born on October 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer grew up the youngest of twenty children in a share-cropping family, picking cotton on a plantation. While she had to leave school at age 12 to help her family, she continued to study the Bible at her local church.

@RickWarren is arguing that the solution to the SBC's numerical decline is to reject doctrinal standards. Does he know he's making the same mistake the Northern Baptist Convention made 100 years ago?

My piece in @WNGdotorg today wng.org/opinions/a-con…

🧵🧵 In 1922, conservatives in the Northern Baptist Convention urged the adoption of the New Hampshire Confession of Faith—the most widely used Baptist confession in the world.

Pumped about this from @RHB_Books.

Few questions are of greater importance to the church in any age than the harmony and distinction between Law and Gospel. @RHB_Books heritagebooks.org/products/a-tre…

The recent back-and-forth between Pratt/Smith and Matt Rhodes over Mike Shipman's Book "Any-3" raises question about how much training is necessary for effective missionary service.

9marks.org/article/a-resp…

🧵🧵🧵 The @IMB_SBC sets a high benchmark among missions sending organizations for training. But somewhere in 1990s-2000s years the emphasis shifted from extensive training to more easily reproducible methods.