Recommended books from Mark Dever, Mike McKinley, and Michael Lawrence as shared with Embrace Baltimore.

Mark Dever

• Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
• Spurgeon, Autobiography
• Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation
• Lloyd- Jones, Preaching and Preachers
• Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood
• Packer, Fundamentalism and The Word of God

Mike McKinley

• Piper, Future Grace
• Stott, Cross of Christ
• Welch, When People Are Big and God is Small

Michael Lawrence

• Packer, Knowing God
• Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom
• Wells, No Place for Truth
• Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied
• Ferguson, The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Introduction
• Calvin, Institutes (particularly Book 3)”

[From Three Books Church Planters Should Read, and A Lesson in Not Following Instructions by Michael Mckinley]

From Mark Dever’s recent talk at the Embrace Baltimore event

Three Things Church Planters Need to Know

1. The Church is God’s Idea
— Matthew 16:18, Jesus founded the church
— Faithfulness involves less creativity and more repetition. We don’t want to say new things, we want to repeat the things that God has said.
— Christ bought the church with his blood (Acts 20:28), he identifies with his church (Acts 9).

2. The Church is to Reflect God’s Character
— We are about something so much bigger than we think when we meet with church.
— God has always been interested in a corporate collection of people. For example, much of the fruit of the Spirit can’t be exhibited in isolation. Things like kindness and love are tough to manifest in isolation.

3. The Church Displays Jesus’ Character
— John 13:34-35, the church should make Jesus known in its conduct and character
— Biblical life change is the best advertisement for the church.

Ultimately, when we read the end of the Bible we can have confidence that the church wins! [From Mark Dever -- Three Things For Church Planters/Theologians by Michael Mckinley]