Sam Emadi

Are you a Christian? Have you trusted in the cross and resurrection of Christ for salvation? If so, you now have the joy of knowing your sins are forgiven. You now have the privilege of living every day in the confidence that, in Christ, God is for you. But what now? What does it mean to follow Jesus for the rest of your life? I want to offer you a few specific things you should do now that you're a Christian. No matter your circumstances, this road map will help you thrive as a disciple of Jesus. 1. Get Baptized If you have recently become a Christian, the first thing you should do is get baptized. Why? Because baptism is how Jesus commanded Christians to profess publicly their faith in him (Matthew 28:19). Jesus's instructions are quite clear: Believe the gospel; get baptized. In that moment, you are saying to the world, "I belong to Jesus." As a friend of mine says, when we are baptized, we put on the Team Jesus jersey. Baptism is also how a church affirms our profession of faith and receives us into membership. We will think more about the importance of the local church in a minute. For now, just notice that Jesus gave the ordinance of baptism to the church (Matthew 28:18-20). The Bible records that the early church brought people into membership by baptizing them after they had shown evidence of genuine repentance (Acts 2:41). When we follow Christ in baptism, we declare our allegiance to Jesus and at the same time the church affirms that our allegiance is genuine. What should you do now that you're a Christian? If you haven't been baptized, find a faithful, gospel-preaching, Bible-loving church--and pursue baptism. 2. Join a Local Church In Christ, God has forgiven us of our sins and received us as sons and daughters. He has not only acquitted us in his courtroom but also invited us to the family dinner table. Through Christ, we know God as our Father--we have a personal relationship with God. But we shouldn't confuse a personal relationship with a private relationship. God never intended for us to follow him by ourselves. God saves us into a community, and he designed our relationship with him to include fellow believers who are walking the same path of obedience. Being reconciled to God means being reconciled to his people (Ephesians 2:11-21; 1 Peter 2:10). The New Testament is filled with "one another" passages for precisely this reason. Now that we are in Christ we are meant to do the following: Love one another (John 13:34-35) Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16) Serve one another (Galatians 5:13) Be kind to one another, and forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32) Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11) And that is only a fraction of Scripture's "one another" passages. By joining a church we commit ourselves to doing the type of "one another" work Scripture commands. By joining a church we are essentially saying, "I want to follow Jesus's commands, and I'm committing to do that with these people." In fact, joining a local church isn't simply one aspect of your Christian life. The local church is the primary context where you live out your Christian discipleship. We worship God, love others, serve our brothers and sisters, suffer, study the Bible, pray, give, grieve, and evangelize--all in the context of a local church. What should you do now that you're a Christian? Join a local church and learn to follow Jesus among his people. 3. Attend Your Church Regularly Dinner is an important time for my family. Every morning my family scatters. But each evening we gather again around the dinner table. We talk, we laugh, and we study the Bible together. This gathering reinforces that we are family, not just strangers that share a meal. The same principle applies to church life. By regularly gathering we submit ourselves to God's preached word every week, and we show we are committed to loving this group of people. More than that, the Bible explicitly commands regular church attendance: Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25) Part of Christian obedience is regular church attendance. We cannot claim to love God if we only occasionally gather with his people to worship him and hear from his word. Notice also how this passage teaches that one of the primary ways we encourage one another is by gathering. When we fail to gather with our local church, we are failing to "stir up one another to love and good works." What should you do now that you're a Christian? Attend your church regularly. 4. Study the Bible The Bible is unlike any other book--it is the word of God, and it equips us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Do you want to know how to follow Christ in every area of life? Open up your Bible. The most frequent way Christians take in Scripture is through personal Bible reading. By reading Scripture each day, we remind ourselves of the gospel and fill our minds with biblical truth. Don't approach Scripture like antibiotics, only ingesting it in a crisis, but like a daily vitamin, providing spiritual nutrients for daily life. When it comes to learning the Bible, we're not meant to do it alone. We should be reading and studying the Bible with other believers in a local church. We learn the Bible through the church's formal preaching and teaching ministries (2 Timothy 4:2) and also informally through the relationships believers build with one another (Ephesians 4:15). Bible intake--both private and church-wide--fuels our faith in the gospel and gives us strength to follow Jesus and fight sin. What should you do now that you're a Christian? Study the Bible for yourself and with others in your local church. 5. Pray Regularly In the Bible, God speaks to us. In prayer, we speak back to him. As Christians we have been redeemed by Christ, so God invites us to come before him and express our adoration, praise, and thanksgiving--as well as our concerns, anxieties, frustrations, and tears. Christ stands as our righteousness and advocate before the Father, so that we now "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). In other words, Christians pray. But just like Bible intake, praying is hard work. So how do we develop the discipline of a healthy prayer life? Pray in Private Devotions Along with your Bible reading, spend some time each day in prayer. How do you choose what to pray about each day? Naturally, we will gravitate toward what's important to us: our families, our health, our difficult circumstances. But that still leaves us wondering, how should we pray for our children? How should we pray for our spouse? How should we pray for our circumstances? The best way to pray is to let the Bible inform your prayer life. As you read Scripture, respond to the truth of God's word with prayer. As you read about God's character, praise God for who he is. As you read about God's acts, thank God for his physical and spiritual provision. As you read about Christ, praise God for the blessings of salvation. As you read about God's promises, ask God to help you believe those promises and walk in light of them. As you read God's laws and commands, confess the ways you have failed, and ask for help to keep them in the future. Pray with Other Believers in Your Local Church At this point, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that the local church plays a central role in helping us develop a healthy prayer life. Scripture regularly highlights prayer as a central aspect of local church life. In Acts 2:42 the early church devoted itself to prayer. Throughout Acts we find local churches, church leaders, or church members praying together (Acts 4:23-31; 6:1-6; 8:14-15; 12:1-5; 13:1-3; 20:36). Think of the local church like a teaching hospital for prayer. When we gather with God's people, we both pray and learn the discipline of prayer. What should you do now that you're a Christian? Spend time in prayer by yourself and with other believers in your church. 6. Be Discipled and Disciple Others I love playing the handyman around my house--even though I'm not good at it. But what I lack in competence, I make up for in shameless pleas for help. Just like I need friends to teach me basic home repair, we need friends who will teach us how to follow Jesus. This is called discipleship. It is especially important for brand-new Christians, but we all need discipling--relationships that teach us how to follow Jesus. Discipling relationships are crucial to the Christian life. Hopefully, your local church has brothers and sisters in the faith who have walked the path of obedience and learned lessons they can pass on to you. Through our relationships with them, we learn how to walk with God. But how do we pursue discipling relationships? The best way is to simply start investing in the people in your local church. Make a habit of inviting others over to your home for meals. Get lunch with other believers. Get to know them. Build friendships. It doesn't matter what you do together--go bowling together if you prefer that to a meal--just make it a priority to get together. And then seek to do spiritual good to each other. Read a chapter of S

Take the next step in your Christian faith. When you became a Christian, you recognized your need to be forgiven of sin and freed from sin's reign over your life. As a result, your life has been changed forever-you are now a follower of Jesus. But what does the Bible say it means to follow Jesus? Sam Emadi offers eight simple steps you should take once you become a Christian, as you set out in newness of life to thrive as a disciple of Jesus.

Practical Advice on Biblical Church Leadership and Membership God created his church to be a covenant of love and service among believers. It’s an ideal design for fellowship, but one that’s pushed to the side in the busyness of church life. How can congregations be sure to embrace God’s purpose for them? In the short book Who’s in Charge of the Church?, Sam Emadi explains that church polity isn’t just transactional; it’s meant to be transformative. He describes how churches should reflect biblical authority, particularly members’ responsibilities to one another, their elders, and deacons. Emadi’s direction helps provide clarity for congregations, showing them how to operate within God’s perfect design and grow stronger in their love for Christ. Short, Accessible Format: Concise, biblical advice on improving church structure Holistic Advice: Helps members and leaders make godly decisions about membership, doctrine, and discipline A Great Resource for Church Leadership Teams: A convenient, valuable discussion tool for your group

For several years now, erstwhile 9Marks editor and now full-time pastor Sam Emadi, with a wink, has summarized our ministry, "Yeah, I just tell people, 9Marks exists to tell pastors not to do weird stuff. Just do what's in the Bible." Not a bad summary. If you've not heard the term "ordinary means of grace" before, Sam has captured what many pastors today need to hear: don't do weird stuff in your church. Don't take your growth cues from a marketing team. Don't lead church services that would make P. T. Barnum or J. J. Abrams proud. Don't, in short, think you can offer something extraordinary based on your creativity or ingenuity, or that you can manufacture the extraordinary through reverse-engineering the results you want. The Spirit has already revealed everything we need for gathering and growing churches. And, yes, it's pretty ordinary stuff. You might even be tempted to call it boring and (ironically) uninspiring. Yet the uninspiring is inspired: preaching God's Word, singing God's Word, praying God's Word, reading God's Word, and declaring God's Word through the ordinances. Those ordinary-as opposed to extraordinary-practices have been ordained. The wisdom of God often sounds like foolishness, no? In many churches simple acts of worship have been encrusted over by years of accumulated traditions that mask the beautiful simplicity of the ordinary means of grace. Don't think you can offer something extraordinary based on your creativity or ingenuity, or that you can manufacture the extraordinary through reverse-engineering the results you want. The Spirit has already revealed everything we need for gathering and growing churches: preaching God's Word, singing God's Word, praying God's Word, reading God's Word, and declaring God's Word through the ordinances. Those ordinary-as opposed to extraordinary-practices have been ordained. Directing people's hearts and minds to God is the most important thing a church can do, and the singular activity around which everything else hangs. We need to remember that the visible church is a gathering of Christians in a local assembly to worship the Lord. This Journal, which focuses on the ordinary means of grace, presents the very heart of the 9Marks church program. What's our church model? Here it is. Table of Contents Editor's NoteDon't Do Weird Stuff by Sam EmadiDo Weird Stuff by Alex Duke The Why of Ordinary Means of Grace Ministry Liturgies Are the Pipes, but the Word Is the Water by Matt McCulloughWhy the Ordinary Means of Grace Must Be Central in Our Gatherings by David StrainWhy Preaching Is Primary and the Ordinances Aren't by Jonty Rhodes The How of Ordinary Means of Grace Ministry How Programs Fit into an Ordinary Means of Grace Ministry by Mike McKinleyHow A Good Desire for Church Growth Can Lead to Bad Ministry Practices by Harshit SinghGood News, Ordinary Pastor You Don't Need a Winning Personality by Dan MillerAre Buildings Essential to Building Healthy Churches? by Adam SinnettCongregational Singing: Can Musical Style Dilute This Ordinary Means of Grace? by Neal Woollard The Effects of Ordinary Means of Grace Ministry Yes, Scripture Reading Really Does Change People by Terry JohnsonYes, The Ordinances Really Do Change People by Tiago Oliveira Yes, Preaching Really Does Change People by Mike BullmoreYes, Singing Really Does Change People by Shai LinneHow I Accidentally Stumbled Across-And Then Fell in Love with-the Ordinary Means of Grace by Alex DukeNever Underestimate the Value of Ordinary, Brief, Christian Conversations by Caleb GreggsenBetween Sundays: Life in the Means of Grace by Raymond JohnsonThe Freedom that Comes from Being Boringly Biblical by Eric Bancroft"The Word Did It All" The Necessity of Preaching According to the Protestant Reformers by Shawn Wright

“I eagerly commend this series.”—R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Take the next step in your Christian faith. When you became a Christian, you recognized your need to be forgiven of sin and freed from sin’s reign over your life. As a result, your life has been changed forever—you are now a follower of Jesus. But what does the Bible say it means to follow Jesus? Sam Emadi offers 8 simple steps you should take once you become a Christian, as you set out in newness of life to thrive as a disciple of Jesus.