Welcome to the Journey Women Podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Beelis.

Life's a journey we were never meant to walk alone. We all need friends along the way.

On the Journey Women Podcast, we'll chat with mentors about gracefully navigating the

seasons and challenges we face on our journeys to glorify God.

Hey, welcome back to our conversations on the church. If you're new on the scene, be sure

to check out our last two episodes on the Global Church with Gloria Ferman and the local

church with Susan Hunt. Now that we've laid the foundation on what the church actually

is, we figured we'd better offer some insight on how you can find a healthy local church

to be a part of. Today I'm chatting with Dr. Mark Devar, the senior pastor of Capitol Hill

Baptist Church and the president of Nine Marks, a ministry to churches and church leaders.

Whether you're on the hunt for a church or if you're already involved somewhere, we think

you'll walk away and encourage to follow Jesus with His people for His glory. He said,

you need to assume that Christ loves His church. When we've seen First Corinthians, we see

Ephesians, we see Romans, He mentions gifts that He gives His church. He gives those gifts

exactly because He loves the sheep for whom He died. He wants to see them built up. So He

gives elders and teachers to churches exactly to bless people. So I think there's no reason

you would try to live the Christian life apart from the blessing of Christian teaching by

the very people that God by His Spirit is given to teach His people. So you just, you wouldn't

want to do that. You would want to go to a place where there is the evident work of God's spirit

giving gifts of people who understand the word well and can teach it well and that encourages you

in your own walk with the Lord. Our prayer is that you will find this conversation a helpful tool as

you pursue local church involvement and service for the glory of God. But you know before we dive

...