Church
On Listening To The Holy Spirit
‘All the great figures in Acts are people of the Spirit’, writes William Barclay. Filled with the Spirit, Peter addressed the sanhedrin (4:8). When there was a need for new workers, the instruction was to seek out seven men of honest report and full of the Spirit (6:3). Stephen was full of faith and the […]
Fasting Is Healthy!
Jesus fasted during his wilderness preparation for ministry (Matthew 4:1-2, Luke 4:1-2), but said only two things about fasting in his teaching in the gospels: it was an act of private devotion to God, and was appropriate once he left his followers (Matthew 6:16-18, 9:14-15; cf. Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35). The apostolic church apparently observed […]
Who’s In Charge?
Which raises the interesting question: how were churches supposed to be governed in New Testament times; and how should they be organized today? There have been three broad answers to these questions: the episcopal model (rule by bishops); presbyterianism (rule by elders) and congreg- ationalism (a supposedly more ‘democratic’ system, where each local congregation governs […]
Fasting Is Healthy!
Fasting is abstaining from eating, or another legitimate activity, for religious purposes. Jews fasted on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-31; 23:26-32; Numbers 29:7-11), and for other special reasons such as mourning (1 Samuel 31:13), after defeat in battle (1 Samuel 7:6), as a sign of repentance or remorse ((2 Samuel 12:15-23, Joel 2:12-13), and […]
Congregational Participation In Worship.
So worship is not just a once-a-week affair. A little boy told his pastor he didn’t pray every night because some nights he didn’t want anything! When we think of worship as a one-day-only affair we may be treating God as we would a lawyer or doctor, resorting to him when in trouble. The earliest […]
The Renewal Of The Church Intro
CONTENTS PART A; WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘CHURCH’? PART B; WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘RENEWAL’? PART C: BIBLICAL PRESCRIPTIONS FOR RENEWAL: CHURCH AND MINISTRY IN EPHESIANS 1. RENEWAL OF THE COSMOS (1;3-14) 2. RENEWAL OF THE CHRISTIAN 2-1 The Grace of Christ (2:1-10) 2-2 New Life in Christ (4:17 – 5:20) 2-3 Strength […]
Endnotes
1. Interview with Peter Drucker on Church Management, The Christian Ministry, Sept. 1972, pp. 5-12. 2. At a church leaders’ conference in Dallas, 1986 3. Prayer and Modern Man, NY: Seabury, 1979, p.19 4. Gene Getz, Building Up One Another, Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1976, 110-120. 5. Barbara N. Woods, Decision magazine, October 1982. 6. […]
Worship: Who’s The Audience?
We have already said some things about worship (# 20 above). Here we take this foundational subject a little further. The Christians at Antioch were ‘serving the Lord’ and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke to them (Acts 13:2). ‘Serving the Lord’ is worship; worship is serving the Lord – it is nothing else. So […]
Commissioning For Ministry
Edward Schillebeeckx writes: ‘There is no mention in the New Testament of an essential distinction between ‘laity’ and ‘ministers’… the ministry is not a status, but a function. For the New Testament, the essential apostolic structure of the community and therefore of the ministry of its leaders has nothing to do with what is called […]
Compassion And Mercy
A theological understanding of Christian social concern begins with the character of God. He is a ‘social God’ (9), relating within the community of the Trinity, and, in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, with his creatures on this planet. Jesus came with a mandate to preach, liberate and heal (Luke 4:18-19) and commissions his followers […]
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