'Church & Community' Tagged Posts (Page 2)
How We Use Our Statement of Faith
Churches have historically used confessions or statements of faith in order to summarize and clearly identify what they believe. Many historical confessions have been preserved, and are used by churches to this day. Instead of adopting an historical confession, we have chosen to use the following summary of biblical doctrine, entitled Holding Fast the Word of Life, as our statement of beliefs. Listed below are several important things you should understand about the purpose of our statement of faith, and…
Don’t Be Like the Ant
Don’t be like the ant who thought that it was his strong legs that pushed the log down the river. He overestimated. No pastor, teacher, or serious Christian could possibly know accurately what God does through our words and work. Not really. Evaluation of effects is futile and frustratingly unpredictable. It may be years before gospel seed germinates. How can you know if or when or how He does that? And your most effective moment may come and go without…
Revival May Not Bring What You Expect
Christianity survived and grew in totalitarian regimes in its first centuries and has done so many times since. We need revival desperately, but it does not necessarily create a political/cultural reversal except in individuals and churches. It more likely will increase polarization and bring on added misunderstanding and persecution as it did in the earliest days recorded in Acts. Revival is even strongly associated with splintering among denominations because of the inability of revived people to continue in their old…
Thoughts on Improving Baptisms
Since water baptism is so important to the churches, I want to put forward a few ideas that may help churches make more of this important symbolic act. What I’m suggesting is in the way of pastoral advice, not doctrine. You can take or leave these ideas, but in my own experience and through information received from many pastors over the years, these suggestions could make this experience much more memorable and effective. Most of these suggestions will apply to…
A Simple Bible Discussion Guide: Five Hard Questions
Me? Lead a Bible study with lots of spiritually helpful interaction? The answer is “yes!” This is a simple Bible Discussion Guide for any group. Using this approach, your study can be as deep as you wish to make it, and cover as much time as you are able to give. Most Bible study groups will want to go through a complete book of the Bible, or a well-defined portion of a book, such as “The Sermon on the Mount”…
I Give You Control of These Persons
What if God said: “I give you control of these persons around you. Your attitude will be their attitude; your interest their interest; your love their love. When you look at them, you’ll discover yourself. “You can wish that they would rise above you to inspire you, but it will not happen. They will mirror you. In fact, even those above you will be as you are. You will experience the power of your own influence. “At home, your spouse…
Our Plan for Handling Church Finances
The elders of Christ Fellowship spent several weeks studying the subject of church finances. Our desire was to honor God by following the leadership of the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. We focused on numerous passages of Scripture in an attempt to properly understand more of what the Bible teaches on this subject. While we did not conclude that we had been disobedient to God in the way we had handled church finances previously, our study did provide us…
Starting Churches with No Money
I don’t want to presume that I know how you ought to start a church, but I’m increasingly less than satisfied with the kind of approach to church starting that takes loads of start-up money. Often U.S. church planters spend a year or two raising funds for the launch of their new church. Here are the reasons I think this is often (though not always) unwise. I don’t want to labor to prove my points, as if there is no…
He’ll Stand
The following words by Paul the Apostle make for tangible peace between sincerely conscientious Christians who differ in convictions: “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4). A true believer will ultimately stand justified before God, regardless of differences in those matters about which God has chosen to give no definitive command. In such areas we…
Could God Bring Awakening Among Progressive Churches?
“I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6 I do sincerely understand that form of compassion and optimism of those who believe the opposite of what Jesus said about himself. They wish to put the circle of God’s acceptance around all of mankind. Everyone is in. They believe this is truer to the God they want to follow, less embarrassing before the world, properly removes the awful stigma…
Discouraged Pastors
There are plenty of pastors with generous smiles on their faces each Sunday who, deep down, are very disheartened. Pastoring a church is hard work. For one thing, it is usually thankless. I know there are some churches that seem to remember their pastors with such fanfare, but most do not ever esteem them. They don’t work for just the members ultimately, so they can get over it, but never hearing those words, “Thanks for what you do, pastor,” is…
The Integrity of the Local Church
The following is a portion of a conference message presented to the Midwest Southern Baptist Founders Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, March 14, 2001 [revised 2022]. I have chosen chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians to help us consider the integrity of the New Testament Church. This is a short chapter with only 13 verses out of which I wish to uncover five observations. Before I read this passage let me tell you a story that took place in 1837. A protracted…
An Intimate Hour with God
The Lord invites us to know Him better. What a privilege! If the joy of heaven is in knowing the Lord’s presence without any sin to hinder us, surely seeking His presence now must be the greatest possible pursuit. Do you feel your need to pray? A person who has no need to pray cannot be living by faith. Prayerless-ness says, “I am sufficient in myself for everything required of me.” But is that so? And do you not grieve…
The Foibles and Fallibility of Christian Leaders
The inconsistencies, unattended weaknesses, eccentricities, normalizations of subtle sinful habits, relational neglectfulness or awkwardness, sometimes grating quirks, phases of tiredness and even laziness, and susceptibility to pride — just to begin the list — illustrate what kinds of things can be found in almost every Christian leader at one time or another. They should remind us that we are all treated mercifully by God and cannot claim that any leadership position or recognition is fully “deserved” but strategically assigned by…
Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination
“How are you doing?” “Pretty well, under the circumstances.” “What are the circumstances?” “Well, I have a very effective arm. It moves with quite a bit of animation. But then I have my bad leg.” “What’s wrong with it?” “I guess it’s paralyzed. At least it doesn’t do much except twitch once a week or so. But that’s nothing compared with the rest of me.” “What’s the problem? “From all appearances, the rest is dead. At least it stinks and…
Is Baptism a Requirement for Church Membership?
In our view, baptism and membership in a local church are inseparable, the former necessarily preceding the latter. While baptism is never explicitly said to be a prerequisite for church membership, the following biblical factors lead to that conclusion: Baptism is commanded of every believer.Baptism is an act of obedience, not only on the part of the individual Christian, but on the part of those who are commanded to baptize new disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Disciples who will not submit to…