One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#710

“In Ephesians 4:11-13, we are told that the ascended Christ has granted gifts to His church in ministers of the Word (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) for the purpose of equipping the church for the work of ministry in order to build it up until spiritual maturity is attained.  In other words, the ascended Christ leads His church through these ministers of the Word called pastors (elders) who teach God’s Word.  That Christ leads His church through human shepherds is confirmed in 1 Peter 5:1-5 when the elders are exhorted to shepherd the flock of God under their care faithfully . . . and when the chief Shepherd (Jesus) appears they will be rewarded. ” – Marcus Glover

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#711

“A thing most expedient and necessary that every Kirk [Church] have a Bible in English, and that the people be commanded to convene and hear the plain reading and interpretation of the Scripture as the Kirk [Church] shall appoint…Each Book of the Bible should be begun and read through in order to the end, and there should be no skipping and divigation from place to place of Scrpture, be it in reading or be it in preaching.” – John Knox’s First Book of Discipline (1561)

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#712

“The Lord Jesus is the Head of the Church, which is composed of all his true disciples, and in Him is invested supremely all power for its government. According to his commandment, Christians are to associate themselves into particular societies or churches; and to each of these churches he hath given needful authority for administering that order, discipline and worship which he hath appointed. The regular officers of a Church are Bishops, or Elders, and Deacons. ” – The Abstract of Principles

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#715

“Medieval preachers abandoned the patristic practice and preached largely topical sermons. But the Reformers, on the basis of their study of Scripture and early church fathers, restored the earlier practice of lectio continua preaching…They preached verse-by-verse through books of the Bible.” – Terry Johnson

 

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#716

“Contrary to what many evangelicals assume, the Bible nowhere authorizes individual Christians…to baptize themselves or give themselves the Lord’s Supper. These are public acts reserved for wherever two or three are gathered ‘in the name of Christ’—that is, gatherings of a church…It’s true that Christ saves us as individuals, but then he unites us to his body, and he gives the church this power” – Jonathan Leeman

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#718

“The essential parts of worship we are at no loss to discover, clearly indicated as they are in the history of the Apostolic Church. Praise and Prayer, with the reading and exposition of Scripture, together with the celebration of the Sacraments, are repeatedly referred to as those exercises in which the early Christians engaged. With such worship, though in more elaborate form, the church has always been familiar.” – Robert Johnson

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#719

“Not only from the individual heart does God require ascriptions of praise and expressions of confidence, but from the organized congregations of His people, He desires to hear the voice of adoration, contrition, and supplication. The cultivation of such worship, and the offering of it in a manner acceptable to God, is a work  worthy of the Church’s most earnest care.

It is to be expected therefore, that in the Word of God there shall be found the principles…which possessing Divine authority, shall carry with it the assurance of its sufficiency for the ends aimed at, and of its suitability to the requirements of the Church in every age.” – Robert Johnson

Nuance is Necessary

Kevin DeYoung has a short but really helpful post that I believe is really important for the Christian church nowadays. Here are the central take-home points:

  • “Christians must be careful thinkers, especially those who teach other Christians how to think.”
  • “[W]e ought to avoid the mistake of making the Bible fit our grid instead of allowing for complementary scriptural ideas to work side by side.”
  • “Almost every doctrinal error starts with the desire to affirm or to protect some important doctrine.  But without careful thinking and delicate nuances, working hard to avoid one mistake will simply lead us to another.”

In particular, the point about falling into “the mistake of making the Bible fit our grid” is, I believe, a prominent pitfall in our day of multimedia where we can instantly hear tons of presentations and read tons of perspectives with little investment. I think this is true because it is easy to hunt out resources that match our particular grid. Nobody is going to argue the abundance of resources is wrong, but it does make certain pitfalls more pronounced.

I think as we see the Church discussing hotly disputed areas, we need to be particularly careful that as we build up our understanding of the scriptures that we genuinely allow at least two corrective “checks” to be constantly in the back of our mind.

1. Am I taking an otherwise valid Biblical emphasis and over-extending it?

2. Am I allowing one part of a valid Biblical tension to flatten my reading and interpretation?

I’m not saying that these are easy questions or we will always have immediately easy answers. I’m just saying that the Church as a whole would profit if we all would do our best to be constantly coming back to them.

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#720

“According to Scripture, however, membership in the local church is not merely desirable, but necessary. In the New Testament, we see a recurring pattern: the Word is preached, people profess faith, and they gather locally into congregations ruled by Christ through a government He has appointed (Acts 2:47, 14:23; Titus 1:5). Believers are commanded to give due submission to the elders (1 Thessalonians 5:12,13), and the elders are charged with the oversight of believers’ souls (Hebrews 13:17). This set of commands assumes that believers and church leaders have an acknowledged relationship with one another. This relationship comes into existence when a believer commits to join the church. Therefore, when the Scripture calls Christians to delight in the church, it calls them to delight not only in the worldwide church, but also in the local church of which they are members.” – Guy Waters

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#721

“Give yourself to the church. You that are members of the church have not found it perfect, and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not. If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.” – Charles Spurgeon

 

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#722

“The Lord’s Supper demonstrates that Christ’s blood spilled and body broken on the cross are at the center of our fellowship. We are not united with one another unless we are first incorporated into Christ…Participating in one loaf makes us one people…We have one meal, the symbol of one table, going out to multiple people, but it is singularly the Lord’s table.” – Mark Dever