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Taking a Deeper Look: What is Necessary to Be Church?
Love… …as Taught in the Scriptures and Lived by the Early Church …as It is Lived and Practiced in the Typical American Congregation The Greatest Commandment: To Love God with all one’s heart… and to love others as oneself…The New Command:To love one another as Jesus has loved you…Means God’s love must be the aim…
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How to Agree with the Spirit And Build Church According to Christ’s Intentions
People Who Are Drawn to Intentional Christian Community The Kind of People God Can Use to Build Community
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More Christ Intentions for His Church
“…I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) Each is Committed to Cultivate a Deeper Communion with God This Communion will lead each to study and pray the Word of God, asking God to make His word alive in their lives (not just as a concept)…
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How the Church Can Radiate the Glory of God of God Once Again
How the Church Can Radiate the Glory of God The Church we see in most places in the West is not the Church Jesus came to found. This truth has been made clear throughout this website. But now it is time to look at the beauty, grandeur, and glory God intended for His People to…
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“Way of Life” is to be “The Way of the Church”
There are a number of places in Paul’s letters where he assumes that believers have enough information about theology and ethics [how to live] that he can simply allude to the principles that they learned, received and were taught …. Arthur G. Patzia,Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon What a shame that many intellectuals cannot look at the…
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How the Church as Covenant Community Looks and Lives and Different Than the Modern Church
The Church Had a Way of Life That Enabled God’s People to Live The Gospel The Church for centuries demonstrated a way of life that challenged and sometimes even inspired the culture surrounding it. No longer this is the case. According to recent research, there is little difference between one being a Church member today,…
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Differences in Pastoring (Continued)
Other Unique Differences Between the Early Church and Most Modern Churches Today Requirements to be a Pastor New Testament and Early Church: Modern American Church: “…we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”(Acts 6:4)“shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, , … being examples to the…
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As the Pastor Goes, So Goes the Church (The Pastor Then, and Now)
History records that the role of the pastor over the year has significantly evolved – or de-volved- depending how you evaluate history. In the first few centuries the pastor was a part of a community of pastors (presbyters), where one lead pastor may have coordinated their ministry, but all together served the same community in…
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The Need for Repentance (Continued)
In 1 Corinthians 5, we encounter a vision of the church not as one voluntary association among many [the denominational/independent view of the Church popular today] but as the covenant people of God; to be inside this community is to find life, and to be outside is to be in the realm of death. Richard…
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The Need for Deep Repentance and Authentic Conversions
The Need for the Church to Pastor Deep Repentance and Foster Genuine Conversions Unfortunately, the way most modern American Churches are conducted today rarely emphasize repentance, pastoral follow-up, and deep conversions but leave the individual to decide for oneself how he or she should live as a Christian. This neglect has resulted in both the…