Showing titles in Ecclesiology

This vision of and invitation to the work of global missions challenges Christians everywhere to cultivate a holy ambition to preach Christ where he has not yet been named.

Ecclesiology is the study of the church, which is God’s people throughout the world. God has chosen the church to be his global representative (Matt 28:19) and to glorify him throughout eternity (Eph 3:21). The church is God’s temple (1 Cor 3:16) and his family (Gal 6:10). It is Christ’s body, including various members with different spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:12-28). It is the salt and light of the world (Matt 5:13-14). While on earth, Christ promised to build his church and that the gates of hades will not prevail against it (Matt 16:18). It is the most important institution in the ...

Ralph Neighbour repeatedly says, “Theology must breed methodology.”Joel Comiskey has arrived at the same conclusion. Biblical truth is the only firm foundation for anything we do. Without a biblical base, we don’t have a strong under-pinning upon which we can hang our ministry and philosophy. We can plod through most anything when we know that God is stirring us to behave biblically.

After his resurrection, the Lord Jesus revealed how his suffering, glory, and mission plan for the nations are in fact central to the biblical story of redemption. After Emmaus shows how Christology and missiology are integrally connected throughout Scripture, especially in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Brian Tabb explains what Luke 24:46-47 reveals about God’s messianic promises in the Old Testament, their fulfillment in the New Testament, and the purpose of the church.

The viral upswing of the "spiritual but not religious" trend has cast religion as going rapidly out of style. Yet even in his own desert of deconstruction, Zach couldn't shake his desire for a spiritual home. His search ultimately led him to look behind the statistics, where Zach found an astonishing undercurrent subversively at work.

Current discussions about Church Planting Movements (CPMs) and Disciple Making Movements (DMMs) employ numerous terms not found in Edwards’ writings. Yet the Lord has not changed, the Bible has not changed, and the gospel has not changed. Edwards’ incisive and edifying analysis contains numerous insights that have endured through the centuries. The wisdom we glean from Edwards’ comments on the awakening of his time can shed helpful light on current discussions about movements taking place in our time.

Many of us have questions about what it means to live as a Christian in the context of a local church. You may even catch yourself asking: If I believe in Jesus, why do I need to join a church? To put it simply, when you are saved from your sin, you are saved into a community characterized by fellowship and accountability.

There's got to be more to church than this. People around the world are seeking a community that focuses more on others than on themselves. Yet most don't know where to start. Drawing from his own journey, Brandon Hatmaker reminds us that serving the least is not a trendy act of benevolence but a lifestyle of authentic community and spiritual transformation. In Barefoot Church, Brandon offers practical ideas for creating service-based, missional communities and explains how the organizational structure of a church can be created or restructured for mission in any context.

With traces of humor scattered with incredible insight, Darren Stott shares his search to find the secrets to sustain revivals. In the history of the church, we have seen revivals come and go, but in his latest audiobook, Carve, he reveals six key disciplines to enable churches to preserve revivals and change communities. The disciplines are expectations, preparation, communication, collaboration, celebration, and evaluation. This audiobook is for those who are seriously vested and rooted in a community that values the moving of the spirit.

If you're a church leader or committed member and you're tired of easy steps and facile formulas for church health, growth, and renewal, then this book points the way to thoughtful action and profound, liberating change. Discover the importance of redefining your mission, finding fresh ways to communicate the gospel, and engaging today's culture with understanding.

In Holy Disunity: How What Separates Us Can Save Us, Layton E. Williams proposes that our primary calling as humans is not to create unity but rather to seek authentic relationship with God, ourselves, one another, and the world around us. And that means actively engaging those with whom we disagree. Our religious, political, social, and cultural differences can create doubt and tension, but disunity also provides surprising gifts of perspective and grace.

For many modern Christians, the regulative principle is a foreign concept. The question of how one is to go about the worship of God in the assembly of the saints is one that has never occurred to them. One does not have to look very far in order to notice the consequences of neglecting this subject. From the more extreme examples of preachers on trampolines to the more widely accepted practices of skits and solos, the modern church has found itself outside the boundaries of biblically prescribed worship. The Lord has given us His blueprint for His worship. He has commanded us not to add to...

Churches and their leaders have innovation fever. Innovation seems exciting—a way to enliven tired institutions, embrace creativity, and be proactive—and is a superstar of the business world. But this focus on innovation may be caused by an obsession with contemporary relevance, creativity, and entrepreneurship that inflates the self, lacks theological depth, and promises burnout. In this follow-up to Churches and the Crisis of Decline, leading practical theologian Andrew Root delves into the problems of innovation.

Sustainable Church is a thorough Bible-based exposition of how the ministry of every church should be organically built around all of the Spirit-gifted followers of Jesus within that local body. It critiques the shallow pragmatism and unsustainability of nonorganic churches and biblically showcases the sustainability of the organic church.

There is a war being waged between what the Bible defines as the proper roles for the sexes and secularism’s own fluid philosophy of gender. Within the church, one battle in this war is being waged around the pulpit....

Does the phrase church discipline sound like an oxymoron? The church’s message is about grace, we reason, while discipline feels like the opposite of grace. In fact, Jesus taught his disciples to practice church discipline because it’s one way congregations grow in holiness and imitate God’s own love. In this audiobook, Jonathan Leeman presents biblical answers to questions about the nature and application of church discipline, conveying that Scripture presents church discipline as both loving and necessary.

"This volume takes us to the end of the various subjects that form the full scope of systematic theology. We began with the concept of theology as such (truth, sound doctrine, bibliology), and now we have come to eschatology (the end times). In between we have covered theology proper (the doctrine of God), anthropology (the doctrines of man and sin), Christology (the person and work of Christ), pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), and ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church).So far, in the first eleven volumes of this series, I have not ...

Among the top 10 trends that are changing American life, Time magazine recently listed a rising dissatisfaction with organized religion. Though many people today like Jesus, they are growing tired of traditional religious institutions. For many years, Dan Kimball would have agreed, until an encounter with a small group of Jesus followers started him on a journey that challenged him to rethink everything he had ever assumed about the church.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the 19th century. This sermon, delivered on February 4, 1855, is based on Matthew 12:20: "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory". The message is one of encouragement, so that believers remain firm in the faith, trusting in God for strength.

Many Christians are alarmed by the decline in church attendance and seek a culprit. Too often, we point the finger away from the church, make culture the enemy, and build walls between us and others. But our antagonism and enemy-making are toxins that further eat away at our witness. Is there a better way? Tara Beth Leach could easily be one of those millennials giving up on the church. Instead, she is a pastor who loves the church and is paradoxically hopeful for its future.