The nature and identity of the church; membership, unity, and discipline; the visible and invisible church; the body of Christ.
- Tough Times for Evangelical Theology Carl Trueman
Evangelical theology faces tough times ahead: the church seems variously determined to prioritise management technique, religious experience, or that nebulous bane of …
- Unmarried in the Church Christian Reformed Church Study Committee
The church is required to be the body of Christ in which the unmarried may find fulfillment as persons in the fellowship and companionship of the congregation of …
- Most Influential Pastors Carl Trueman
When I ask students who are the most influential pastors in their life, it’s concerning that they rarely mention their local pastors.
- Amplified "Worship Teams" and Congregational Singing Andy Crouch
The granting of the power of amplification to ‘worship teams’ in American Christianity has done more than anything since the Protestant Reformation to undermine …
- The Design of the Office of Ruling Elder Samuel Miller
The design of appointing persons to the office of Ruling Elder is not to pay them a compliment; not to give them an opportunity of figuring as speakers in judicatories; …
- Deplorable John Newton
The state of the nation, the state of the churches—both are deplorable! Those who should be praying—are disputing and fighting among themselves! Alas! how many professors …
- Feel the Pain John Owen
Any member who does not feel the pains of his fellow members is rotten and ready to be cut off, for fear of infecting the body.
- Strain of Anabaptism in American Religion R. B. Kuiper
It is no exaggeration to assert that there exists a decided strain of Anabaptism in American evangelicalism.
The prevalent powerful prejudice, against certain things the …
- Factions Among You Apostle Paul
…for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
- Calvin on Being an Elder John Calvin
It is no light matter to be a representative of the Son of God, in discharging an office of such magnitude, the object of which is to erect and extend the kingdom of God, …
- The Deporable State of the Nation John Newton
The times look awfully dark indeed; and as the clouds grow thicker—the stupidity of the nation seems proportionally to increase. If the Lord had not a remnant here, I …
- Pulpit Bored with God Richard Phillips
The institution that has most failed America in our lifetimes is the evangelical pulpit that is bored with God and dares not have the temerity to speak the truth of a …
- The Importance of Church Disciplie Samuel Miller
It is no doubt true, that the very suggestion of the necessity and importance of discipline in the church is odious to many who bear the Christian name.
The worldly and …
- Task of a Church Member Tim Challies
Your task as a member of a church is not only to avoid disunity, but to actively pursue unity.
- Idle Bellies John Calvin
We must observe, however, with what titles of distinction he honors pastors.
In the first place, he says that they labor. From this it follows, that all idle bellies are …
- Ecclesiastical Tunnel Vision Edmund Clowney
According to the Bible, the church is the people of God, the assembly and body of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Each of these views of the church has …
- Biblical Presbyterianism Richard Gaffin
Biblical presbyterianism has no place for loyalties torn between the denomination and the local congregation, or for greater loyalty to either one.
- Pray for the Church John Owen
He who does not continue to pray for the Lord’s glory to remain on the church is not worthy of its privileges. Prayer, then, for the good, prosperity, flourishing peace, …
- Church Visible and Invisible Darryl Hart
Stonehouse believed that the great Protestant temptation was to conceive of church unity in strictly spiritual terms, thus finding adherence to Christ’s teaching through …
- Nick Willborn
So long as elders are consumed with temporal matters, the congregation will be temporarily minded. When the diaconate functions as the temporal agents of the church, …
- Church Leaders as a Gift from God Ryan McGraw, Ryan Speck
In fact, Jesus gave church leaders as one of the gifts He purchased by His own blood for the good of the church (Ephesians 4:8, 11)
- Satan, Self, and Co John Newton
There is a great and old established house, which does much business, and causes no small disturbance in the world and in the church. The firm is Satan, Self, and Co.
- The Theological Significance of the Call to Worship Glen Clary
The call to worship tells us something very theologically significant. God summons us into his presence to worship him. … We are summoned into the presence of God to join …
- Protestants Appeal to Authority Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield
Before all else, Protestantism is, in its very essence, an appeal from all other authority to the divine authority of Holy Scripture.
- Archibald Alexander on the Office of Elder Archibald Alexander
The truth is, the church should take pains to train men for this very office; and the parents should set a much higher value on it, than they have been accustomed to do; …
- Countercultural Christianity Donald A. Carson, Douglas Moo
By refusing to engage in the quasi-religious customs surrounding the official Roman governmental structures, by resolutely setting themselves against some of the immoral …
- All Christians are Brethren Richard Sibbes
All Christians are brethren. The greatest men in the world, the mountains, if they be Christians, they are brethren to the lowest. And it fills up the valleys. The …
- Church Fellowship is Not Optional Edmund Clowney
The church is not just a religious association formed by saved individuals to give united expression to their faith. Rather, the church is more a people than Israel was …
- A Holy Family Richard Baxter
A holy, well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed church.
If masters of families did their part, and sent such polished materials to the …
- Vos on the Importance of Biblical Historicity Geerhardus Vos
But, if according to the Bible [the patriarchs] are real actors of the drama of redemption, the actual beginning of the people of God, the first embodiment of objective …
- Baptism into Death John Fesko
Would sentimentalism and saccharine emotions dominate congregations if they realized that a person is baptized into the death of Christ? Would characterizations of …
- Eschatology of Victory Richard Gaffin
Most assuredly, the eschatology of the New Testament is an ’eschatology of victory’—victory presently being realized by and for the church, through the eschatological …
- Real Victory Already Possessed Richard Gaffin
The church today will remain impoverished in understanding its true identity and its task in the creation, until it is grasped by the fully eschatological significance of …
- Lamentably Ignorant Richard Baxter
I am daily forced to admire how lamentably ignorant many of our people are, that have seemed diligent hearers of me these 10 or 12 years, while I spoke as plainly as I …
- Beale on Baptism G.K. Beale
In this light, to think that a major people group—infants—is excluded from entry into the new-covenant community seems to go against the grain of the otherwise wider span …
- Christ's Gifted People G.K. Beale
First, whereas in the OT the Spirit gifted only prophets, priests, and kings, in the new age all of Christ’s people are gifted by the Spirit because they are ‘in’ Jesus, …
- Christ's image-wife Meredith Kline
Christ takes his church, his image-wife, in covenant of marriage to bear his glory and his name, to be the fulness of him who fills all in all.
- Fading is the Worldling’s Pleasure John Newton
Savior, if of Zion’s city I, through grace, a member am, Let the world deride or pity— I will glory in Thy name. Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, All his boasted pomp …
- Music and Theology Gordon Fee
Show me a church’s songs, and I’ll show you their theology.
- Two Directional Singing Oskar Söhngen
The singing of the congregation takes place, as it were, in two directions: facing the other members of the congregation and facing God.
- Woodrow Wilson in Church James Taylor
On many occasions when the policies of President Wilson were being vigorously attacked he would come to the services on Sunday mornings and sit in his place in the house …
- The Church Under the Cross Herman Bavinck
The Revelation of John is nevertheless primarily a book of consolation for ’the church under the cross’ of his time, to urge it to persevere in the struggle and to …
- Prayer for Unity Herman Bavinck
Christ’s prayer for unity was not born of unfamiliarity with the history of God’s people nor from his inability to govern it. His prayer is the guarantee that unity …
- The Purpose of 1 Corinthians 13 Phil Ryken
Instead of preparing people for marriage, then, the apostle [in 1 Coronthians 13] was trying desperately to show a church full of self-centered Christians that there is a …
- Sanctified for Unity Frank Theilman
…in Philippians, Paul affirms that unity is important and that when it is broken over issues that are not vital, the sanctity of the Christian community itself is …
- Al Mohler on the Church and Marriage Al Mohler
The U.S. Supreme Court may well decide the future of marriage as a legal institution, but the church must hold to marriage as far more, but not less than, a legal …
- Churchly Trendiness David Wells
Today’s churchly trendiness is really yesterday’s unbelief.
- Lacking Fellowship? Rosaria Butterfield
At least as it regard the handful of families that showed immediate excitement and then after a month changed heart, this is what ’lacking fellowship’; means. It means …
- Semi Foetal Position Paul Levy
Why do people often go into the semi foetal position when holding the bread, scrunch up their eyes as if they are trying to imagine Jesus on the cross. It’s a Protestant …
- John Fesko on Christian Liberty John Fesko
If we are to excel in the next twenty-five years, we must hold fast to the biblical doctrine of Christian liberty as part of the greater whole of the Reformed system of …