Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09093 The relationship between the church and the state has been a source of tension, compromise, and outright disaster throughout two thousand years of Christian history. The question of whether a church should partner with a government or state agency in its ministry touches on the church’s identity, its mission, its freedom, and the…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09089 Church discipline is one of the most misunderstood and most neglected aspects of New Testament church life. For some, the very phrase conjures images of harsh judgementalism, public shaming, and spiritual abuse. For others, it has become so unfamiliar that the idea of a church confronting a member’s sin seems incompatible with the…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09091 Leaving a church is one of the most difficult decisions a believer can face, and it is also one of the most frequently made for the wrong reasons. The consumer mentality that characterises much of Western Christianity treats church involvement as a service to be evaluated and discarded when it no longer meets…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09088 Few situations in church life are more painful or more consequential than the moral failure of a pastor. The person entrusted with the spiritual oversight of the congregation, with the teaching of God’s Word, and with the modelling of Christian character has fallen into serious sin. The shock, grief, anger, and confusion that…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09047 Not every organisation that calls itself a church is one. The New Testament presents a picture of the church that has specific characteristics, specific commitments, and specific functions, and throughout history Christians have recognised that certain features mark the difference between a genuine church and something that has adopted the name without the…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09073 The Alpha course is one of the most widely used evangelistic programmes in the world. Developed at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in London, an Anglican charismatic church, it has been adopted by churches across virtually every denomination, including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant, and evangelical congregations. Its accessibility and conversational format have made…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09044 The relationship between Israel and the church is one of the most consequential interpretive questions in all of biblical theology. How a person answers it will determine how they read the Old Testament prophets, how they understand the New Testament’s teaching on salvation and the people of God, and what they expect God…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09030 Every church is imperfect, because every church is made up of sinners in the process of being sanctified. The presence of problems, disagreements, and frustrations does not make a church unhealthy. What makes a church unhealthy is a pattern of dysfunction that is systemic, unaddressed, and damaging to the spiritual lives of its…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09083 The question of whether churches should pay taxes touches on the intersection of the church’s spiritual mission and its existence as an institution within a civil society. Across most Western nations, churches and religious organisations have historically been exempt from certain forms of taxation. But is this appropriate? Is there a biblical principle…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09079 Across Europe, North America, and the wider Western world, churches are emptying at a pace that would have been unimaginable two generations ago. Denominations that once shaped the cultural landscape are now struggling to fill pews, retain members, and find ministers for their pulpits. The decline is not imaginary, and it is not…