Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09002 The word “church” is one of the most familiar in the Christian vocabulary, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. In popular usage it refers to a building, a denomination, or a vague spiritual community. The New Testament has something far more precise in mind. Understanding what the church actually is,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09087 The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 make it unmistakably clear that Jesus evaluates local congregations and that His assessment is not always favourable. The church at Ephesus had abandoned its first love. Sardis had a reputation for being alive but was dead. Laodicea was lukewarm, on the verge of being…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09090 The idea of formal church membership strikes some believers as an unnecessary bureaucratic addition to what should be a simple, Spirit-led community. Others regard it as so obviously biblical that the question itself seems odd. The reality is that the New Testament does not contain the phrase “church membership,” does not describe a…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09086 Christians frequently speak of “the church” as though the word refers to a single, self-evident reality, yet the New Testament uses ekklesia in ways that point to two distinguishable dimensions of that reality. Understanding the relationship between the universal church and the local church is essential for grasping what it means to belong…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09057 The word “ordinance” is the term most Baptists and many other evangelicals use for what other traditions call “sacraments.” The distinction is not pedantic. It reflects a fundamentally different understanding of what baptism and the Lord’s Supper actually are and what they accomplish. The New Testament describes two practices that Christ commanded His…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09055 Church discipline is one of the most neglected functions of the modern church. Many congregations have never practised it. Many pastors have never been trained in it. And many believers would be horrified at the suggestion that a church has the right and the responsibility to confront sin in its members and, if…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09056 Excommunication is the strongest measure the church possesses, and it is one that fills most modern Christians with deep discomfort. The word itself sounds medieval and punitive, conjuring images of papal edicts and political power plays. But the biblical practice is neither medieval nor primarily punitive. It is the final step in a…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09053 The question of whether Christians should attend church would have baffled the first believers. To them, belonging to the gathered community was not an optional extra bolted onto personal faith; it was an inseparable expression of it. The modern framing of the question, “Can I be a Christian without going to church?”, reveals…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09054 The house church movement has gained significant attention in recent decades, particularly among believers who are disillusioned with institutional Christianity, frustrated by what they see as consumer-driven mega-church culture, or convinced that the early church model of meeting in homes is the pattern all Christians should follow. The movement raises legitimate questions about…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09050 The office of deacon is one of the most familiar features of church life and one of the least well understood. In many churches, deacons have become the governing board, the decision-making body, or the gatekeepers of congregational power. In others, the role has been reduced to practical tasks with no real spiritual…