Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09036. A church covenant is a written statement of the promises members of a congregation make to God and to one another about how they will live together. It is not a statement of faith, which sets out what a church believes. It is a statement of commitment, setting out what the members undertake…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 09071 The word ecumenism, and the ecumenical movement that carries it, has become one of those terms that generates more heat than light. To some it means everything good about Christians laying down their weapons. To others it means everything bad about churches abandoning the truth in order to be liked. Both reactions contain…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 09053. Should Christians attend church? I am aware that a minister answering this question is like a barber telling you that you need a haircut, so let me say at the outset that I am not arguing for the survival of an institution. I am arguing for something the New Testament assumes so completely…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09052. Church membership is a formal, covenanted commitment between a believer and a local congregation, in which the believer commits to the life, worship, discipline and support of that body, and the body commits to teach, care for and be accountable to that believer. Written out like that it sounds rather grand for something…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09035. Say the words church and politics in most congregations and you can feel the temperature change. Some believers are convinced that any political comment from a pulpit is a betrayal of the gospel. Others are equally convinced that silence in the face of national wickedness is cowardice dressed as piety. Both groups can…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09070 Should we seek gifts from God, or is that presumption dressed up as devotion? I have heard the question put both ways, sometimes by the same person in the same conversation. On one side there is a fear of manufacturing something the Spirit has not given. On the other there is a fear…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 09050. The role of deacons is one of the most misunderstood things in church life, and the misunderstanding runs in two opposite directions. In some congregations deacons have become a board that runs the church and hires the minister. In others the title has become honorary, given to long-standing members as a mark of…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09034. The relationship between church and state has produced more confusion, and more blood, than almost any other question in Christian history. Scripture gives us the principles rather than a constitution, and the principles have to be applied in circumstances that vary enormously from one country and century to another. What Scripture does establish…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09069 Anyone who has spent time in church life knows that misused gifts are not a theoretical problem. They are a pastoral one. A gift is a good thing given by a good God, and yet it passes through hands that are still being sanctified, which means it can be handled carelessly, proudly, or…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 09049. The role of elders is set out in the New Testament with more care than almost any other practical matter, and yet many believers could not name what an elder is supposed to do. They know elders exist. They may know who theirs are. Beyond that it gets vague, and vagueness about leadership…