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 09071 Ecumenism is the movement toward greater unity and cooperation among Christian churches and denominations. It has taken many forms over the past century, from informal local partnerships to vast institutional structures like the World Council of Churches. For evangelical Christians, the question is not whether unity matters, because Jesus Himself prayed for it…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09068 Every believer has been given at least one spiritual gift by the Holy Spirit, distributed according to His will (1 Corinthians 12:11). The question of how to discover those gifts is one of the most practical and personally significant questions a growing Christian can ask. The answer requires a combination of biblical understanding,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09043 The question of when the church began is not a matter of historical curiosity but a question with significant theological consequences. The answer determines how we understand the church’s relationship to Israel, the nature of the church itself, and the way we read large sections of both the Old and New Testaments. The…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09046 The church exists for a reason. It was not an accident, an afterthought, or a social convenience. Christ brought it into being at a specific moment in redemptive history for specific purposes, and understanding those purposes is essential for any local church that wants to be faithful to its calling rather than simply…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09099 The landscape of Christian ministry includes thousands of organisations that are not churches but exist to serve Christian purposes: mission agencies, campus ministries, Bible translation societies, relief organisations, theological seminaries, and many more. These parachurch organisations play an enormous role in global Christianity. The question is how they relate to the local church…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09012 The claim that there are apostles in the church today is made with increasing confidence by leaders within the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and related charismatic movements. Some go so far as to insist that the church cannot function properly without a restored apostolic office carrying governmental authority over other churches and leaders….
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 09081 Ephesians 4:11 lists the gifts Christ has given to the church: “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers.” The phrasing of the final pair in the original Greek has generated a longstanding debate: are “pastors” and “teachers” two separate callings, or is Paul describing a single, combined role? The answer…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09078 The role of a pastor is one of the most misunderstood callings in the modern church. Contemporary culture has turned the pastor into a CEO, a life coach, a brand manager, or an entertainer, depending on the context. The New Testament has a different picture entirely. The pastor is a shepherd, and the…