Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09094 The phrase “breaking bread” appears at several key points in the New Testament, and its interpretation has significant implications for how churches understand and practise the Lord’s Supper. Was the early church observing a brief, formal ordinance of bread and wine, or were they sharing a full communal meal in which the bread…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09009 The distinction between open and closed communion is one that many churchgoers encounter without fully understanding. It determines who is welcome at the Lord’s Table when a church celebrates the Supper, and the answer a church gives reveals something about how it understands the nature of the church, the ordinances, and the boundaries…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09092 The question of whether a church should be led by a single pastor or a team of elders has been debated throughout church history and continues to generate strong convictions on both sides. The stakes are real: church governance shapes how decisions are made, how power is distributed, how accountability operates, and how…
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: 3 minutesQuestion 09008 The New Testament commands the church to observe the Lord’s Supper but does not specify how frequently. This has led to considerable variation across Christian traditions, from daily celebration in some Catholic and Orthodox settings to quarterly or even annual observance in some Protestant churches. The absence of a specific command about frequency…
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: 4 minutesQuestion 09006 The Lord’s Supper is the second of the two ordinances Jesus gave to His church. It is practised in virtually every Christian tradition, yet the meaning attached to it varies enormously. Roman Catholics believe the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans hold that Christ is physically present…