Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09034 The relationship between the church and the state is one of the most consequential questions in Christian ethics and ecclesiology. It touches on everything from whether Christians should pay taxes to whether the church should challenge unjust laws, from the extent of government authority to the limits of Christian obedience. The New Testament…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09035 The question of whether churches should be involved in politics provokes strong reactions on every side. Some argue that the church should stay out of politics entirely, focusing exclusively on spiritual matters. Others insist that the church has a moral obligation to engage with political issues as part of its prophetic calling. The…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09032 The term “parachurch” refers to organisations that operate alongside the church, serving Christians and advancing the gospel through ministries that are distinct from the local congregation. The prefix para means “alongside,” and the concept is straightforward: these are ministries that support, supplement, and extend the work of the church without being churches themselves….
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09033 The question of whether online church can replace physical attendance gained urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of Christians worldwide were unable to gather in person. What began as an emergency measure has, for some, become a preference. The convenience of watching a service from home, the ability to access gifted preachers…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09029 Leaving a church is one of the most painful decisions a Christian can face. The New Testament places enormous weight on the gathered community of believers, and the decision to leave should never be taken lightly, impulsively, or without serious reflection and prayer. There are, however, circumstances in which leaving is not only…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09031 Church planting is the intentional establishment of new local congregations where none existed before, or where existing churches are insufficient to reach the people in a given area. It is one of the primary strategies by which the gospel has advanced throughout history, and it has clear precedent in the New Testament itself,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09028 The way a church handles its preaching ministry shapes the spiritual health of its congregation more than almost any other single factor. Expository preaching is the approach that takes the biblical text as the foundation, structure, and authority of the sermon, allowing the passage itself to determine the message rather than using Scripture…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09096 The office of deacon is one of the most familiar roles in church life, yet what churches actually do with their deacons varies enormously. In some traditions, deacons function as a governing board. In others, they serve in a purely ceremonial capacity. The question is what the New Testament itself says about the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09097 Christians have practised communion weekly, monthly, quarterly, and at virtually every other interval imaginable. Some traditions insist on daily observance; others celebrate it only a handful of times per year. The strength of feeling on this question is often inversely proportional to the amount of New Testament evidence available, which is surprisingly thin…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09021 Presbyterian church government takes its name from the Greek word presbuteros, meaning elder, and it places the authority of the church in the hands of elected elders who govern both at the local and the regional level. It is the polity most closely associated with the Reformed tradition, practised by churches in the…