Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09066 Consubstantiation is the term commonly used to describe the Lutheran view of Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper. It represents a middle position between the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the memorial view held by Baptists and many evangelicals, and understanding it helps clarify both what Lutherans believe and why the memorial…
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: 3 minutesQuestion 09064 The question of whether communion is “just” symbolic often arises from a sense that something deeper ought to be happening at the Lord’s Table than the passing of bread and grape juice. Behind it lies a genuine instinct: if the Lord’s Supper were nothing more than a nostalgic re-enactment, it would be difficult…
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 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 09052 Church membership is unfashionable in an age that prizes individual autonomy and resists anything that feels like institutional commitment. Many believers attend a church regularly without ever formally committing to it, treating the congregation as a service provider rather than a covenant community. But the New Testament does not describe the Christian life…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09048 How a church organises its leadership and decision-making is not a matter of indifference. The New Testament does not leave us to improvise. While it does not prescribe a single rigid organisational chart, it does establish clear principles about who leads, how authority is exercised, and where accountability lies. The question of church…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09049 The role of elders is one of the most important and most misunderstood subjects in church life. Some churches have elders in name but give them no real authority. Others vest so much power in a single leader that the plurality the New Testament assumes has vanished entirely. Understanding what Scripture actually says…