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…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09095 The question of how large or small a church should be generates strong opinions on every side. Megachurch advocates point to growth as evidence of God’s blessing. House-church advocates insist that anything beyond a living room has lost the New Testament pattern. Both claims deserve to be tested against what Scripture actually says,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09019 How a church governs itself is not a matter of indifference. The way authority is structured, decisions are made, and leaders are held accountable shapes every aspect of congregational life, from how doctrine is protected to how conflict is resolved. Congregational church government is one of the historic models of church polity, and…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09020 Episcopal church government is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of church polity in Christian history. The word “episcopal” comes from the Greek episkopos, meaning overseer or bishop, and the system is defined by the central role of bishops who hold authority over multiple congregations within a defined geographical area. Understanding…
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: 3 minutesQuestion 09010 Ordination is a word used across virtually every Christian tradition, yet it means different things in different contexts. In some traditions it confers a sacramental character that permanently changes the nature of the person ordained. In others it is a formal recognition of a calling that the church has observed and affirmed. Understanding…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09011 The training and calling of pastors is a subject on which the New Testament says more than many churches realise and less than some seminary programmes assume. The modern pathway to pastoral ministry, which typically involves formal theological education followed by a search process and an institutional appointment, is not the only model…