Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4. Why does Paul call right teaching sound doctrine, and what does the word sound actually mean? When he tells Titus to ‘teach what accords with sound doctrine’ (Titus 2:1), he reaches for a word that might surprise you. The Greek term behind sound is hygiaino, and its plainest meaning is healthy or wholesome….
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11020 Jesus did not command His followers to make converts. He commanded them to make disciples. The distinction matters enormously, because it shapes how we understand the church’s mission and what success looks like. A convert has made a decision. A disciple is being transformed. The Great Commission calls us to the longer, harder,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10153 The phrase “the blessed hope” has become so familiar in Christian vocabulary that it can lose its force through sheer repetition. But when Paul used it in his letter to Titus, he was describing something specific, something that was meant to shape the way believers live in the present. The blessed hope is…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09087 The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 make it unmistakably clear that Jesus evaluates local congregations and that His assessment is not always favourable. The church at Ephesus had abandoned its first love. Sardis had a reputation for being alive but was dead. Laodicea was lukewarm, on the verge of being…
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…
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: 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: 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: 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…