Church Growth: Whose Job Is It Anyway?
Every day junk mail floods church mailboxes luring pastors to jump on the church growth bandwagon. Information on the topic constantly streams forth in the form of seminars, conferences, and books. Pastors and laymen alike are urged to model their church after the newest, trendiest, most popular methods used by other churches. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for this downward spiral. Many of the concepts of what we know as...
Rebuilding Baptist Identity: Reestablishing the Priesthood of All Believers
Everyone longs for identity. As Christians engage with postmodern culture, many find themselves in the midst of an identity crisis. They realize that their identity lies outside of themselves (rather than the confines of their own perception) and is therefore established within the boundaries of Scripture, the local church, and the greater Christian tradition. The quest for identity has caused evangelicals to rethink who they are and...
The Importance of Being a Confessional Christian
If an analyst were to survey a number of local churches, he would find that it is comprised of Christians from various ecclesiastical backgrounds, despite the church’s denominational affiliation. For instance, one might find a Presbyterian church to have several members with a Baptist upbringing. On the other hand, some attending an Anglican church may have been reared in a Free Church Tradition [1]. These trends suggest that many...
Consumerism and the Church Today
Over the last several decades a consensus has emerged among the market-driven and seeker sensitive, that the “traditional” church is like a product now rendered obsolete by the passage of time and the onrush of innovation [1]. Traditional churches are stuck with too few choices and products – and the products are those they have always offered. Indeed, liturgical traditions have their most public products and choices prescribed for...
How God’s Attributes Shape Man’s View of Ecclesiology
The Church, above all else, should mirror the character and attributes of God. Sadly many churches do not. Instead of appealing to God, they focus on that which the target group desires. What is the newest and trendiest thing the church down the road is doing? What is the largest church in your movement practicing? What’s new in television ministries? In sum, pastors, teachers, laymen, students, and Christians in general are...
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