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Three ways of being ‘church’

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Back in the 1980s, ‘Church Growth’ thinking helpfully distinguished between three ways of being church.

(a) The Cell

  • based on weekly (often weeknight) meetings, membership of around 12
  • will have relatively close association with one of the congregations (e.g. members will typically attend, and contribute ministry to, the same congregation)
  • purposes: pastoral, praise, prayer, outreach, study, social
  • oversight by cell-group leaders, under Associate Pastor, under incumbent

(b) The Congregation

  • based on weekly meetings, attendance of around 30-100
  • meetings will typically be held on a Sunday, on church premises.
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Jesus loved the unlovely

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What was the attitude of Jesus to the despised and needy?

  1. When the parents tried to bring their children to Jesus, the disciples ‘rebuked’ them. But when he saw this Jesus was indignant, and he took the children in his arms and blessed them, Mark 10:13-16.
  2. When blind Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, many in the crowd rebuked him. But Jesus asked for him to be brought to him, and restored his sight, Luke 18:35-43.
  3. The Pharisees would recoil with horror from a prostitute.
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Christ applied to believers

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Summarising:

Flavel, J. The Method of Grace, ch. 1

1 Cor 1:30 “—Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’

Just as the plaster must be applied to the wound, the coat must be worn, the cordial received, so Christ must himself be applied to the heart.

In this text we have,

(a) an enumeration of the chief privileges of believers:

  • wisdom, which answers to man’s natural ignorance
  • righteousness, which answers to our guilt
  • sanctification, which answers to our pollution
  • redemption, which answers to the whole range of the effects of sin

(b) the method by which we come into these privileges: ,(i) by receiving the person of Christ

  • by personal application
  • by the work of God
  • Christ’s work is suitable to our needs

Hence: ‘The Lord.…

John 1:14, etc. – Was Jesus ‘begotten’ or ‘unique’?

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Jn 1:14b ‘We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.’

Jn 1:18 ‘No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.’

Jn 3:16 ‘For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.’…

Can I know God? (2)

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It has been said that this is the ‘one thing in the world really worth pursuing’ (Robert H. Benson).

A.W. Tozer called it ‘the easiest and the most difficult thing in the world.’

What am I talking about?  Knowing God.  The Bible itself teaches us that:-

(a) it is what God himself desires,

Hos 6:6.  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

(b) it is the gift that Jesus brings,

Jn 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

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Abortion: a quest for principles

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Summarising an article by Donald MacLeod in The Monthly Record; March, 1979

11,000 terminations in Britain per month.  [N.B. this figure has increased, as of 2024, to around 16,500]

‘Many Christians have never looked at the problem in the light of moral and theo­logical considerations and provably accept prevailing attitudes without thinking.’

A woman’s right to control her fertility

‘The slogan of those who advocate a liberal attitude to abortion is that women have the right to control their own fertility.…

‘The Bible got it right: immutable physical laws’

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Hugh Ross, a Christian apologist trained in astrophysics, has long claimed that established scientific facts are supported by specific texts of the Bible.

In this post, he surveys various kinds of evidence that indicate that physical laws have reamined unchanging since the earliest moments of the universe.

Ross concludes his article by stating that:

‘Astronomers and physicists have affirmed the clear and repeated biblical claim that throughout the whole history of the universe and Earth, the laws of physics have remained fixed, that is, unchanged.

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Can I know God? (1)

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Christianity: boring, untrue, irrelevant?

“I was brought up in a Christian home….” I wonder how many times I’ve heard those words from people who have some kind of Christian background, some awareness of Jesus, yet for whom, perhaps for many years, Christianity seemed a dull and lifeless thing. If you’re admitted to hospital, it seems you’re expected to be able to state your religion, and ‘C of E‘ will do as well as any other.…

The perils of Bible-reading

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Yes! There are some perils in reading the Bible. However, the most common dangers are also the most elementary, and with a little thought can readily be recognized and guarded against.

1. The peril of coming to the Bible with a mind already made up

No doubt we are all guilty at times of reading into the Bible our own favourite opinions and prejudices, rather than letting God’s word speak for itself. An early edition of the Living Bible (a modern paraphrase) gave Acts 13: 48 as follows: “—as many as wanted eternal life, believed.”…

Eternity

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A subject difficult to understand: ‘The subject is one of which the wisest man can only take in a little. We have no eyes to see it fully, no line to fathom it, no mind to grasp it; and yet we must not refuse to consider it…There are heights and depths about the subject of eternity which mortal man can never comprehend; but God has spoken of it, and we have no right to turn away from it altogether.’…