Category Archives: Church

Church planting 101

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Why plant churches?  Tony Merida answers:

  1. In order to align ourselves with the purposes of God.  God’s purpose is not merely to bring individuals to heaven (Acts 18:9f), but to gather a people – a diverse, global people – to himself.  When we plant churches, we are doing what God has always been doing.
  2. Because the Great Commission points to church planting.  To ‘make disciples of all nations’ by ‘baptising them’ and ‘teaching them’ is to incorporate new believers into the life of a church (Mt 28:18-20). 
…

2 Peter 1:4 – ‘Partakers of the divine nature’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

2 Peter 1:4 ‘[God] has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.’

This is one of the most striking claims in the whole of Scripture. Although the phraseology here is unique, the thought is echoed in Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:2-3; 1 Pet 5:1, and Rom 8:23,29.…

5 reasons why I’m not keen on reverential capitalization

Walking With Giants Posted on by

‘Reverential capitalization’ refers to the practice of capitalizing, for reasons of reverence or respect, the initial letters of words that refer to the deity.

Capitalization of nouns, in written English, does not convey respect or reverence.  Rather, it conveys specification.  We capitalize both Churchill and Hitler, both Pol Pot and Gandhi.

But what about capitalizing personal pronouns that refer to God?

Well, I think it is unnecessary and unhelpful, here’s why.

1. There is no biblical mandate for it

Biblical Hebrew does not distinguish between upper-case and lower-case letters, and the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament were written in all capital letters.…

The sad irony of celebrity pastors

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Carl Lentz is the latest of a rather long line of celebrity pastors to fall off his pedestal.

Lentz, until very recently, lead pastor of Hillsong Church NYC, has apparently had a string of extramarital affairs.

Prompted by this sad turn of events, Ben Sixsmith (not a professing Christian) has written a thoughtful article about the perils involved with the cult of the celebrity pastor.

Lentz seems to have deliberately nurtured his celebrity image.  Not only has Hillsong NYC tended to put celebrities (such as Justin Bieber) front and centre of stage, so has the pastor himself:

‘Lentz turned himself into a brand.

…

Perspectives on union with Christ

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The term ‘union with Christ’ sums up the relationship between Christ and his people.

The church has understood this in various ways.

1. Incarnational union.  This view, which was held my many of the early Fathers and continues to be held in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, is that in incarnation God in Christ became one with us in order to make us one with him.  He took on our human nature in so that we might partake in his divine nature. …

1 Corinthians 15:29 – ‘Baptized for the dead’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

What will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?

As Thiselton (Shorter Commentary) says, Paul’s main point is clear enough:

“baptism for the dead” (whatever this means in detail) would be pointless and senseless if there were no resurrection. But since, evidently, they have themselves baptized for the sake of the dead, either some people tacitly assume the truth of the resurrection or else their action is self-contradictory.

…

The resurrection of the body

Walking With Giants Posted on by

“We look for the resurrection of the dead”, says the Nicene Creed.

“I believe in the resurrection of the body”, we declare every time we recite the “Apostles’ Creed”.

These ancient affirmations are well-grounded in Scripture, most obviously in 1 Corinthians 15, but also in Romans 8 and other passages.  They are also consistent with the teaching of 2 Peter 3 and Revelation 21 and 22 that confirms that the future hope of God’s people is not for their bodies to remain buried for ever in the ground of this earth and for their “souls” to fly off to “heaven”, but for bodily resurrection and for future life in God’s new heaven and new earth.…

Heavenly worship

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens write:

In the last book of the Bible we are given an empowering vision of worship in the new Jerusalem. All earthly worship should be inspired by the worship that is already going on in heaven and that we will experience more fully when Christ comes again. In this sense our present worship is like “playing heaven,” as when little children invite each other to “play house,” looking forward to the day when they are grown up and have their own home.…

Why we need to be back in church (as soon as possible)

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I totally subscribe to the maxim, ‘Church is people, not buildings.’

But we are God’s gathered people, and something is missing when we are not able to gather.

David Gunderson and Peter Mead have both written about this, and what follows is based on their thoughts.

It’s important for us to gather, because

  1. We are embodied people.  See Gen. 1:26–27; 2:18–25; 3:20.  As a grandparent, I have learned afresh from my 3-year-old grandchildren that seeing and hearing people online is not the same as seeing and hearing them in the flesh. 
…

Do we meet God in particular places?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Life in lockdown has, for Christians, raised questions about what it means to meet God when our places of worship (aka ‘churches’) are closed.

Old Testament

Genesis 28:10-19 records Jacob’s experience of seeing in a dream angels on a stairway that led up to heaven, and of hearing God’s promise to give his descendants the land.  Jacob concludes: “Surely the LORD is in this place, but I did not realize it!”

Specific localities are important in Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush, and in the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. …