Building a Biblical Theology
I have been thinking for a long time about the legitimacy of the America’s pastorate—not the biblical pastoral office, mind you, but the American use of the pastorate. A church hires a “pastor” to lead or rule the church. Sometimes, the pastor that the local congregation “hires” is a hireling unfree to do ministry as... Continue Reading →
Denominations within orthodox Christianity exist primarily because people disagree on the person and/or work of Jesus Christ. They don’t disagree about small things. Denominations make formal doctrinal statements concerning the authority of God in salvation and the responsibility of people. They make statements about the essential nature of the person and about whether salvation is... Continue Reading →
As a part of this current leadership series, we want to address the idea of pastoral care for our own benefit, self-examination, and so that we can know what the Biblical responsibilities of a pastor are regarding pastoral care. I think the concept of pastoral care is often abused. Pastoral care in the church could... Continue Reading →
We are continuing our leadership series exploring the place of different methodological components of the local church. In the first section, we explored the different components of the main church services or meeting times. In this section, we are considering the different components of the local church’s overall ministry method. I have seen churches do... Continue Reading →
We are continuing our leadership series exploring the place of different methodological components of the local church. In the first section, we explored the different components of the main church services or meeting times. In this section, we are considering the different components of the local church’s overall ministry method. In this section, we are... Continue Reading →
We are moving into the second part of our current leadership series as we evaluate the methodological place of the different components of the church service. In this part, we will move beyond the Sunday gathering and observe the different components of our organization and think together about the Biblical place of church business meetings,... Continue Reading →
Church services vary in length. The average timeframe seems to be from one to two hours while there are worship services as short as thirty minutes. It doesn’t come as a surprise that Scripture gives no explicit instruction on how long or short a Christ-centered worship service should be. What I will not do is... Continue Reading →
I remember walking into one church building, it was a church that had seen my resume and called me for an interview. The building was rundown, dirty, the wall paint was no longer white, the carpet was coming up, and there was a hole in the ceiling of the auditorium. It was not a very... Continue Reading →
God’s house is to be a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). So, in church services we try to follow that instruction by having intermittent prayer around preaching and singing and by having entire gathering times dedicated to only prayer. What place does prayer actually have in the gathering? This will be an important topic for... Continue Reading →
The Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, is a regular part of Christian worship. As a reminder of my goal in this leadership series, I am not considering all of the theological implications of the practice. Concerning the Lord’s Supper, I am making these presuppositions: The proper view of the Lord’s Supper is at least memorial... Continue Reading →
andrew paul cannon 