The Church Militant Is the Church Missional
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus responds to Peter’s affirmation of Jesus’s messiahship with the programmatic statement: “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The reader shouldn’t miss Jesus’s mixed metaphor—the church is like a building project and like a military operation. One should also note that neither metaphor conveys a passive or defensive posture. Both metaphors, on the contrary, denote the ideas of growth, advance, completion, and victory. Read more
Worship for Dummies: The Regulative Principle Made Simple
God created man for worship. Jesus declared that the Father is seeking worshippers who will worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). Not surprisingly, the Shorter Catechism begins by affirming, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” But this raises the question, “How should God be worshiped?” To be more precise, “What kind of worship pleases God?” The answer is vital. Thankfully, it’s not that complicated. Even a child may understand. Read more 
Abram’s Response to God’s Call: Trust and Obey or Doubt and Delay?
The Bible often compares the Christian life to a marathon race. But if the Biblical writers lived in modern times, they might have chosen a slightly different metaphor to describe the Christian life. I suspect that they might have likened the Christian life to competing in the Decathlon. A Decathlon is a modern type of marathon race that involves ten different competitive events that are performed over a two-day period. The winner is traditionally called, “The World’s Greatest Athlete.” Read more
“Joy Comes in the Mourning”: How Jesus Wipes Away Tears
Do you know what it’s like to feel the sorrow of a bereaved mother? A mother’s life is wrapped up in the care and well being of her children. When those children are taken away from her or, worse, when they’re wantonly slaughtered before her eyes, it’s like ripping out her heart. She feels empty. She feels as if she no longer has any purpose for existence. Perhaps you’re experiencing that kind of grief. You’ve not been bereaved of your children, but you feel the same kind of empty sorrow. You feel hopeless and without purpose in the world. Read more
Making Disciples: Purposing Reproduction and Practicing Replication
Pastor Bob Selph of Grace Baptist Church in Taylors SC gave two lectures on the subject of “making disciples” for our course on Church Ministry. In the first lecture entitled “Purposing Reproduction,” Bob discusses the biblical basis and importance of discipleship as a vital facet of the church’s ministry. He focuses on the practical ways in which the pastor and church members may disciple one another in his second lecture entitled ”Practicing Replication.” If you’re a church leader and are seeking to equip the saints for works of ministry as well as training future gospel laborers, I heartily commend these lectures. Read more
Communication That Connects: Our Preaching, Bible Version, Confession, Branding, and Songs
In the previous installments of this series, I’ve addressed the importance, definition, and biblical support for accommodating our gospel communication to make it intelligible to the people we’re trying to reach.1 Below I’d like to highlight five different areas in which we should seek to apply this principle of accommodation to the way we communicate biblical truth in church ministry. Read more
What If Your Church Isn’t Big?
Christians should not despise quantitative church growth. Quite the opposite. We should desire it. Part of our commission as a church is to “make disciples.” And it normally takes disciples to make disciples. In other words, we cannot view human resources and financial resources as totally irrelevant. If our church is to impact our community for the gospel, to minister to the poor, to train gospel laborers, to see new churches planted, and to send out missionaries, we should long and labor for healthy church growth of the numerical kind.1 Read more
- See my articles “Who’s Afraid of Church Growth?” and “Contextualization & Church Ministry: Does It Matter?“ [↩]
Our Church’s Journey in Evangelism – Gary Hendrix
Our recent module on church ministry included an emphasis on evangelistic outreach. We invited Pastor Gary Hendrix, who has over 30 years of pastoral experience, to address the topic and to share with our students his church’s journey in evangelism. In this lecture Pastor Hendrix emphasizes the importance of pastors training and mobilizing their people to engage the lost with the gospel in ways that are appropriate to their gifts, maturity, and the providential opportunities God has placed before them. If you want your church ministry to cultivate an outward focus, I highly recommend the free video message below. Read more
Communication That Connects: Defined and Described
In an earlier post, I stressed the importance of presenting the truth gospel to our target audience in a way that’s clear and intelligible. I referred to this as “communication that connects.” But what precisely do I mean by that phrase? Below I’ll attempt to offer a definition and a description of what such accommodated communication looks like. In subsequent posts, I’ll adduce some biblical arguments and suggest some practical applications for church ministry. Read more
The Three Dimensional Church – Ted Christman
Reformed Baptist Seminary invited Pastor Ted Christian to serve as one of five lecturers for its recent module on Church Ministry. In the lecture below Ted explains how the church’s vision, mission, and strategy are grounded in its identity. Moreover, he argues that the church’s identity also constrains a three dimensional focus that is upward (worshiping God), inward (building up one another), and outward (ministering to the lost). Read more
