Grace Blog
Why Membership Matters
In the book, Life in the Father’s House: A Member’s Guide to the Local Church, Wayne Mack and Dave Swavely give five specific reasons why membership matters. They are:
1. Membership is essential to an orderly administration of the church.
“God has invested in the church His manifold grace, the truth of His Word, and the souls of His redeemed people. The church must be a faithful steward of those treasures, and to do so it must put careful thought into developing and maintaining its structure and organization” (43).
2. Membership clarifies the difference between the church and the world.
“The membership roll of the invisible church will always be different than the membership roll of the visible church, to some degree. But at times it becomes necessary to have some criteria by which to decide whether or not someone should be treated as a Christian” (44).
3. Membership causes the visible church to better reflect the invisible church.
“In some instances the visible church is no more than a caricature of the invisible. Then it is inglorious. In a great many instances the visible church seeks feebly to reflect the invisible. Then its glory is dim. By the grace of God there are also instances in which the visible church concertedly emulates the invisible. Such a church is glorious” (46).
4. Membership promotes involvement from those on the ‘fringes’ of the church.
“An emphasis on membership provides a way for people to take a big step in their sanctification by moving from ‘the crowd’ into the ‘congregation.’ They are also more likely to serve in the church when they have made the investment of a membership commitment” (47).
5. Membership provides an opportunity to educate people about the nature and distinctives of the church.
“We view the membership process as a vital ingredient in our attempts to be ‘admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ’ (Col. 1:28).”
- Wayne A. Mack and Dave Swavely, Life in the Father’s House: A Church Member’s Guide to the Local Church (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2006), 43-47.
Labels: Church Membership, Committed Member, What Is a Healthy Church Member? | posted by TimBrister at 7:34 am | Categories: Church Membership, Sunday School Stuff |
The Privileges of Church Membership: Community
Yesterday, I provided an excerpt from John Angell James’ book The Church Member’s Guide regarding the benefits of pastoral oversight. Today, I want to follow up with the benefits of Christian community.
The Privileges of Church Membership: Community Watchfulness
“We are commanded to exhort one another daily; and amidst such temptations, such weakness, such corruptions as ours, is it not an unspeakable mercy to be surrounded by those who watch over and assist us? With every help, how hard a thing is it to be a consistent Christian! How difficult to maintain the purity and vigour of true godliness! How often do our steps sliip, and our exertions relax! And sometimes, through the deceitfulness of the human heart, others may perceive our danger before we ourselves are aware of its existence.
[ . . .] None can estimate the value of those Christian friends, who with faithful love will remind us of our danger, and affectionately admonish us. How inestimable the privilege of having those who will tenderly reprove us, and draw us back with the cords of a man and the bands of love. In the case of our soul’s salvation, more than worlds are at stake; and he who will give himself the trouble to admonish us and exhort us to diligence, performs a service of infinite value, for which, if we improve by it, we shall offer him our gratitude in eternity.”
- John Angell James, The Church Member’s Guide (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Books, 2004; originally published 1839), 34-35.
Labels: Committed Member, Community, What Is a Healthy Church Member? | posted by TimBrister at 7:14 am | Categories: Church Membership, Community, Sunday School Stuff |
The Privileges of Membership: Pastoral Oversight
170 years ago, John Angell James wrote the book, The Church Member’s Guide, and in it he talks about the privileges of being a committed church member in a local church. I want to post a few excerpts where he speaks about the role your pastor and fellow members.
The Privileges of a Committed Church Member: Pastoral Oversight
“‘They watch for your souls,’ said the apostle to the ancient Christians, when speaking of their pastors; evidently implying that it was a great privilege to be the subjects of such inspection. A faithful friend, that will instruct, warn, comfort, or reprove, as circumstances may require, is a great treasure; and such an one a Christian will find, or ought to find, in his minister.
In him he has a right to expect a steady, active, and vigilant guardian of his eternal interests; one who will follow the individuals of his charge, as far as can be, through all their spiritual career comforting them when in distress, rousing them when lukewarm, reproving them when their conduct needs rebuke, lending his ear to their every complaint, and opening his heart to receive their every grief. A faithful pastor will consider himself as the guide and shield of the souls committed to his care; a shepherd to provide for their wants, a watchman to observe the approach of their dangers. He will visit them in the afflictions which attend their pilgrimage; will hasten to their bedside when the sorrows of death encompass them; will disclose to the eye of faith the visions of immortality, which irradiate the dark valley itself; and will never cease his solicitude until the portals of heaven have closed upon their disembodied spirits.”
- John Angell James, The Church Member’s Guide (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Books, 2004; originally published 1839), 32-33.
Labels: Committed Member, What Is a Healthy Church Member? | posted by TimBrister at 7:11 am | Categories: Church Membership, Sunday School Stuff |
Why Biblical Theology Is Essential to the Life of the Church
Graeme Goldsworthy, in his chapter “Biblical Theology as the Heartbeat of Effective Ministry,” provides five reasons why biblical theology is essential to the life of the church. He writes:
In the first place, an emphasis on biblical theology in the church has the salutary effect of enthusing Christians for the study of Bible by presenting a coherent theological perspective on the whole range of biblical literature.
Second, biblical theology is a major means of preventing a superficial Jesus piety. Christology is vital to the Christian faith and its essence lies not in a few proof texts or doctrinal summaries but in the testimony of the whole Bible to the Christ. The Christ we serve and worship is the Christ revealed in the whole testimony of Scripture.
Third, biblical theology nuances the gospel by anchoring the person and work of Christ in the Old Testament. The linking of the gospel event to the whole range of salvation history is vital. It was the loss of the Old Testament in its historical sense that led to the implicit docetism of allegorical interpretation. It also led to the locating of the saving event in the believer’s inner experience and in the infusion of grace in the sacramentalism of the medieval church.
Fourth, biblical theology, when applied to the understanding of ministry in the church, calls into question the pragmatism of the latest quick-fix, church growth theory. The pastor who is forever looking for the next fad to save his church is probably the pastor who has lost sight of faithfully teaching the Bible and of bringing biblical theology to bear on his expository preaching. Authentic ministry will reflect the nature of the gospel. The big picture of God’s work for salvation is a perspective achieved, however only through biblical theology.
Fifth, biblical theology gives us an antidote to the parochialism that so often overtakes the people of God.
- Graeme Goldsworthy, “Biblical Theology as the Heartbeat of Effective Ministry” in Biblical Theology: Retrospect & Prospect, edited by Scott J. Hafemann (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2002), 283-84.
Labels: Biblical Theology, Grace Baptist Church, Graeme Goldsworthy | posted by TimBrister at 9:36 am | Categories: Biblical Theology, Church Membership, Sunday School Stuff |
Getting Introduced to Biblical Theology
This Sunday, we will be taking up the second mark of a healthy church member–being a biblical theologian (the chapter is available online). On the surface, you might be thinking, “Duh. What’s the alternative?!” Good point. But actually biblical theology is a discipline or science to the study of the Bible that you may or may not be familiar with. Thabiti Anyabwile gives some basic helps to defining biblical theology, but I thought it would be helpful to give you some links to resources available on the internet that go deeper in explaining the practice of biblical theology.
1. John Yarbrough, “Biblical Theology” in Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology
2. IX Marks on Biblical Theology (see lessons on right)
3. Graeme Goldsworthy, “What Is the Discipline of Biblical Theology?”
4. Wikipedia entry on Biblical Theology
5. Theopedia entry on Biblical Theology
To got a bit deeper, check out these links:
1. Graeme Goldsworthy, “The Ontological and Systematic Roots to Biblical Theology”
2. Geerhardus Vos, “The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline”
3. James T. Dennison, Jr., “What is Biblical Theology?”
4. Thomas Schreiner, “Preaching and Biblical Theology”
5. D.A. Carson, “Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology”
6. Geerhardus Vos, “The Nature and Aims of Biblical Theology”
7. Charles Scobie, “The Structure of Biblical Theology”
8. S.M. Baugh, “Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology”
9. Charles Scobie, “The Challenge of Biblical Theology”
10. Richard Gaffin, Jr., “Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology”
Finally, for some additional resources, be sure to check out.
1. Monerigm’s biblical theology page
2. The Gospel Coalition page for Biblical Theology as well as Redemptive History
Labels: Biblical Theology, What Is a Healthy Church Member? | posted by TimBrister at 12:08 pm | Categories: Biblical Theology, Church Membership, Sunday School Stuff |
John Angell James on Bearing Each Other’s Burdens
John Angell James (1785-1859) is the author of a very helpful book entitled The Church Member’s Guide, and in it he has a section addressing duties of church members towards each other. Talking about the love we should have for one another, James takes up the issue of bearing one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). Here is what he wrote:
When we see them oppressed with a weight of anxious care, instead of carrying ourselves with cold indifference and unfeeling distance towards them, we should cherish a tender solicitude [concern; anxiousness] to know and relieve their anxieties. How touching would such a salutation as the following be, from one Christian to another:
‘Brother, I have observed, with considerable pain, that your countenance has been covered with gloom, as if you were sinking under some inward solicitude. I would not be unpleasantly officious, nor wish to obtrude myself upon your attention, farther than is agreeable; but I offer you the expressions of Christian sympathy, and the assistance of Christian counsel. Can I in any way assist to mitigate your care, and restore your tranquility?’
At such sounds, the loaded heart would feel as if half its load were gone. It may be, the kind inquirer could yield no effectual relief; but there is balm in his sympathy. The indifference of some professing Christians to the burdens of their brethren is shocking; they would see them crushed to the very earth with cares and sorrows, and never make one kind inquiry into their situation, nor lend a helping hand to lift them from the dust.
Love requires that we should take the deepest interest in each other’s case, that we should patiently listen to the tale of woe which a brother brings us, that we should mingle our tears with his, that we should offer him our advice, that we should suggest him the consolations of the gospel; in short, we should let him see that his troubles reach not only our ear, but our heart.
- John Angell James, The Church Member’s Guide (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2004; originally published 1839), 71.
Labels: Church Membership, Fellowship, Galatians 6:2, John Angell James | posted by TimBrister at 2:16 pm | Categories: Church Membership, Community |
On Expository Listening
Follow on the heels of this morning’s study on “Expository Listening” from What Is a Healthy Church Member?, I would like to post a couple of quotes–one from Jay Adams and the other from Charles Spurgeon. These quotes speak directly to the responsibility of the hearer of God’s Word proclaimed.
Jay Adams:
“Too many laymen speak about the preaching event as if it were a one-way street, as if the responsibility for what transpires when the Bible is proclaimed rests solely on the shoulders of the preacher. But that’s not so! Effective communication demands competence from all parties.” (Taken from A Consumer’s Guide to Preaching)
Charles Spurgeon:
“We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted, but we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, by the hearer than by the preacher.” (Taken from Spurgeon at His Best)
May our participation in hearing the Word of God be that fertile ground where the gospel seeds produces bountiful fruit in our lives to the glory of God and the good of our fellow members!
Labels: Charles Spurgeon, Expository Listening, Jay Adams, Thabiti Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member? | posted by TimBrister at 12:40 pm | Categories: Church Membership, Sunday School Stuff |
Don’t Waste Your Church
Check out this short video clip (2:00) of Josh Harris talking about the centrality and significance of the church and how that relates to our attitude and approach to the local expression of the body of Christ.
Labels: Don't Waste Your Church, Josh Harris | posted by TimBrister at 8:49 pm | Categories: Church Membership, Resources |
