Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer […]
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Author: Rick Shrader
The Emerging Church (part 2)
The primary tenet of the Emerging Church has been that we must a) recognize that our culture has become postmodern and b) we must immerse our churches much more into this postmodernism if we are to reach this generation with the gospel. It has been my contention that “a” is true but “b” is false. […]
The Emerging Church (part 1)
There is no rut so deep to fall into as the need for constant change. Already we are being told that “postmodernism” is out of date and we are now living in a “post-postmodern” time. Spurgeon described the shifting sands of his own day in this way: “It will have no creed because it can […]
Growth and the Local Church (part 2)
We have noticed in part 1 that (1) the church is a called out group of people who have voluntarily believed, not a kingdom of people who have been conquered against their will, and (2) the Great Commission is to preach the gospel, not convert the nations. We continue in part 2 by emphasizing the […]
Growth and the Local Church (part 1)
The church growth movement, in its effort to help the church accomplish the Great Commission, may have actually done more to hinder than to help. What started off as an effort to get as many people under the sound of the gospel as possible, has often ended with churches full of merely professing believers whose […]
Guess What Has Not Changed?
Perhaps the most difficult problem in dealing with a postmodern culture is defining our terms. I doubt that a generation has ever been so flexible with language as this one. One hundred years ago W.H. Griffith Thomas, combating German Rationalism, said, “We cannot in any degree be sure of the thought unless we can be […]
Local Church Methodology
Every time I read advocates of contemporary worship, I can see why many have said things like, “Every time a new book is published, read an old one.”1 The old truth that you are what you read becomes true in those who spend their time reading about the contemporary church scene. You can only digest […]
You Shall Be Witnesses Unto Me
No more daunting task could have been given the church than to evangelize the whole world. Surely for such a job God would have chosen angels to speak to the world as they first spoke the good news to shepherds and caused such urgency on their part. Or perhaps a multiplication of apostles and prophets […]
Tell It To The Church
When the Lord Jesus Christ announced, I will build my church (Matt. 16:18), it was established as an absolute monarchy with Himself as the sovereign Head. As long as this supreme Monarch was physically present with the disciples, their commission and instructions were held in abeyance, waiting for the enabling Power for operation. With the […]
Elders Worthy of Double Honor
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine (1 Tim. 5:17). Baptists have never thought they were the only believers in the world or the only ones with Bibles. All believers have the obligation to apply the Scriptures to every part […]