How regulative is the Bible about church?
‘I increasingly think that almost none of the specific ways we “do church” or ministry are mandated by Scripture – Not the time we meet, the place we meet, the way we teach, the liturgy we use, the structure of the service, the instruments and songs, the clothes we wear, the way we train for ministry, the way we conduct communion and baptisms etc. etc.’
Three wrong reasons to leave your church – and five right reasons to stay
This is a good one looking at reasons people leave churches that might not be so great and offering a number of good reasons to stay.
“Touch not the Lord’s anointed”
Conrad Mbewe looks at how this verse gets misused and abused. He says it is particularly a problem in Africa, but I have heard similar language in the UK and US context.
Why Do People Deconstruct? Beware the Grand Theories.
‘We won’t prescribe the right medicine or adequately deal with real sin and real suffering if in conversations about dechurching and deconstruction, we fall back on grand theories that flatten out the real experiences of real people. Monocausal explanations don’t open our ears; they harden our hearts. They speak more to our need for reassurance of our moral righteousness, or our righteous cause, or our righteous stance than they do to the struggling person’s need for a listening ear during seasons of doubt and disillusionment, sin and suffering.’
What was the cause of the Protestant Reformation?
You may think you know, you may think you understand the question, but it is a little more complex than we might imagine. RC Sproul explains.
Partnerships across contexts
This is a great example of the kind of partnership that we are seeking to build with other churches. Our church is a member of both Medhurst Ministries and FIEC.
From the archive: Is it okay for children to have separate Sunday School?
‘My purpose here isn’t to defend what we do at Oldham Bethel Church particularly. Nor am I trying to insist on a particular way of approaching children and their inclusion or otherwise in worship. I can see lots of advantages to different setups and I wouldn’t want to bind any consciences here. But what I do want to do is lay out why I’m not convinced Ephesians 6:1-4 necessitates children remaining in the service and sermon. This is one of the sets of verses that some use to argue children must remain part of the service of worship with their parents. That is not to say there aren’t good reasons to potentially do that (I think there are), but I am going to argue that this isn’t what is necessitated by these verses.’