5 Reasons To Be a Member of a Local Church

Today’s guest post comes from the pen of Dave Jenkins. Dave is a Christian, husband to Sarah, freelance writer, avid golfer, and the Director of Servants of Grace Ministries. You can follow him on twitter at @DaveJJenkins or read more of his work at http://servantsofgrace.org

The belief that professing Christians should gather together as members of a local Church is waning in many sectors of Christianity. Some feel that faith shouldn’t be “institutionalized” and should be a private matter between individuals, not something to be experienced in community.

Here are five reasons why I feel Christians should be members of a local church. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but these reasons give Christians a biblical framework to think through why they should be members of a local Church.

First, The Bible clearly teaches that God made a distinction between His people and the world (Lev 13:46; Number 5:3; Deut. 7:3).  Christ says that entering the Kingdom of God means being bound to the Church “on earth” (Matthew 16:16-19; 18:17-19). The New Testament refers to some people being inside the church and some people being outside the church. (1 Cor. 5:12-13). The church in Corinth consisted of a definite number of believers, such that Paul could speak of a punishment inflicted by the majority (2 Cor. 2:6). Not only does the New Testament speak of the reality of church membership, but its dozens of “one another” passages are written to local churches. The “one another” passages in the New Testament fill out our understanding of what church members should look like practically. Biblical church membership is important, because the church presents God’s witness to Himself in the world, and displays His glory. In the church’s membership, then non-Christians should see in the lives of God’s changed people that God is holy and gracious and that His gospel is powerful for saving and transforming sinners.

Second, the Epistles were all written to local churches. A brief sampling of Paul’s epistles make this abundantly clear:  1 Corinthians 1:1-2, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:” 2 Corinthians 1:1-2, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus  by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.” Philippians 1:1-2, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.” Galatians 1:1-2, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:” 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2, “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.”

Third, Christ saves Christians to live in community with other believers. Christ calls believers to local church membership not just for our spiritual growth, but also so that they may use their spiritual gifts in the context of the local Church.

Fourth, some people think that meeting together with other Christians is not important because the early Church only gathered in small groups in Acts 2:42-48. The problem with this view is ignores history. As the Church continued to grow, they gathered together in large gatherings. There were small group meetings but there were large gatherings. Regardless of if the local Church meets in a building or in a home it doesn’t matter. The Church is comprised of people who been regenerated by the work of the Spirit. The people of God are to gather to worship together in Spirit and Truth, to hear the preached Word, participate in communion, baptism, and then scatter to spread the Great Commission in their families, neighborhoods, cities and to the nations.

While many people have a problem with the Church the Bible clearly teaches that professing Christians are to be members of local Churches. While local Churches may have many issues, the Church itself is purchased by Christ and is therefore blameless. The members inside the Church are justified and yet sinners meaning they are made right with God through the blood of Jesus but still growing in Christ-like character and going forth in Christ’s name to their families, neighborhoods, cities and to the nations with the Gospel.

Finally, those who object the loudest to this kind of teaching think that they can be Christians and not be in the Church. From even from a cursory examination of the Scriptures- the lone-ranger view of being a Christian is not biblical. Christ saves Christians to live in community with other believers. Christ calls believers to membership in the local Church not only for their own spiritual growth but to use our spiritual gifts in the context of the local Church.

Christ calls other Christians to live in community with other Christians for the purpose of accountability, and spiritual growth. Christ calls Christians to live in community with other believers so they will grow in likeness to Jesus Christ. Christ calls Christians to live in community with other believers so that believers may minister in and through their local churches in order to reach one’s community, city, nation and the world with the Gospel.

In conclusion, Christ doesn’t save sinners so they will live in isolation or be lone-rangers—He saves them so that they will be in community with one another, speaking the truth in love to one another, “one anothering” each other, and displaying forth His character, and glory to a watching, but unbelieving world.

How I’d Destroy a Church

If you desired to destroy a local church how would you go about doing it?

Obviously I am not talking about the building itself, nor do I mean destroy it as an outsider.  If you recently joined a relatively healthy local church, with the intention of destroying it within 3-5 years, what steps would you take to accomplish this task?

Here is how I would do it:

I would spend the first year or so building good relationships with a diverse number of people.  My goal would be discovering what the church is most passionate about.  During this time I will “become all things to all people” so as to destroy the whole lot. Their passions would become my passions. With such passion it shouldn’t be difficult to move into a leadership position, like teaching a Sunday school class. 

With my new Sunday school class I will begin by digging into the really tough topics. We will lead our class through seeing what the Bible says about them. During this time I will focus on minor things as if they are major things. The gospel will be assumed. My goal will be to get people’s eyes off of the gospel and the kingdom of God and onto these “important issues”.

Just as in any church there will be natural differences of opinion within the body of Christ. I will devote my energy to exploiting these differences. In time I will lead people to view these different expressions as unfaithfulness instead of simply differences of opinion or personality.

When I spend one-on-one time with people I use all my charm to convince them that I am on their side in these “important issues”. It doesn’t matter what side I really take on these important issues so long as I can breed factionalism I have succeeded.
 
People should begin falling into certain camps. (Even if one of the camps is to be disinterested in the “issues”). Once this happens I will find an opportunity to express my grief at all of the disunity within the church. I will now make a major issue about all of the disunity within the body, thus taking peoples eyes off of Christ and firmly fixing them on one another. We will even begin prayer meetings to start praying for God to help us with our disunity. I will do everything I can to get the pastor to start preaching on unity. I’ll even come up with a 5 step plan to resolve our “unity problem”.

After being there for about 3 years I should be a respected leader in the church.  My brokenness over the disunity would make it obvious that I care deeply about the church and the people.  At this point I could move into the final stage of my plan.

I will donate a large amount of money anonymously and I will be certain not to designate it.  The only stipulation will be that the money must be used to advance the ministry of the church, and it must be used in full within the next two years.

Because of all the “disunity” in the church every suggestion for using the money will be met with suspicion. Whenever people disagree on how to spend the money (as they likely will) they will be accused of “furthering disunity”. The church should split into several groups.

Hopefully, each faction will think themselves the godly ones.  This means that anyone that opposes them are the ungodly ones.  The decision has to be made on where to spend the money, and one group has to win this decision.  But, regardless of the decision one group will consider it ungodly.  Who wants to stay in an ungodly church anyways?

I’ll probably try to stay neutral and “godly” in this whole discussion.  I will make it known how broken hearted I am by this disunity.  When the decision comes down on where to spend the money, I will lead the charge of leaving this ungodly place.  Not even because of the decision but because of the way that everything was handled.  That should successfully take all of my “godly” followers with me and those on the losing side should leave too.  That which the winning side spent the money on will now become their makeshift savior and they will slowly fade away into idolatry.

That’s my rather long answer.  What is yours?

Oh, and by the way this does have a point…

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Originally posted here.

7 Ways to Create a Reading Culture In Your Church

Some chap somewhere has said that in 5 years you’ll be the same person you are today except for the books you read and the people that you meet.  Though, I think a tad simplistic I do believe that in 5 years you will be shaped by what you have read (or did not read). 

Call me a nerd all you want, but I am a firm believer that it is very beneficial for a pastor to cultivate a reading culture within the community that he influences.    Consider these words from Mark Dever:

Without knowing it I have actually put many of these things into practice in the church where I currently serve as an associate pastor.  With a much help from Mark Dever here are the Top 7 ways to create a reading culture in your church.

1. Read yourself.  How are you going to know what to recommend if you don’t read a bunch yourself?

2. Giveaway books any chance you can.  Every Sunday evening I give away free books.  We give away free books at marriage conferences.  I usually give away or suggest books in counseling sessions.  We give away free books at many other seminars.*

3. Take advantage of small groups.  If you do small groups at your church take advantage of them by suggesting high quality books to go together as a group. 

4. Write book reviews for your church.  I hope to begin utilizing my book reviews for the benefit of our church even more.  If I can figure out how to cut cost I want to put them in bulletins, perhaps as a book of the month.  As of now some from our church members read my book reviews here at Borrowed Light.

5. Quote from great books.  When you are preaching, teaching, counseling, or just talking feel free to do some name dropping and quoting.  This will help people when they are at a book store to know quality authors.  (Be sure to stress JOHN Piper instead of DON Piper though). 

6. Read with people.  Just like Dever’s Theology Breakfast, find a way to go through various books (even if you just read them) to a group of people.  

7. Never neglect the supremacy of THE Word.  Part of what you are doing is creating a culture that will take the Word of God more seriously and be better equipped to really dig into and reflect upon the Word.  If you make books central then you’ve missed something.  This also helps to filter what books you giveaway.  If they aren’t biblical but simply free then you might be creating a reading culture but not necessarily a good one. 

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*We have $0 to budget for a book allowance and for me giving away these books.  Nor do I have the income to buy a free book every week.  So, how do we do it?  I have two channels.  First, I receive a good number of free books from publishers to review.  I also receive free books from conferences and such that I attend.  Many times I give these away.  Second, a little over a year ago I made a phone call to a publishing company.  I won’t mention the name because I doubt they could do this for every church.  (But it rhymes with Drossway).  This unnamed publishing company graciously sent close to 100 free books for us to distribute on Sunday evenings.  Amazing!

You Need the Church and We Need You

Richard Lovelace is correct:

…it is impossible to grow to full stature as an individual while separated from smaller and larger groups in the church, nor can the body grow without the renewing of its members.  (Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 19)

Certainly this is much more than simply attending a worship service on Sunday morning, evening, or Wednesday night.  This is speaking of a vital union that believers have with one another and that must be lived out in the day to day rhythms of life. 

Threefold Cords and Pastoral Plurality

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

This text is quite often used for marriage.  The husband, the wife, and Jesus are not easily broken.  That’s a good enough principle, and is certainly true that a Christ-centered marriage is “not quickly broken”. 

In as much as this verse may be helpful for marriage it may be even more helpful when considering ministry.  This is why it appears that the New Testament church consistently established a plurality of elders (pastors).  Even in the new church at Crete filled with relatively new converts, Paul admonishes Titus to “put what remained into order, and appoint elders [note the plurality] in every town as I directed you”. 

So, not only do I find this to be the New Testament form of church leadership but I also see things like Ecclesiastes 4.  How many pastors have been “quickly broken” because he “has not another to lift him up”?  How many pastors have seen a spark of grace (or even a wildfire) quickly die out because he “can’t keep warm alone”? 

I support a plurality of elders because I have seen numerous pastors “broken” without it.  Yes, I still support congregationalism (that means the congregation votes and “rules”), but I support a congregation that is led by a plurality of elders.  We pastors need one another.  And not just a distant fellowship of associations.  We pastors need other brothers in our immediate circumstances to keep grace warm and to hold us up. 

No, He IS Calling You to a Church

Okay there are a good number of things off about this particular demonstration (I’m not going to call it a sermon).  Watch it until the end because I want to key in on something that he says:

(HT: Scotteriology)

Notice that he said “I’m not talking about joining the church, I’m talking about becoming a Christian”.  This is a pretty popular saying with many television preachers, and it is picked up by many other well-meaning preachers.  It sounds so pious doesn’t it. 

“Don’t worry we aren’t trying to get you to join our church, we aren’t trying to increase our numbers, we just want you to have a relationship with Jesus”.

“Oh, whew!  I thought that maybe you were calling me to dedicate my life to unity with a local expression of the body of Christ.  That was close.  Yeah, I’ll take me some DNA-changing-Jesus but please don’t call me to be united to other believers that will hold me accountable, rub me the wrong way, and continually—often painfully—sharpen my relationship with Jesus”. 

Brothers and sisters, Jesus IS calling you to more than just a relationship with Him.  Yeah, the gospel isn’t about joining a church like you would join a Blockbuster or Sam’s Club.  But it is about uniting yourself to Christ and in turn uniting yourself to other blood-bought believers in Christ. 

I leave you with these words from Mark Dever:

If you have no interest in actually committing yourself to an actual group of gospel-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, you might question whether you belong to the body of Christ at all!  (Dever, What is a Healthy Church, 27)

Dever continues:

We demonstrate to the world that we have been changed, not primarily because we memorize Bible verses, pray before meals, tithe a portion of our income, and listen to Christian radio stations, but because we increasingly show a willingness to put up with, to forgive, and even to love a bunch of fellow sinners.  (28)

The Lil’ Brudder Syndrome

This is how many of us try to live the Christian life:

Was John Calvin Saved? And Other Things Not to Trust In.

Recently I wrote a paper on John Calvin’s view of the extent of the atonement in 1 John 2:2.  Perhaps, I will share some of that at some point (I’d like to get a grade first to see how much of a heretic I am).  While doing research on this topic I came across an interesting thread on the Baptist Board.  A guy named Plain Old Bill posed this question:

I'm not trying to be mean but you guys got me started reading all kinds of Calvin's writings and I can't find anything with his testimony of how he came to know Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Does anybody have anything to help out here I guess that would also beg the question , was Calvin saved?

My response here is not meant to be directed towards Plain Old Bill.  In fact I doubt he will ever see this post, as the question was posted almost four years ago. 

First, I’ll just answer the question directly.  You will not find much of a testimony from John Calvin.  What you will find is this, “God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame.”  And you will also find a great amount of Christ-centeredness and trust in Calvin’s writing.  Even upon his deathbed Calvin spoke of trusting in Christ alone. 

What I really want to interact with is this idea that you have to have a “testimony” to be saved. 

Around the time of the Puritans there was a particular teaching going around similar to our SPOT (Specific Place or Time).  Iain Murray points refers to this in his book The Old Evangelicalism.  There he mentions Richard Baxter who:

…[spoke] of a meeting of eminent Christians and ministers where it was asked that everyone should give an account of the time and manner of his conversion, ‘and there was but one of them that could do it’.  To which Baxter added, ‘I aver from my heart that I neither know the day, nor the year, when I began to be sincere’.”  (Murray, The Old Evangelicalism, p20)

Now certainly there are those, like the Apostle Paul, that had an arresting conversion experience.  But there is a serious danger in forcing many true believers to fit this mold.  Furthermore, it is a potentially grave error to make “ a testimony” the mark of whether or not a person is saved. 

This is one reason why those like Spurgeon did not hop on board the “altar call” movement.  They had a great fear that people would eventually conflate things like a “testimony” and “going forward” with trusting in Christ.  If my personal experience is worth anything I would have to agree with them.  I have often heard people use “going forward” or “having a testimony” as synonyms for trusting in Christ. 

Granted this is often just a nuance of our Christianese.  But there is a real danger when the evidence of someone’s salvation is marked by something they did in the past rather than if they are trusting in Christ at the present.  There are numerous people that have testimonies, that went forward, and are still living in sin and not trusting Christ.  There are also numerous stories of people, like Calvin and Baxter, that evidently trust in Christ yet do not know the particular time or place when they were first converted. 

So, I ask.  What are you trusting in?  Are you trusting in an experience or are you trusting in Christ?  Your experience or “past decision” is a shaky foundation.  Only when your foundation is Christ will it be firm. 

The Root of Church Defection

…those who more boldly than others incite defection from the church, and are like standard-bearers, have for the most part no other reason than their contempt of all to show they are better than the others. (John Calvin, Institutes, 1030)

Ripping on the church has become a national past-time.  It is not uncommon for people to get so fed up with the brokenness of the church that they decide their relationship with Jesus could be just as easily cultivated at home. 

There is also the other type of person that hops from church gathering to church gathering but never firmly plants within a body.  There is nothing wrong with trying to find a church home.  But there is something wrong with NEVER planting.  And I question someone that is just “following where the Spirit leads” but never commits himself/herself to a local manifestation of the body that Christ died for. 

I understand there is more to this than the simple John Calvin quote. I understand there is much debate about what constitutes a “church” and that many are moving away from an institutional variety and embracing a more organic house church model. 

I simply want to make one point.  Make certain that you aren’t “defecting” out of pride and a sense of having it all together.  Do you love the church?  If your heart is not beating for the church of God then I doubt it truly longs for Jesus.  You can’t love Jesus and dis’ his wife. 

Church Destruction 101

If you desired to destroy a local church how would you go about doing it? 

Obviously I am not talking about the building itself, nor do I mean destroy it as an outsider.  If you recently joined a relatively healthy local church, with the intention of destroying it within 3-5 years, what steps would you take to accomplish this task?

I asked this question on Facebook yesterday and received a healthy dose of response.  Which I think speaks volumes for the truth that there are numerous ways that a church could be destroyed.  As I have thought through this I have decided how I would go about destroying a local church.

I would spend the first year or so building good relationships with a diverse number of people.  It would be my goal to discover the things that drive this church.  I would become all things to all people so that by any means I may destroy the whole lot.  Their passions would become my passions.  Slowly but surely I would move my way into leadership positions such as teaching a Sunday school class. 

As I begin my new Sunday school class I will be certain to dig into some really tough topics to see what the Bible says about them. I will focus on minor things as if they were major things.  At this stage I will be certain to assume the gospel.  My goal here will be to get people’s eyes off of the gospel and the kingdom of God and on to certain “important issues”.
There are natural differences within every local expression of the body of Christ.  I would devote my time to exploiting these differences as if they were expressions of unfaithfulness rather than simply differences of opinion and personality.  When I spend one on one time with people I will do everything I can to convince them I am on their side in these “important issues”.  Hopefully this will begin to breed factionalism. 

After I sense that people are falling into certain camps (even if one of the camps is to be disinterested in the “issues”) I would become “really grieved” by the disunity in this church.  We would make a major issue about the disunity within our body, thus taking peoples eyes off Christ and firmly fixing them on one another.  Prayer meetings would be set up to pray for unity.  The teaching would be geared around unity.  At business meetings I would suggest solutions to solving our unity problem. 

After being there for about 3 years I should be a respected leader in the church.  My brokenness over the disunity would make it obvious that I care deeply about the church and the people.  At this point I could move into the final stage of my plan. 

I will donate a large amount of money anonymously and I will be certain not to designate it.  Now every opposing suggestion for using the money will be thought as “furthering disunity” and the church should split into several different groups. 

Hopefully, each faction will think themselves the godly ones.  This means that anyone that opposes them are the ungodly ones.  The decision has to be made on where to spend the money, and one group has to win this decision.  But, regardless of the decision one group will consider it ungodly.  Who wants to stay in an ungodly church anyways?

I’ll probably try to stay neutral and “godly” in this whole discussion.  I will make it known how broken hearted I am by this disunity.  When the decision comes down on where to spend the money, I will lead the charge of leaving this ungodly place.  Not even because of the decision but because of the way that everything was handled.  That should successfully take all of my “godly” followers with me and those on the losing side should leave too.  That which the winning side spent the money on will now become their makeshift savior and they will slowly fade away into idolatry.

That’s my rather long answer.  What is yours?

Oh, and by the way this does have a point…

Monday’s Ministry Musing: Appealing to Selfishness?

A few days ago I was listening to a Christian radio station.  During one of the breaks between songs the DJ read something about building relationships with people.  One of the things he mentioned was that people are by nature selfish.  Therefore, if we want to build a good relationship with them then we need to appeal to their desires and interests; we must center the conversation around them.  He continued reading the list naming several good qualities as long as vices and how we must respond to them.  At the very end he said by doing these things we will have influenced them for God. 

Are we really influencing people for God if we cater to their sinfulness and “build a relationship” based upon this premise?  This question extends far beyond the assertions of this Christian DJ.  This question is crucial to our methodology of outreach.  We know that people like sex and violence…so should the church have an MMA night or send fliers heralding “Learn Great Sex”? 

Consider Jim.  Jim is ridiculously selfish (like most of us).  We send a team from our church to canvas our neighborhood.  A team stops at Jim’s house.  We ask Jim why he does not come to church and we ask what it would take to get him to church.  We find that Jim is not the only one that has these problems with the church.  His suggestions seem to resonate with many of the unbelievers in our area.  Here are his suggestions:

1. I hate long sermons; give me 20 minutes maximum.
2. I don’t like boring songs but I also don’t like repetitious cheesy love song either.
3. Never ask me for money; I can stay home and listen to TV preacher’s do that.
4. I want people to be friendly but not overly desperate and acknowledging me in front of everyone else.  Notice me but not too much.
5. If I have to walk too far or park in a cramped space just forget me coming.  I face traffic to get to work on Monday, I don’t want to do the same on Sunday.

These are his suggestions.  So, what is the church to do with them?  Do we say, “well he’s a lost guy and lost people are not to dictate what we do in the church”?  Or, do we say, “he’s a lost guy and if we want to reach him then we need to reach him where he is at”? 

What did Jesus do?  What did the New Testament church do?  If you assume this is an easy answer then you probably have not thought it out well enough.  If you are a “lost people don’t dictate the church” then try arguing from the other side.  Same thing if your not that guy.  

Thoughts?

Today in Blogworld 2/1

Welcome to February. I am beginning to think that many bloggers are snowed in today; we are having quite an active Friday.

Steve Camp has a well put-together post on Discerning whether or not you are in Christ. He provides quotes from Flavel, Whitefield, and the little known Matthew Mead. Really good stuff here. Also you can view his first post in this series on discernment, here.

Alvin Reid, whom we used his book for Intro to Evangelism in college, has a wonderful discussion on The Great Commission in the Home. Recently in my conversation with David Michael (Pastor for Parenting and Family Discipleship at Bethlehem in Minneapolis) he mentioned something similar. For some reason we forget that the home can be a strategic center for missions and obedience to the Great Commission. I look for a resurgence in this in the coming days. Reid offers an interesting challenge to pastors: "Ask your congregation how many grew up in a Christian home? Then ask how many of those who raised their hands can recall their parents leading a discussion ever about reaching your neighbors. Then, ask how many remember the family ever doing anything specifically to get the gospel to their neighbors."

Timmy Brister closes up our discussion on The Bruised Reed. The last post is an open thread (which if you are involved in the challenge be sure to post on to be eligible for the prizes--I'm pulling for #7). Timmy also offers a summary of all the posts on Sibbes. He concludes his discussion by pointing out the mercy exhibited by Sibbes as well as the fact that he was a 17th Century Christian Hedonist.

Scott Lamb posts a transcript of Jimmy Carter's speech(?) at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration.

J.D. Hatfield has a phenomenal post on The Heart of the Matter. It is a very phenomenal articulation of the balance between being a jerk in our proclamation of the truth and neutering the gospel for the sake of being nice. Excellent job, J.D.! (Will: Make sure to read this one!)

I am overjoyed that C.J. Mahaney has joined the blogosphere. He gets it going with a great lists of Cross-Centered books. After reading this I need to update my wishlist with a couple of these books. He also offers a lists of helpful books on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.

Scott Lee asks, "Is Church Membership Divisive?"

Thabiti has written a wonderful article on The Gospel and Bitterness, at NA. I absolutely love Thabiti's heart (from what I've seen) and his ministry! Thanks, dear brother!

Borrowed Light: Today in Blogworld 01/16

Challies begins Day 8 on his blog tour, today he finds himself with the Pyromaniacs. Frank Turk leads the interview and ask Challies several questions. Mostly on Challies' sources. It's a great discussion.

Frank Turk is also busy answering whether or not God's love is unconditional. I love his answer: "God's forgiveness is not unconditional: it is conditioned wholly on the price Christ paid to secure a right payment for sin. What Christ did made God both just -- that is, a just judge, able to forgive without being a violator of justice -- and the justifier of men." Check out his argumentation here.

Jared Wilson, a teaching minister for college students at Element, has some great thoughts today about the difficulties of young adult ministry.

As soon as it was announced that Dr. Mohler would be a candidate for President of the SBC some detractors began questioning his theology, character, leadership, etc. Inevitably within the SBC one major discussion will be on Mohler's Calvinism. Can we have a Calvinistic leader in the SBC? (If you know Baptist history then you know how ludicrous that question is). Today Tony Kumner points us to one of Mohler's past answers to the Calvinism criticism.

Thabiti has an excellent article on Lone Ranger Christians. What is his answer to these lone rangers? Mutual belonging.

John MacArthur considers the primary purpose of the church. Is it Inward, Upward, or Outward? I am yet to determine if I agree with him. I prefer Piper's statement of saying that missions exist because worship doesn't. But I can certainly follow Mac's argumentation. I tend to think that God's primary purpose is to receive glory. MacArthur agrees with this but he believes that it is through the redemption of mankind that God is most glorified. Therefore he seems to be putting "outward" as the purpose of the church. Perhaps my problem is that it creates a false dichotomy. Upward without Outward is probably insincere. If we love God we will have a desire to see men come to him. Outward without Upward is no more than the social gospel. The statement of MacArthur that gives me the most trouble is this one: "And if God’s primary purpose for the saved were to give Him praise, He would, again, take believers immediately to heaven, where praise is perfect and unending." I certainly see the logic but is that Scriptural? What do you think?

Art Rogers on his blog 12 Witnesses has a very funny post about the Dangers of Bread. My wife wants me to buy her a bread maker, I'm having second thoughts now. (HT: Micah)

Also, be sure to check out the new Bible.org. (HT: JT)