Baptists Reading Together and the Birth of Modern Missions
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Toward the end of the eighteenth century, English Baptists experienced a dramatic and much-needed revival that resulted in the birth of the modern missions movement. What fueled this? One important factor was a handful of pastors’ regular practice of meeting together to read, talk, and pray.
This article tells the story of how the Northamptonshire Association’s meetings promoted truth-fueled revival in the hope that pastors today would walk in these brothers’ footsteps.
HOW ANDREW FULLER PROMOTED BIBLICAL TRUTH
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How “Belonging before Believing” Redefines the Church
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One of the great insights of the modern world is that John Donne was right and Simon Garfunkel was wrong: I am not a rock; I am not an island.
From who I think I am to what I believe about life and the universe, my beliefs are socially constructed. That doesn’t mean I don’t make independent decisions. It simply means that the social context in which I live largely determines the range of options I can choose from.
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Why Sunday School Lost its Edge
By Ed StetzerIt’s probably not a secret that Sunday school is no longer the en vogue program of the local church. Its reputation has, well, suffered over the years. My focus here is not to give answers or prescriptions, but to help us consider how it lost its reputation—its edge—and how a once thriving program is now often seen as a relic of the past.
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Praying for Parachurch Ministries
Here are six reflections on how I pray for parachurch ministries:
1. Should there be any difference between the way I pray for a local church and the way I pray for a parachurch organization? No and yes.
No, because in both cases I am praying for brothers and sisters in Christ, and in both cases the focus of my praying ought to be for the kinds of things that the apostles prayed for. For example,
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How Church Discipline Will Save the Parachurch
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For years now I’ve been hearing Mark Dever say that a previous iteration of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary “went liberal” because “local churches weren’t doing their job.”
What?! Why was it the local churches’ fault?
Mark’s point is that, when those professors began to say things like “the resurrection is not historical,” then the local churches where those professors were members should have excommunicated them for denying this basic element of a statement of faith.
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How Parachurch Ministries Go Off the Rails
By Carl Trueman
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, goes the old saying. And, in the evangelical world, one might add that it’s paved with parachurch organizations which started well and then, at some point, went disastrously off the rails. Why is this the case?
WHY DO PARACHURCH MINISTRIES GO OFF THE RAILS?
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Nine Marks of a Healthy Parachurch Ministry
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Parachurch ministries are everywhere.
From Joel Osteen to John Piper, from Creflo Dollar to Tim Keller, from Joyce Meyer to John MacArthur, it’s difficult to find Christian leaders who don’t lead a parachurch ministry.
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For the Church: Which Parachurch Ministries Should You Support?
By Andy Johnson
Just about every week, I get a call or email from the representative of a Christian organization. They want to meet with me to tell me how they can help the members of my church do missions, or evangelize students, or understand postmodernism, or disciple children, or (most recently) use instant messaging to do evangelism. This kaleidoscope of Christian groups which are not churches, but which want to help fulfill the duties of a church, is enough to make a pastor’s head spin.
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For the Church: How Can You Support Parachurch Ministries?
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For months, even years, you've heard your pastor preach on the need for Christians to be salt and light in the world. You've listened to expositions of Jesus' command to "go and make disciples of all nations" so many times you could preach it yourself. Your minister has exhorted you from Luke to emulate the Good Samaritan's compassion for the needy, and to avoid the rich man's callousness toward Lazarus in his poverty.
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Are Parachurch Ministries Evil? Bad and Good Arguments for the Parachurch
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The local church and the parachurch seem to be in constant conflict.
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