Discipleship
Book Review: Messy Grace, by Caleb Kaltenbach
Review by Jackie Hill-Perry | 04.11.2016Messy Grace was a deeply encouraging, inspiring, and convicting read.
Your Constitution Is a Theological Document
By Greg Gilbert | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.29.2016A constitution is not just a technocratic document demanded by your state’s tax office, nor a necessary evil for avoiding conflict in a church. It’s a deeply theological and even spiritual document.
7 Tips for Writing (Or Revising) Your Church Constitution
By A. Nichols, M. Schmucker | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.29.2016Writing (or revising) your constitution is not really lawyer’s work, and it need not be drudgery. In fact, it can and should be invigorating.
Not Them! Who You Don’t Want to Revise Your Documents
By Mike McKinley | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.29.2016Here are the five kinds of people that you might be tempted to put on your document revision committee, but should avoid if at all possible.
27 Ways to Use Your Confession and Covenant
By Garrett Kell | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.29.2016The ways we can use Statements of Faith and Church Covenants in our churches are many, but what matters most is that if we have them, we use them to help each other follow Jesus.
20 Quotes from Jonathan Leeman’s New Book on Elder-Led Congregationalism
By Matt Smethurst | 03.28.2016Here are 20 quotes from Jonathan Leeman’s new book, Understanding the Congregation’s Authority.
Don’t Be Embarrassed to Be Church in Public
By Graham Beynon | 03.24.2016Perhaps if there was more family life within our worship times we might help people live out being church together in the rest of life.
Why I Love My Book of Church Order
By Guy Prentiss Waters | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.21.2016Saying that you love a polity manual like the Book of Church Order is like saying you love your slide rule or your calculator. But in this case, it’s true.
Confessions: Old or New?
By Bobby Jamieson | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.17.2016Should you look for a historic confession that your church will align with, or adopt something written recently—or even write your own?
A Sample Marriage Policy
9Marks | 03.09.2016Editor’s note: Read Nick Gatzke’s piece “How Our Church Has Found a Marriage Policy to be Useful” for an introduction to marriage policies. ***** ____________ is happy to participate in instituting … keep reading…
How Our Church Has Found a Marriage Policy to be Useful
By Nick Gatzke | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.09.2016In the life of a church, we create policies to help guide us to practices that help our people. May our marriage policies do just that.
Which Church Documents? And Why?
By Aaron Menikoff | 9Marks Journal: Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church | 03.04.2016As unglamorous as church documents may be, they are a crucial component of a pastor’s toolbox.
Dear Pastor, Know Your Theology of Sanctification
By Mike Christ | 02.29.2016There’s a push in evangelical circles to understand justification. This is good. But let’s make sure we haven’t neglected sanctification.
Mailbag #31: Healthy Membership before Healthy Eldership; Difficult Shepherding Situation; Ordination; Tithing
By Jonathan Leeman | 02.25.2016— Do we first educate our people about elders and deacons and then install them—or do we educate them about meaningful membership and then make meaningful membership part of how we operate? — One of our members refused to come to church because our building and people remind her of past pain. How can we shepherd her well? — What is the biblical view of ordination to the pastorate? — What is your view on tithing concerning New Testament believers?
Mailbag #30: Non-Members Serving in Church; A Prospective Elder Who Doesn’t Regularly Attend; The Problem with Contemporary Christian Music; How Younger Members Can Serve Older Ones
By Jonathan Leeman | 02.18.2016— Is it wise to let non-members serve in behind-the-scenes ministries? What about children and teens who aren’t members but profess to be believers? — Should regular attendance be an implicit qualification for elders? — It appears my church enjoys shallow and theologically suspect songs. What should I do? — What are some ways that a younger church member can positively influence older members with regards to sound doctrine?
