Category Archives: At the Crossroads

Mar 04 2014
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At the Crossroads

A Bible Church: A Response

As I finished David’s post about what it means to say that we are “a Bible Church” I realized I had my work cut out for me. His post was clear and spot-on really, and I wasn’t sure what I might have to say to add to his thoughts. But the task has been given to me to kick the can down the road so to speak, and so I needed to find some way to consider the Bible as a central component in the life of the church, while moving us forward.

The Challenges of a Bible Church

To say that the Church of God is “a Bible church” seems to point to the reality that in some way there must also be churches that exist that are something different. That’s not to say that they don’t read, teach, or believe the Bible, or that they are unChristian in their approach to scripture. Rather it is simply to highlight that various parts of the global body have been organized differently around this book, and if that’s the case then it seems logical to assume that there are certain challenges that arise from either decision. It would serve us well to consider these challenges.  Continue reading →

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Feb 27 2014
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At the Crossroads

A Bible Church

Something in Common

God is pleased when his people read, study, teach, preach, and live by Bible. Who would disagree? Surely this is a no-brainer: God’s people, those who have experienced the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are to center their lives around the Old and New Testaments. Emphasis on the priority of scripture is most certainly integral to the fabric of what it means to be God’s church. From weekly sermons to small group studies to the “B-I-B-L-E” children’s song, one thing is clear: We are people of the Book. This is a truth around which all Christians can rally.

Yet to say that this value finds unique expression in the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) is to say something of a different order. Our understanding of and adherence to the Bible do not overshadow or replace the love of scripture that has marked the church since its founding and especially since the Reformation. We are not somehow more biblical than other Christians. However, our approach to Christian faith and practice influences our relationship with the Bible. And while that relationship is certainly not unique among all Christians, our perspective can influence broader conversations about what it means to be faithful students of the Bible.

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Feb 25 2014
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At the Crossroads

A Gospel Church: A Response

A Gospel Church is definitely all that Shannon New Spangler talked about in the previous post.  She did an excellent job articulating the central importance of the Gospel message.  This is not an easy task, writing a blog post about these themes, especially as the primary poster.  Whole books could be written around any one of these themes, and we are trying to tackle them in a thousand words, give or take a couple hundred.  So we have to make choices about how much gets said on any given theme.  The advantage of the responder is that they get to pick up a thread that was not allowed to make it into the primary post.  Thank goodness; otherwise I’d have nothing else to say.

So, that being said, I’d like to take what Shannon said about A Gospel Church and the centrality of the gospel, and stretch it.  I absolutely agree that a gospel church has, at her core, the central message of Jesus Christ and his salvific work.  However, I would like to push us a little further in understanding how a gospel church proclaims the gospel.

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Feb 20 2014
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At the Crossroads

A Gospel Church

As we begin the series “Church of God at the Crossroads” we come with the question posed by Dr. Stafford in his book, “what kind of church is pleasing to God?”

It’s a good question, but not an easy one to answer. Many church groups over the years have given answers to this question. The answers vary greatly, so who is right? Perhaps it’s not any one thing, but a combination of things that make a church that is pleasing to God.

The first idea we are going to discuss here is that a church that is pleasing to God is a gospel church. The word “gospel” means “good news” or “glad tidings.” The good news in this context is that the Messiah (Jesus Christ) has come and that humanity has been given the opportunity to be redeemed. With this in mind, what then is a gospel church? It is a church that proclaims, sings, teaches and repeats this news that Jesus Christ has come and that every person has the chance to take part in the salvation he brings. If we are not proclaiming this message then we have missed the point; and if we replace the proclamation of this good news with other agendas, no matter how worthy, we have ceased to be a gospel church.

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Feb 18 2014
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At the Crossroads

Church of God at the Crossroads: An Introduction

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
(1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 17-20 NIV)

Much of the time, when we study the passage from 1 Corinthians 12 that talks about us being part of the body of Christ, we look at it with an individual application: Each individual brings their own unique contribution to the body of Christ. But recently Joe and I have discussed if the passage is applicable at a collective level, too: Each congregation of believers worships and lives out its faith a little differently based on the context of where it does ministry, its history and the gifts and personalities of its people, which means it collectively makes a unique contribution to the Kingdom. Continue reading →

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