Ecclesiology --- Our approach What’s at play?
Description: Ecclesiology --- Our approach Whats at play? Acknowledging our perspectives If the Bible is silent Stop! Stick with what is said. Go! As long as it doesnt contradict what is said. NORMATIVE REGULATIVE Definitions of church A
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slide3. Ecclesiology --- Our approach<br>
slide4. What’s at play? Acknowledging our perspectives…<br>
slide5. If the Bible is silent… Stop! Stick with what is said. Go! As long as it doesn’t contradict what is said. NORMATIVE REGULATIVE<br>
slide6. Definitions of “church”<br>
slide7. A definition (Mark Dever)… “The church is the gospel made visible.”<br>
slide8. A definition (Greg Allison)… The church is the people of God who have been saved through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and have been incorporated into his body through baptism with the Holy Spirit. It consists of two interrelated elements: the universal church is the fellowship of all Christians that extends from the day of Pentecost until the second coming, incorporating both the deceased believers who are presently in heaven and the living believers from all over the world. This universal church becomes manifested in local churches characterized by being doxological (worshiping), logocentric (centred on the Bible), pneumadynamic (empowered by the Spirit), covenantal, confessional, missional, and spatio-temporal.<br>
slide9. A definition (Greg Allison)… cont. Local churches are led by pastors (also called elders) and served by deacons, possess and pursue purity and unity, exercise church discipline, develop strong connections with other churches, and celebrate the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Equipped by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts for ministry, these communities regularly gather to worship the triune God, proclaim his Word, engage non-Christians with the gospel, disciple their members, care for people through prayer and giving, and stand both for and against the world.<br>
slide10. Definitions of “church”<br>
slide11. Reflection<br>
slide12. Ecclesiology --- Where is the church?<br>
slide13. In a column published some years ago in a popular Christian magazine, a well-known preacher was venting his own loathing for long sermons. January 1 was coming, so he resolved to do better in the coming year. "That means wasting less time listening to long sermons and spending much more time preparing short ones," he wrote. "People, I've discovered, will forgive even poor theology as long as they get out before noon."
Unfortunately, that perfectly sums up the predominant attitude behind much of ministry today. Bad doctrine is tolerable; a long sermon most certainly is not. …<br>
slide14. Traditional methodology—most notably preaching—is being discarded or downplayed in favor of newer means, such as drama, dance, comedy, variety, side-show histrionics, pop-psychology, and other entertainment forms. The new methods supposedly are more "effective"—that is, they draw a bigger crowd. And since the chief criterion for gauging the success of a church has become attendance figures, whatever pulls in the most people is accepted without further analysis as good. That is pragmatism. …<br>
slide15. Theology now takes a back seat to methodology. … Pastors are turning to books on marketing methods in search of new techniques to help churches grow. Many seminaries have shifted their pastoral training emphasis from Bible curriculum and theology to counseling technique and church-growth theory. All these trends reflect the church's growing commitment to pragmatism.
John Macarthur, https://www.gty.org/library/questions/QA209/what-is-pragmatism-why-is-it-bad<br>
slide16. The people of God in the OT<br>
slide17. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide18. Activity:
In your group, look up your assigned verse(s). Then using a concordance, find at least two more that match your topic.<br>
slide19. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide20. Acts 14:23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.<br>
slide21. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide22. An expression of restored Israel qahal is mostly translated ‘ekklēsia,’ but also quite often ‘synagogue.’ Both words involve the notion of a gathered group. At Qumran both words are used of the Qumran community, probably with reference to seeing themselves as the counterpart to the Exodus congregation of Israel. The use of ekklēsia in Mt. 16:18 is likely to be seen in the light of this background. In view is the gathering together of a restored Israel.
(Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, 672-673)<br>
slide23. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide24. 1 Corinthians 14:23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues…<br>
slide25. 1 Corinthians 14:23 “The ease and frequency with which Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and the book of Acts speak of one church coming together ‘in the same place’ suggests that this was the common practice of a New Testament ekklēsia.”
(Grant Gaines, Exegetical Critique of Multi-Site: Disassembling the Church?)<br>
slide26. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide27. Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.<br>
slide28. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide29. Curly questions…<br>
slide30. Where is the church? Visible: Individual local gatherings
Invisible: The “already and not yet” heavenly gathering
…and most likely not: a geographic area, a denomination, a collection of congregations, etc.<br>
slide31. Reflection<br>
slide4. What’s at play? Acknowledging our perspectives…<br>
slide5. If the Bible is silent… Stop! Stick with what is said. Go! As long as it doesn’t contradict what is said. NORMATIVE REGULATIVE<br>
slide6. Definitions of “church”<br>
slide7. A definition (Mark Dever)… “The church is the gospel made visible.”<br>
slide8. A definition (Greg Allison)… The church is the people of God who have been saved through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and have been incorporated into his body through baptism with the Holy Spirit. It consists of two interrelated elements: the universal church is the fellowship of all Christians that extends from the day of Pentecost until the second coming, incorporating both the deceased believers who are presently in heaven and the living believers from all over the world. This universal church becomes manifested in local churches characterized by being doxological (worshiping), logocentric (centred on the Bible), pneumadynamic (empowered by the Spirit), covenantal, confessional, missional, and spatio-temporal.<br>
slide9. A definition (Greg Allison)… cont. Local churches are led by pastors (also called elders) and served by deacons, possess and pursue purity and unity, exercise church discipline, develop strong connections with other churches, and celebrate the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Equipped by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts for ministry, these communities regularly gather to worship the triune God, proclaim his Word, engage non-Christians with the gospel, disciple their members, care for people through prayer and giving, and stand both for and against the world.<br>
slide10. Definitions of “church”<br>
slide11. Reflection<br>
slide12. Ecclesiology --- Where is the church?<br>
slide13. In a column published some years ago in a popular Christian magazine, a well-known preacher was venting his own loathing for long sermons. January 1 was coming, so he resolved to do better in the coming year. "That means wasting less time listening to long sermons and spending much more time preparing short ones," he wrote. "People, I've discovered, will forgive even poor theology as long as they get out before noon."
Unfortunately, that perfectly sums up the predominant attitude behind much of ministry today. Bad doctrine is tolerable; a long sermon most certainly is not. …<br>
slide14. Traditional methodology—most notably preaching—is being discarded or downplayed in favor of newer means, such as drama, dance, comedy, variety, side-show histrionics, pop-psychology, and other entertainment forms. The new methods supposedly are more "effective"—that is, they draw a bigger crowd. And since the chief criterion for gauging the success of a church has become attendance figures, whatever pulls in the most people is accepted without further analysis as good. That is pragmatism. …<br>
slide15. Theology now takes a back seat to methodology. … Pastors are turning to books on marketing methods in search of new techniques to help churches grow. Many seminaries have shifted their pastoral training emphasis from Bible curriculum and theology to counseling technique and church-growth theory. All these trends reflect the church's growing commitment to pragmatism.
John Macarthur, https://www.gty.org/library/questions/QA209/what-is-pragmatism-why-is-it-bad<br>
slide16. The people of God in the OT<br>
slide17. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide18. Activity:
In your group, look up your assigned verse(s). Then using a concordance, find at least two more that match your topic.<br>
slide19. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide20. Acts 14:23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.<br>
slide21. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide22. An expression of restored Israel qahal is mostly translated ‘ekklēsia,’ but also quite often ‘synagogue.’ Both words involve the notion of a gathered group. At Qumran both words are used of the Qumran community, probably with reference to seeing themselves as the counterpart to the Exodus congregation of Israel. The use of ekklēsia in Mt. 16:18 is likely to be seen in the light of this background. In view is the gathering together of a restored Israel.
(Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, 672-673)<br>
slide23. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide24. 1 Corinthians 14:23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues…<br>
slide25. 1 Corinthians 14:23 “The ease and frequency with which Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and the book of Acts speak of one church coming together ‘in the same place’ suggests that this was the common practice of a New Testament ekklēsia.”
(Grant Gaines, Exegetical Critique of Multi-Site: Disassembling the Church?)<br>
slide26. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide27. Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.<br>
slide28. The people of God in the NT “ekklēsia”<br>
slide29. Curly questions…<br>
slide30. Where is the church? Visible: Individual local gatherings
Invisible: The “already and not yet” heavenly gathering
…and most likely not: a geographic area, a denomination, a collection of congregations, etc.<br>
slide31. Reflection<br>