Rhetorical Analysis Of Hometown

Christ has given to His church certain people to provide leadership. apostle, prophet, evangelist and pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11). These persons are given

A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their

Jesus paid the price that we could not pay for our sins to redeem us from death and being eternally separated from him. No matter our shortcomings and our stubbornness, God still chooses to work in us and through us despite ourselves. (Veith G. E., 2002) This is exemplified by God allowing us to serve and be served by people from all walks of life. I think it is to remind us of our dependence on Him. Just as we realize that we cannot make it in life without God’s help, we cannot make it in life without the people around us, the everyday ordinary people. “God, who pours out his generosity on the just and the unjust, believer and unbeliever alike, hides himself in the ordinary social functions and stations of life, even the most humble”. (Veith G. , 1999) Our service would not be possible if Christ had not done for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Dulles states, “It picks up the biblical theme that God has fashioned for himself a people feely communicating his spirit and his gifts” (50). The Body of Christ as stated in Dulles is, “the main point of mutual union, concern and dependence of the members of the local community upon one another,” (43). The body of Christ will only function is the whole community is willing to work together to reach a personal growth in their relationship with God. Now that we have an idea of what Church as mystical communion consists of I will discuss the strengths and weakness of this model. The strength of this model is that emphasizes a shared life with the community instead of shutting them off. This is a strength because when people come together as a whole everything holds so much more meaning and people can form a stronger bond with God, now that it is much more personal and voluntary. Another strength is that this model improves people spirituality and prayer life now that they feel that personal connection that they formed. A weakness of this model is that it creates unsure relationship between the visible and invisible, since Grace allows people to get closer to God through the invisible such as communion while the visible structure like institutionalism tries to emphasize their power over the whole people. I have discussed what the models mean, their strength and weakness of each so now I will note the difference and

As believers we should be striving to serve other people through the work we are called to do in the world. Timothy Keller says in chapter 4 of his book "Every Good Endeavor”. " How does God give a city security? Isn't it through the lawmakers, police officers, and those working in government and politics? So God cares for our civic needs through the work of others, whom he calls to that work”. What Timothy Keller is stating here is that God calls us as believers to work in our jobs for the benefits of others.

The theme of being made alive in Christ goes hand and hand with other themes that stand out throughout the book of Ephesians. Clinton Arnold, author of a book titled “Exegetical Commentary of The New Testament Commentary Ephesians” offers several themes to better understand Paul intention in writing this letter. The first theme that stands out is the threat of the spiritual powers must be viewed in light of the superior power of God and the power he passes on to his people. That same power gives Paul his apostolic authority to prepare the church in its commission to make the gospel known to the “rulers and authorities in heavenly laces” (Elwell, Yarbrough). Secondly the powerful cultural coercion of the Gentiles hostility towards Jesus can and should be defeated in the church on the foundation of Jesus work bringing both into one new group. Unity and love in a togetherness of peace reflects

Paul is developing and spreading the doctrine of the Church in his letters. The body of Christ (the Church) is being revealed in his letters to the seven churches. Paul’s revelations about the Church concerned its heavenly calling, promise and destiny. The administration and organization of the Church was revealed to us through the apostle Paul.

The leadership of the churches in Paul’s writings and in the section of the Book of Acts dealing with Paul consists of various categories involving the questions of age, gender, and maturity, as well as diversity of function. The fullest list of leadership categories in the Pauline corpus is given in Ephesians 4:11, where he lists apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

According to Bonhoeffer, every true theology starts in prayer and involves Jesus Christ (Godsey, 2015). According to Bonhoeffer, the destroyers of the Christian community are those people who are self-centered, thereby giving priority to their own individual goals as opposed to those of the Christian community. Eventually, such people end up destroying the Christian union regardless of their interests, thoughts, and intentions to uphold earnests, honesty, and sacrifices. According to the theologian, God is against this wishful thinking and dreaming, which is egocentric, and in which case the dreamer ends up being pretentious and proud (Godsey, 2015). This class of people joins the Christian community with their personal demands already set up. Also, they set their own laws, judge other people from the congregation and God on an equal measure. However, in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer warns that people are not the builders of the church but rather Christ is the one who builds it. He continues to maintain that those people who are too much watchful about building the church ends up destroying it instead (Metaxas, 2010). In support of his argument, Bonhoeffer argues that man will build temples to idols unintentionally and without knowing it (reference). In that case, he argues that people should confess that Christ is the sole builder of the church and hence must proclaim this aspect (Bonhoeffer, 1959). Christians must pray to the Christ so that he can continue building the church. He also warns that humans cannot see or judge Christ’s plan as regards the church since the times that the Christians considers periods of destruction may be Christ’s time of great construction and the reverse (reference). The theologian notes that Jesus gives a great comfort to the Church. Jesus requires of the Christians to bear witness, preach, and confess and he alone will be build where it pleases

These tasks cannot be performed alone. They involve coming together with diverse people for fellowship. The act of loving God cannot be possible without loving one’s neighbor. It is dependent upon the other. If the Church is able to serve the people of God by including them and conversing with them, they are said to be in communion with each other.

As a master architect lays out the design for a strong foundation of a house, so it is with the Apostle Paul through his writings in the Pastoral letters concerning 1 and 2 Timothy, as well as Titus. The central theme threaded throughout these three detailed letters of Paul is his passion for equipping and establishing God’s people to serve with excellence for the glory of God.

In order to adequately understand this passage, we must discuss it from the perspective of the author and original audience – the apostle Paul and the church in Ephesus. We will investigate the civic, social, and religious landscape of the time and region, bringing the

Finally, Christians must understand they are servants of Christ. When one becomes a Christian, we must tell them that they are to be slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ. Usually, Christians are doing things for the wrong reasons. A Christian should serve Christ not out of duty, but because they know and understand that they are servants of the most high God.

One example of this is in 1 Corinthians 12:12 as it states, “just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” When simply reading text like this, people might think the Bible is referring to Christ’s physical body, however, it is actually referring to Christ’s body of followers. The body is also called the Church, and by Church it means the followers of Christ that have accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. As a follower of Christ, Christians are called to service, to share the hope of Jesus, to love one and other, to worship, to encourage truth and bring glory to God. As we recognize the ways God has gifted us, we should use our talents for the reasons listed above. The ways each individual is gifted are what makes up the parts of the Body of Christ that we can contribute, as they differ person to person. As the physical body is intricately made of many parts the Body of Christ is as

Today, we will learn together from the passage 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 in which Paul uses a metaphor of a body to describe diversity and unity in the body of Christ and its functions and how do we need to take care of those who are facing extreme persecution.