The Church Is The Bride Of Christ

In their book, The Great Commission to Worship, Vernon Whaley and David Wheeler takes an in depth look at commandment from Jesus for His followers to go out and spread the Good News of salvation. Today’s Christian seems to have a misconception about their role in evangelism. As the authors stated, “many times in Scripture it appears

What were the key social and cultural factors that enabled the Gospel to spread so quickly through the Roman Empire? Using primary and secondary sources, discuss with particular reference to Paul’s writings and the Book of Acts.

The beginning of church is said to have risen from the resurrection of Jesus. In fact after the Pentecost, the disciples were celebrating the blessing given to Moses at Mount Sinai in which he experienced the presence of God. After this experience, the disciples were believed to be bold, understanding and Courageous. These characteristics till this day are still celebrated on Pentecost Sunday and are used for the sacrament of Confirmation, which is receiving the responsibility of a Christian and accepting the Holy Spirit. Church has been the backbone of people's faith. It has given them a comforting home to pray and be one with God. Today, however, more people are practicing faith outside the church. The majority of followers believe in God and life after death, however, many have lack of interest in the church. Church must be looked as a community of disciples. The book uses a suggestion from a Roman Catholic theologian Avery Dulles. He suggests, "that most appropriate image of the church for our times is the church as a community of disciples"(pp. 157). I totally agree with his suggestion. In order for Christians to find fulfillment in ones faith, one must help others understand their faith. We need to be grounded in grace; by being a Christian community your focus on believing is responding freely to a personal call and

In my mind it sounds like they wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus and were more out looking in doing work for him and being producers. The church has made it now that we are so consumed by what the church can do for us not what we can do for the church. I don’t know where this society view had started but I know many people who are not satisfied unless they get something from the church. If the pastor doesn’t speak a good message, if their kids weren’t cared for well in the kids ministry, or if they aren’t being ministered to spiritually they get frustrated and start looking for a new church that will satisfy them of the consumptions they are looking for. They don’t look out for others they look out for themselves and are consumed with what they can get out from the church and what the church can do for them. I think this is a poor way of thinking and a way that can get people in trouble when they aren’t looking out for others. They are being consumers of the church instead of letting God be an all-consuming fire through them and being focused on him and in him because we are not ourselves and we are Gods craftsmanship where we only should be consumed with him and him alone. I think being consumers of church and looking out for selves is where we really go wrong on this idea of living in a consumer culture and the only way to be satisfied and to restore the insatiability Clapp refers to often is to look through it through God’s eyes because only he can satisfy our desires for the better

I think Church’s have major responsibilities to communicate the gospel message. We need to remember that it was God’s kindness that saved us. Church’s shouldn’t focus too much

To be a successful church the author states that the church should function and relate to the people’s culture that the church is located within.

Many people believe that that the motivation of the Christian church is to radically “change the world”. However, through his book To Change The World, James Davison Hunter explains how this common believe is a misconception. Rather, he shows readers that, from a sociological perspective, while Christians thrive in many areas of life by reaching others individually, they fundamentally components of creating cultural change.

In the New Testament, the church can be referred to as the “local” church or the “universal” church. The local church is a place where assemblies of believers come together at a particular location and time. The universal church refers to the body of Christ. Many churches believe that they are healthy because they have a certain number of people on their

In the book, “Announcing the Reign of God,” Bishop Mortimer Arias’, provides illustrations for Christian evangelism based on the teachings of Jesus. Which is grounded in the ministry of Christ and affirmed by evidence and experiences contributed from a diverse group of witnesses. Arias’, main point of view, analyzes the Kingdom of God as the governing authority for the proclamation of the gospel in word and deed. He explores biblical sources, particularly the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke with the intent to examine Jesus ' evangelization. The titles for the readings appraises the Kingdom of God’s: Good News, Presence, Imminence, In-Breaking, Eclipse, Announcing as Gift, Announcing as Hope, and Announcing as Challenge End of the Eclipse? Most importantly, Aries probes how we should answer the questions of: “What it means to be evangelical?” Also, “What would ‘kingdom evangelization’ look like?”

Evangelism in the early church is different then evangelism in the church today. Today some churches do not even share the truth but only talk about money and how to make the church bigger. Some churches do not share the whole true and are not bold like the early church because they are afraid that they will lose members because of the truth. Also in some churches there is a lot of division. In the early church like stated earlier, they were unified and helped each other out. Now there is a lot of gossip and others try to excel above others in the church.

Author Dan Yarnell suggested seven characteristics of a Christ-honoring church in the 21st century: worship, fellowship, interaction with Scripture, discipleship, community, living sacrificially, and living missionally. However, Yarnell contradicted himself when he stated that the church originated at Pentecost (Acts 2) and proceeded to provide examples of the effects of cultural development and new missional opportunities on the church prior to Pentecost. While the term “church” or “” is unique to Acts and the following New Testament writings, its concept and precepts existed from the time of Genesis. In fact, Yarnell did not reference any Old Testament passages or practices. Therefore, Yarnell contradicted himself and ignored Old

The authors point out a huge problem that is alive and well in the church. Due to personal preferences, the church has separated itself from one another. Not only are different cultures separate but the age differences within the church are separated amongst themselves. The leaders of worship within the church whether they are pastors or worship band leaders must not

Scholars support the argument that Christian worship is definitely associate with culture. A research on church history must also consider the cultural aspects of the early church period. Indeed, cultural influences affected the worship life of the early church. Furthermore, culture involves a style of life where tradition, religion, and moral values are particularly interrelated.

Jesus Christ sought to improve the individual, the component of society, and as result, his teaching ideally aims to advance the well-being of society as a whole. The four Gospels and the book of Acts thoroughly demonstrate the extensive sociological knowledge that was present in Jesus’ teaching. His message facilitates personal reform, rather than change in the social structure alone. Although Jesus establishes the church as a social institution, he does so, only after a number of individuals become his followers.

The similarities from the First Century Church and the Churches of today are that we suppose to give up the world and follow Jesus. When we focus on Jesus we can love people and take the message of the Gospel to the people by making friends and making disciples. The differences of the First Century Churches and the Churches of today are the availabilities. In the First Century Church the message was only able to be delivered to the people that were in ear shad of Jesus and the Disciples. In today’s Church we have social media, computers, and radios to assist with delivering the message of Jesus. We do not have to walk everywhere we go we have the availability to go in Cars, Motorcycles, and planes. Which allows us a greater opportunity to spread the