The Main Features Of The Church

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

(189) If congregants give negative feedback about a preacher/speaker's teaching/preaching is because they did not understand the sermon or the sermon was long with no substance. Anderson proclaims that the pastor is a steward over the people salvation and do not stand between their relationship with them and God. However, he/she corrects and lead/prepare them for the coming Christ. (204) Preparing the congregants about the coming of Christ is not to teach/preach about self-righteous doctrines. The doctrine of self is not the way, the truth and the life. Anderson also states after a church has been spiritual abused, they can recover through reconciliation. (212) For this to happen, the pastor needs to come forth and admitt his selfishness, and arrogance and apologize to the church and to the ones that left so that healing can begin, and the people will not walk around harboring bitterness and regret.

These surveys show that church leaders have a great challenge ahead of them in order to prevent people from leaving church. They have to be more effective and have to think of creative ways to retain people in the churches.

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

One organization that is becoming increasingly popular, is the new youth church. These churches are made up primarily of young adults; those that attend gain a sense of belonging by their family-like structures and “cell groups”. They also dabble with the postmodern and nontraditional ways of worship, to attract outsiders, and they have a strong emphasis on missionary work.

Although the small group of church goers were mostly elderly Caucasian people, they were diverse and friendly towards new individuals. Those who wore the traditional, elegant attire of a Sunday worship service greeted with a firm handshake and a gentle smile. On the other hand, those who preferred to wear casual outfits greeted with tight hugs and hearty laughter from seeing a new face. After talking to more than half of the attendants, it was evident that everyone knew a lot about each other. It was nice to hear that most of them had overwhelmingly positive words to say about the church itself. Then, I finally met the middle-aged pastor who was glad to see someone new and introduced me to his wife. She had a stoic expression and had nothing to say. Honestly, the wife’s silence struck me as surprising considering how the other people were talkative, but it is nothing to be overly concerned about. After all, it was almost time for the Sunday service to

As to the teaching at Grace, we see it's current condition as the result of men filling a role that they are neither gifted for nor received a call by God's people to fill; coupled with the neglecting of seeking out a pastor but rather choosing to be a self-shepherding flock, and so deprive ourselves off the blessing of obedience to God in that area and working of His Spirit amongst us through a pastor. It is this seeming deliberate absence of a pastor that prompts us to visit other assemblies of God's people.

• What do you see in today's local church that is similar or different from the early church?

They give scripture which identifies the importance of unity. Ephesians 4:14-16 shows how the body of Christ should be unified in the midst of diversity. Leaders should work extra hard to keep the church family worshipping together. The authors condemn chronological snobbery and suggest that both the young and old come together. The young generation must grow up and the older generation needs to adapt.

The Church Refused to Look Like the Community. Dying churches are concerned with self-preservation. The way of doing church is fare more important to these churches, than adapting to reach the demographics of where God has divinely placed them.

Base of the different church structure mentioned, there’s no conclusive evident that one church model is better than the others, it’s a matter of prefer to the believers on which model they will follow. The scripture show no evident that any one model should be followed. Whatever model a believer chooses cannot prove by scripture that their model is mandated. The only visible scriptural goal for all the models would have a structure that is harmonious, has revelation of God’s plan and should be use according to His purpose. An ideal church structure is nearly impossible from what I can see. Unless we go back to Eden, where it all begin and change what Adam and Eve did in the garden, church structure will always be flawed. Free will has changed God’s plan for man, and there will always be people who will not transform by the renewing of their minds. The NT only speaks about Jesus’ church, also known as Ecclesia from two words. Ek means “out” and kaleo means “to call”, so the gathering of the called-out believers is the Church. The ideal church structure would be the believers who are called-out to represent Jesus’s church. Scripture does not mention the traditional church, organic church, hybrid church, or the attractional church (Gray, 2012). In my opinion the simple church would be more ideal for me. Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger confirmed through a case study on churches that the kingdom is expanding through churches with simple process and the more complex

St. Luke Presbyterian Church was a relaxed church. Presbyterian churches abide by the sovereignty of God, the scriptures, and grace through faith. The Presbyterian Church members that attended the service were dressed from casual pants to dresses and suits. The church setting was considered to be a small, local church with roughly about 30 rows of pews. The choir included 15 women and a teenage boy. The members were very welcoming and seemed eager to get to know the guests that were new that Sunday morning. The preacher was an older man, in about his late 60’s or early 70’s. This was mainly a diverse family church with a few college students. At the beginning of the sermon they had children’s church, which is when they relate the word of God to the younger kids so they can understand what the

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

Far too often, in this emerging new culture, we want to treat God as friend, and not as creator and sustainer. Humans are flawed fleshly beings, therefore whenever in the true presence of God a transformation from old to new should occur. We should feel so convicted about our transgressions until we have an earnest desire to change. The flesh dies and slowly loses control of our lives, leaving the Holy Spirit to freely dwell. Ironically enough the next topic he mentioned was praise. He talked about a song which was sung by the choir “Praise is what we do” and he couldn’t understand the relevance behind these words. Once again, I slowly raised my hand and injected that praise is what we do, worship transcends beyond these parameters as an act of honoring and revering God. Worship is the entire church experience. Before I could elaborate further, he quickly indicated it was time to close out and we didn’t have time for further discussion. This Sunday School experience demonstrated the necessity for us to educate those persons who uphold leadership positions in the Church. If the Sunday school teacher had simply taken the time to research the answers to his questions, he would have been properly equipped to lead the discussion. It saddened me to realize that in essence it was the blind leading the blind. In a situation such as this, it is imperative that

The four marks of our church are what we believe as Roman Catholics our church to be. We state these beliefs in the Nicene Creed and they are also shown in many other parts of our faith. Only the Roman Catholic Church reflects the fullness of these marks. It is through these marks that salvation can be achieved. These marks include One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostalic.