Read More on the Lord’s Supper Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper by Keith A. Mathison Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s Supper What Is the Lord’s Supper? (Basics of the Faith) The Lord’s Supper (Puritan Paperback) by Thomas Watson “The benefit of the Lord’s Supper depends entirely on the spirit [...]
Church Ministry
Sexual Immorality & Church Leaders
Recently Leadership Magazine commissioned a poll of a thousand pastors. The pastors indicated that 12 percent of them had committed adultery while in ministry – one out of eight pastors! – and 23 percent had done something they considered sexually inappropriate. Christianity Today surveyed a thousand of its subscribers who were not pastors and found the figure to be nearly double, with 23 [...]
The Presence of God Qualifying Our Notions of Grammatical-Historical Interpretation
Genesis 3:15 as a Test Case* Abstract: Evangelical scholars have championed grammatical-historical interpretation as an objective means of sifting truth from error. This approach has value if we use it as one focus, but limitations if we use it as a total account. The temptation arises to think of objective interpretation as implying total domination [...]
A Critical Evaluation of Paedobaptism by Greg Welty
Introduction As a Baptist student at a Reformed seminary, I encountered many theological pressures — from students and teachers alike — to convert to a paedobaptistic view. After much study, I came out convinced that “Reformed Baptist” was not a contradiction of terms (as my paedobaptist peers admonished me), but a qualification of terms, a [...]
The Character of a Minister of the Gospel
Knowing that he has been drafted, fitted for ministry, entrusted with a message, and sent out in the name of the Lord, the minister ought to demonstrate the proper authority in his every action. It is not a proud or arrogant authority, nor a tyranny, nor a selfish domination; all of these would be a [...]
55 Questions for a Prospective Pastor
The following is an excellent list of questions for potential pastors. I remember when, as a young Independent Baptist, sitting through a Q&A session on a Sunday night where the “hot topics” were the man’s position on rap music or whether he thought special music should be sung with or without an accompaniment tape! I [...]
The Benefits of Expository Preaching
What is Expository Preaching? Expository preaching involves the exposition, or comprehensive explanation, of the Scripture; that is, expository preaching presents the meaning and intent of a biblical text, providing commentary and examples to make the passage clear and understandable. The word exposition is related to the word expose — the expository preacher’s goal is simply [...]
The Necessity of the Spirit to Give Effect to the Preaching of the Gospel by Thomas Chalmers
“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” ~ 1 Cor. 2:4-5 PAUL, in his second epistle to the Corinthians, has expressed himself [...]
Conflict Resolution in the Church: A Study of Matthew 18:15-16 by Brian Schwertley
Introduction Professing Christians desire peace in the body of Christ. Many acknowledge that peace and purity can only be maintained through biblical church discipline. Matthew 18:15ff is a crucial passage for preserving the peace and concord of believers, because in it, Christ sets forth the steps necessary for dealing with sin between believers. Although this [...]
The Scriptural Rule of Worship by John Calvin
The Reformation doctrine least in evidence today is ‘the sufficiency of Scripture.’ An examination of the creeds of the Reformers will show that they all adhered to the authority of Scripture over the authority of ecclesiastical officials and tradition. In the Reformed or Calvinist stream, in contrast to later developments among Lutherans, Scripture was viewed [...]
Justin Martyr on Congregational Worship in the Ancient Church
This excerpt from Justin Martyr’s First Apology is the oldest record outside of the Bible of the ancient Christian order and time of congregational worship. Justin Martyr (110-165 A.D.) wrote the First Apology as part of the defense of his faith in a Roman court. It may be found in Volume I of the collection [...]
John Knox on Discussion in the Assembly by John Knox
The passage below is excerpted from a letter written by John Knox in 1557 before leaving Scotland for exile in Geneva. Knox addressed the letter to ‘His Brethren in Scotland,’ that is, Christ’s brethren, the Church. The complete letter appears in the new edition of the Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises, and [...]
Worship by Arthur Allen
So many accessories have been introduced into Church services over recent years that it seems abundantly clear that the object is no longer to worship God, but to entertain the congregation. Quite often we hear criticisms of the simple form of worship practised by our Church.We are constantly assured, by self appointed prophets who commend [...]
The Worship Service: A Hindrance Or A Highway For Revival by Ron Owens
The uniting of God’s people in corporate worship is of crucial importance to the life of the church. What takes place during this time should prepare the way for God to visit His people in revival. It is possible, however, for what occurs in the ‘worship service’ of the church to actually be a hindrance [...]
The Contemporary Church by John H. Armstrong
The rush is on. How contemporary can we really be? How in the world will we ever get the unchurched to come when virtually all they know comes through 30 second sound bytes? We all know they will not listen to sustained discourse for more than 15 minutes! The contemporary plan is plain for all [...]
Church Worship by John MacKenzie
‘But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.‘ John 4:23-4. ‘For they that are after the flesh do [...]
Children and the Lord’s Supper by Kerry Ptacek
The following article is from a letter by Kerry Ptacek responding to an inquiry from a supporter of the Covenant Family Fellowship You asked about children and the Lord’s Supper, in particular whether excluding your children from the Lord’s Supper is consistent with our view of the covenant family. My own three children began to [...]
The Presence of Christ at the Lord’s Supper by A.A. Hodge
Is Christ really, truly, personally present with us in the sacrament? Do we therein covenant and commune with him in person, touch to touch, immediately and really; or is this only a show, a symbol of something absent and different from what it seems? The gross perversions of the Romanists and Ritualists, who have made [...]
An Overview of The Lord’s Supper by Charles Hodge
In the Lord’s Supper we are said to receive Christ and the benefits of His redemption to our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace. As our natural food imparts life and strength to our bodies, so this sacrament is one of the divinely appointed means to strengthen the principle of life in the soul of [...]
What Women Can Do in the Church by Sheila Evans
Scripture clearly teaches that Christian women are to be actively involved in the local church. They are part of the body of Christ and as members of that body they are to help it grow ‘for the edifying of itself in love’ (Ephesians 4:16). Women are to depend upon God as they serve: they are [...]
The Public Preaching of Women by R.L. Dabney
In this day innovations march with rapid strides. The fantastic suggestion of yesterday, entertained only by a few fanatics, and then only mentioned by the sober to be ridiculed, is to-day the audacious reform, and will be to-morrow the recognized usage. Novelties are so numerous and so wild and rash, that in even conservative minds [...]
A Biblical Look at the Ordination of Women by Greg Loren Durand & Jeffrey Todd McCormack
Is the ordination of women to the Gospel ministry biblical? This is certainly one question which seems to have sparked considerable debate in the modern Church. While ‘all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all,’(1) the biblical prohibition against the ordination of women to the offices of elder [...]
Letters to Young Ministers – The Cultivation of Personal Piety by J.W. Alexander
IT is scarcely possible to treat of some subjects without running into commonplaces: their very importance has made them trite, just as we observe great highways to be most beaten. The question has been much discussed, whether a minister should ever preach beyond his own experience. In one sense, unquestionably, he should. He is commissioned [...]
Letters to Young Ministers – On Devotion to the Work of the Ministry by J.W. Alexander
WHEN I look back on the years which I have spent in the ministry, I cannot but think that much benefit would have arisen from such honest and plain advices as most of my elder brethren could have given me. It is this which induces me to offer you the hints which follow. These must [...]
The Divine Origin and Institution of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
THE Church is the mirror, that reflects the whole effulgence of the Divine character. It is the grand scene, in which the perfections of Jehovahare displayed to the universe. The revelations made to the Church—the successive grand events in her history—and, above all—the manifestation of the glory of God in the Person of Jesus Christ—furnish [...]
