God's Community

This teaching stream explores the nature of the ecclesia (church) as a Covenant Community.

Because the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are within themselves a covenantal community, and because we are made in his image, the ground for all human community is found in him—we are hardwired for it. Significantly, the Godhead is a relational unity-in-diversity. This demands a re-formation from institutional to relational and denominational to apostolical paradigms of church—a return to ‘apostolic architecture’.

The Present Kairos: Cultural Genocide, or Renewal?

October 21, 2020 by David Orton

Mordecai’s words to Esther, in the Jew’s moment of existential threat, are apt for our present cultural crisis: For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time [kairos] as this?” Esther 4:14 Israel was … [Read more...]

The Church Needs to Meet: The Power & Purpose of Praise

October 18, 2020 by W. J. Ern Baxter (1914-1993)

Covering both the personal and ecclesial dimensions of the power and purpose of praise, this teaching is a timely reminder, in the midst of the COVID Lockdown, as to why the Church must assemble together. With Baxterian humour and rhetoric, Ern outlines 7 reasons why we should praise the Lord. … [Read more...]

The West in the Valley of Decision

September 6, 2020 by David Orton

Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. Romans 11:22 Like apostate Israel, God has given the West “a spirit of stupor” so that she has not seen nor heard (Rom. 11:8). Still reeling from the carnage of the twentieth century – … [Read more...]

Radical Witness in Hostile Times: A Eucharistic Prayer

April 12, 2020 by Virginia Orton

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” 1 Corinthians 11:26 This Easter we consider the radical nature of this covenantal meal, particularly in a culture that is increasingly hostile to the Christian witness. Even though many national governments have decreed "lock-down" because of COVID-19, the kingdom of God is … [Read more...]

God’s Beautiful Plan

July 17, 2019 by W. J. Ern Baxter (1914-1993)

In the face of the ugliness of a sin ravaged world, mired in wars and bloodshed, despair and disease, brokenness and corruption, Ern illuminates the beauty of God’s plan. This plan, purposed before time, began in Eden, continued in Canaan, and was fulfilled in the coming of Christ. With the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom on earth through his atoning work, God’s Spirit-filled … [Read more...]