The malaise of the 21st century Western church, in an increasingly hostile secular culture, urges us to penetrate its cause and radically re-cast the Christian vision for the 21st century. What is required is nothing short of the recovery of the biblical vision for a kingdom-shaped ecclesia; designed and destined by God to transform entire cultures and disciple nations. Even … [Read more...]
Covenant Community
This teaching stream explores the nature of the church as a Covenant Community.
The church is not a building, nor an institution, but a divinely constituted community of covenanted people—one body in one faith under one Lord. The covenant, as the constitution of God's government, is also the constitution of the redeemed community. To “Love the Lord and our neighbour as ourselves” is not only the fulfilling of the covenant, but also the 'oneness' for which Jesus prayed that "the world may believe" (Jn 17:21). Hence, to obey the covenant is to put to death our divisions and denominationalism.
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The Christian in the World
Ern Baxter MP3 Teaching Series Mankind in Crisis: Part 1 Why is our world in crisis? How is the Christian to understand the tension between being in the world but not of the world? And what is the 'world'? If God so loves the world that he gave his own Son for it, what does it mean for the Christian to not love the world? Ern unpacks this paradox, explaining: The world we … [Read more...]
Covenant Community
The church is a Covenant Community. God’s nature, as the God of love, is demonstrated through covenant relationships. With the triune God as the ground of all community, Christ’s high priestly prayer “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21) shows that … [Read more...]
Tithing & The New Covenant
Introduction Throughout the history of the Christian movement the approach to Tithing (one tenth) has been far from unanimous, demonstrating many diverse views (see below). To find clarity on this contended and sensitive issue we must go back to some foundational theological and interpretative principles to discover, with some measure of accuracy, what the Bible … [Read more...]
The Corporate Christ
... the church, which is his body the fullness of him … Ephesians 1:23 Unity is not what we think it is! And, for that matter, neither is the church. We think that if we have cooperation between the churches we have unity. Or, if we tolerate the differences of the other group we are making great strides. But the unity of the Spirit is so much more than mere cooperation or … [Read more...]
