My readers may be interested in the article: Must Christian life involve religion? by Shirley Lancaster. “We need to rediscover spirituality as an interior journey and this will involve new institutional forms.” I have commented extensively on it.
Tag: church
Medical Aid Workers in Afghanistan
In the recent headlines are the 10 Medical Aid Workers in Afghanistan who were killed by Taliban insurgents. According to the director of IAM, Dirk Frans, the Taliban murdered ten people execution-style for their Christianity. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed…
Reforming Synod of 1679-80
The Reforming Synod of 1679-80 attempted to address the spiritual downgrade that occurred in the churches following the Half-Way Covenant debacle. Pastors and people began to believe that they were undergoing divine judgment as a result of the increasing faithlessness…
Paedo
Paedobaptism & Paedocommunion What follows is a discussion on the Reformed Congregationalist List about padeobaptism (infant baptism) and credobaptism (believers’ baptism), which brought up paedocommunion during the month of October, 2003. The following is a reconstruction of that conversation with…
Nonconformity
The restoration of the English King, Charles II, in 1660 brought back into power all those spiritual influences which the Puritans had stood against prior to the English Civil War. Episcopacy (rule of the church by the clergy), compulsory liturgy,…
Christian Marriage
Thinking About Marriage… The first thing that you should notice is that the above word is marriage and not wedding. The deepest concern of the church is for your marriage. Sure, you should have a nice wedding, but more important…
Informality
Informal Christianity What it isn’t… It is not a church, but is the personal, internal, subjective faith that identifies church members as belonging to Jesus Christ. It is not formless, but conforms to the biblical reality described in Scripture. Its…
History
The story of the Bible is the story of God’s work in the world. It is His (God’s) story, that is the fundamental and original understanding of history. It is only in the post-Enlightenment, modern, secular, humanistic world that God…
Halfway Covenant
Half-Asked Questions, Half Assessed Answers Classical Congregationalism had barely been hatched when its demise began. Expectations for church membership had always been strict among Congregational churches, in keeping with Christ’s demands upon the faithful. The high-water mark had been set…
Church Growth
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. — John 17:22 The phrase “Give glory to God” (Jos 7:19, Jer 13:16) is a Hebrew idiom meaning, “Confess…