with the Bible as our guide, we should seek to restore the original church of Christ as found in the Bible’s New Testament.
Glad to see this is still true of WBS.
Our quest is not to restore the church of the first century. Rather, our goal is to pursue the Jesus they pursued.
via parkplaza.org
This sounds different than the preaching of the pattern of the New Testament that we've put forward for so many years. Is this one more church moving off the old paths?
Continual shelling during the First World War reduced the countryside in West Flanders, Belgium to a sea of mud. More than a million men died.
The beautiful Weaver’s Guild-Hall at Ieper, built in the 12th century, was reduced to rubble. After the war, the British wanted to leave the whole city of Ieper in ruins as a memorial to the war! Understandably, the people of Ieper thought otherwise! Some wanted to replace the Guild Hall with a modern structure. But city architect Jules Coomans insisted that the Weaver’s Hall be rebuilt.
And with the help of fellow architect, P.A. Pauwels, the building was restored to its original grandeur. When the restoration was complete in 1959, the building looked exactly as it did before. This was possible because they used the original building plans and the same type of stones.
Jesus built His church in the first century (Matthew 16:18). Two millennia later the world is full of denominations that are very different from the church Jesus built. People have used their own plans and their own stones to establish thousands of denominations according to their own liking and for their own glory.
Churches of Christ exist in all parts of the world because certain people want to be nothing more and nothing less than the church of the New Testament. They must endure much criticism, however, from those who call this an impossible dream, an unattainable objective, an impracticable ideal.
Can we be the church of the New Testament? Why not, if we use the original building plans and the same stones, if we follow the pattern of the New Testament?
via oldpaths.com
Keep reading at the link above, or watch the video.
Dale and Adam let two ministers from the state of Alabama inform you about the damage from recent tornadoes, and tell you how you can help in the recovery efforts.
iPreach is part of the family of quality Christian podcasts on The Equip Network.
There's also the story on BNc: http://brotherhoodnews.com
We now turn our attention to an “evaluation tool” which is sorely misunderstood and frequently abused. This tool or test may be termed the “numbers test.” It takes various forms and is spoken of in a variety of ways, but one basic attitude prevails. “How many baptisms do they have each year?” “How many congregations are being established?” In reality, if you ask faithful veteran missionaries, they will readily admit that this mindset often comes out in “mission reports” more as a numbers game, rather than a true test. I heard from the lips of one church leader the statement: “We choose a work where we can get the best bang for our buck!” There was no mistake about it – the only determining factor to him was – number of reported baptisms.
Read it once, and cry. Read it again, and get angry. Read it a third time, and change your ways!
For those interested in sending help, the Park Avenue church in Memphis is receiving funds for Japan. The link and a report of the brethren’s safety is now up on BNc. We give thanks, but risks are still great, so we continue to pray for them.
UPDATE: The direct link to the Japan disaster relief page at Park Avenue is HERE.