The Church (Page 2)

A practical guide to our weekly Sunday gatherings. Scripture Reading We begin and end our time of worship with the reading of Scripture. The Bible is the very word of God and therefore is authoritative, sufficient, necessary, clear and without error. When we worship, we want God to speak, so we start and end with his words. In addition to the opening and close of Scripture, we typically read an entire chapter of Scripture before the pastoral prayer. Hymns The…

Our church is led by a plurality of elders or pastors. A question sometimes raised is, “What about deacons?” In the New Testament we have many references to elders, but just a few references are made to the role of deacon within the church. In fact, they are only mentioned by name in two places in the New Testament (1 Timothy 3 and Philippians 1:1, and arguably Romans 16:1). First Timothy 3 mentions the qualifications for deacons but nothing about…

One aspect to consider with regard to elders and the life of the church is to understand how elders should be selected. The second is to understand where authority rests: the eldership or the congregation. In other words, who rules who? It’s these two matters that this article addresses. Selection of Elders In Acts 14:23 it says, “And when [Paul and Barnabas] had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord…

Elders? Aren’t elders a Presbyterian thing? Don’t the Mormons have elders too? What do elders have to do with a Baptist church? These questions are understandable. Especially since elders are a new thing for our church. What may surprise you is that elders aren’t just a modern church fad, but rather are an historical form of church governance, even for Baptists! Historic Baptist Position Arguably the most famous and influential confession of faith among Baptists is the London Baptist Confession…