Posts Tagged with "polity"

This is the second post in a series on church partnerships. Read the first post. Here is the way the New Testament is not written: “Then Paul reviewed the ordination guidelines that had been forwarded to him and had a robust discussion with the Ordination Committee. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Peter drafted several proposed changes to the Book of Church Order related to...

This past April 21–22 the Mid-South Pastors gathered at Crossway Community Church in Charlotte, NC for our annual regional assembly. In addition to handling business items, times of worship, and prayer, and enjoying time to interact over meals, Jeff Purswell, C.J. Mahaney, and I shared three messages with these men.   Jeff Purswell, “Apologetic for Third...

An apple seed is really small, but with a seemingly immeasurable inside. Inside the miniscule there is the massive. One seed has within it a tree which will “give birth” to hundreds of apples which can generate a thousand orchards able to produce millions more apples. It is—in C.S. Lewis’s memorable line in The Last Battle—“bigger on the...

Last week our Regional Leaders gathered in Frisco, TX (the Dallas area) to pray, learn, and plan together. These men play a strategic role in leading the elders in their regions, therefore much of our time was given to sharpening our understanding of the role of the Regional Leader. Our Executive Director, Mark Prater, joined us for the first half of the re...

The Regional Assembly of Elders in our Midwest-Northwest region gathered for its first annual retreat. We are excited to share how God graciously met them in a variety of powerful ways during their time together ...  They celebrated a new church adoption with Crosshaven Church of Belleville, IL. We are grateful to welcome pastors Chris Oswald, Rodney Fickas, and Vic...

This post is the first in a series on encouraging strong, meaningful church partnerships. I want to convince you about the importance of real, biblical partnership between churches––the kind that involves councils and committees and even a Book of Church Order––and I want to do this by telling you about a house I once almost bought. Miraculously, ...

Sequoia Surprises Those who know me well know my fascination with Sequoias. Some of these herbal behemoths live for thousands of years, stand some 250–300 feet into the air, branch out with limbs bigger than every tree that most of us have ever seen, weigh in at 2,000,000 pounds, are voluminous enough to swallow 13 blue whales, and are so fat that four tractor trail...

This is Part 3 in a series on church governance. Read Part 1 and Part 2. If you believe in the primacy of the local church and the sober call of local pastors to give account for their local flock, perhaps you have been wrestling with the issue of handing over control to an extra-local ministry. As one who feels the same sober responsibility, I want to share the last 2 of...

This is Part 2 in a series on church governance. Read Part 1 and Part 3. As I said in my previous post, some pastors have been wrestling with the issue of handing over control of their church to an extra-local ministry. As a committed Congregationalist, who takes very seriously the charge to local pastors to care for and lead their local flock, I wanted to share some the ...

This is Part 1 in a series on church governance. Read Part 2 and Part 3. Handing Over Control? I know some pastors have been wrestling with the issue of handing over control of their church to an extra-local ministry. As a committed Congregationalist, in terms of extra-local polity, I thought it might be helpful to share my perspective for what it’s worth. I share ...