What is a Church?

Teaching an eager group of pastors. We spent two days defining what a church is so that they will know how to be effective pastors. That’s a great question for all of us, “What is a local church?” Here’s my definition that we took apart piece by piece in class.

“A local church is a community of true believers in Jesus Christ, established by God as His holy dwelling place, knit together in love by the Holy Spirit, who gather together regularly in order to make the glory of God known through the Gospel, using every biblical means possible (preaching, praying, serving, singing, giving, Lord’s Supper, baptism, encouragement, etc), under recognized spiritual leadership, who care for and affirm each other’s salvation, and then are trained and sent into the world to preach and practice the Gospel and multiply churches everywhere.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Hebrews 10:24-25; Exodus 33; 1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:2; 1 Peter 1:10

Today’s quiz will ask the students to list five means of sustaining grace that are best received in the local church.

Ernest is cataloguing the 1500+ books that were given to the college and seminary. Great books, mostly new, from generous Christian publishers and other donors.

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He built those cabinets with a hand saw, plane, chisel, hammer, square, tape measure, screwdriver, glue, nails, sand-paper, and wood putty. All fit into a small backpack. Amazing!!

Coconut water from a street vendor.