Importance of Church in Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation is so often couched in more individualistic terms, that it's easy to forget the important role the church community plays in our ...

Church Is Like a Duck-billed Platypus

Philip Yancey writes:

Without a doubt, my all-time favorite animal is the duck-billed platypus. It appeals to my nonconformist instincts because it breaks ...

Bonhoeffer on Church Community

Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.

— Dietrich ...

Banding Together in Spiritual Warfare

Awlwyn Balnave lives in Calgary, Canada, and shared the following story:

A few years ago, an old acquaintance of mine served as a police officer in a northern ...

Eugene Peterson on Importance of Church

Love cannot exist in isolation: away from others, love bloats into pride. Grace cannot be received privately: cut off from others, it is perverted into ...

Slander Destroys Churches

About 20 years ago, I said something impromptu to the new members standing in a row across the front of the church. As we received them, the Holy Spirit ...

Embers Need the Fire

D. L. Moody was visiting a prominent Chicago citizen when the idea of church membership and involvement came up.

"I believe I can be just as good ...

Children: The Church's Future

Forty years ago a Philadelphia congregation watched as three 9-year-old boys were baptized and joined the church. Not long after, unable to continue with ...

Dry Rot and Worms in the Church

An English vicar with his mind on decaying buildings announced one day that the offertory about to be taken would be devoted in its entirety to the extermination ...

Open Eyes, Closed Ears

Too often, when leaders open their eyes to a vision, they close their ears to people.