Articles - 01/2008

Our series on the gospel applied to real life begins with this article from Rich Richardson, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Gilbert, AZ.
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Last month while Christmas shopping, a middle-aged woman in our church died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and our church suddenly and painfully had to grapple with how the gospel functions in death. How were we supposed to help a family dealing with the lingering pain of life without their mother-wife-grandmother?

Without a thorough understanding and application of the gospel, our response to death can be reduced to a collection of well-meaning clichés rather than the sturdy, life-giving hope intended for those left behind.

We’ve spent much of the last two months talking about the local church and for many of us the application is laying our lives down and serving the body of believers we’re already part of. But for some, it’s not this easy. For those who need to start at square one and find a good church Mark Dever provides helpful and concise direction in this excerpted material from his book “What Is A Healthy Church?”

(Better yet, you can download a free .pdf of this material right here.)
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How To Find A Good Church

1. Pray.

2. Seek counsel from a godly pastor (or from elders).

As part of our series on the local church we’re excited to let you peek inside Mark Dever’s new book “What Is A Healthy Church?” Here, with the knowledge of a scholar and the heart of a pastor, Mark Dever talks about the often misunderstood issue of becoming a member of a local church.

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Is church membership a biblical idea? In one sense, no. Open up the New Testament, and you won’t find a story about, say, Priscilla and Aquila moving to the city of Rome, checking out one church, then another, and finally deciding to join a third… (read more)

Ever seen somebody asleep during church?

You know, the older guy or college student doing the head bob. It’s fun to watch isn’t it?

I had a friend one time fall asleep in church and dream that he was jumping up for a rebound during a basketball game. He jumped about three feet off of his seat right during the message. It was… (read more)

Guest blogger Jon Smith shares what he learned through the loss of his newborn infant about how to care for those in suffering

I will never forget those grief-stricken 4 hours – sorrowful, painful, tragic. My wife and I embraced our infant son Chase, singing to him, praying for him, and could do nothing but helplessly watch his life wither away. Six months earlier we discovered our son Chase had a fatal birth defect. We knew, barring a significant miracle, that he was going to die…