In the last few years, the growth of the ministry of church leadership in some local congregations (sometimes referred to as pastoring mega-churches) has resulted in the formation of so-called linked "campuses" rather than of new congregations in the full sense of being a local church, and so the continued relationship of ministry-dependence on leadership has then unfortunately resulted in formation of what are in fact secondary denominations. This is produced largely by a false view of what a local church is. |
Yes, it is understood to mean 'congregation' or 'people' but its function tends to be based on the ministry of the leadership rather than on that of the people.
A normal church meeting, as it is in its primary essence, is meant to be focussed on the people's direct encounter with God through His Spirit, and all else of both worship-leading and preaching/teaching is simply meant to be as 'scaffolding' in support of that primary focus which builds the people toward spiritual maturity in the congregational experience of God's direct presence to function corporately as the local Body of Christ in ministry.
But unfortunately, the prominence given to the ministry of leaders has tended to invert that Biblical focus. |
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ANGLICAN: |
A Chronology of the strange behaviour of the Church of England. |
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The 39 'Articles of Religion' of the Church of England. |
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Punishments to Enforce Unquestioning Submission required to the Articles of Religion of the Church of England. |
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Episcopacy: Exposé of a fallacious theory of Christian Church continuity. |
The variety
of ministry gifts
of the Holy Spirit,
listed in
1 Corinthians 12:8-10,
emphasises the
mutual interdependence
of believers
as a congregation,
for no individual alone
can be the local
Body of Christ
in which the full ministry
of His Spirit resides. |
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CATHOLIC: |
A Chronology of the strange behaviour of the Roman Catholic Church. |
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Gregory the Great: Actions of Pope Gregory I from an ecumenical point of view. |
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Papal Office: A chronological list of all popes assumed by Roman Catholicism. |
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Priestly Absolution: The authority to forgive sins, perverted. |
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The Decree on Ecumenism of Vatican II: A Critical Evaluation. |
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Catholic Allegations Against Evangelicals Answered. |
| In China |
Bishop Guo Xijin is at the center of talks between the Vatican and the atheist Communist Party that will likely yield a deal on who appoints bishops in China. The move would be historic, uniting the country's Catholics for the first time since Beijing and the Holy See severed relations nearly seven decades ago. At a pre-dawn Mass on Thursday, March 29, 2018, Guo had urged congregants at the Saiqi church to be brave and keep the faith. "Full of comfort and hope, we are inspired to more bravely face struggles and offer our love to God," he told them. Not long after, government agents arrived and for the second time during Holy Week took Guo away for what they described as a "vacation" – a euphemistic term in China for an enforced disappearance.
For years, China's Catholics have been split between those who follow state-authorized churches outside the Vatican's authority and those who attend underground churches that swear fealty to the pope. Guo is the head of one such underground diocese.
Under the deal being discussed, the Vatican is expected to recognize seven Beijing-appointed bishops not chosen by the pope, and Guo and one other underground bishop would step aside. Supporters say the deal would help the Holy See achieve its years-long goal of bringing all of China's 12 million Catholics ostensibly under the pope's wing. |
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ORTHODOX: |
A Chronology of the strange behaviour of the Orthodox Church. |
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| Apostolic Succession: |
Does it exist? What does the Bible say? |
| Augustine's Corruptions: |
Augustine's corruptions of Christianity and its legacy. |
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LUTHERAN: |
A Chronology of strange behaviour in the Lutheran Church. |
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The 95 Theses: Dr Martin Luther's invitation to disputation 31 October 1517. |
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The Augsburg Confession: The 1530 standard of Lutheranism. |
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Just a small example of self-righteous Protestant damage to what it did not approve of:
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ARROGANT EVANGELICALS: |
The self-righteously presumptuous behaviour of various evangelical persons and groups calling themselves churches. |
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| Calvinism's Corruptions: |
The damaging effect of its presuppositions has passed on a legacy which continues to mislead. |
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| Misrepresentation of God: |
The Sin from which all other sins are born! |
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| The Church–State Relationship: |
A subtle confusion that leads to the ultimate immorality. |
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Slavery in Christianity: |
A brief overview of aspects of the practice of slavery within Christian history. |
| Churches that Abuse: |
A PDF of the book by Ronald M. Enroth, leading Christian scholar and professor of sociology at Westmost College. |
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Fake Christianity: |
A very brief description of a highly deceptive modern trend. |
| Church Magic: |
Objects, words, gestures and actions carrying supernatural power? |
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| New Wineskins: |
A brief look at the serious need to continue adjusting church liturgy. |
| The Cell-Church: |
Ralph Neighbour's strange diagnosis of Church life and his misleading remedy. |
| Church Raison D'être?: |
Do Church denominations have a right to exist, or should we just leave them? |
| The Church & HIV/AIDS: |
Primarily a sexually transmitted plague in modern society in which the Church has indirectly had a part. |
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| 1 Corinthians 16:22 |
"If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. The Lord comes!" |
Addressed to Christians.
Literal Translation. |
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Let the American church please note:
The first-century church, which God used to give us the New Testament, did not celebrate Christmas and Easter holidays, so we should not make it a Church-State issue today. |
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| Within the Christian Church, the nature of church leadership is generally not understood – simply because the nature of the Christian Church is not understood. |
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| — PLEASE NOTE: ACCULTURALIZED CHRISTIANITY IS NO LONGER AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY — |
| The acculturalizing of religion is a natural socializing effect, as is evident in Hinduism, Judaism and Islam, and some Christian denominations, but this is foreign to the essential character of Christianity, for anything of any kind that divides God's people to any degree conflicts with the unity of the Holy Spirit in Whom lies both the spiritual unity and true nature of the Christian Church. |
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Brawl between Armenian Apostolic and Greek Orthodox clergymen in Bethehem's church of the Nativity
The fight among 'Christian' clergy is eventually broken up by Palestinian riot police. |
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| 28 December 2011 |
Church of the Nativity |
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Administration of this church is shared by Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian Apostolic clerics
and the relationships among the different groups of clergy have frequently been contentious with similar scuffles having broken out in previous years. |
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| About 200 AD: |
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| Prominent |
Christian apologist Tertullian wrote (On Modesty) a significant refutation of the teaching that the 'keys' of Peter enable 'apostolic succession' churches to forgive sins, as had begun to be claimed by the Christian church in the capital city of Rome's empire.
Its Chapter XXI follows: |
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I now inquire into your opinion, [to see] from what source you usurp this right to "the Church." |
If, because the Lord has said to Peter,
"Upon this rock will I build My Church," "to thee have I given the keys of the heavenly kingdom"; or, "Whatsoever thou shall have bound or loosed in earth, shall be bound or loosed in the heavens",
you therefore presume that the power of binding and loosing has derived to you, that is, to every Church akin to Peter, what sort of man are you, subverting and wholly changing the manifest intention of the Lord, conferring [as that intention did] this personally upon Peter? |
"On thee," He says, "will I build My Church;" and, "I will give to thee the keys," not to the Church; and, "Whatsoever thou shall have loosed or bound," not what they shall have loosed or bound.
For so withal the result teaches. |
In [Peter] himself the Church was reared; that is, through [Peter] himself; [Peter] himself essayed the key; you see what [key]:
"Men of Israel, let what I say sink into your ears: Jesus the Nazarene, a man destined by God for you," and so forth.
[Peter] himself, therefore, was the first to unbar, in Christ's baptism, the entrance to the heavenly kingdom, in which [kingdom] are "loosed" the sins that were beforetime "bound"; and those which have not been "loosed" are "bound," in accordance with true salvation; and Ananias he "bound" with the bond of death, and the weak in his faith he "absolved" from his defect of health. |
Moreover, in that dispute about the observance or non-observance of the Law, Peter was the first of all to be endued with the Spirit, and, after making preface touching the calling of the nations, to say – "And now why are ye tempting the Lord, concerning the imposition upon the brethren of a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to support? But however, through the grace of Jesus we believe that we shall be saved in the same way as they." |
This sentence both "loosed" those parts of the law which were abandoned, and "bound" those which were reserved. Hence the power of loosing and of binding committed to Peter had nothing to do with the capital sins of believers; and if the Lord had given him a precept that he must grant pardon to a brother sinning against him even "seventy times sevenfold," of course He would have commanded him to "bind"----that is, to "retain" ----nothing subsequently, unless perchance such [sins] as one may have committed against the Lord, not against a brother. For the forgiveness of [sins] committed in the case of a man is a prejudgment against the remission of sins against God. ... |
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Sometimes humility helps
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