Saturday Feb 24, 2024
Church Defined
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Today we continue looking at the essential church. Or the minimal church. Maybe just church.
I started last week by asking, “What is the church? Specifically I wanted to look at the idea of Minimal or Essential Ecclesiology. Quick review.
Minimal:
The least viable form or the least possible to call something a church. What can you remove from your existing church and it still be a church?
Essential:
If you have nothing else you must at least have this to call it a church.
Ecclesiology: doctrine relating to the church
The goal is to consider the smallest, most adaptable, most flexible definition of the church. Why? Because the church is intended to be multiplied in any environment. If church planting is really important, and we are going to do it, we need to identify the seed, the core definition of church.
You don’t start with the finished product in gardening or in church planting or in disciple making!
What do you start with? A seed that contains the DNA of the future life at maturity.
Resources:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/chuch-of-shrinking-definition/
https://www.tampaunderground.com/microchurches
https://saturatetheworld.com/2021/01/26/7-marks-of-essential-ecclesiology/
https://www.ruralministry.net/post/ecclesiology-and-the-rural-church
Christ Loved the Church by William MacDonald
Rediscover Church: Why the body of Christ is essential by Collin Hanson and Jonathan Leeman
The Doctrine and Administration of the Church by Paul R Jackson
Doctrine of the Church by Dr. Harold L. Wilmington
Practical Christian Theology by Floyd H. Barakman
Principles and Practices for Baptist Churches by Edward T. Hiscox
https://realfaith.com/what-christians-believe/characteristics-church/
Future Church by Will Mancini and Cory Hartman