Your Church Might Be Like the Pharisees

Sideview of Catholic Priest

What do Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jews, and the Greek Orthodox have in common?

Tradition.

On the one hand, beautiful, and on the other hand, detrimental.

I love traditions. I grew up with them, and I’ve started my own.

One of my favourite traditions is our family’s annual December trip to Kentucky to visit the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter to immerse ourselves in the Christmas lights and Christmas programs that they host. Read Full Post

Do You Know Why the Church Exists?

Most Christians do not know why the church exists.

Yes, that’s a big, bold statement, and it’s also my opinion, but I am very confident in saying that.

Think about it. How many kids go to school and don’t know the purpose of education?

(How many teachers and school administrators in the US know the purpose of school?!) Read Full Post

Is Church Membership for Today?

Marriage today is not biblical.

Well, our modern construct of marriage in Western society is not biblical. I don’t want to speak for other countries and cultures.

To clarify, I’m not talking about homosexual unions and the like. Most Christians don’t need me to discuss the biblicality of those marriages. Read Full Post

Why We Misunderstand Church Membership

Misunderstanding.

Although a fact of life that sometimes leads to humourous outcomes, misunderstanding usually leads to undesirable results.

Misunderstanding occurs when we fail to recognize the context and the intent with which something is communicated.

When we study the Bible, we refer to this as authorial intent. Read Full Post

Biblical Arguments Against Church Membership

The Bible gives us many reasons to consider church membership, and I explored some of those in my last article. But some people also use Scripture to give us reasons to question church membership as we know it today.

A lot of it comes down to interpretive methods and the presuppositions that people have when they read the Bible. Many Christians embrace the idea of formalized church membership, while others raise valid biblical reasons against it. Read Full Post