Ecclesiology

“few books can match the way Brad Edwards shows us the need for the church amid rampant anxiety, division, and individualism.” - TGC

“Should I have warned my friend not to take the Lord’s Supper? It’s a good question. But it raises several other questions: who exactly is the Lord’s Supper for? Who should say who can partake of the Lord’s Supper?” - 9 Marks

“This question assumes at least two things: 1. That elders, in fact, have authority to direct church members. 2. That their authority has limits. The Bible teaches both truths.” - 9 Marks

“In a Western culture where institutions generally and the church particularly have fallen out of favor, we’re delighted to award the Book of the Year spot to Brad Edwards’s debut book, The Reason for Church: Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism.” - CToday

“Baptism and the Lord’s Supper happen in lots of places: on university campuses, in homes, among small groups, at weddings. And yet, few Christians stop to ask who the ordinances belong to, let alone who should be the ones administering them.” - 9 Marks

“Though it’s not a perfect analogy, we might think of citizenship (a thing), a birth certificate (an entry sign of the thing), and a passport (an ongoing sign of the thing). Or think of membership on a team, signing the contract, and wearing the jersey.” - 9 Marks

“Why was Ahmed not folded into the life of a local church from the beginning, whether Arabic or English, established or ‘underground’? The missionaries might say it was because of security risks….The problem was that these missionaries had a privatized understanding of the faith.” - 9 Marks

“Regardless whether a church calls it ‘membership’ or ‘partnership,’ here are a few reasons why, if you’re a Christian, you should join yourself to a gospel-believing local church.” - 9 Marks

“somewhere in between the late middle ages and today, Christians began to detach their view of spiritual authority from the church and began to locate it the individual….Not only are various authorities pitted against one another, such as the spiritual against the political. All authorities began to be pitted against the individual and the individual conscience.” - Word by Word

“This article was produced by Claude.AI based on a message preached by pastor Johnson on June 15, 2025. The audio and video will be available later this week.” - P&D