Best of
Ecclesiology

2010

The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church


Timothy Z. Witmer - 2010
    Too many church leaders perceive of themselves as a "board of directors" when the Bible is clear that they are to know, feed, lead, and protect the flock entrusted to their care.

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands Study Guide: How to Help Others Change


Paul David Tripp - 2010
    Formerly published as Helping Others Change, this updated and reformatted Instruments in the Redeemers Hands Study Guide will equip you and your church to be a part of the change process in another person's life.

Why Ministers Must Be Men


Douglas Wilson - 2010
    The first is the argument that Scripture requires ministers in the church to be men - that is, they must be male. The second theme addresses the reason why this has become an issue at all (when the texts are so plain) and will argue that ministers in the Christian church must be more than male - that is, they must be vertebrates. The ministry calls for men in both senses of that word.

Jesus Loves the Church and So Should You: Studies in Biblical Churchmanship


Earl M. Blackburn - 2010
    He has served seven years in Utah, twenty-two years in California, and now four years in Louisiana. Over the past several years brother Earl has battled with cancer which has caused him to appreciate the church more than ever. This book is written by a man who has a burning passion for the Church of Christ, and who desires to stir up the hearts of people all over the world to love the Church Christ loved enough to lay down his life for her.

Hearing the Call: Liturgy, Justice, Church, and World


Mark R. Gornik - 2010
    In this collection of essays, he brings together personal, historical, theological, and contemporary perspectives to issue a passionate call to work for justice and peace.An essential complement to his now classic Until Justice and Peace Embrace, the forthcoming Love and Justice, and Justice, this book makes clear why Wolterstorff is one of the church’s most incisive and compelling voices. Between the Times invites us not simply into new ways of thinking, but a transformational way of life.

The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary


Alex Rattray Hay - 2010
    

Sing a New Song: Recovering Psalm Singing for the Twenty-First Century


Joel R. Beeke - 2010
    Unfortunately, psalm singing no longer plays an integral part of worship in most evangelical churches. In this book, thirteen well-respected scholars urge the church to rediscover the treasure of the Psalms as they examine the history of psalm singing in the church, present biblical reasons for the liturgical practice, and articulate the practical value it provides us today. Table of Contents: Foreword —W. Robert Godfrey Part 1: Psalm Singing in History 1. From Cassian to Cranmer: Singing the Psalms from Ancient Times until the Dawning of the Reformation — Hughes Oliphant Old and Robert Cathcart 2. Psalm Singing in Calvin and the Puritans — Joel R. Beeke 3. The History of Psalm Singing in the Christian Church — Terry Johnson 4. Psalters, Hymnals, Worship Wars, and American Presbyterian Piety — D. G. Hart Part 2: Psalm Singing in Scripture 5. Psalm Singing and Scripture — Rowland S. Ward 6. The Hymns of Christ: The Old Testament Formation of the New Testament Hymnal — Michael LeFebvre 7. Christian Cursing? — David P. Murray 8. The Case for Psalmody, with Some Reference to the Psalter’s Sufficiency for Christian Worship — Malcolm H. Watts Part 3: Psalm Singing and the Twenty-First-Century Church 9. Psalm Singing and Redemptive-Historical Hermeneutics: Geerhardus Vos’s “Eschatology of the Psalter” Revisited — Anthony T. Selvaggio 10. Psalm Singing and Pastoral Theology — Derek W. H. Thomas 11. Psalmody and Prayer — J. V. Fesko

Rethinking the Work (The Church and the Work)


Watchman Nee - 2010
    12.12 Darby). The work of the Holy Spirit in these past two thousand years has been centered on building this body of Christ. We will fail God in seeing His purpose and fail the Holy Spirit in cooperating with His work if we are not “holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God” (Col. 2.19). The body of Christ is not only most spiritual but also most practical. It is an earthly testimony as well as a heavenly body. All its spiritual principles must be and can be practiced in a local assembly. Here in these pages, therefore, we shall find that Watchman Nee shares with us the practical aspects of the assembly life. He touches on such practical matters as authority in the church, ministry in the church, church fellowship, church meetings, and the boundary of a local assembly. It is important for the reader to remember that this volume emphasizes only the practical side of the Church, and hence concentrates on the life of the local assembly. There is another side of the Church—that of the spiritual principles inherent in the Church universal—which is not the subject of this book. To maintain the right balance and to obtain the whole concept of the Church, both the principle and the practice, both the universal and the local, must be received and kept. For it must never be forgotten that a new wine-skin is for containing the new wine; and therefore the first without the second is meaningless. May the Head of the Church find himself expressed corporately among His people.