From April 26-August 2, 2020 TGP Wardville will be studying the Church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus tells Peter that He will build His church and that the gates of Hell will not prevail against it! What an incredible promise! If Jesus has promised to build this thing(?) called the church, shouldn’t we want to understand, as best we can, its nature?
There’s a big word for a study of the church: “ecclesiology.” This is what we will be doing for the next 15 weeks on Sunday mornings. As we gather together, we’ll seek answers from God’s Word to questions such as: What is the church, who is the church, why does the church exist, how do I distinguish true churches from false ones, what is church membership, and what habits should mark a member of the church?
I will be leaning on several helpful resources along the way, and I’d invite you to grab one (or all) of them and read along with me if you’d like!
Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches by John S. Hammett
Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman
The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in Modern English (Founders Press)
The 1689 Baptist Confession online (Chapter 26 concerns the church)
Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem