Pray Then Like This: The Case for Reciting Prayers

“Why do some Christian recite their prayers? Why don’t Anglicans pray ‘from the heart?’ “ There is an assumption that underlies these questions. They assume that prayers which are extemporaneous, or made up on the spot, are more sincere and “Spirit-filled” than prayers which are pre-written. Having grown up in the Assemblies of God, I…

Kingdom as Mission

This is the fourth installment in the Church Identity series. The installment prior to this is The Mystery of Worship, but The Church as Temple will be the most helpful article for providing background for this one. What is the Church’s Mission? If a survey were taken among Christians about what the mission of the Church…

The Mystery of Worship

This is the third installment of the Church Identity series and follows “The Church as Temple.” That subsequent article provides important background for understanding the context of this one. This article is long, but it has been preserved as a single post to maintain its cohesion. For this reason, it has been divided into two sections for…

The Church as Temple

This is the second installment of the Church Identity series. The preceding article is The Church as House. This article returns to the idea of Creation as a house and talks about the Church as the Temple of God. Section I: God has a house God’s House In Ancient Near-Eastern cultures the temple of a deity was…

The Church as House

This is the first installment in the Church Identity series, which consists of “big picture” paradigms for creating a biblical worldview.  The author desired to fuse it with The Church as Temple, but it was necessary to cover these themes as separate articles. For that reason, the theme of cosmic house is emphasized in a familial…