Sublime

He created the church to meet your five deepest needs: a purpose to live for, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on. There is no other place on earth where you can find all five of these benefits in one place.

God intended the church to use all the resources of the world he created. And just as Christ’s earthly ministry and his heavenly authority is evident in every aspect of life, so his church is to be his heart, hands, and feet at home, at work, at school, and in the marketplace. Most would agree the church has fallen woefully short of this calling. W

Lots of people can preach the gospel better than you; but nobody can preach a better gospel than you if yours is the true one. We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross. The question is, can you talk about it plainly and personally? This is a necessity for every disciple of Christ, so there must be a gift of teaching required for pastors

Homileticians once divided sermons into three basic components: exposition (the explanations of and arguments for what a text says), illustration (demonstrations of what a text says), and application (the behavioral or attitudinal implications of what a text means).

So maybe we really have three principles. Christian practice must be (1) gospel-centered in the sense of being word-centered, (2) gospel-centered in the sense of being mission-centered, and (3) community-centered.

Of all places in this world, the Church should be the safest. The Church, like the Holy Spirit, should bring freedom.

The early church that used to cheerfully bring the poor and destitute into their lives now (at least in the US) often serves them at a distance through benevolence programs without fully embracing them into their church family.