Church membership: how the world knows who represents Jesus (book review)

Church Membership: how the Bible knows who represents Jesus
Jonathan Leeman
Crossway, 2012

Isn't it enough to just go to a church? What does it mean to join a church? Is it something for others but not for you? If you are a member of your church, how should that affect your life?

If you have ever wondered about any of those questions, this book is a must-read. We live at a time when 'organised religion' is looked on with suspicion if not horror. But within the 130 pages of this short book, Jonathan Leeman shows that church membership is expected by the Bible and absolutely vital.

There is much here for long-time church members as well as those new to the concept. Most church members would never imagine that the local church should affect decisions such as where to live or whether to take promotions at work - but Leeman shows that it should.

Even in churches where people could argue the Biblical case for church membership, members often don't have the slightest clue how they should interact with those under church discipline. Leeman here addresses that issue too.

As he's coming from a Baptist perspective, we wouldn't go with absolutely everything in the book, though Leeman himself acknowledges that in the New Testament 'Christians are ordinarily united to individual but interconnected churches' (which sounds a lot more like the Presbyterian position than the Baptist one!). However those minor disagreements don't detract from an absolutely brilliant book.

Cheapest online price: £6.79 delivered

Those wanting to read more on what the church is and how it should be run should check out Guy Waters's How Jesus Runs the Church (150 pages) or, if you're really keen, James Bannerman's The Church of Christ (1000 pages - though a great abridged version is also available).

Beginner, intermediate, advanced!

A day with Jonty Rhodes

Two of the Stranraer congregation made the trip to hear Jonty Rhodes of Christ Church Derby speak at Cornhill Belfast about the covenants of the Bible. Much of the material was taken from Jonty's excellent book Raiding the lost Ark: recovering the gospel of the covenant king (known in America by the less entertaining but more informative title Covenants Made Simple: understanding God's unfolding promises to his people).

If you want to understand the big picture of the Bible and see how all the different parts tie together, this is a must-read. It costs £6.75 (delivered) and you can read a sample chapter here. It's also available to buy on kindle.

Here's a review by Mark Loughridge of New Life Fellowship Letterkenny (RPCI):

"I've been waiting for a book like this to be written for years - now it has arrived. For me it is now the go-to book for anyone wanting an introduction to Covenant theology - clear, straight-forward, readable and most of all biblical. In it Jonty Rhodes tells the big story that runs through the Bible.

He explains, illustrates and anticipates questions well.

He shows the interconnectedness of the covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David--how they are all part of the one rich means of God interacting and relating to mankind. He unpacks the Covenant of Redemption--that glorious agreement between Father and Son, out of which all the other covenants flow. With clarity he sets out the differing viewpoints on the Mosaic Covenant and then opts not to go with the view of Kline and Horton, an outcome I was happy with.

As a Sabbath keeping, paedobaptist, Presbyterian I was pleased to see him connecting the dots between covenant theology and these spheres as well.

An excellent book, and a joy to read. My copy is well highlighted."

You can read an interview with Jonty about the book on Reformation 21.

Are you being scammed? (Newspaper article

We’ve heard over the past few weeks about individuals being scammed out of large sums of money by criminals phoning them and pretending to be BT. Similar scams involve people calling and pretending to be from Microsoft and wanting to fix your Windows computer. They get the person to type a few codes into their computer in order to ‘fix’ the problem, but by doing so the unsuspecting victim gives the caller remote access to their computer, and soon they find that their bank account has been emptied.

 It must be an awful feeling to be tricked out of your life-savings by a fraudster. To have money saved away that you think is secure, and then to have it taken from you. But as bad as that is, it would be even worse to be deceived into losing out on Heaven. To think that you were sure of going to a better place when you died – but in the end to miss out. But tragically, there are many people who face that exact danger.

 Some are taken in by the cults – those well-dressed, sincere, smiling people who knock on your door and tell you that the church has got it wrong for the past 2,000 years, but that they know a better way. Some are taken in by Spiritualism, which rightly teaches that there is more to this life than the physical, but which opens its followers up to all sorts of harmful spiritual influences. But far more are taken in by churches which teach that you can get to Heaven by a mere belief in God or Jesus, or by church membership, or giving to charity, or by living a life where you don’t do anybody any harm.

 So how do you know whether you’re in danger of being scammed? Banks warn their customers that they will never ask for your full PIN or password, or get you to transfer money to a different account. So how do you know if you’re being scammed when it comes to God? Watch out for churches where the Bible is never taught, where sin and Hell are never mentioned, where Jesus is held up as merely a great teacher or a good example, and where members don’t live Christ-like lives. You would take drastic action to stop yourself being scammed when it comes to money – and Heaven is far more important.

Published in Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 27th October 2016