A thought-provoking introduction to the importance of the local church
It seems that increasing numbers of professing Christians in the West do not attend church. Church, to many, has become a place to go when it is convenient, to have one's needs met. Terry L. Johnson asks whether our individualistic, dismissive attitude to the gathering of the local church can be squared with that of the New Testament.
Examining what the Bible has to say about the church, Johnson shows why the local body of believers is an essential part of the life of every believer - and the role that each individual believer plays in the life of the church. This thought-provoking, challenging book will benefit every believer.
Contents
I. Introduction
1. Our Collapsing Ecclesiology
II. What Scripture teaches
2. Jesus and the Church
3. Keys of the Kingdom
4. Where Jesus is
5. The Good Shepherd and the Sheep
6. The Apostles and the Church
7. One Anothers and Community
8. Life Together
9. Covenantal Priority
III. Clarifying Perspectives
10. Definitional Confusion
11. Visible or Invisible?
12. Hypocrites at Church
13. Denominationalism
14. Parachurch or Quasi-church?
IV. Historic Perspectives
15. Mother Church
16. Body and Bride
17. Slighting the Church
18. Sola Ecclesia: A Sixth Sola?
