A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

Session 6 Cultivating Our Community The “Corporate” Disciplines

The stranger who is visited by a representative of the Church frequently gets the impression that he is being viewed as ‘a pro spective customer,’ a potential addition to the numbers or the income, rather than a person who is approached for his own sake. Part of the shame of the contemporary Church is that it seems to be motivated by self-interest. We need to be reminded that the Church exists for men and not men for the Church. One of the great theological gains of the twentieth century has been the widespread recognition of the necessity of the Church in any vital Christianity, a clear statement of the new theological consensus about the importance of the Church being that of Stephen Neill. “Theologically,” he says, “we have been discovering anew that the Church is not an appendage to the Gospel; it is itself a part of the Gospel. The Gospel cannot be separated from that new people of God in which its nature is to be made manifest.” The fellowship is intrinsic and is never optional, if the life of Christ is to make an impact on the world. But it is possible for the Church to exist, with a show of success, and still fail in its essential function. It is always failing when it becomes an institution which is bent on saving itself. It cannot save the world if it demonstrates an obsession with material things. ~ D. Elton Trueblood. The Incendiary Fellowship .

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James 5.16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

I. The Discipline of Confession

“How is it that confession is listed under the Corporate Disciplines? I thought this was a private matter between the individual and God.” Again the answer is not “either/or,” but “both/and.” We are grate ful for the biblical teaching, underscored in the Reformation, that “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2.15). We are also grateful for the biblical teaching, newly appreciated in our day to “confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another . . . “(James 5.16). Both are found in Scripture and neither need exclude the other. ~ Foster. Celebration of Discipline . p. 145.

A. The biblical witness

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