Weekly Roundup: Building the Church, Leaving a Church, Humility, and Freedom
Building up the church, leaving toxic churches, Christian humility, and biblical freedom to know, heed, and obey the truth.
Resources
6 Members Who Build Up the Church | Chopo Mwanza | 9Marks
A short, excellent article about members who build up the church in love. You can read the companion article, 4 Members Tear Down the Church, too.
Some Counsel for Christians Leaving Toxic Church Environments | Lucas O’Neill | 9Marks
I don’t like the title very much, but this article, while painful, was helpful for leaving a church well. The author’s six recommendations:
If you leave, leave for the right reasons.
Leaving a church can be the right move, but dropping church altogether is always the wrong move.
Talk about it but talk about it wisely.
Recognize that grief is a process.
Be patient with those who decided not to leave.
Grow in your grief and move forward.
Humility Was His Secret Strength | John Piper | Desiring God
This was a fascinating overview of the suffering that Charles Simeon endured. It does me good to draw strength from the strength of other saints.
Biblical Freedom | Jonathan Leeman | The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love
Freedom in the Bible is consistently characterized as the knowledge of the truth, the desire to heed the truth, and the ability to heed the truth. It’s the freedom of being able to do what God created you to do—image him in all his glory, whether we have been designed as a runner, a thinker, an engineer, or a singer. Christ alone, then, was truly free because he knew the law and keep it, which is precisely how every son and daughter of Adam was meant to live. We are free as Christians to whatever extent we walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh (see Romans 7–8). To whatever extent we let the passions of the flesh guide us, however, we are not free. God’s righteous standards will feel constraining, even enslaving.1
Leeman, Jonathan. The Church and the Surprising Offense of Gods Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2010, 330. ↩︎
I read, and save, more articles that I’m able to post in the Weekly Roundup. To see all of the articles I’ve saved over the years, see my Evernote collection.