The Importance of Fellowship Before the Worship Service (Kuyper)

Abraham Kuyper's various reflections on Christian worship are found in this excellent volume: Our Worship (ed. Harry Boonstra). Since Kuyper's reflections are over 100 years old and since he wrote them from a specific historical context, not everything he said is completely applicable today. However, Kuyper did have some wonderful insights on worship. One section …

A Good Book on Friendship

For quite some time I've been thinking about the topic of friendship. I have thought about how good friendships are a gift of God. I have also talked about friendship with people who struggle to find friends and people who think they don't need friends. And I've thought about ways people can make friends and …

A Prayer for Christian Unity (Calvin)

Here's an excellent prayer by John Calvin for genuine Christian unity. As we look forward to corporate worship on the Lord's Day tomorrow, may this be our prayer: Grant, Almighty God, that as we are so scattered in our pilgrimage in this world, that even a dreadful spectacle is presented to our eyes, when we …

The Characteristics of Christian Communion: The Fellowship of the Saints (Boston)

Historic Christian theology affirms the reality of the communion (or fellowship) of the saints. In the historic Creed we say, "I believe...the communion of the saints." It's a confession that we believe in the biblical truth that there's a deep bond among and between followers of Jesus. The NT word is fellowship (κοινωνία - koinonia). …

A Multiethnic Church in Principle (Ryken)

While studying the biblical concept of the church family I found chapter 11 of The Communion of Saints to be quite helpful. The chapter is called "All in the Family". Here's one section of it that I highlighted. (Note: I added the Scripture references because Ryken had mentioned them before these paragraphs.) If Jews and …