It was here, in Holy Communion, that the Church saw fully and completely what the potential cost of discipleship entailed: death. And yet it was literal good news, because despite his death, Jesus Christ was currently present with them in this very act of Holy Communion. Read more from Steve Bruns’ series on the early church and discipleship.
What are the origins of our Thanksgiving holiday? Today, Andrew Dragos cuts through the common myths and shares 7 quick facts about Thanksgiving related to everything from food, to religious connotations, and the beloved American pastime, football.
Today we tend to think of Scripture for discipleship primarily in terms of individual Bible Study, but in the early church—which had no complete Bible—Scripture use was much more multivalent. Read more from Steve Bruns as he continues his series on discipleship.
How people pray greatly impacts what they believe. The early Church taught its people prayers and how to pray so that their faith would be correct and intact. It was one of the ways the Church discipled its people and encouraged them in their spiritual life and growth. Read more from Steven Bruns as he continues his series on discipleship in the early church.
Since the early Church didn’t have a New Testament, how did they make disciples? In today’s article, Steve Bruns reveals that the corporate worship service itself was when Christians were discipled in a general way and had access to Old Testament Scriptures, which were authoritative texts for the Church.
Why does doctrine matter? In this Seven Minute Seminary, Dr. William Abraham explains that, contrary to popular belief, doctrine doesn’t stand in opposition to personal spiritual experience, nor Christian humanitarian action in the world. Rather, it is the vital task of articulating who the God is that we encounter in the gospel.
Before we can begin to make disciples, we must first come to terms with what the church is. What does it mean to be and join the church? Ancient Christians had an answer, and it pointed to the Nicene Creed: “We believe in one, holy, catholic, apostolic Church.” Read more from Steve Bruns as he continues in his series on discipleship and the church.
How did the early church engage with surrounding culture? In this article Steve Bruns offers illuminating insight from how the early Christians lived a spiritual life and made disciples. It is this pattern that Wesley employed in his own organization of the Methodist societies, and this pattern will help us discover what we can learn from the early Church and apply to today.
Many discipleship programs prize individualism and leave out the essential ingredient without which discipleship doesn’t really happen: the church. In today’s article, Steve Bruns shares why we need to leave our Gnostic tendencies behind and recapture a vision for discipleship that happens in and by the church.
How well do you know the historical and doctrinal issues involved in 4 of the great ecumenical creeds that define historic Christianity? In these videos, Charles Gutenson outlines each creed and explains the historical and doctrinal issues involved in each one.
Where did Rapture theology come from? In this Seven Minute Seminary, Ben Witherington III explains that Rapture theology and its parent, Dispensationalism, are new ideas that were birthed in 19th century. He continues to work through the history of the belief and explains how it became a movement particularly in the United States.
Jackson Lashier continues his series on the church fathers by covering the work of Gregory of Nyssa. Jackson argues that what Gregory patterns for us is a method of appropriately using scripture in argumentation, a method that is concerned not with individual verses but with the logic and tenor of the entire redemptive story.
