The Glorious Church
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| Greetings Fellow
Believer, |
If you haven't
already, read the
Caution From the
authors,
click here! |
The Bible tells us that
when Jesus returns, He will
present to Himself a
“glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such
thing” (Ephesians 5:27). We
believe that within the
heart of every minister of
the gospel is a deep longing
to see the fullness of this
glorious Church revealed in
every local assembly.
The book you’re holding
was conceived out of an
intense desire to gain a
more
perfect understanding of how
God will bring forth this
glorious Church. Our hope
is that better understanding
will unite with the desire
to see His glory, bringing
us
closer to the fulfillment of
God’s eternal purpose.
In contemplating where to
begin, we decided on the
following scenario:
Imagine that God
has personally invited
you to obey His
wonderful plan
of salvation and you
have responded with
sincere and appreciative
obedience. You don’t
know any other
Christians, and you know
nothing
about any kind of
church, church service,
or church organization.
Having
provided you with a copy
of His Word, God then
asks you to describe His
eternal purpose, the
purpose of His Church,
and how the localized
expressions of His
Church should be
structured.
Before reading on, we ask
you to stop to consider
these significant questions.
Suppose you knew nothing
about church and knew no
other Christians. All you
had was the Bible and the
Presence of God. If you are
willing, take some time
right
now to ponder these
questions:
- What is the
eternal purpose of
God?
- What is the
purpose of the
Church?
- How should a
local assembly be
structured to
fulfill its purpose?
We believe that you will
gain more from this book if
you first take time to
grapple
with these questions. If you
would care to write out your
responses, we are very
interested in reading them.
We recognize the limitations
of our own understanding
and plan to alter and refine
this presentation as
additional insight is
provided on the
three questions posed above.
For this reason, we strongly
encourage you to
contact us with any
comments, suggestions, and
challenges you may have to
any
points we have made.
Your brothers in Jesus,
David Huston and Jim
McKinley
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