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The Glorious Church

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:

  1. What is the eternal purpose of God?
  2. What is the purpose of the Church?
  3. 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