CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Church Leadership

Easter Celebration ’89

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In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul wrote: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter …” (verses 1-5). Christ died and was raised. Why did Christ die and for whom? We have learned the answer to those questions and can recite them like catechism. But often the truth is obscured because of its familiarity.

Let’s look at this in perspective. The Christian message is a global message because Christ’s people are globally located. They are among every tongue, nation, tribe and people. Though we might find stronger pockets of God’s people in certain places from time to time, they are scattered across this planet. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son …” (John 3:16). With that statement, John was reminding us that the Gospel is universal.

Paul says that just as Jesus’ death had global ramifications so does His resurrection from the grave. Both the crucifixion and the resurrection are the highlights of Christ’s great redemptive drama enacted for our salvation. Both events remind us that Christianity is a missionary religion.

Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world. He also came forth from the tomb to seal world

The Church’s Vital Ministry

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In the lead article in this month’s issue by Bob Burns, we emphasize a subject that is highly important for the church interested in growth and ministry. That should be characteristic of every church; however, such is not always the case. I hear pastors and other church leaders talk about church growth and ministry, but some are not doing the things that are conducive to either.

The church is one, reflecting our unity of faith. The church is also a diversity, showing our dis

A Response to the Woman’s Role

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By D. Clair Davis. The Lord has told us that He has given pastors and teachers to His church to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. (Ephesians 4:12) Pastors don’t do all the work, but they train us to do it. Grasping that is the greatest single breakthrough in Christ’s church today. It started with the Church of South India in the 1920s. In the 1930s the Navigators taught us about discipling people to disciple others. (2 Timothy 2:2) By now, everywhere you go church bulletins say: “Ministers: every mem

Adjustment after the Death of a Spouse

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Marriage tends to shape and form our whole identity. Before the death of my spouse, my whole life context was marriage. My spouse was involved in every aspect of my day. My decisions, plans and even idle notions – all were integrated into my married lifestyle.

Because anyone who is married becomes “com

Ministering to the Divorced

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By Tom Jones. “I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Alien Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man.

So began Ralph Ellison’s remarkable novel about being black in America. So also might begin the personal story of countless men and women who have found themselves divorced in the church. They, like Ellison’s invisible man, have felt themselves to be unseen, unknown, untouched. In most cases the church is not guilty of deliberate or even conscious blindness toward the divorced, but the blindness has been real nonetheless. More than anything else this special blindness has come in the form of benign neglect. But benign or not, neglect feels painful to the neglected.

My own divorce is now sixteen years behind me; yet I can still feel the pain of the church’s neglect. Because the church did not reach out to me with meaningful ministry, my personal loneli