Claims Of Congregational Churc

Excerpt from The Claims of Congregational Churches: A Centennial Address; Being a Plea in Vindication of the Rights of the First Church of Christ in Pepperell, Delivered Feb, 9, 1847 Dear Sir: - The undersigned, a Committee of said Parish, respectfully request that you will favor them with a copy of the address delivered by you on the 9th instant, at a celebration of the centennial anniversary of the founding of said church, for publication. To Messrs. Bullard and others, Committee of the First Parish. Brethren: - Your letter, requesting a copy of my address for publication, has been in my hands several weeks. I have refrained from acceding to your request, because I felt unwilling to protract unnecessarily any agitation among us. For obvious reasons I now submit the address to your disposal, with the sincere hope and prayer that the rising generation among us will never permit a human and ever-changing creed to stand between them and God's Holy Word, since to do so is virtually a rejection of both God and his Son. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Church membership is not just a status, it’s an office. Leaders shouldn’t fire members from the responsibilities given to them by Jesus—they should train them! When members are trained, the church grows in holiness and love, discipleship and mission. Complacency and nominalism are diminished. Jesus gives every church member an office in the church’s government: to assume final responsibility for guarding the what and the who of the gospel in the church and its ministry. Similarly, Jesus gives leaders to the church for equipping the members to do this church-building and mission-accomplishing work. In our day, the tasks of reinvigorating congregational authority and elder authority must work together. The vision of congregationalism pictured in this book offers an integrated view of the Christian life. Congregationalism is biblical, but biblical congregationalism just might look a little different than you expect. It is nothing less than Jesus’ authorization for living out his kingdom rule among a people on mission.