A Public Thanks to My Men's Care Group

I am so privileged to be not just a part of a great care group, but especially the men’s smaller group that meets every other week. We seek to encourage each other for the sake of holiness. We believe the work of sanctification is not only a personal matter, but that it is nurtured through a corporate dimension. I would just like to thank you guys publicly because I believe it’s biblical to honor such people. The apostle Paul constantly mentioned such saints and fellow workers names to be remembered for all times in the Word of God. I will do so through internet.

In Francis A Schaeffer’s book The Church at the End of the 20th Century, there is a chapter entitled Practicing Purity in the Visible Church. In it he writes the following:

“I emphasize another related parallelism: the call of God to practice simultaneously the orthodoxy of doctrine and the orthodoxy of community in the visible church. The latter of these we have too often all but forgotten. But one cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and the orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world would see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community. But exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.
We have, then, two sets of parallel couplets: (1) the principle of the practice of the purity of the visible church, and yet the practice of observable love among all true Christians; and (2) the practice of orthodoxy of doctrine and observable orthodoxy of community in the visible church.
The heart of these sets of principles is to show forth the love of God and the holiness of God simultaneously. If we show either of these without the other, we exhibit not the character, but a caricature of God for the world to see. If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation. All too often people have not been wrong in saying that the church is ugly. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called upon to show to a watching world and to our own young people that the church is something beautiful.”

It has been an honor and joy to not just know but experience these truths put into practice by our men’s care group. Thank you all for showing the holiness and love of God through correct doctrine and impassioned community. May we continue to keep pressing on.