Church

We tried to define "church" and started with the Nicene Creed statement, "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church".

There is "one" universal church of all who are called to Christ, regardless of our geographic and doctrinal differences.

"Holy" refers to Christ as well as the nature of the church. We had a good side discussion on the nature of sanctification and holiness. This tied in well to sermon on the "Last Breakfast" where our resurrected Lord progressively asked Peter to "feed my lambs", "take care of my sheep" and "feed my sheep".

Lower case "catholic" refers to "universal" (and not Roman Catholic) and relates to "one". We emphasized the open and inclusive nature of churches. We had a fun discussion on blonde Jesus's and what if TCBC stood for "Toronto Caucasian Baptist Church".

Finally "apostolic" links us through time to the early New Testament church. Our practices should be consistent with that biblical example.

Our textbook has a lengthy section on these so-called "four marks" of a church. (See pp 230-239.)