CHURCH-GREATNESS
The local
church was the womb that warmed our soul until it was ready for birth. The
church fed us on the milk of the Word, providing us with many loving fathers
and mothers. It stood with us when we presented our children to God, and it now
mothers them. The local church has contributed much to our children’s spiritual
nurturing.
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books,
2004, p. 68.
The church
[is] the gathering of God’s children, where they can be helped and fed like
babies and then, guided by her motherly care, grow up to manhood in maturity of
faith.
John Calvin
Throughout
the course of history God has worked in a variety of ways through individuals,
nations, and peoples. The focus of His present work is the church. That which
was begun in the Scriptures, as men and women were called to acknowledge the
Lordship of Christ, continues today in fulfillment of Christ’s promises to
build His church. Not only is Christ building His church, but also it is the
primary instrument through which He ministers in the world. As the Father sent
Christ, so the church bears the ambassadorial role for its Lord as sent ones
with a message of reconciliation.
Robert Saucy
The Church in God’s Program, Moody,
1973, p. 7.
Nothing can
altogether overthrow and destroy [the church]. Its members may be persecuted,
oppressed, imprisoned, beaten, beheaded, burned; but the true church is never
altogether extinguished; it rises again from its afflictions; it lives on
through fire and water. When crushed in one land it springs up in another. The
Pharaohs, the Herods, the Neros,
have labored in vain to put down this church; they slay
their thousands, and then pass away and go to their own place. The true Church
outlives them all, and sees them buried each in his turn. It is an anvil that
has broken many a hammer in this world, and will break many a hammer still; it
is a bush which is often burning, and yet is not consumed.
J.C. Ryle
Never futile
is the work of the church, for it is a product not of the mind of man but of
the sovereign grace of God.
William Hendriksen
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical
Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 98.
O be not too quick to bury the Church before she is dead.
John Flavel
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 58.
The church
has existed from the beginning of the world and will last until the end. That
appears from the fact that Christ is the eternal King, from which it follows
that He cannot be without subjects. And this holy church is preserved by God
against the rage of the whole world. It shall never be destroyed even though
for a while it may appear very small and may even seem to be snuffed out.
The Belgic
Confession
Article 27.
The true
greatness of any church in not how many it seats but how many it sends!
Author Unknown
Church
greatness consists in being greatly serviceable.
Richard
Baxter
The highest expression of the will of God in this age is the
church which He purchased with His own blood. To be scripturally valid any
religious activity must be part of the church. Let it be clearly stated that
there can be no service acceptable to God in this age that does not center in
and spring out of the church. Bible schools, tract societies, Christian
business men's committees, seminaries and the many independent groups working
at one or another phase of religion need to check themselves reverently and
courageously, for they have no true spiritual significance outside of or apart
from the church.
A.W. Tozer