August 22, 2019
THE BIG CHALLENGE FACING SMALL CHURCHES (5): Hope from History
By Jerran Jackson Down through the ages, Jesus has used crises and challenges to renew his church. When Christians by the thousands were leaving their churches to pray alone in the desert, Basil of Caesarea redefined devotion to God by gathering Christians in cities and organizing them both for prayer and for service to their neighbors. When the church became corrupt and Christianity became a superstition, Martin Luther reemphasized the guidance of God’s Word. When dry formalism replaced living faith, Philipp Jakob Spener introduced home Bible studies. Jesus can renew the American church today in similar ways. Before there were
