Church Matters: Catholicity: Churches Partnering Together

What are the most important things about your church? It’s tempting to answer that question by pointing to what makes your church unique. Yet the most important things are what your church shares in common with every other church throughout the world—its Lord, message, and mission. Churches will best fulfill the Great Commission by prioritizing those common things and by working together—by being “catholic.” The doctrine of catholicity, which is grounded in King Jesus’s global claim, calls churches to work together. After all, every gospel-preaching, disciple-making church is playing for the same team. The victory of one is the victory of all. This issue of Church Matters explores these precious truths and the practical difference they should make in our churches.


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Table of Contents

Editor's Note by Jonathan Leeman

What Is Catholicity?
Wanted: Catholic Pastors by Mark Dever
What Is Catholicity and What Does It Require? by Jonathan Leeman
Are Ecclesiological Convictions and Catholic Affirmations Mutually Exclusive? by Jonathan Leeman
A Catholic Church by Mark Dever
Fundamentalism May Feel Safe, But It's Shortsighted by Phil Newton
What Catholicity Requires: Tightly Held Beliefs and Big Hearts by Scott Logsdon
When Catholicity Leads to Compromise by Jonathan Worsley

Catholicity in History
Martin Bucer as a Cooperating Pastor by Jason Lee
"Very Sweet Honey": Basic of Caesarea's Friendship with Syrian Christian Eusebius of Samosata by Michael A.G. Haykin

Catholicity in a Divided Age
Ecclesiological Triage by Michael Lawrence
The Beauty and Power of Catholicity in Politically Charged Times by Collin Hansen
Same Health, Different Look: Ecclesiology in Historically Black Churches by Welton Bonner
Black and White Church Catholicity by Bobby Scott
Why Racist Churches are Anti--Catholic by Luke Stamps and Matthew Emerson
The Internet and Christian Catholicity by Samuel James

Catholicity and the Local Church
Partnering Together: A Practical Guide by Aaron Menikoff
Single Assembly: Advancing the Gospel by Investing in Other Churches by Alex Arell
How Persecution Can Yield Catholicity by Mark Collins
Give Members Permission to Leave Your Church by Juan Sanchez
Catholicity and the Church Membership Process by John Sarver
How to Use Prayer Meetings to Promote Catholicity by Ben Lacey
Pray for Revival in the Other Guy's Church by Andy Johnson
Stop Calling Them Names by Sam Emadi

Catholicity and Missions
The Great Commission Is Bigger Than Your Church by Bobby Jamieson
How Catholicity Compels Missions by Joshua Bowman and Jeff Kelly
How Catholicity Promotes Church-Centered Missions by Ryan Robertson

Catholicity in Different Contexts
What I've Learned from the Anglicans by David M. Gobbett
What I've Learned from the Baptists by Sam Ferguson
What I've Learned from the Presbyterians by Mike McKinley

Book Reviews
Book Review: Association, edited by Ryan King & Andrew King by Nathan Carter
Book Review: Until Unity, by Francis Chan by Taylor Hartley
Book Review: Baptists and the Christian Tradition, edited by Matthew Y. Emerson, Christopher W. Morgan & R. Lucas Stamps by Jeremy Kimble