Word-centred ministry

In our first Leadership Development session we did a tour of Deuteronomy and Hebrews to see just how central the Word of God is to Christianity.

We then discussed some important applications of this to our fellowship:

1. The Word of God must be central to ministry, not good deeds, community, music or other things.
2. We should be willing to go in depth with our study of God's word. Our sermons and conferences and Fellowship Groups should sometimes be long, hard work.
3. There is great value in simply working through books of the Bible in our sermons and Bible studies, so that God sets the agenda of what we think about, rather than always focusing on answering our questions.
4. There is an important place for leaders and preachers, so that we hear God's Word as authoritative, rather than only ever doing discussions and forums.
5. Our unity with others should be based around the Word of God, rather than simply social or institutional things.
6. The Word of God should remain front and centre in our evangelism. No one will be saved by good deeds, loving community or clever arguments alone.