For five years I served as the Conference Parliamentarian. That meant I was the expert in church law, and if any question or challenge arose it was my function to immediately give the President reference to the relevant section of church law in order to make a ruling. So I am intimately acquainted with the hundreds of pages of laws and by-laws and regulations and protocols and practices and policies of The United Church of Canada. Serving as an Anglican priest I became familiar with canon law. Serving in a Presbyterian congregation I learned the Book of Forms (for all the good it did me).

But none of these even reflect, much less constitute, the divine expectation for the Body of Christ. Read more…

The early followers of Jesus referred to their cause as The Way which we know from a legal argument Paul made in court: “These people cannot even prove their accusations to you. But I’ll admit to you that I’m a follower of the way {of Christ}, which they call a sect” (Acts 24:13-14 God’s Word). The Jewish leadership called it the “Nazarene sect”, certainly a pejorative term containing both ethnic and religious bigotry.

Today we use the term “Christianity” to refer to people who belong to that religion which has roots in Jesus Christ. Read more…