Growing Together in the Gospel
Articles that encourage us to follow Jesus faithfully, think biblically, and grow together as His Church. Here we explore the Gospel, Christian life, the Church in New England, and the challenges and opportunities before us.
Seeing Christ Throughout Scripture
The Bible tells one unfolding story of God’s redemptive work. From Genesis through Revelation, we are invited to see God’s purposes fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Biblical stories, teachings, and promises help us understand who He is, what He has done, and what it means to follow Him.
Learning from Faithful Voices
The Church has a rich inheritance of voices that have helped generations of Christians learn to follow Jesus.
Writers such as John Bunyan, Oswald Chambers, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien have helped readers consider different dimensions of faith, surrender, understanding, perseverance, courage, and hope. Their writings can enrich our thinking and deepen our walk with Christ.
Four Voices Across Generations
These four writers lived in very different times and circumstances. John Bunyan was a seventeenth-century English preacher whose own suffering and imprisonment shaped The Pilgrim’s Progress, his enduring picture of the Christian journey. Oswald Chambers was a Scottish Baptist teacher and World War I chaplain whose teaching on surrender and wholehearted devotion to Christ continues through My Utmost for His Highest, compiled from his spoken ministry by his wife, Biddy. C.S. Lewis was an Oxford and Cambridge scholar who moved from atheism to Christian faith and became one of the twentieth century’s most influential defenders of Christianity. J.R.R. Tolkien was a Catholic Christian, philologist, and Oxford professor whose faith, love of language, and imagination helped shape The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Their backgrounds, denominations, and literary forms were not the same. Their writings should not be treated as equal to Scripture, nor should every interpretation they offered be accepted without examination. Yet their enduring influence reminds us that God can use very different servants, gifts, and generations to help His people see more clearly what it means to follow Jesus.
We do not have to agree on every perspective to learn from one another. We can listen humbly, test what we hear against Scripture, and receive what is true and helpful. In this way, learning itself can become an expression of Christian unity.
Reading with Discernment
Commentaries and the writings of gifted Christian teachers can help us understand Scripture and consider how its truth applies to our lives. Yet every author’s insight, interpretation, and point of view must ultimately be tested by the Word of God.
Scripture remains our foundation and our standard. We read widely not to replace the Bible, but to understand it more faithfully, recognize different perspectives, and consider how God’s truth calls us to live.
Growing Together in Grace and Truth
We learn from Scripture first, and we listen to faithful voices with humility, recognizing that none of us sees everything perfectly. As we study, pray, and share what we are learning, we can receive from one another without surrendering our convictions or elevating any human teacher above God’s Word. United in Christ, guided by Scripture and the Holy Spirit, we can grow together in grace and truth—and encourage one another to live what we believe.
Different backgrounds, different gifts, different perspectives—but honoring one Lord, one Gospel, one Scripture.