Church History Class Analysis

The couple of classes on church history I took at King’s were informative and I found myself inspired from what I learned. One of these classes was called Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The biggest thing that I learned in this class was that the Kingdom of God has never ceased from moving in the world through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and through miracles. In this class on charismatic church history we were able to trace the move of the Holy Spirit in the earth back to the book of Acts. I found this to be extremely encouraging because I, like many other Western believers, did not know that God has been moving in the miraculous non-stop from the time of Jesus until now.
Something that I am not sure about with these history classes …show more content…
Pete Sanchez. This class and the session from Gateway Conference mirror the book written by Robert Morris by the same title. Because it was a semester long class Dr. Sanchez did go much more in depth into why the Church is so important to the world compared to Pastor Robert’s book and Tom Lane’s teaching which are more Gateway Church specific. Dr. Sanchez emphasized the need of cooperation between churches and denominations, because all are a part of the Body of Christ. This aspect was very encouraging to me because I believe that if the Church as a whole is more unified we could accomplish the work of the Great Commission so much …show more content…
The two books that I read for the class, in addition to The Blessed Church by Robert Morris, taught me through the apostle Paul’s writings what God intended the Church to be from the beginning and also showed how far the modern church as moved away from it. The main component for an effective local church according to Gordon Fee, the author of the first book I read for this class, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God intentionally gave the Holy Spirit as both a down payment for the inheritance of the individual believer and as the unifying component of the Church as a whole body. I found this to be confirmed in the writings of the Apostle Paul and also noted by James Thompson, the author of the second book I read for this class. Thompson notes that the purpose of the Church is more about showing what communion with God will look like as heaven comes to earth, than it is about doctrines or denominations.
The beautiful thing that I see in this model is that God brings unity but also gives plenty of space for individuals to uniquely express God in their own way. From what I have gathered through this class and these books I now understand the purpose of the Church and of church government. That purpose is to evidence God’s presence and power in the world through unity, community, love,