A podcast from Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Orlando, FL. Pastor John Cherne explores the convictions — theological and practical — that shape a people learning to live by the ordinary means of grace: Word, Sacrament, and Prayer, and to behold God's glory and make known His grace. Learn more about us at ctkorl.com
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Before we can study the church, we need the words that come before the study — a map to know where we stand, and a compass to keep us pointed the right direction. Pastor John opens the series with the classic framework of orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and doxology: right belief, right practice, and the worship that holds them together.
Where did the church actually come from? Pastor John traces one covenant story from Adam to the New Jerusalem — through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Christ — showing that the church isn't a New Testament invention, but the fulfillment of a promise as old as Genesis 3.
Scripture doesn't just tell us what the church is — it gives us pictures. Pastor John walks through the Bible's metaphors for the church, from the apple of God's eye to the flock, the vine, the temple, and the bride, and asks whether we actually believe what God says about His people.
Every family has traits that mark it as its own. Pastor John explores the four historic attributes confessed in the Nicene Creed — one, holy, catholic, and apostolic — and why the church's identity flows directly from the God she belongs to.
Not everything that looks like a church is one. Pastor John examines how the Reformers answered that question — the marks that identify a true church, and the fruit that shows whether she's healthy — and asks the harder question of when to stay and when to walk away.
A family doesn't stay unstructured for long. Pastor John traces how Christ governs His church — through elders who shepherd and deacons who serve, gathered into sessions, presbyteries, and a general assembly — and where the word "Presbyterian" actually comes from.
