John Mark Hicks

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42, NASV) Borrowing from Brother Lawrence, I have been using the language of “practicing the kingdom of God” in recent years. I don’t mean that as an alternative to or a substitute for Brother […]

Road Trip: Shaped by Mission “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s […]

“In my former book, Theophilus, I worte about all that Jesus began to do and to teach….” (Acts 1:1). “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and […]

Given K. Rex Butts’ comment on a previous post, I offer this slightly edited section from my book, co-authored with Bobby Valentine, entitled Kingdom Come: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James Harding (pp. 75-77). The concern Rex expressed early in the 21st century is the same concern James A. Harding had about congregations at […]

Rejecting 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 as a prescriptive positive law regulating how the church should give, but embracing it as an arrangement by which the church might be the instrument of God’s grace to others (as so intepretered by 2 Corinthians 8-9), by what hermeneutic do we discern our relationship to the poor or our responsibility to […]

In this post I will consider the use of 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 among Churches of Christ as a legal prescription or pattern for weekly giving as an act of worship in the Sunday assembly. My purpose is to illustrate the use of the CEI hermeneutic to establish biblical authority. In my next few posts I will […]

It is time for another “Stone-Campbell Web Notes” post. [I actually have no schedule–it is my whim based on what I find interesting. And I am the sole determiner of what is interesting in terms of these Web Notes. 🙂 ] If you are interested in some spirited discussion on traditional issues among Churches of […]

“On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.” The first day of the week.  Gathered saints.  Breaking bread.  Listening to Pau’s teaching.  Joy, fellowship, edification.  But death invades.  A young man named falls out the third-story window.  The church rushes to him.  He is dead.  Brokenness, grief, disillusionment. You have […]

Practicing the kingdom of God entails fellowship with the poor. Jesus came to announce “good news” (gospel) to the poor and to liberate the poor from their oppression. He came to sustain the needy and supply their needs. Acts 2:42 characterizes the early church as devoting themselves to “fellowship” (koinonia). This term can have a […]

I like to call it “practicing the kingdom of God.” With deference to Brother Lawrence, I like this language in addition to “practicing the presence of God.” But there is overlapping meaning, I think. What I call “practicing the kingdom of God” is what James A. Harding called the “means of grace,” that is, the […]