Calvary

Martin Bucer Defines the Church

For more than 25 years Martin Bucer was the undisputed leader of the Protestant Reformation in the city of Strasbourg. A contemporary of John Calvin, in 1538 he produced what he called “this little book,” a Reformation handbook of pastoral theology titled, “Concerning The True Care of Souls.”

In it he defines the church thus:

The church of Christ is the assembly and fellowship of those who are gathered from the world and united in Christ our Lord through his Spirit and word, to be a body and members of one another, each having his office and work for the general good of the whole body and all its members.

Please meditate on those words. When you participate in the life of Calvary Baptist Church, you are assembling with other believers in a fellowship than can only be explained by the Spirit drawing you by His word. You have a unique place in the fellowship because the same Spirit who drew you also gifted you in ways and with means that he has not gifted any other person in the body. Your contribution to the work of the ministry through Calvary is irreplaceable. Only you can give what the Spirit of God has uniquely gifted you to give.