The Recovery of the Local Church

“…let the loveliness of the repeated brethren, my brethren, my beloved brethren sink into our minds and hearts until there is born in us a determination that our church will be like that. Let it be a fellowship of rich and poor, who alike consider their faith their greatest wealth; a fellowship of care where brother or sister never goes away in need, where the tongue is guarded lest it disrupt and where heavenly wisdom in all its peace produces the soil of true oneness in which righteousness can come to harvest.”

“We need to recover this ‘local’ vision. If the world around us saw the problems of its own animosities, divisions and deprivations solved in the microcosm of the local church, we would need no more special evangelistic efforts, for the life of the church would be like the light of a city set on a hill which cannot be hidden.” 

J.A. Motyer — The Message of James