Studies in underground and home-based Christian movements:

Watchman Nee and the House Church Movement in China This movement suffered bitter persecution at the hands of the established church mainly for the "sin" of translating the Bible into the vernacular and presuming to use their gifts and ministries.

Philip Jacob Spener's Contribution to Protestant Ecclesiology

Spener was an ordained minister and professor in the Lutheran church when he founded the movement that came to be called Pietism. Spener encouraged the formation of house groups (called collegia pietatis) where serious Christians could pursue fellowship and in-depth discipleship. His followers not only included the movement based at Halle University (which began the first organized Protestant missions outreach) but the so-called "radical pietists" who, along with Anabaptists, took the teachings of Spener to their logical extreme. Today, historians are aware of a direct line from the pietist movement to the Wesleyan movement.

The Waldensian Movement from Waldo to the Reformation This movement suffered bitter persecution at the hands of the established church mainly for the "sin" of translating the Bible into the vernacular and presuming to use their gifts and ministries.

Other studies related to ecclesiology:

• Cultivating a Tender Heart
  When working with people in the church, leaders regularly experience disappointment, betrayal, and failure. Many find it difficult to avoid toughening their hearts in a way that protects them from hurt. The result is inability to deeply care about people and to love them deeply. This paper discusses how to keep a tender heart toward God and others.
• The Objectification of Religion: Universal Themes
  This paper covers current theories about why people nearly always "objectify" religion. Objectification refers to the practice of reducing abstract principles and ethics to rituals, trinkets, buildings, and festivals. Formalism is a synonym for objectification--a fixation of the outward forms of religion, rather than on inward spiritual reality.
• Strange Details in Stephen's Defense
  Have you ever wondered why Stephen seems to have problems staying on the subject during his defense to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7? This paper answers the questions raised by one of the more puzzling but vital passages in the book of Acts. The solution relates to the issue of formalism and the true nature of the church.
• How to View Change in the Church
  When the church loses its ability to change, it loses its ability to follow God. Lead pastor, Dennis McCallum answers objections to change in the church with this essay.
• Melchizedek and the Priesthood of Christ
  Why must the church decisively reject both legalism and Old Testament-style ritualism? One of the clearest passages explaining why is Hebrews 5 and 7.