Duties of christian fellowship, a manual for church members

Duties of Christian Fellowship deals with a matter of perennial concern for every truly Christian church. In just a few pages it sets out in very concise terms the responsibilities all Christians have, first, to their pastors, and then second, to one another within the fellowship of the local church.

John Owen was a pastor as well as a theologian and therefore this is a most practical manual of church fellowship. It was likely intended to be read by individuals with self-examination, meditation and prayer, but it would also be very suitable for group Bible study or adult Sunday School classes. This edition is enhanced by a modernized text and the addition of questions which have been added to facilitate group discussion.

Publisher: Banner of Truth
Type: paperback
ISBN: 9781848717725

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John Owen was born in 1616 in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire and died in Ealing, West London, in 1683. During his sixty-seven years he lived out a life full of spiritual experience, literary accomplishment, and national influence so beyond most of his peers that he continues to merit the accolade of 'the greatest British theologian of all time.'

Despite his other achievements, Owen is best famed for his writings. These cover the range of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical subjects. They are characterized by profundity, thoroughness and, consequently, authority. Andrew Thomson said that Owen 'makes you feel when he has reached the end of his subject, that he has also exhausted it.' Although many of his works were called forth by the particular needs of his own day they all have a uniform quality of timelessness. The Banner of Truth Trust has reprinted his Works in twenty-three volumes.

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I would recommend this book for two reasons, and the first has nothing to do with its purpose. If you have been wanting to read John Owen but have felt intimidated and didn’t know where to start, this book is the solution. This is an easy read, and I am speaking as a slow reader who has struggled with some Puritan books. “Duties of Christian Fellowship” got me into reading Owen, so that the next one I tried, straight out of his collected “Works,” was not all that difficult. The first book prepared me for the denser stuff.
My second reason for recommending this book is because it fulfills its purpose. John Owen looks past denominational dividers and focuses on what makes a local church a local church. He then explains the duties that all believers have to one another, emphasizing the love and glory of Christ as the root and goal of all true Christian fellowship. He does so in a very accessible format that could be read in a single afternoon if one so desired. Robert