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The Secret Strength of a God-Built Church: How Charity Holds the House Together
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Dec 6 2025
Pages: 84
Weight: 0.27
Height: 0.17 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What truly holds a church together?
It isn't talent, programs, personalities, or structure. According to Scripture, the secret strength of every God-built church is something far deeper and more powerful-charity.
In The Secret Strength of a God-Built Church, longtime pastor and Bible teacher Marvin McKenzie takes you on a clear, encouraging journey through 1 Corinthians 13-not as a marriage passage, but as God's blueprint for local church life. Many believers know this chapter by heart, but few realize it was written to one of the most troubled congregations in the New Testament. Corinth had gifts, excitement, and activity, but it lacked the one thing necessary for lasting unity: Christlike charity.
With warmth, pastoral insight, and conservative Baptist clarity, Pastor McKenzie explains why charity is a distinct biblical word, chosen by the Apostle Paul and preserved in the King James Bible to describe the love believers are meant to show within their local church. Charity is more than kindness. More than emotion. More than friendliness. Charity is Christ loving His church through His people.
Across seventeen rich, readable chapters, you'll discover:
- Why Paul used the unique word charity instead of love
- How charity removes the sins that tear churches apart-envy, pride, harshness, selfishness, suspicion, frustration, and gossip
- How charity provides the strengths every congregation desperately needs-truth, endurance, patience, burden-bearing, hope, and trust
- Why charity never fails, even when giftedness, emotion, and human ability do
- How charity prepares the church for maturity and stability in a changing world
Each chapter is deeply rooted in Scripture, written with a pastor's heart, and filled with practical application for every believer-new Christians, longtime members, ministry workers, teachers, and pastors alike.
If your church is struggling, charity can restore it.
If your fellowship feels strained, charity can heal it.
If your ministry has grown weary, charity can strengthen it.
If your hope feels thin, charity can revive it.
This book is not about emotion-it is about spiritual strength. Charity is the force that stabilizes a congregation, heals relationships, restores unity, and reflects the very heart of Christ. It is the one grace that continues when faith becomes sight and hope becomes reality.
Whether you are a pastor wanting to strengthen your flock, a church member seeking to grow in grace, or a believer longing for healthier relationships within the body of Christ, The Secret Strength of a God-Built Church will help you rediscover the enduring, unshakable power of biblical charity.
Charity never fails-and a church built on charity won't either.
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