TASK OF CHURCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26915, 29 October 1948, Page 8

TASK OF CHURCH

SPREADING THE GOSPEL BAPTIST PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS “ The church must declare the whole counsel of God,” said the newlyinducted president, Mr H. W. Milner, at the opening of the sixty-sixth Assembly of the Baptist Union of New Zealand and the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society in the Hanover Street Church last night. “ The world is starving both spiritually and morally. The supreme task of the church’s members is to be workers together with Christ—making disciples of all nations. This involves our people witnessing and carrying the Gospel into every department and aspect of life.” The subject of Mr Milner’s address was “The Task and the Message of the Church.” “We must seek unity of the spirit among all denominations,” Mr Milner said. "To what extent is unbelief in the world the result of division? We should pursue prayerfully and persistently every avenue that will lead to a united front of the churches. There was a need to press Christ’s claim upon the community, and to remember that the. mantle of the prophets had fallen on the church, Mr Milner continued. There had never been a greater need for the church to speak forth than at present and to follow in the footsteps of Amos and Micah, who cried against the evils of the time.

“ Christian people the world over will strenuously deny that the church is impotent in the. face of the great issues of to-day,” said Mr Milner. The service was conducted by the retiring president of the assembly. Mr Ewen Simpson, who relinquished his office to Mr Milner. An anthem was sung by combined choirs conducted by Mr O. T. Austin.