If the church is going to be the body of Christ, it has to have the right framework.

It has to have a high view of God.

And that has to be its pursuit, to know Him, to know Him, to know Him.

And in seeking to know Him, it has to have a high view of scripture for that

is the place where alone he may be known. Welcome to Grace to you with John MacArthur. I'm your host Phil Johnson.

In 2012, a six-story shopping center in Ghana collapsed just a few months after it was built.

14 people died and more than 75 people had to be saved from the rubble. And what caused the collapse?

It was a faulty foundation.

Now as tragic as that incident was,

if your church is built on a bad spiritual foundation, the results could be even more disastrous.

So what are the essential doctrines that your church should be built on?

John MacArthur helps answer that question today by looking at what he

calls the skeleton, the basic structure of the local church, and he'll also show you how you can

help strengthen your church's foundation. It's part of his study, The Anatomy

of a Church.

John, before you continue the study, speak for a minute about your own role, your

ministry as part of a local church,

and specifically, tell our listeners how you came to be pastor

of Grace Community Church.

Well, it was long, long ago, back in 1968. I was in my late 20s and I was doing a lot of

youth speaking, speaking to kids, speaking to young people's groups and all over the

place and it so happened that I was speaking at a camp where

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