A pastor never knows what a phone call will bring. The fear is that it brings bad news. It is delightful when it brings good news. I had one of the latter today. Alen Adamian, an pastor (with Vahik Haddadian) in the Armenian Reformed Bible Church (Glendale, CA) called. He had read my essay on the new covenant in preparation for an adult class on covenant theology and wanted to follow up with some very thoughtful questions. He explained that his congregation is predominantly Armenian (as distinct from Arminian—An Arminian is a follower of Jacob Arminius, a Dutchman and an Armenian is someone with ethnic and cultural roots in Armenia, which is situated east of Turkey, south of Georgia, west of Azerbaijan, and north of Iran) and that is the language in which most of the instruction occurs. The congregation was formed a couple of years ago by about 150 people who were part of a more broadly evangelical Armenian congregation, who discovered the doctrines of grace and are pressing on toward recovering Reformed covenant theology. I’m encouraged. Remember them in prayer as you think about it.
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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The Armenian URC ministers in SoCal tend to be much better defenders of Reformed heritage than many Reformed pastors of Dutch, German, or English background nationwide.
What a delightful and encouraging story. I needed that at the end of a tough and discouraging week. How did the pastor and the congregation discover the doctrines of grace?
It’s good to know that there’s Armenian news of eternal significance coming out of California. (In contrast, of course, to all things Kardashian.)
Frank,
You crack me up.
The biographies of the pastors tells the story.