Scott Clark joins D. G. Hart, HRA board member Brad Isbell, Wresbyterian, and a cast of characters (for 2 hours!) to celebrate the zaniness that is the Presbycast. Continue reading →
Pre-1700’s Presbyterianism in America is shrouded in mystique. Some would say it did not really exist since there was no formal Presbytery established until 1706. Too often it is made to appear that Presbyterianism suddenly dropped into the colonies out of nowhere, . . . Continue reading →
When the 35th GA convened at Memphis’ Cook Convention Center June 12–14, 2007, the PCA was changing from the inside out. Its expanded Overtures Committee met for the first time, and the CMC (Cooperative Ministries Committee) was begun. CofCs (Committee of Commissioners) . . . Continue reading →
The 14th GA met in the elegant Academy of Music (a performing arts center) in the city center of Philadelphia, June 23–27, 1986. In addition to sweltering summer temperatures, a sanitation strike threatened conveniences. Nevertheless, the Assembly met in city center Philadelphia, . . . Continue reading →
Every re-telling may choose its focus, phrasing, and pace. Think of the following as a tour guide through a relatively short sliver of ecclesiastical history. Many of the same events, persons, emphases would come across differently depending on the tour guide who . . . Continue reading →
A “senior pastor” is one elder among many (as Peter, Paul, and the unnamed elders were at the Jerusalem Council, Acts 15:23) and has no extraordinary authority.* Unfortunately, some—usually large—presbyterian churches become de facto staff-led rather than elder-led. The senior pastor becomes . . . Continue reading →
The Presbyterian Church in America’s (PCA) Book of Church Order (BCO) contains no glossary, but maybe it needs one. This is not to fault the BCO’s early-70’s authors—no previous generation of Presbyterians had trouble figuring out what most of the words meant, . . . Continue reading →
If Google is a reliable search engine, the anniversary of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church on June 11 passed without any mention by the press. The reasons are not hard to fathom. The OPC is small, and it lacks a celebrity. In an . . . Continue reading →
When, Dean Kelley published Why Conservative Churches Are Growing (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), the Protestant mainline was already in crisis. They were shrinking, and, as Kelley’s title suggests, the “conservative” churches were growing. This book was published the year before . . . Continue reading →
Understandably, for many American Christians, the fight or flight instinct has kicked in. They are made to pay taxes to support institutions—for example, public schools—that demonstrably work against their interests and seek to subvert the authority of parents in the family by . . . Continue reading →
Today, neither the Orthodox Presbyterian Church nor the Presbyterian Church in America bear their first chosen names. Different as the two denominations are, the reasons for their name changes and even their slates of rejected names are quite similar. And the names—those . . . Continue reading →
It is hard to overstate the influence of Cornelius Van Til on confessional and conservative Reformed theology since the early twentieth century. I will use myself as an example because I think that what I experienced is fairly representative of what others . . . Continue reading →
So, in general, there is some awareness in the wider church of this reality in underserved America’s small-town and rural regions. There is still, however, a greater need to raise up an explicitly Reformed and Presbyterian witness to serve these areas.
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While our Constitution does not require the candidate’s affirmation of every statement and/or proposition of doctrine in our Confession of Faith and Catechisms, it is the right and responsibility of the Presbytery to determine if the candidate is out of accord with . . . Continue reading →
The nature, origins, and status of revivals and revivalism is a contested issue among scholars and popular writers on these topics. It is a question even whether revivals and revivalism are properly distinguished and if so how? There are narratives about revivals . . . Continue reading →
It happens often—a friend or listener sends a message with the question: “Do you know of a good confessional Presbyterian or Reformed church near X?” All too often, after searching online, consulting denominational websites, even asking other friends, the answer is no. . . . Continue reading →
We live in an age that has lost the plot. In this case it is not the world at large, but rather the broadly Protestant/evangelical world in the West—many things taken almost for granted by previous generations of Christians are met with . . . Continue reading →
Princeton Theological Seminary was established with the intention of combining excellent scholarship with an intelligent, hearty commitment to the Reformed theology, piety, and practice summarized in the Reformed confessions. It has not always been easy to maintain that marriage. Princeton Seminary was . . . Continue reading →
We may not bludgeon sincere men with cries of “Peace! Peace!” where there is no peace. We may not neglect the reasonable concerns of our brethren by naïvely asserting that everyone is trustworthy and in one accord merely by virtue of their ordination. Continue reading →
There is a kind of therapeutic psychology rampant among the elite in Western culture’s ivory towers and it has made its way into our seminaries and churches, beguiling some and maddening others. Continue reading →