Growing Reformed Churches: Doing The Simple Things

Church growth is a thorny subject. First there are the thistles of rationalism in which self-proclaimed experts offer to sell to pastors and churches a three-point program which will transform their average congregation to a super church. Back in the late 80s and early . . . Continue reading →

Beyond Bishops And Isolation

Americans are an independent lot. The original colonists left the old world for the new. Their revolutionary successors in the 18th century formalized that independence with a war and constitutional documents. The American desire for independence helped to propel us west beyond . . . Continue reading →

The New Normal

Internet pornography is probably the number one pastoral problem in the world today. I wonder if it is set to become yet more so: as the social shame dimension passes away, it will be harder to maintain discipline on this issue. The . . . Continue reading →

When Is a Church Not a Church?

An HB Classic

I was searching for something the other day and ran across chapter 18 of the Scots Confession (1560) which speaks to the “Notes” (from the Latin, nota or “mark” or “indicator”) of the True Kirk (church). I’ll return to the Scots Confession . . . Continue reading →

How To Fence the Lord’s Table (2)

How to Fence the Lord’s Table (Part 1) There is irony in fencing the Lord’s Table. What should be a joyous celebration, after due preparation of course, and a communion of believers with their risen Lord and with one another, is for . . . Continue reading →

I Get Questions: How to Fence the Lord’s Table?

After the Central Valley Conference last month I promised to answer some of the questions submitted for the Q/A for which we didn’t have time. One of them asked essentially: whom should Reformed Churches admit to the Lord’s Table? There are three . . . Continue reading →

More on Fencing the Table: Dutch Reformed Voices

I’ve been thinking more lately about the scandal of fencing the table. I should have thought to do this earlier. Researching an answer to another question I ran across some interesting Dutch Reformed (in this case, Christian Reformed) sources on this question. . . . Continue reading →

On Lapsing Members: Coping with a Transient Culture

Re-Posted from Sept 9, 2009. The HB has addressed the problem of “churchless evangelicals” before. This question is a little different. How should consistories/sessions address the problem of members of a congregation who simply seem to disappear as if they’ve fallen off . . . Continue reading →

Now This is the Way It's Done

It’s one thing for consistories, sessions, presbyteries, classes, synods, and general assemblies to make statements against the Federal Vision (and the New Perspective(s) on Paul). Those were and are necessary and important preliminary steps but those statements must be followed with ecclesiastical . . . Continue reading →

Audio: Guy Waters on Church Membership

One aspect of Reformed theology, piety, and practice that distnguishes confessional Protestantism from broad evangelicalism is a high view of the visible, institutional church. Calvin spent most of book 4 of the Institutes on the visible church. The Belgic Confession spends two . . . Continue reading →

If We Won't Discipline Are We Really A Church?

re-post from 12 September 2007 — One of the clearest commands our Lord gave during his ministry, before his crucifixion, death, burial, and ascension, was to practice discipline in the congregations (Matt 18). It has been abused, but more often it has . . . Continue reading →