On Tuesday of this week, HRA board member, PCA ruling elder, and co-host of the Presbycast, Brad Isbell published an important essay, which called attention to the lack of attention paid, in the confessional Presbyterian and Reformed world, to the forgotten middle . . . 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 →
One hundred and fifty years ago, Africa was predominantly pagan in the south, and Muslim in the north. Yet incredibly, today most of the world’s Christians are found in Africa. There are presently an estimated 680 million (and rapidly growing) professing Christians . . . Continue reading →
In May, we opened our new training center in Meru, Kenya and had men attending our class on Covenant Theology from Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, and two from Ethiopia. Nearly forty in attendance. I celebrated my 70th birthday during that . . . Continue reading →
Dort was a missionary assembly, discussing how to evangelize unreached people groups. Continue reading →
Pearls should not be cast before swine. This has its truth, but kingdom preaching pays no attention to this. Instead, the preaching here in this parable is undiscriminating, wild, even promiscuous. The Word is scattered randomly. There is no strategy, programming or . . . Continue reading →
The simple fact that a Reformed or Presbyterian church or missionary is engaged in the work of missions does not necessarily mean that the work is also being done in a Reformed fashion. With a view from the mission field of Germany . . . Continue reading →
A considerable percentage of church planting in the USA is done under the influence of a model that is likely to lead to congregations that are not Reformed in their practice and perhaps not in their theology and piety. That model says, . . . Continue reading →
I do not remember exactly when I read Jack Miller’s 1986 critique of the NAPARC world, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, but I suspect it was about 1990. I was pastoring a small NAPARC congregation and I had been charged with helping the . . . Continue reading →
Despite our fondest wish to get back to the series on the Canons of Dort, the Science tells us that it is time for only our second ever best of episode. In this episode we feature some audio from January 2010, where . . . Continue reading →
Here in Norfolk, VA, the Lord is working to build His Church. In the summer of 2021, a group of families began meeting regularly to study the Heidelberg Catechism and the Bible together. Over the next few months, these families met with . . . Continue reading →
In 1850, a former slave named William J. Anderson built a church building in downtown Madison, Indiana. Anderson had escaped the clutches of slavery and made it just across the Ohio River into Madison. He became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and, . . . Continue reading →
As a follow up to the recent post about the intersection between Acts 29, Mars Hill, and the PCA, someone sent a link to the application to be filled in/out on for the Spanish River Church Planting program. One of the questions on . . . Continue reading →
The translation is here. The Heidelberg Catechism is also in Swahili now. Continue reading
Dariusz Bryćko writes, “After about two years of weekly Bible study and prayer meetings, on October 17 our church plant had the privilage to inaugurate regular public worship. Two Lithuanian ministers traveled to Warsaw to join us for this event, since we’ve . . . Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: The Reformed confession has German roots. Heidelberg, the capitol of the Palatinate was one of the most important centers of the Reformed movement in the sixteenth century. It was the Reformed Church in the Palatinate that gave us our Heidelberg . . . Continue reading →
One of the stories told about the Reformation in missiological circles is that the reformers weren’t interested in seeing the gospel go to the ends of the earth.
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The need is great, the mission is great but our God is greater and his grace is greater than all our sin and weakness. Pray for the harvest. Organize for the mission (to plant churches) and ask yourself where your congregation falls in the seeker — franchise — reforming continuum: is there a passion for the whole mission? Continue reading →
Soon, it was clear that Romania needed a Reformed church. Corcea contacted several churches in Europe for support and advice, and received an answer from Rev. Andrea Ferrari, pastor of the Reformed Church Filadelfia in Milan, Italy (also a URCNA mission). Continue reading →
I am thankful to introduce Ventura Reformed to readers of the Heidelblog! In April, Pasadena URC called and sent me to three households in the city of Ventura to lead them in a grassroots church-planting project. We are asking the Lord to establish a URCNA congregation on the Oxnard Plain (population ~ 400,000) not only with Reformed-and-relocating people, and with Christians-becoming-Reformed people, but especially—especially!—with people who do not attend any church. Continue reading →