Yes, brothers, the world is watching, but so are those in your congregations. You have not been ordained to placate the goats. Jesus has called you to feed His sheep. I humbly and joyfully exhort you as your sister in Christ to . . . Continue reading →
NAPARC
Schleiermacher In The Background: The PCA’s Struggle Over Confessional Identity
The struggle in the PCA over confessional identity is a microcosm of the macrocosm. The current discussions reveal that the PCA is on track to be another denominational domino to topple along with the mainline churches who have embraced theological liberalism. The . . . Continue reading →
Flashback To 2006: “Presbyterians And Presbyterians Together” As The Background To The Open Letter (Updated)
Editor’s Preface This document was published in April, 2006 and provoked considerable discussion in conservative Presbyterian and Reformed world in connection to the Federal Vision controversy. Since that time the original publication site has been removed. Here are some responses from the . . . Continue reading →
Machen’s Response To The Open Letter
In Stephen J. Nichol’s fine biography on J. Gresham Machen, he refers to historian Bradley Longfield’s description of the real problem within the church during the modernist controversy: namely, the moderates, whom Machen called the “indifferentists.” Machen wrote in a letter to . . . Continue reading →
Machen’s Other Opponents: The Moderates
Machen considered the church in the book’s final chapter, where he argued that since modernism was a different religion altogether, the honorable thing for modernists to do was to withdraw from the church. Knowing this to be unlikely, Machen appealed to moderates . . . Continue reading →
The Question Of The Hour In The PCA
The question of the hour is whether missional contextualization requires celibate gay/same-sex-attracted (SSA) “Side B” pastors. The supporters of (or tolerators of) Side B ministers and the novel doctrine that goes along with them would not say that mission-driven cultural accommodation (per . . . Continue reading →
GRN To Former Moderators: You Are Not Building Trust
The first is that a preemptive disparaging of opponent’s concerns is not likely to achieve the letters’ stated goal of unity in the PCA. When Christian leaders ask, “Are we being biblically faithful?” an answer that derides the nature and motive of . . . Continue reading →
Confessional Concerns And Conflict In The PCA With Presbycast
As always good, Presbyterian, fun was had with PCA Ruling Elder Brad “Chortles” Isbell and Wresbyterian on Presbycast last night as we discussed the Open Letter, the essay by the founder of the National Partnership, and the status and function of the . . . Continue reading →
More Thoughts About The PCA: Liberal v Conservative Is The Wrong Paradigm
I have had some interesting and illuminating responses to my analysis and critique of the anonymous “Open Letter” (OL) to the PCA published last week. Continue reading
How “The Letter” Reads To An Outsider
Someone, probably an unofficial committee of some sort within the PCA, has published an open letter to others in the PCA.
P&R Polity Is Not Perfect But It Is Preferable To The Others
In the last few weeks there has been published, on social media, some fairly stinging comments about the problems inherent with way confessional Presbyterian and Reformed (hereafter P&R) churches govern themselves. These comments seem mainly to born of frustration with the way . . . Continue reading →
Another Way To Find A Confessional Reformed Church In North America
It can be difficult to locate a confessional Reformed congregation in North America since, for most of the continent (outside of the Southeast USA, Grand Rapids, Philadelphia, and Ontario, Canada) they can be difficult to find. Someone has already made a Google . . . Continue reading →
Can The PCA’s “Big Tent” Hold?
Which Way Will The Moderates Swing?
Is the PCA’s big tent capacious enough for “gay Christian” officers and Revoice doctrine? Adherents of a certain type of “missionalism” might consider Revoice-style contextualization and accommodation to be absolutely essential; thus they would make room in the tent. Moderate evangelicals in . . . Continue reading →
Indy Reformed Holding Services January 17 and 24, 2021 (Updated)
Indy Reformed is a group of Reformed Christians who are committed to seeing a URCNA church planted in the Indianapolis area. The group has been adopted by Zeltenreich Reformed Church in New Holland, PA. The church planting efforts are currently in the development phase with the goal to launch in the Spring of 2022. Continue reading →
Some Reasons Why Visitors Do Not Stay And What To Do About It
Presbyterian and Reformed congregations occupy an odd space in American Christianity. We do not really belong to American Christianity in significant ways. Our roots are not in the nineteenth-century revivals nor even in the eighteenth-century revivals. We are no part of the . . . Continue reading →
Americans Are Going Home. Maybe It Is Time To Think About About Planting Churches There Too?
Some dear friends left their life in the city and moved back home a few years ago. They live in his Mom and Dad’s place in the Sandhills of Nebraska. North Platte (pop. 23,000), a hour to the south, is the nearest . . . Continue reading →
Bringing In 2021 With the Presbycast
New Years Eve was noisy in Escondido but the fireworks really started when I joined Chortles Weakly (Brad Isbell) to help bring in 2021 with the Presbycast. We had fun with sound effects and general goofiness as our dogs both cowered (and . . . Continue reading →
Three Vital Questions For the PCA In 2021
There are three great questions to be faced by the PCA in 2021: Continue reading
In Memoriam: Rev Dr Derke P. Bergsma (1927–2020)
He was, in my experience, relentlessly cheerful. He had a ready smile and an encouraging word. A midwesterner, who earned his spurs on the Plains, he was an endless fount of stories. This was a source of irritation to some of my fellow students but on the Plains, stories are a part of life. I am sure that I learned as much about pastoral ministry from Derke’s stories about ministry as I did from his lectures. Continue reading →
Two Big Events In The Life Of A New Confessional Reformed Congregation
In Matthew 28:18–20 our Lord gave a mission to the visible, institutional church: preach the gospel, administer the sacraments, and make disciples. He did not give that mission to a million evangelical para-church organizations. He gave it to the visible church. The . . . Continue reading →