World Reformed Fellowship Theological Consultation on Denominationalism in a Post-Christian Context
I serve on the Board of Directors for the World Reformed Fellowship and had the pleasure of organizing a recent theological consultation of North American Reformed church leaders to discuss Reformed denominations and denominationalism in our post-Christian context. The write up on the consultation can be found here, at the WRF site.
I am proud that we were able to get leaders from eight (!) different Reformed denominations in the same room and charitably and robustly engage one another. From the write up, “The goal of the consultation was not to rehash all of the same debates that have characterized Reformed churches, resulting in many different denominations, but to spark fresh ways to consider the topic and foster cooperation considering our current cultural moment. The goal was not to resolve our differences, but to speak to Christ’s call for oneness from our differing positions.” I think we did that successfully, and I am optimistic that this is the first of many steps encouraging greater Reformed, confessional cooperation across denominational lines.
Review, Control, and Synods: The Church’s Connection
The great Cappadocian church father Gregory of Nazianzus, who chaired the Council on Constantinople which settled the Nicene Creed, said “I saw the end of not even one synod as being useful”. Replace “synod” with “presbytery” and you get the idea. Herman Bavinck relays a proverb, “Every [church] council gives birth to [further] battles.” To riff on Ecclesiastes: Of meetings there is no end.
I was asked to speak on that exciting topic of “review and control” and Westminster Confession of Faith 31, “On Synods and Councils”. This risks significant boredom in our listener, or alternatively, perhaps the polity nerds are the ones already here. Yet the subject of review and control has great relevance to the ministry and mission of the church
“Review and control” is a phrase used in the EPC’s constitution and throughout American Presbyterianism, and means that higher church courts (presbyteries to sessions, general assemblies/synods to presbyteries) have the right and responsibility to review the actions of their subordinate courts and to correct them if necessary. This relationship has a confessional basis. WCF 31.2 states…
You Must Be Baptized to Receive the Lord’s Supper – Article Up at Mere Orthodoxy
I have an article this morning up at Mere Orthodoxy. This summer I had several conversations with members of my congregation about this, and then the EPC General Assembly debated the topic. Looking around, I discovered there was very little actually written about this subject, and so wrote this to serve as a kind of googleable default for people wondering about this question.
Here’s an excerpt,
Discerning the body entails seeing and acknowledging in the sacrament what and why Jesus has acted for our salvation.
This last aspect of trust has a dual implication. On the one hand it means the act of faith: resting upon the body and blood of Jesus for salvation. Coming to the table, eating and drinking, is trusting in the work of Jesus on the cross for your salvation, which he gives to you as surely as you eat the bread and drink the cup. On the other hand, trusting Jesus means following him in repentance. He has bought us with his body and blood, and discerning that includes our acknowledgement of our grateful duty to him. Trusting Jesus means following him.
This is why discerning his body in the sacrament is part of our self-examination. We are judging whether we truly grasp our need for a savior and rest in the death of Jesus for that salvation. Failure to repent, the Corinthian problem, means that we don’t take the death of Jesus seriously: we welcome the benefits (salvation, the meal) without being moved to see that we and our sinful ways were the cause of Christ’s death.
Church Membership Should Be Based on Faith
R. Scott Clark recently published a case for confessional church membership. Confessional church membership is when a requirement for becoming a member of local church entails the applicant affirming agreement with the church’s doctrinal conviction, which in the case of historic Reformed churches can be quite extensive. I was in the midst of leading a new members call at my church when Clark published the essay, which combined with my past focus on the topic (here at Reformation 21; here in the EPC’s Westminster Society Journal; here on the blog), piqued my interest.
Clark’s argument turns on three points. First, that local church membership is a biblical idea and that the elders of the local church are tasked with overseeing admission into this membership. He has my full agreement on this. Second, that in the early church and among many of the historic Reformed churches there was an extensive catechetical process for new members far more intensive than the normal Reformed approach today, and that this membership process culminated in the catechumans confessing (i.e. reciting and affirming) the creeds/confessions of the church. I grant that this occurred and was often the formal standard, though I am skeptical how frequently this really happened…
