Life goes on ...

(from Leon Fikse)

It's been five months since I've written on this blog. I wrote during Synod and totally enjoyed it, whether people read it or not! (Reason: it was a great way to make my thoughts concise and lucid) Well, through the prompting of Terry DeYoung, I'm back at it.

Synod seems light years away. Life goes on and so does the task of ministry within a church. I serve Bethany Reformed Church of Redlands, CA. With the exception of the few who read the Church Herald and one who stands adamantly opposed to the Belhar Confession, there was little impact of our General Synod at Bethany way out here in California. Instead, people are living their lives day to day and trying to get by. It is a blessing to serve a church like Bethany. With two exceptions, life goes on as usual here. One lost his job due to the economic slow down; another is furloughed by the state every other Friday. Beside that, the economic crunch that we are told we are experiencing, is not experienced here. Life goes on....

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A Status Confessionis Issue

(from Kevin DeYoung)

The phrase status confessionis if often bandied about in the RCA.  It’s Latin for "confessional status."  Although it came out of specific Lutheran doctrinal debates in the 16th century, the term carries a broader connotation.   It means that a particular doctrine is essential to who we are as a church.  If something is status confessionis it means this is a make or break issue.  It means that the church will not tolerate others views on this matter.  It means that this is not an indifferent matter or one on which we can agree to disagree.  It means that if we are to be faithful in confessing the gospel we must confess this.

Homosexuality is a status confessionis issue.  If we tolerate the doctrine that says homosexual behavior is a gift from God, we have tolerated too much.  We must confess, always with love and graciousness, that homosexual behavior is a sin and we must not allow our churches, our ministers, our schools, or our professors to say otherwise.

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Hand-Shaking and H1N1?

(from David Vandervelde)

Some of the local churches here in British Columbia have stopped hand-shaking in church. I'm wondering what is happening is other places. What is your church doing in this regard? Have you made any changes to your normal greeting patterns?

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Making Room for All

(from Judy Parr)

When I confessed my faith this evening at a worship service at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, I read with those gathered the answer to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism with a new appreciation.  Surrounded by a larger than usual proportion of homosexuals to heterosexuals, I recited “I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ....”   In this worship service at a conference titled “Making Room for All,” I welcomed this continuing dialogue on homosexuality in the Reformed Church in America. 

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A Pentecostal Hermeneutic

(from Steve Mathonnet-Vander Well)

I had the joy of hearing New Testament scholar James Alison last summer.  Going to see and hear a theologian of whom you are a “fan” of is often a weird experience.  You consider them a “big name.” Certainly hundreds will come to hear him/her.  Usually there are ten or twenty people.

Alison is one of the most fresh and energetic Bible readers, I know.  This isn’t the place to explore some of his brief allusions such as

• The Cain and Abel story as a reverse image of the Romulus and Remus myth.
• The stories of Joseph as a reverse image of the Oedipus story. 
• Alison’s whimsical suggestion that “being wrong” should be one of the most identifying traits of Christians who are saved by God’s grace.

The night I saw him, Alison began with the provocative suggestion that early Israelite culture, influenced by their pagan neighbors, probably practiced infant sacrifice. 

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Reclaiming the Phrase “Reformed and Always Reforming”

(from Jeremy Visser on the Guest Blog)

I’d like to point out an interesting article by Dr. Michael Horton in the recent issue of Tabletalk Magazine. 

It’s common in the RCA to hear the phrase "reformed and always reforming" used as a call to embrace or begin a trajectory of change.  The phrase is quoted as a tip of the hat to the “R” in RCA, but then inevitably followed by comments and suggestion that are anything but historic/orthodox Reformed ideas. 

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Protecting Sleeping Congregations

(from Dave Cheadle)

Twenty-five years ago, the need was "urgent." 

In an alarming number of our churches, it was even "desperate," at least according to one RCA leader.

"In many of our congregations," he declared, "the Spirit seems at best to be a peripheral presence.

"Pastors and people labor, and I mean labor, to maintain the forms of life.  But the spirit of life is absent.  Forms of worship are observed, necessary duties are performed, but they are dull and labored and lifeless...."

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A Little Help

(from Justin Myers)

My next Adult Bible Study will be on the Standards of the Reformed Church. Fun huh? In my preparations I like to imagine questions people might have. Here is one that I think might come up.

How do we reconcile Heidelberg Q&A 20?

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A Tiger Fan in Yankee Land

(from Justin Meyers)

In some small, I emphasize small, way I can relate to a people in Exile. I am a Detroit Tigers' fan in the heart of NYC. For the last few years my wife and I have fought our way on the subways during rush hour to make our pilgramage to Yankee Stadium dressed in our Tigers paraphernalia. We are often surrounded by throngs of people wearing their Yankee hats and shirts. Once we get there we are often heckled and derided for our choice of teams...but we boldly stand and cheer each time our Tigers get a hit and we roar with delight when they win, risking our lives for the team we love. (Every time we have gone the Tigers have won.)

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Dan Brown's Impending Novel about the RCA

(from Tim Ten Clay)

Ok... clearly this is fiction.. clearly this is entirely off topic... I suppose someone will even manage to find it offensive, but at least it's a post on these boards that isn't about homosexuality.Oh yea, and for the record, none of the characters are intended to represent real-life individuals!

I just finished Dan Brown's latest novel, it isn't my favorite.  On the other hand, one of the forums I follow somewhere else is discussing it and...Read more.