Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Monday, November 28, 2011

Embracing and Shunning

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Embracing and Shunning

Thursday, November 10, 2011

 
Executing faithful church ministry boils down to just a few essentials—a high view of God, the absolute authority of Scripture, sound doctrine, personal holiness, and a biblical view of spiritual authority. Those are essentials to any biblical philosophy of ministry.


But the modern love affair with pragmatism leads to compromise on every point. Every. Single. Point.
So, for the next…however long it takes…we want to turn your attention to a truly Christ-centered, gospel-centered, Word-centered approach to ministry. Here are some of the main points we want to address:
  • the purpose of the church, the proper place of evangelism and church planting
  • the role of preaching in the church’s purpose, a profile of truly biblical preaching
  • the true qualifications for leadership in the church
  • the “promotion” of Christianity, or what’s the proper way to attract unbelievers to the church?

We want to help you avoid ministers and ministries that are more about franchising and brand propagation than they are about biblical fidelity. There’s a way that seems right to men—opinions about the church’s purpose, biblical preaching, church leadership—and we want to help you avoid the inevitable outcome of that way.


We want to help you identify and embrace faithful ministers and ministries. Take heart, there are many faithful who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They are too humble to promote themselves, and too busy to care. For them, ministry is not about drawing a crowd or building a fan base. Their single-minded aspiration is to live quiet, godly lives of faithful service in loving devotion to Christ, and to teach others to do the same.


We want you to embrace ministers and ministries like that, while shunning the other. We want you to be an encouragement to local church pastors who are qualified, hard-working, and concerned about faithfulness to the written Word of God, the Spirit’s book of ministry. We want you to attend, support, and serve in those kinds of churches. As you do, you’ll be part of Christ’s work to build His church, which is of eternal significance. That’s our prayer for you.


Travis Allen
Director of Internet Ministry

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