This is a preliminary report on our ongoing survey of how churches that are connected to the WRF have responded over the last 10 months to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The preliminary report only brings you the direct data (distribution of responses) and analysis will come once the survey is completed.

One of the big ecclesiological questions that arises as Christians have moved into isolation is whether communion can be served via live-streaming. While it is an understandable pastoral desire, this introduces some major questions about the nature of the sacrament.

Should a Local Church Session Administer the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper During the Present Lock-Down Situation?

What follows is not intended to be a scholarly paper, exegeting Scripture and drawing on learned sources, it is rather a more or less spontaneous reflection on the challenge of whether or not Reformed Protestant Christians should seek a cyber experience of the Lord’s Supper.

Isn’t abortion just terrible? Babies are human! If you don’t think they are, then you’re buddying up with those Nazis who were glad to slaughter Jews, since they’re Untermenschen, subhuman. Yes, it’s terrible, so what can we do about it?

“Complementarianism” refers to the Bible’s teaching that men and women are created with equal value by God and have “complementary” roles within the church and family.

 For me, the function of a denomination has been especially hard to understand since I have worked almost all of my life in trans-denominational seminaries.

I remember one year when we had students from 80 denominations and 40 countries!  When I talked with a student I was definitely not aware of his denomination.

 Saying ‘No Thanks’

to the Nashville Statement

Prosperity  Gospel Theology has become one of the fastest growing religious movements in the world.  Several international consultations in the last decade have dealt with it and provided constructive critique to understand it and offer correctives.

Are there more facets to a minister’s job than any other? Encourage growth, income (Development Officer). Supervise staff (Manager). Develop new programs (Entrepreneur). Seize new opportunities (Visionary). Manage finances (Accountant).

In the C S Lewis classic (Screwtape Letters), senior devil whispers to his apprentice: “one of our greatest allies at present is the church itself”. Screwtape is aghast that Wormwood’s patient has become a Christian, but he encourages his junior devil by saying that the church is in such a mess that “it matters very little … your patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous.”

One of the HUGE issues facing the global church today, as at many times in the past, is how to identify situations which make it biblically appropriate for us to leave a church or a denomination.