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The Power Source

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Why is it that there seems to be so little evidence of power in the preaching and teaching offered in our churches?

The question makes an assumption: Power is lacking.

The message might be biblical. And the Bible does say that the Word of God is powerful (Hebrews 4:12).

The lesson could be presented in a compelling manner. People respond positively. So, what’s the problem?

My answer is that our efforts seem to produce comparatively little change.

Granted, teaching has a cumulative effect. Yet, even factoring that in, for most of us life goes on and we function the same way day in and day out with little observable difference in our values or lifestyle.

Sometimes change is precipitated by a catastrophic event–a job loss, a major illness, a terrible accident. Such change can either draw us to God or push us away. And when the crisis is past the tendency is to revert to the familiar pattern disrupted by the trouble.

Here is another assumption: We need to change.

I fear that some, perhaps most, in the Christian community tend to think of change in the moral and spiritual realm as something that took place in the past. And the longer we are in the church the more likely it seems we will have such an attitude. Most of us are at best dimly aware of how much work God still needs to do to bring us to maturity, let alone the perfection he demands.

We could look at various areas in an attempt to come to grips with the problem.

For instance, the dominant culture has a profound affect on all of us. Christian people are far more tolerant of things like homosexuality and divorce than was the case a generation or two ago. As far as ministry is concerned, that has some advantages and disadvantages, for obvious reasons.

As a group we give generously compared to others but we are stingy relative to our wealth. Yet so many carry so much debt they wouldn’t think it possible to give more.

Materialism is so much a part of our value system that we have difficulty recognizing its presence. Preachers and teachers might make us feel guilty on occasion, but usually not guilty enough to make a significant difference in the way we live.

Then there is the “Christian culture,” which is expressed in concrete form in the church with which we are associated. We have our own brand of political correctness that encompasses everything from family and politics to education and entertainment.

Recently, my wife and I were invited to a “main line” denominationally affiliated church for a special Easter program. I had to check myself because I was fully prepared to be critical. It proved to be just the opposite. The production was one with which I would have been pleased to be associated. Yet I had to consciously refrain from looking for things I considered “wrong.” And that is just plain wrong. This sort of thing can be seen in many areas. If a democrat said it, it can’t be right. If a family has their children in public school there must be something wrong. Christian people watch movies today that their counterparts fifty years ago would have condemned. Use of alcoholic beverages has become commonplace.

At the same time, ministry to the poor has taken on great importance. Previous generations would not only have been less than enthusiastic, there would have been a strong suspicion that the church was compromising the gospel. We are more concerned about racial reconciliation than we ever were in the past.

Yet with all this I’m not hitting the target. We could legitimately write volumes about our inability to think biblically, our lack of desire to follow Christ wholeheartedly, the numerous ways we are regularly deceived – justifying that which will hurt us and shrinking from that which will help us. But rather than attempt to pile on the guilt, let’s think about this a little differently.

The Word is powerful. The Bible indicates that God’s basic way of getting that Word out is through proclamation. Yet there is something more. It is the Spirit of God who changes us as he applies the Word to our lives.

So if you preach or teach ask, “God, what do you want to say to me?” If we speak regularly it becomes difficult to let the Word through the Spirit work in us before we move on to the next thing. And the same thing happens with those who hear. The message is given and it seldom sticks with either the speaker or the listener.

With our hectic pace is it possible to slow down enough to let the Word simmer and then as the Holy Spirit might prompt to make it concrete in some way? It might be in a seemingly insignificant area. But if it’s something positive it could be picked up by a friend who has noticed the difference in us. Or it might become a challenge for a small group. In such ways we become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

That will make us attractive to some and cause us to be condemned by others. Peter talked a lot about suffering for doing good. The net effect will be that the Kingdom will grow.

When we enter the secular arena, whether it’s government, the ministry, business or school, we must be conscious of our own weakness. If nothing else it will help avoid a “holier than thou” attitude. Along with this we much become increasingly conscious of the way Christian values might influence what happens in our area of responsibility.

Think of the student who is teased because she’s still a virgin. Or the young man who refuses to help a friend cheat on a test. Such influences can propel us toward behavior we might otherwise shun.

What happens if you’re the person who befriends a person nobody else wants anything to do with? The risk is that you will be identified with him-an outcast.

We don’t need to think about changing a nation or even a church. We can pray that God will make us open to his Word and sensitive to his Spirit as we face the challenge of everyday living-the challenge of living with ourselves.

The Lost Art and Practice of Family Devotions

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By Brad Windsted

Brad Windsted is Director of Children’s Ministry International www.childministry.com (CMI), a ministry endrosed by CEP, develops catechetical and reformed material for churches. Brad is the father of eight and grandfather of three children. He is also a Ruling Elder at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.

No one has to tell me how busy they are as parents in this cyber/new millennium age. Two income homes are now the commonly acceptable and necessary economic structure of many Christian homes. The increasingly fragmented family finds it almost impossible to set aside any time for family fellowship let alone family worship. To have a meal together is now a cherished event reserved more for holidays and seldom seen during the week as conflicting schedules leave us with microwaved suppers and exhausted parents and children.

This environment presents the idea of family devotions as an anachronism from another “little house on the prairie” era of fireside family discussions. However, if one goes back to Bible-believing pastors who were concerned by the lack of “family worship” in their congregations in the mid-nineteenth century, here is what you would hear:

Along with Sabbath observance and the catechizing of children, family worship has lost ground. There are many heads of families, communicants in our churches, and according to a scarcely credible report, some ruling elders and deacons, who maintain no stated daily service of God in their dwellings. Thoughts On Family Worship by James W. Alexander, 1847

Pastor Alexander saw in a day much simpler than our own the need for family devotion time, yet lamented that fewer and fewer households were taking it seriously. In his classic book quoted from above, Pastor Alexander wrote lovingly of the benefits of family devotions on the individual preparing the devotions, the parents, the children, the church, relatives, the commonwealth (state or nation), and our posterity. I would commend this quick read, classic to anyone who needs to be persuaded that family worship or devotions is as needed today as it has been anytime in the history of the church.

The reasons we don’t and won’t do family devotions are as long and full as each day we have filled with lesser things. The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XXI Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day, paragraph VI states “…but God is to be worshiped everywhere, in spirit and truth; as, in private families daily, and in secret, each one by himself…” The book of Church Order of the PCA in chapter 63, “The Christian Life in the Home” states:

In addition to public worship it is the duty of each person in secret and of every family in private, to worship God….Family worship, which should be observed by every family consists in prayer, reading the Scriptures and singing praises or in some briefer form of outspoken recognition of God….Parents should instruct their children in the Word of God and in the principles of our holy religion. The reading of devotional literature should be encouraged and every proper opportunity should be embraced for religious instruction.

Our church’s fathers of the faith have recognized for years the necessity to build the family around devotions or family worship time. The great Presbyterian preacher of the eighteenth century, Jonathan Edwards, called each Christian home a “little church” as each father is a pastor to that small congregation within the greater church. To ensure our children see living examples of vibrant faith from the parents they must see it more than once a week on Sunday. As a part of elder visits to homes, one of the most probing (and embarrassing) questions to help determine if a family is growing in faith and in knowledge of Christ is to ask the parents about their private (quiet time) and family devotions. If there is nothing from Monday morning to Saturday night, the church is left with precious little time in Sunday school and worship to fill the spiritual void of a week of confrontation with the fallen world and our fallen natures.

So how does one become motivated to have, as Charles Spurgeon would say, “the want to, to want to.” I remember as a younger Ruling Elder in a Presbyterian church telling people on my elder shepherding list, that they should make family devotions a real priority in their families. If a member had the courage and perception to ask me how I did it for my young and growing family, they would hear a convoluted, “do what I say rather than what I do.” Yes, it was a high priority in my family that never got done. Of course, I could jog, read mountains of magazines (this was pre-internet days) and have lots of other mediocre excuses for not doing what I was trying to tell them was foundational to Christian living in the home.

PRIORITIES ARE WHAT WE DO. If we have time to check the weather report off Madagascar everyday on our internet (or other important news) don’t we have time to take our families before the Throne of Grace? Don’t say something is a priority in your life and yet let the lesser things crowd it out. Maybe for most of us a five-minute time of family prayer is all the time we have, but that is a start to something great.

Think about how quickly our covenant children come and go out of our lives. My children are now getting married and one by one they are leaving the home. It seems like yesterday that I was changing their diapers! Yet, if for around forty weeks out of the year (taking time off for summer, vacations and other unforeseen events) we have a brief family devotion, then in the twenty-odd years that God has placed them in my home and charge they would have had approximately 4000 opportunities to open the Word of God, to sing God’s praises and pray for theirs and other’s needs. But most important of all, my children would have an inheritance of daily communion with God and all the benefits that flow from it. They would have a family tradition that would come much easier then it did to me, who had no family tradition of growing up daily in the Scriptures and prayer.

A goal for family worship would be prayer, reading the Word of God and a song of praise or thanksgiving. Depending upon the age of the children, the materials can go deeper or be quite simplistic.

Now the difficult question of “how can this be done?” Fathers, you must take the lead. As in most spiritual leadership questions, your wife is hoping you will become motivated to take the lead. When you give up and give it to her to accomplish it will be much less profitable and your children will get the message, loud and clear, that family devotions are a low and expendable priority.

As I said above, start with something achievable. Decide if morning or evening would be better; before or after breakfast or supper. There are lots of helps available to guide us. Children’s Ministry International (CMI, www.childministry.com), of which I am the Director, has published comprehensive devotional guides to take busy parents through the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith with prayers, hymns/songs, Bible lessons, practical suggestions and other helps to allow one to go through the basics of our faith at their own pace. There are three small booklets that easily fit into the Bible. The PCA bookstore has other helps ranging from PCA Pastor Terry Johnson’s excellent book The Family Worship Book and Starr Meade’s work on family devotions and the Shorter Catechism.

Of course, there are lots other guides to family devotions and maybe you would want to start by reading a chapter from Proverbs or a Psalm daily. God has given us 31 chapters in Proverbs so you have a chapter a day and you will never get lost. If its the 21st of the month then read the 21st Proverb (or Psalm). See how God meets your efforts with real insights and practical advice for the day ahead. Listen as your wife and children share prayer requests. Write them down so you have a testimony of answered prayer. The big issue is whether this is really going to be a priority or let it be crowded out by good but less eternal things.

As Pastor James Alexander said in his classic book Thoughts On Family Worship, “Let other heirlooms perish, but let us not deny to our offspring the worship of that God who has been our dwelling-place in all generations.”

Small Groups – A Place to Serve

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Two negative outcomes are possible when a small group of the same people meet together indefinitely. One is that the group gradually disintegrates. Another is that the group becomes exclusive. Other people aren’t really welcome-even if it’s said that they are.

One way to avoid this is to try to get people involved with a different group each year. It’s something I’ve found fairly successful. Another is to focus on the “empty chair.”

To have an empty chair means that as a group you think about someone who will fill that chair. It could be a follow church goer, a friend of one of the group members, somebody’s neighbor or a relative. The group then prays for that person and the person who will extend the invitation. That’s one task most any group can take on, if there is a willingness to see others become part of your meeting. And it could lead to someone making a profession of faith in Christ, feeling they’re a part of your church or growing in their relationship with the Lord.

At Covenant Church in Fayetteville, GA, where I work we’ve done some significant mercy ministry projects through our small groups. One that has become a staple is Prison Fellowship’s Angel Force-both the Christmas gifts and the summer camp ministry.

To do something for somebody else is an important component in a small group’s life. It helps to get the focus off the needs in the group and centered on someone or something else.

If a group isn’t careful they can find themselves centering virtually all their prayers around needs of people related to the group. This too can be one of your tasks-to pray systematically for someone or something not directly related to you.

In addition to all this, working on a task together will help cement relationships within the group.

Remember the three legs of the stool which enables small group ministry to stand-task, Bible study, and an opportunity to tell your story.

Christian Education – More than Just Sunday School

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dennis.jpgIt never ceases to amaze me that anywhere in the world you say “Christian Education” people automatically think of Sunday school. Is this the only education the church is engaged in? If so, we are in trouble. Let me explain.

I taught the Christian Education (CE) courses at the Bible Institute of South Africa for the last eight years. Our first class exercise was to list every activity and ministry of the church, from worship to soup kitchens, from Bible study to foreign missions. I then challenged them to tell me which one of these ministries is not in one way or the other CE! I challenge you to do the same, because the way you understand the educational ministry of your church will determine the depth of spirituality existent in your people. Disagree? Then the challenge is for me to prove my point.

Let’s look at some of the things that a church does. Let’s start with missions (either foreign or local). My contention is that both are a subset of CE! What do missionaries or evangelists do? They share the Gospel. What does it mean to share the Gospel? It means they teach or explain the meaning of the Gospel – this is CE! When there is a group of converts, a church is started and a church needs trained leaders. Training is CE! How about worship? Worship, done properly, is leading people to understand the importance of what they are doing. It is not only the sermon (which in itself is CE), but it is instructing the people to understand what they are singing and why. Too many services have become little more than the stringing along of many songs, with little attention to purpose or words. A well-thought service of worship is led by one who understands what it means to keep the people focused and aware of what they are doing. This too is CE!

Instead of going on and on through all the things a church does, let me instead challenge you to think about every ministry and activity of your church and see if they are not in actuality CE.

So what is the point of all this? Well, as in any good education program, there must be good planning. This is where many churches often fall short.

If you asked your child’s teacher the first day what she was going to cover that year, how would you react if the teacher told you that she had no idea yet, and that they will figure that out as they went along? Imagine twelve years of this. Would anyone ever get an education? Then why would we think we can do this in the church? Let me challenge you further.

Let’s look at your youth group. What are they being taught? Why? What is the plan? That is, what will they know, be, and do after three to four years? Or is your group like most groups, simply going along teaching one topic this week and another the next, somehow hoping (and maybe praying) that eventually somehow the youth will finally pull it all together by themselves and actually learn something – maybe something that will even affect the way they live their lives not only on Sunday but the rest of the week. Is this really what you want for your young people who will shortly be going on to university, where they will be confronted with philosophies that are not only not Christian, but in many cases anti-Christian? Have you really prepared them? This approach is like the teacher above with no plan.

Let’s look next at your Bible studies. What is being studied? Why are you having them do this study? What are you trying to accomplish in this group and study? What will they be able to know, be, and do? Think about this – if you have no objectives then your objective is to accomplish nothing. But you say, “our objective is to study the book of Romans.” Great! But what does that mean? If you ask that group at the end what they have learned about the book of Romans you might be shocked to learn that little was learned or remembered. Worse yet, little or nothing has happened to change anyone’s life. Should not the goal for any aspect of discipleship be changed lives (transformation)? If our only goal is to cover a book, or to make sure that we know a doctrine better, then true discipleship has not taken place. True discipleship is moving people ever closer (by the work of the Holy Spirit) to being like Jesus (Rom. 8.29). So I ask you again, in teaching of the book of Romans, what are your goals for seeing this group become more like Jesus? Will they see Jesus in every verse? Will they grow in their relationship to Jesus as a result of understanding Romans?

The Value of Church History

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By Don Clements

I went to the doctor’s office the other day to seek treatment for a sinus infection. I get them every winter and all I needed was a prescription for an antibiotic.

My regular family practice doctor was in Africa on a mission’s trip. So I had to see a fresh-caught Physicians Assistant. She walked into the room, and as far as she was concerned, I was a blank page. She didn’t know me from the man in the moon. After making some small talk, during which she determined I’d been a patient at this particular group practice for over 10 years, she turned on the computer in the examining room. A few clicks and – Voila’! – she had my medical history for the past 10 years. See? There is a lot of value in history – I got my antibiotic!!

The website of Tulane University’s History Department has a very good description of the value of history. You can read the full definition at http://history.tulane.edu/

In our search for meaning, we examine the meanings that others found. In our contemplation of the historical record, we encounter a broader spectrum of human behavior and values than that which we encounter in our own everyday lives. In doing so, we may develop a wiser understanding of who we are, of what potential we have, of what dangers threaten individuals, families, communities, and nations, and finally what we see as the meaning of life.


But our topic is Church history. We can’t just turn on the computer and learn 10 or 100 or 1000 years of church history, can we? Well, yes we can – but I’m not sure how much of it is of great value to us. Certainly ministers of the Word who attend seminary have to take Church history classes. But not everyone needs that much. Besides, who’s got the time?

One facet of Church history that I have found very useful for my needs was that, immediately upon arrival at a new church, I would dig out all the old Session minutes and read them, at least those for the past thirty years. Amazing what you can learn about a church just from reading all those dusty old Session record books.

But there are aspects of Church history that are of value to just about every church member, at least to those in leadership and teaching positions. One of my favorite pastimes over the years has been reading biographies. Lot’s of people like reading biographies and never realize that they are reading history books. Particularly in the past few years when I have not been preaching regularly and had more time for things of interest, I have made it a practice to try to have at least one biography on my reading table at all times.

But what about Church history in general? Does it matter if I know all that stuff about Martin Luther and John Knox? Does it matter if I know what has happened in the PCA for the past 30 plus years? All I really care about is my own local church and my own personal ministry – and I just don’t have time to worry about all that other stuff. Let me suggest that “all that other stuff” is part and parcel of what ultimately produced your local church, and for that matter, most likely your individual ministry.

Suppose you are a Sunday school teacher? Do you even know who invented Sunday school? And what its original purpose was supposed to be? Perhaps you could better evaluate your ministry by studying the history of John and Charles Wesley and the Methodist movement from which our modern Sunday school design has evolved over the years.

Let’s stick with the Sunday school teacher illustration for a while. What about your curriculum? Where did it come from? Why is it set up the way it is? Why does it teach the specific things it teaches? The lessons here could greatly affect your teaching. To learn the early history of GCP materials, if that is what you are using, and to learn the battles that the men and women who originally formed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church had to go through when they left the liberal Northern Presbyterian Church in the 1930’s and their immediate need to find Biblically based Christian Education materials, you would be thrilled.

Or have you ever heard how GCP went through years of financial struggle and was near to closing their doors when they approached the PCA to ask us to join in a cooperative agreement to keep the presses running?

How about your local church? Does it have a history? Does that history have any effect on you and your family? How has your church history shaped the way it deals with members, on what the preaching from the pulpit is like, how the church is organized, and dozens of other things affecting the church in so many ways that many of us never see? Your church did not just appear one day. It became the way it is today because of events that happened in the past. And those events are what we call church history.

Every individual church has a history. Many of them are written down. Check around and see if you can find yours. If not, check with the PCA Historian at http://www.pcahistory.org/.

And every Presbyterian church has a broader history. The PCA is less than 35 years old, so our history is pretty short. But we will be celebrating the Tri-Centennial of the founding of the first Presbytery in the colonies that became the “good ole US of A”. Wow, a lot of history there. And perhaps a lot of it won’t apply to your particular church. But there are certainly parts of all that history that are important. Where did your church come from? Was it from the old Southern Presbyterian Church or the old Northern Presbyterian Church or from some other small group of Presbyterians? In that history you’ll find a lot of answers to that list of questions I just asked a bit ago.

Perhaps you are part of a much younger congregation formed after the PCA was founded. What was the history of its founding? Why did the leadership back then decide to unite with the PCA? That history will also answer a lot of those questions. You see, past decisions and past events in your church have developed into a story all their own, a history of your church. Likewise, past decisions and past events in the PCA have developed a history of the denomination.

When I was a student at Covenant Seminary, Dr. Will Barker became our Dean of faculty and Professor of Church History. I was in his classroom on his first day of teaching. As he went around the room that first day, he asked each of us to introduce ourselves briefly, especially telling a bit about our background and studies in the field of history.

When it came to my turn, I said something like this: “I have had 3 hours of Western Civ and 3 hours of History of the Old South and they were probably the two most useless classes I ever had as an undergrad!” With that pleasant, comforting smile that is invariably on Will’s face, he said something like, “Well, Mr. Clements, I’ll consider that a challenge to make this one of the most important classes you will have!”

And, wouldn’t you know it, I can honestly say it may have been exactly that – the most important class of my seminary education. It certainly was one of the prime factors that led me to understand the Reformed Faith. You see, learning a little Church history, gives you perspective, from which you can even better understand your church’s doctrine and beliefs.

Why Should I Study Church History and Tradition?

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I recently had a conversation with a young professor of church history at one of our seminaries. We were discussing the importance for all Christians, not just seminary students, to study church history. Many people wonder why they can’t just study the Bible without being concerned with something so seemingly dull and dry as church history.

In the book reviews, we have reviewed a book entitled Pocket History of Theology by Roger Olson and Adam C. English. As I read that book, anticipating writing this column, I was reminded afresh about the importance of knowing our history and tradition. I was also reminded of the time when I did not see the ongoing importance of history or tradition, other than to acknowledge their existence. I remembered how as a seminary student my church history professor, Dr. William Childs Robinson helped me understand differently. However, I must admit that I still had negative leanings regarding tradition because what I had known as tradition was that it referred to something antithetical to Scripture. I had also heard that tradition was often placed on the level of or even above Scripture, especially by the Roman church and that was part of the reason for the Protestant Reformation.

I am so grateful that God later led me to see that while Scripture is our only rule of faith and practice, we do not study the Bible in a vacuum. We need to know about the development of those great creeds, confessions, and doctrines. Men actually gave their lives to formulate some of those doctrines contained in our church creeds and documents we profess to believe. Pocket History of Theology opens up some of those early church people and events that formulated our Christian faith, and some of which was done prior to the accessibility to the written Word. The teaching and tradition of the Apostles, and later church fathers, were essential transmitters of the Christian faith.

In his new book,Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church, D. H. Williams, professor of religion in patristics and historical theology at Baylor University, explains that both Scripture and tradition are necessary for the process of orthodox teaching, and there is a reciprocal relationship between theology and the life of the church.

“Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church” gives a thorough introduction into the development of theology in the early church. It does so in a way that highlights the fallacy of those who would say the Bible, and nothing else, is the only necessity for a Christian life. While many of the contemporary churches have failed to use things such as the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, and others fail to see the importance of the confessions of faith developed over the years, those who do include them in their church’s life and ministry often fail to appreciate the ingredients that went into their development and take the time to explain the process of development to the people.

We have heard the claim that Protestant Christians, in contrast to Roman and Greek Orthodox Christians, are not interested in history and tradition. However, as Williams states, “to be deep in history for evangelical Protestantism need not be and should not be oxymoronic.”

Because discipleship, passing on the faith to the next generations, and teaching the Bible and its doctrines in a life-oriented way are Christian Education and Publications’ missions in the PCA, this book is especially important to us because it explores how the early church catechized Christians and those interested in becoming Christians. Williams observes that while many churches carry on their worship empty of content and without historical significance, those who do incorporate content with historical significance find their worship deepened and enriched by understanding the Scriptures in their historical setting and how that touches our lives.

One segment of the book explains the importance the early church placed on catechizing and discipling. Williams writes:

Evangelicals can learn much from the ancient church’s focus on catechesis, that is, on carefully instructing converts or those preparing to join the church in the biblical and doctrinal fundamentals of the Christian faith. In the preface to his manual of Christian instruction, Gregory of Nyssa declared:

Religious catechism is an essential duty of the leaders ‘of the mystery of our religion’ (I Tim.3:16). By it the Church is enlarged through the addition of those who are saved, while ‘the sure word which accords with the teaching’ (Titus 1:9) comes within the hearing of unbelievers.

….This need for equipping cannot be displaced in favor of simply giving one’s own testimony anymore than a personal experience of faith can be substituted for a reasonable grasp of that faith. If the church, as the apostle phrased it, is ‘the ground and foundation of the truth’ (I Tim 3:15), then, the church’s leadership must not shirk from the critical and time-consuming job of imparting Christian truth or catechizing those who profess to be Christian (154-55).

While reading Williams’ book, along with Pocket History of Theology, I was impressed again and again with the importance that was placed on understanding both the content and practice of the Christian faith for those in the early church. While many of the early believers did not have the Bible and were taught by the catechism method of passing on the tradition of the Apostles orally, this was done with much care and fervor because those Christians were living in a pagan environment where Christians were blamed for all kinds of wrong. As I read, I was reminded that we are living in a non-Christian culture, though there are remnants here and there. If this is true, how much more we need to prepare and equip our covenant people to believe and understand the doctrines of the Christian faith and how to live in a non-Christian environment where there is little to encourage us “to think God’s thoughts after him.”

As you read, you will find obvious comparisons to the early church and our contemporary church. You will also observe the different results in the different methods used, plus you will be reminded that principles such as: “sola Scriptura,” “sola fide” or “priesthood of all believers” are not understood in a vacuum.

God has given us his Word as his revealed will, but has also given us hundreds of years of church history to help us better understand and apply his Word to our life and world. The Apostles passed on that tradition to the early church and through the church to us today. We do not worship in a time warp. We are not existentialists only focusing on the present moment. As evangelical and reformed Christians, we realize that we worship with saints of all the ages and we stand on the shoulders of giants of the faith who have preceded us. Even as we continue to do our theology today, we do so being able to reflect on what has been done in the life of the church and kingdom. And, if we are to pass on the faith to the next generations, we need to have some understanding of how it was passed on to us.

I conclude with a repeat comment from our “Welcome” article in this issue because of its importance today. Recently, I read a comment by Collin Hansen from the Christianity Today Library online that hit me squarely between the eyes. He said, “Evangelicals sometimes don’t know what to do with history…We use history as a euphemism for churches that let allegiance to the past snuff out the Spirit’s work today.” That reminded me of a question in the book One Faith, the Evangelical Consensus, by J. I. Packer and Thomas Oden: “Are evangelicals fragmenting into ever smaller divisions, as some fear?” I quickly researched some of my major works on “evangelicalism.” It dawned on me, while there are general topics dealt with on God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, salvation, etc. in those outstanding books, the topic of the church (ecclesiology) is strikingly absent. Is it any wonder that there are so many para-church organizations, denominations, and a lack of understanding of the church? Could that be contributing to a lack of appreciation, love, and importance of the church for Christians today?