church membership

I shouted over the many voices crammed into the Twin Lakes cafeteria, “I went to Covenant!” The man was likely the same age as me and looked very confused by this answer. “How did you end up here?” I am sure he meant well. I know exactly why he was confused. The seminary/denominational tribalism...

The Presbyterian church in which I was converted over 20 years ago began in the United Presbyterian Church in North America (UPCNA) in the early 1950s, became a UPCUSA congregation when the UPCNA merged with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) in 1958, then stayed in the...

A Church Is a Dangerous Place to Be Church - A Safe, Welcoming, and Casual Place?: A big stage with smoke machines and flashing spotlights, emotional music and songs, a man wearing jeans and a shirt with tattoos standing on a podium, a sign that reads “Welcome! You are loved here!” These are the...

Church plants and revitalization is a unique and difficult ministry. Unlike many ministers who serve in an established ministry context, church planters and revitalizers often encounter situations and problems that is distinctive to their contexts. Problems such as facing financial difficulty with...

The Scandal of Undisciplined Disciples: Making Church Discipline Edifying. James Durham. Reformation Heritage Books, 2022. 165 pp. Softcover. $14. The dying words of Rev. James Durham (1622-1658) [1] was his major writing on the vital need for proper ecclesiastical disciplinary procedures in, A...

Dear Mr. False Teacher, Permit me to write boldly to you. You have repeated your shallow shibboleths in sermons, blogs, and conferences, and you have tried very hard to pretend that secular society is a neutral playground, a marketplace of ideas where Christianity is welcome to flourish. You punt...

Having been unable to see my friend, who lives just across the border from me, for roughly two years during Covid-19, I was a little startled when we met and he immediately said to me, “you got grey.” I had, in fact, developed a lot of grey hair, no doubt because of the amount of stress caused by...

Learning about the battle between popes and civil authorities in medieval Europe feels a bit like an episode of Oprah’s show: “You get excommunicated; you get excommunicated; everyone gets excommunicated.” Of course it famously culminated in Henry VIII finally not going along with the program and...

There are times within a disciplinary process that some in the church must be temporarily postponed from their normal opportunity to take part in the formal fellowship or service of the saints. The status of those so suspended is not revoked (as with excommunication from membership or deposition...

Reformed, confessional theologians often point out that discipline is one of three signs of a true church. [1] Highlighting this distinguishing mark, my seminary professor once rhetorically asked our class, “How many true churches are out there?” The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) chapter 30...