Posts by Cameron Shaffer

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A Missing Question in the Westminster Catechisms?

Cameron Shaffer
Mar 2, 2023
The Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms have been effectively employed by churches around the world for nearly four centuries. Yet, strange to say, these well-loved documents may be missing a question. I’ll use the Shorter Catechism to demonstrate what I mean. WSC 85 asks, “What doth God...

How I Wish Seminaries Described Themselves

Cameron Shaffer
Jan 17, 2022
How I wish seminaries described themselves in press releases (let the reader understand): Our approach to pastoral preparation is time-tested, rich, and rigorous. The university has been the handmaiden of the church for over a thousand years. The model of pastoral preparation of devoting years of...

Belonging to the Body

Cameron Shaffer
Jul 27, 2021
People who are part of a particular Christian congregation are often called church “members.” This language is profoundly biblical, and is a visible manifestation of the believer’s union with Christ and the communion of saints. The Greek word used to describe the individual parts of a body is melos...

Who Does Gospel Ministry?

Cameron Shaffer
Dec 24, 2020
What is gospel ministry? It’s a deceptively simple question. So much of modern church life is described as a ministry of some sort , but biblically speaking there is rather narrow meaning to the idea. The equivalent of the English word “ministry” is absent from both biblical Hebrew and Greek. In...

COVID-19 Is God's Judgment

Cameron Shaffer
Jul 6, 2020
Editor's Note: This post is was originally published on the author's blog, and is intended as a response to this article by Jim Denison. One of the questions prompted by any crisis is whether God is inactive. Is he stepping aside and allowing calamitous evil to befall his creation and people? Is...