» News: Pastors Draft "Pastoral Letter" on PCA FV Report

A group of ten ministers has written a "pastoral letter" concerning the Federal Vision study committee report releasedto be considered in June at the PCA's General Assembly in Memphis, TN. This letter first came to our attention at the blog of PCA Deacon, Joel Garver. Download the letter here (PDF). The signatories are: Vito Aiuto, Matt Brown, Ray Cannata, Sam Downing, Josh Eby, John Haralson, Mike Khandjian, Iron Kim, Sam Wheatley, and Shayne Wheeler.

The letter divides its discussion into seven issues - the procedure of the committee's appointment, the issue of confessional interpretation, the issue of election, covenant theology, ecclesiology, baptism, and justification. The letter concludes, "Fellow presbyters, until the committee clarifies these issues, it would be premature for us to ratify their report. We encourage you to carefully and prayerfully think through these issues and not enter into this vote hastily. We are convinced that the report as it now stands lacks the quality and scholarship of a PCA General Assembly position paper. "

Vito Aiuto is the pastor of Resurrection Presbyterian Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Matt Brown is the pastor of Park Slope Presbyterian Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Ray Cannata is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, LA.

Sam Downing is the pastor of City Presbyterian Church in Denver, CO.

Josh Eby pastors at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN.

John Haralson is pastor of Grace Seattle in Seattle, WA.

Mike Khandjian is pastor of Chapelgate Presbyterian Church in Marriotsville, MD.

Iron Kim is pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Orange, CA.

Sam Wheatley is pastor of Newsong Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City, UT.

Shayne Wheeler is pastor of All Souls Fellowship in Decatur, GA.

Discuss the pastoral letter in our forums.

» News Release: By Faith Online's Forthcoming Issue

Received this letter today from By Faith, the magazine of the PCA - PDF. This press release is a promotional item about the next issue of the magazine. We will report on ByFaith's progress in gaining subscribers to its print publication after the report at June's General Assembly. At last year's PCA General Assembly, some discussion took place about the future of the magazine and its need for more subscribers. By Faith contains some denominational news, but its primary focus is on the people of the PCA and their ministries and would be appropriate reading for anyone in any Reformed denomination because of its positive tone and focus. By Faith Online is the web version of the magazine.

» Feature: Sermon O' the Weekend

Our featured sermon comes from Pastor Ralph Davis of Woodland Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Hattiesburg, MS. Provacatively titled "Damned Religion", Davis's sermon covers Judges 17 through 18. (WMA Link). The church's sermon page also contains additional sermons.

» News: Scientology Front Group in U.S. Public Schools

A developing news story involves Applied Scholastics, a Scientology related organization (with separate corporate structure) that is apparently making inroads into public schools by providing "study skills" classes. Readers with children in public schools are advised to research whether their local school district contracts for services from Applied Scholastics. Applied Scholastics is a kind of secularized version of Scientology's "technology" and has not only been recently discovered in Baton Rouge, LA public schools but also in teacher training workshops (paid for by taxpayers) all across the country. Read more at the Religion News Blog.

» News: Gospel Coalition Statement of Faith

We now have a copy of the Gospel Coalition statement of faith - you can download it here (pdf). More news and analysis to follow in the coming week.

» Feature: Weekend News Roundup

Calvin College gets some good press in Christianity Today for its focus on the Environment.

Peter Lillback continues as president of Westminster Theological Seminary, Pastor Andrew Webb (PCA) asks about a schism in the faculty. We have no hard information on this situation, but there have been several board meetings lately, and the new volume Justified in Christ contains all faculty authors, but no authors from the biblical studies faculty. We continue to monitor the situation.

The Mid-America Seminary faculty testimony on the issues related to justification has received heavy discussion this week here. Professor Alan Strange (OPC) of Mid-America participated in defending the faculty report against allegations of "violating the 9th commandment" by Douglas Wilson (CREC). The debate contains some interesting information about the history of the seminary and Norman Shepherd's part in that history.

We continue to monitor the Gospel Coalition website for updates - this conference appears to have been an interesting exercise in pan-Reformed relations and we look forward to reading the consensus confessional document as well as hear the seminars. Christianity Today provides report on the conference from a participant.

The Against Heresies blog has been serializing interviews with Carl Trueman (OPC), R. Scott Clark (URC), and others. This is an interesting blog because we've found so far in our attempts to cover the Reformed world that people tend to only grant interviews to friendly organizations, and it is helpful for all of us to be able to "listen in" on such conversations. RN attempts to be unbiased and so far commands no "clout" in getting responses to our questions. But we will press on, and try to prove our good intentions by our coverage.

Covenant Radio will also be interviewing many people from the Reformed world in the coming months. June 7, they will interview a roundtable of PCA ministers about the upcoming Federal Vision report and Pastor Jeffrey J. Meyers's response to the same. See their website for interviews scheduled into July. These interviews are audio podcasts.

5th Installment of Hitchens / Wilson debate posted at Christianity Today site. There will be one more exchange in the series.

PCA: The PCA's By Faith Online weekly newsletter contained many good items of interest: rebuilding in the MS Gulf Coast, pre-General Assembly WCF Conference, VBS materials based upon the Children's Catechism, November Mission to the World Conference. You can subscribe to By Faith's beautiful print publication here and the By Faith website contains a signup form for their informative weekly email newsletter.

Acts 29: Announces a new church planting boot camp in September.

ARP: (News Site) Mission church in Alabama finds meeting place for June 3 kickoff, Adams Farm Community Church ( Jamestown, N.C.) conducts AIDS benefit on June 9th to benefit Kenyan AIDS relief. Erskine College has created a prayer garden - the site promises instructions for how to create this devotional tool in its print news publication.

CREC: 4th Annual Conference on the Family, June 19, Lynchburg, VA. Great photograph, at that link, of a pastor and his extended family.

EPC: General Assembly Information - GA to be held June 20-23 in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Pittsburgh EPC church buys out local "nuissance bar" and turns it into ice cream parlor and coffee shop (full story PDF).

PCUSA: Prof. Daniel Kirk (Biblical Seminary) transfers membership from PCA to PCUSA, Confessing Church Movement now reports 1,317 congregations with 435,954 members, though their website looks to not have been updated in some time. PCUSA estimates per-capita budget will decline by 5% this year. Montreat (NC) congregation splits into two, by a vote of 189 to 69. A portion of the congregation will remain in the PCUSA while the rest will join the EPC.

RCA: General Synod meets June 7-12 in Pella, Iowa

As always, send us any news tips or links that need reporting; this roundup's length and content is limited each week only by the time of the editors (who have day jobs), and we can magnify our reach by enlisting your help in finding all the news that's fit to blog.

» About Us: Discussion Forums

Reformed News now has its own discussion forums. We'll be monitoring the forums to be sure the content is appropriate, and we invite you to create an account and join in the discussion. Hopefully the discussions will result in cross pollination between the various Reformed denominations. Forum subject matter includes culture, music, theology - pretty much anything of interest. Monitoring the forums will also enable us to see what topics are of interest so that we can target our coverage to those issues that need clarification and examination. See you in the forums.

» News: The Gospel Coalition Wraps Conference

The Gospel Coalition grew out of a 2006 colloquium hosted by Tim Keller and D.A Carson in Chicago in which the issue of the relationship of the gospel to culture resulted in the drafting of a Reformed confessional statement on the subject. According to Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, part of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, "The hope was to redefine a clear center for evangelicalism more akin to that previously articulated by men such as Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, and Billy Graham." This week, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School played host to the Gospel Coalition's first conference. Part of the conference's goal was to complete the drafting of this confession, along with a document expressing a mission statement for the coalition. See Mark Driscoll's comments after the first day of the conference. According to Driscoll, Mars Hill will fund the hosting online of the documents and seminars held at the meeting. RN will report further on the doctrine and mission of the coalition once the documents have been made public. Participants in the Coalition include well-known pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, Ligon Duncan, and Ray Ortlund.

Thanks to the reader who pointed us to this conference. RN is a shoestring operation at this point and we depend upon our readers to be our eyes and ears. We work hard to have unbiased, balanced content, but covering all parts of the Reformed world evenly is difficult at this point. If you have story tips or updates, please send them to the editor.

» Editorial: Cartoon

» News: Alumni of BTS Start Blog

Stephen Hague and John Ronning, alumni of Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, PA, have put together a blog site designed to bring attention to what they characterize as a departure from BTS's previous commitments. They explain:

Newcomers might ask, what is the basis for raising these serious questions? Broadly speaking, we can say that first, there was the publication of Beyond Foundationalism in 2001, co-authored by BTS theology prof. John Franke, with its view of Scripture clearly outside of evangelicalism. Secondly, the Seminary's newly chosen constituency, the emerging church, is moving in a post-evangelical direction, naturally raising questions about the Seminary's direction.

The site contains posts since January of 2007, along with comments by BTS defenders as well as those who agree with the perspective of the site owners.

» Review: GOOD Magazine

In a riveting sermon, PCA pastor Tim Keller once explained why it is that traditional evangelism doesn't quite work with "post-everythings." Their parents belonged to a generation that wanted to be good people. But they, said Keller, belong to a generation that wants to be free, not good. So when presented with the idea that no one can be good enough for God, leading to an explanation of sin and redemption, the post-everything would simply respond - what's good? How do you define good?

Then, perhaps to signal a return to form, that ineradicable image of God borne by humans emerges and the result is GOOD - a magazine, essentially, for people who want to do good things. Green architecture, food for the poor, AIDS drugs for the third world, ending poverty, third world debt relief, global warming - these are the issues that a good person engages in order to demonstrate that he or she cares about things that really matter. From the "about" page, GOOD's editors write,

We see a growing number of people tied together not by age, career, background, or circumstance, but by a shared interest. This revolves around a passion for potential mixed with fierce pragmatism and creative engagement. We sum all this up as the sensibility of giving a damn. But to shorten it, let's call it GOOD. We're here to push this movement and cover its realization.

The subscription price even goes wholly towards charity; like most magazines, GOOD survives on advertising revenue, not subscription fees. The magazine itself has an engaging layout, good graphic design. Some of its "extras" are bit too obviously geared towards commodifying an indy lifestyle, with recto featuring a photograph of a hipster and verso showing his "gear." But like anything created by God's fallen image bearers, this magazine has positives and negatives.

First, the positives. GOOD generally represents a practical, entrepreneurial approach to charity and social involvement. GOOD is not a magazine that encourages its readers to pay more taxes and let someone else do the hard work of fixing problems in the world. If anything, the post-everythings are at least somewhat post-big-government and realize that responsibility ultimately lies with persons, not impersonal bureaucracies. Another healthy emphasis is on innovation. Believing that humans can innovate in order to solve problems is a smart bet, and can end up producing spin-off effects - technologies that clean up the problem and, in the end, create more improvement in society than it cost to innovate them. Flipping through the pages of GOOD, one must battle the tendency towards cynicism that most mainstream crusades generate. GOOD isn't about buying a Red Ipod, it's about battling genocide in Darfur. But it is also about wearing hemp clothing and feeling good about one's eating habits and the origin of one's coffee beans. A final good - after every day of creation, Yahweh proclaims all that he has made to be "good." Creation is good - it is still good - and the moral rebellion of humans does not change that fact. In fact, creation is so good, that we are to anticipate a new heavens and a new earth - a physical home for our resurrection bodies. Christians have as much of a motivation to do "GOOD" in this world as anyone. And that leads us to the weaknesses of GOOD.

The negatives. Ultimately, doing GOOD for good's sake is a kind of moralism that has no real spiritual power. If we help others, there is a momentary glow, but it can often turn to doubt - did I help that person altruistically or did I do it to feel good? If I did it to feel good, does it count as "good"? Further, to return to Keller's freedom diagnosis - adherence to a set of rules for goodness is a kind of slavery. Imagine the kind of "over righteousness" that one must adopt in order to examine every ingredient of every bit of food one eats, every beneficiary of every dollar one invests, every laborer who created the goods one uses. While not unworthy investigations in themselves, the quest for perfect sourcing of all one's goods can be a kind of slavery. And finally, it can lead to a kind of hypocrisy - one adopts enough of the badges of "GOOD" in order to be part of the GOOD crowd. Hemp clothing, or a hybrid car. These things can become symbols of a secular phariseeism. Christians draw their spiritual power from the Lord of life, Jesus, who already lived as a perfectly good human and died in self-sacrificial love. Spiritual power comes from being in union with him, and then out of love for him, proceeds an inexhaustible supply of motivation for doing GOOD. And, perhaps, even wearing a bit of hemp clothing. RN

» Feature: Poll

more at twiigs.com...

» News: New Professor of Old Testmament for RTS (Atlanta)

From the RTS press release:

"Rev. John J. Yeo has been appointed assistant professor of Old Testament for the Atlanta, GA, campus of RTS. Rev. Yeo's undergraduate degree is from the University of California, Irvine. He holds a M.A. in Biblical Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary in California and a M.A. in Christian Education from Biola University. He earned a Th.M. in Old Testament from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto. Rev. Yeo currently ministers as the assistant pastor at New Life Mission Church in Buena Park, CA."

Previously, RN reported the appointment of Guy Waters to the position of associate professor of NT at RTS, Jackson.

Source

» Letters to the Editor

Hello,

I just added your blog to my reader. Thanks for setting it up for everyone!

A quick request... could you add the "labels" option to the blog's sidebar? I only see "archives" and "previous posts." But I would certainly like to be able to select by "label" or category to find older posts on certain topics. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Glenn Jones
http://www.indefenseofthefaith.org/

...

Greetings,

This is your (y'alls?) blog and your project, not mine. However, I want to share these things:

I'm concerned by your anonymity. I can see arguments both ways on that, but it doesn't help your credibility if you choose to remain anonymous. We Presbyterian/reformed folks do have this thing about accountability. (And I doubt you need to hear any arguments I could put forward against anonymity)

What is your aim? Scope? Cover NAPARC denominations and those closely related? Historically Presbyterian denominations? North American focus? Covering on-the-grounds news and/or the blogosphere? That would give us potential readers out here some idea of what kind of news you're looking for (and whether or not we'd be interested in reading more)

Are you thinking about having reporters on the ground ("embedded?") in the various denominations? Just something to think about.

I believe the ARP is about the same size as the OPC (maybe less interesting news comes out of the ARP). If you're interested, their news is here: http://www.arpmagazine.org/newsupdate.html

I'm glad to see you covering interesting news (and happier stuff than theological divisions) like churches calling a new pastor, but is 2nd Pres that prominent to be mentioned? (and I'm a former Greenvillian, though not from 2nd Pres, and I confess I was interested). If so, then you might want to post this: new pastor called at First Pres Greenville http://www.firstpresgreenville.org/PNCReport61106.pdf apparently a friend of Sinclair Ferguson.

Have you considered Slashcode for your site? http://www.slashcode.com/ If you really take off (and I hope you do) then this might be a good solution and allow for the comments/discussion I assume y'all would want to see. Not to mention an automated news submission tool.

I write these things because I hope they will help. Seriously. I would dearly love to see a journalistic news source that covers the Presbyterian/reformed world and is independent from the denominations.

I sincerely wish y'all the best.

P.S., in the efforts of full disclosure, I was raised in the PCA, went ARP for a while, now back in PCA - and am a ruling elder.

Lee Nickles, Ph.D.


...

I am delighted to have just discovered Reformed News. I intend to let others know of its existence.
At your site you have a link to Sangre de Cristo Seminary. Are you aware that there is at least one other Reformed seminary in Colorado, New Geneva Theological Seminary?. http://www.newgeneva.org/

Blessings,
David McLellan
Shalimar, Florida

...

Sir,

If interested please consider adding a link to Covenant Radio (information is below) or adding a news story about our Radio program.
Thanks!


Regards,

William F. Hill, Jr.
co-host of Covenant Radio
http://www.covenantradio.com

...

Brothers,
Again great stuff! Have you considered reporting on other Reformed groups such as the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches in America?
Keep up the good work and thanks!
Cordially,
Rogers Meredith
Pastor
Christ Reformed Church, CREC (candidate)
Meeker, Colorado

...

Not sure whether it's the absolute pixel size or the font face or a combination of factors, but at my screen resolution, the main body text at RN is almost illegible. It's not just small...it almost looks like a low-res jpg rather than like text. My monitor resolution is 1280x1024 and I'm using a 17" screen, and I generally have no trouble with these settings unless I'm looking at very small font sizes. Hope this info is of use. Thanks for the service RN is providing!

In Jesus,

~Valerie

» Opinion: Denying the Gospel

by Peter Leithart, leithart@leithart.com

Every week, I confess the Nicene Creed, and I actually believe it.

I also confess that sinners are saved by trusting in Jesus, God's Son, who saves out of sheer grace.

Yet I, with many of my friends who confess the same things, are accused of denying the gospel. What's the sense of that?

We can only make sense of this charge if we recognize that for a certain kind of Reformed theology, the gospel is not gospel unless it comes second. For all the talk of the "primacy of the gospel," this version of Reformed theology actually believes in the secondary character of the gospel. For the gospel to be good news, it must be added to something more foundational, and it has to be set off in contrast to that more foundational something. Usually, this foundational something is law, or perhaps the contrast is one of nature and grace, or demand and promise.

Whatever the formulation, it is assumed that the gospel cannot be gospel unless it stands in a binary opposition to that foundation. To deny the opposition is to deny the gospel itself, because the gospel is defined by that opposition. The Yes of the gospel only makes sense on the basis of a preexisting No. To deny that there was a preexisting No is to blur the pure gratuity of the Yes.

This sounds plausible enough on the surface of things. After all, the gospel is good news to fallen Adam and his seed, and is a response to the situation of the fall. It is historically secondary. Before God promised a redeemer, He had issued a command. Law comes first.

While this is true from a certain perspective, it ignores the prior words of God in Genesis. God spoke the world into existence by the Word of His power: Was that a Word of demand or promise, law or gospel? It seems clear that it was both. God's first words of command were simultaneously life-giving good news: "Let there be light" was a command, yet it was a command that brought light into existence. Before God prohibited Adam from eating the tree of knowledge, the Eternal Word had already spoken Adam into existence. Before God's No He had already spoken a preexisting Yes, and the Yes set the context for the No. The sheer fact that there is something rather than nothing is testimony to God's prior Yes.

Every No from that time on is set within the context of God's Yes: God says Yes to Noah, and then commands him not to eat blood. God says Yes to Israel in bringing them out of Egypt, and then issues the Ten Words. Every command that God issues presupposes His preexisting Yes, because unless God was committed to preserving a people He would not warn them off the way of death.

For a certain brand of Reformed theology, such talk amounts to denying the gospel because it denies what is thought to be the sub-stratum on which the gratuity of the gospel depends.

The Federal Vision controversy is, from this angle, more about creation than about soteriology or sacramental theology. Far be it from me to accuse those who oppose the Federal Vision of "denying creation," but they are, in my view, failing to work through a fully creationist theology. Dare I say, they have failed to think through a fully evangelical theology of creation.

Note: Reprinted by Permission from Peter Leithart's blog, original post here. We welcome any responses; please send editorial proposals or responses to refnews@gmail.com. Views expressed in editorials are not necessarily the views of the editor or staff of Reformed News.

» Feature: Sermon O' the Weekend

This week's featured sermon was delivered by Dan Doriani of Central Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The title of the sermon is "Courage" and the text is Acts 4. You can download an mp3 of the sermon here. Dan Doriani holds a Ph.D. and M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary and has been a minister in the EPC for about four years following a long career in academics.

Monday's feature - 'Sermon O' the Weekend' - highlights a sermon preached the weekend before in a Reformed congregation. If you heard a great sermon this weekend, and we know you all did, feel free to paste a link to the sermon in the comments section of this post.

» Feature: Friday Blogosphere Roundup - Saturday Edition

The Reformed blogosphere this week continues with many of the same themes discussed last week.

Federal Vision: Discussions of the PCA's proposed report dominated the early part of the week; Green Baggins continues a point by point series on the reply written by Jeff Meyers (87 post long discussion at Meyers's blog as well). As noted yesterday here on RN, the revised edition of the report contained a change concerning which the committee members declined to comment. BarlowFarms contained a lengthy post attempting to substantiate the claim that the committee's composition was biased. The post contains much of the same information compiled by Joel Hunter at the blog "Boar's Head Tavern" back in August of 2006. Barlow's post contained links to essays by committee member and Covenant Seminary professor Sean Lucas that he wrote in critique of Wilson and Leithart. Lucas released an apology for the tone of his reviews, and Leithart and Wilson issued responses to the content of his reviews while accepting the apologies for their tone (Leithart, Wilson 1, Wilson 2). The post at BarlowFarms also contained a link to a timeline claiming to track the history of the creation of the Mississippi Vally Presbytery report concerning the Federal Vision and NPP controveries. We are researching the claims made in the timeline and hope to report more on this issue next week. Later in the week, Mid-America Reformed Seminary released its own faculty and board report (PDF) on the Federal Vision (and NPP), and discussion of that report is now being carried out at Blog and Mablog with the seminary's position being defended by Mid-America professor, Alan Strange. New York presbytery member Matthew Buccheri has also weighed in on the controversy with his "Brief Open Letter to Moderate TEs and REs in the PCA" in which he advocates voting against adopting the study committee's recommendations.

Race: Some blogs this week contained rumblings about a racial situation in a church in Memphis, TN. We at RN are researching the situation and are loathe to pour gas on the flames by prematurely reporting or even linking to the blog discussions. Hopefully we will be able to put together a story on this that reflects the proper balance. The story involves a pastoral transition, and it is notoriously difficult to sort out the various interpretations of why a pastor has decided to resign.

Gender: BaylyBlog continues to discuss the issue of gender roles in the church, and has added a link to the full text (PDF) of Downing's report referenced last Friday.

Reformed Catholicity: Sean Lucas has posted a series of articles on the concept of reformed catholicism and has seen interaction with, among others, PCA pastors Greg Thompson and Tim Keller (Post 1, Post 2, Post 3)

Jerry Falwell: The death of Jerry Falwell provoked various reactions in the Reformed blogging community. Some samples: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

Blogging Proper: Tim Challies has wrapped up a series of posts discussing blogging itself (Post 1, 2, 3, 4)

Misc: Heidelblog takes on Garrison Keillor's criticism of Calvinism.

» News: PCA Federal Vision / NPP Committee Report Modified

The Presbyterian Church in America's Federal Vision / NPP study committee report appeared on the news magazine By Faith Online on about the 7th of May (printout of original). This week, the PCA posted another draft, newly formatted, to the General Assembly website (pdf). The two drafts are nearly identical, content-wise, but the committee made at least one content change that some bloggers online have noticed.

In one section, the original report reads:

Furthermore, some FV writers have also denied that the covenant can be viewed from two different aspects. John Barach observed that "the Bible doesn't know about a distinction between being internally in the covenant, really in the covenant, and being only externally in the covenant." Likewise, Steve Wilkins argued that "all in covenant are given all that is true of Christ." Doug Wilson has implied that all baptized covenant members are participants in Christ in the same "strong sense," writing that "the person who did not persevere was not given less of Christ."

In response to this section of the report, Douglas Wilson notes that the writing referenced by the committee for this "implication" actually affirms the opposite. Likewise, the response of Jeffrey Meyers notes this error.

The revised report reads this way:

Furthermore, some FV writers have also denied that the covenant can be viewed from two different aspects. John Barach observed that "the Bible doesn't know about a distinction between being internally in the covenant, really in the covenant, and being only externally the covenant." Likewise, Steve Wilkins argued that "all in covenant are given all that is true of Christ."

The sentence regarding Wilson's views has been removed in the version of the report that will be distributed to GA commisioners in the General Assembly in Memphis this June. The questions some are asking online include: what motivated the change? which report is the official one? will further changes be made prior to the GA meeting?

In an attempt to understand the factors motivating the committee to change the report, RN contacted the committee on May 17th to inquire about the content change. Committee Chair, Paul Fowler provided no explanation and noted in an email, acquired by RN, to his fellow committee members, "Any suggestions on how to respond? Since we agreed not to respond to such sites, I am not sure what to do?" In the end, Fowler responded "We simply will not get involved in the blogs."

Previously, on May 16th, Fowler responded favorably to our request for a response from the committee concerning Meyers' paper, writing, "We will respond when we have opportunity to evaluate it."

We will continue to develop this story and keep you informed if Fowler or the committee releases further clarification.

» News: Mid-America Reformed Seminary Issues Theological Statement

Mid-America Reformed Seminary this week released a fifty-page statement titled "The Doctrinal Testimony Regarding Recent Errors" (pdf). According to the cover letter by Cornelis Venema, president of the seminary, the statement resulted from a request by the seminary's board to "to compose a clear statement concerning the doctrine of justification by faith with respect to current controversies relating to this doctrine, so that the Board may consider the statement for approval at its next meeting." Venema presents the statement as unanimously approved by the faculty and board of the seminary.

The statement clearly identifies the views it opposes - "New Perspectives on Paul" and "Federal Vision". The report states, "These errors are bringing about confusion within the churches, and are so egregious that they are undermining, even bringing about the abandonment of, the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Mid-America, located in Dyer, IN, is an independent seminary in the Reformed tradition. Current faculty members include: J. Mark Beach, Nelson D. Kloosterman, Alan Strange, Mark D. Vander Hart, Cornelis P. Venema, and Charles K. Telfer.

Previous faculty engagements with these controversies include Venema's article Getting the Gospel Right, and Strange's article Understanding the "Federal Vision", both in the February 2007 issue of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's denominational magazine, New Horizons.

Corrections: 5/19/07 - corrected spelling of Venema's first name, changed second paragraph from characterizing the report as "targeting" certain views to "opposing" certain views in response to a reader's suggestion.

» Opinion: Editorial Content on the RN

Soon, RN will host opinion makers in the various Reformed denominations. Our commitment to unbiased news will be shown in our clear separation of news from opinion. If the title of the article begins with "Opinion:" you'll know that the article contains editorial content that may or may not conform to the private opinions of the editors of RN. If you wish to submit an editorial for consideration, please send your idea to us via email.

» News: New NT Professor for Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, MS)

The news has not yet appeared at the RTS news site, but before this becomes old news, we feel confident to report this news based on the recent blog post of Professor Ligon Duncan of RTS. Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS appoints Guy Waters (M.Div., Westminster Theological Seminary, Ph.D., Duke University) Associate Professor of New Testament. Waters's CV may be found here at the Belhaven College website where Waters currently teaches.

» Feature: Sermon O' the Weekend

Every Monday, RN will feature a sermon delivered the preceding Sunday from across the world of Reformed churches. This week's sermon comes from Pastor Iain Wright of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Orland Park, IL.

Click to Hear 'Finding Rest for your Soul'

The sermon illustrates a deep strain of Scottish sacramental piety, focusing on a Larger Catechism question relating to the duty of self-examination in the Lord's Supper. What better way to drink your morning coffee than with a soothing Scottish voice talking about resting in Christ?

» News: Reformed Minister Debates Atheist

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church reports that one of its ministers, Mark Garcia, took part in a debate with atheist and Cambridge philosopher Simon Blackburn. Audio of the debate is available here.

» News: Friday Blogosphere Roundup

In this weekly column, we will be reviewing the week in Reformed blogging, giving you, the reader, a sense of the general subject matter that has been of interest to Reformed bloggers.

Gender Roles: The issue of gender roles in the Reformed church is getting a lot of discussion this week. Long known for being concerned about the issue of the roles of men and women in the PCA, pastor Tim Bayly discusses his wish that the PCA would leave aside the Federal Vision controversy and focus on what he sees to be a growing movement of pastors who are bending the rules. He writes, "Over the long haul, the prevalence within PCA churches and presbyteries of egalitarian views is as great a danger as FV theology to our spiritual well-being." In a more recent post, Bayly specifically targets City Presbyterian Church (PCA) of Denver, Colorado and its Pastor's argument in favor of referring to an unordained, female member of the staff as a "minister of congregational life". If you have time, by the way, check out the work that City Pres is doing in Denver, as well as the outreach ministry to prostitutes that the Pastor Downing's wife, Leanne, established - Street's Hope. The discussion group "bbwarfield" discussed the motions concerning the use of the title "minister" brought up by Bayly's critique. In the background of this discussion over gender is the now year-ago movement out of the PCA into the RCA of the City Church in San Francisco. In other gender discussions, Mark Traphagen, a Westminster Seminary student, discusses a recent article by Carl Trueman that discusses some of the more cultural expectations that are imposed upon women in the conservative Reformed church.

Federal Vision (FV): This controversy appears to be at its peak in the PCA; the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) issued its report on the matter last year, and the PCA is now looking to consider its committee report at the General Assembly in June. This week's main blogosphere event was the publication by PCA Pastor Jeffrey Meyers of a document providing 30 reasons to oppose the committee report's adoption. Some of the blogosphere commentary relates to the fact that both the committee report and Meyers's response are long and technical - hard to imagine that every presbyter will have the time or inclination to work through them both. It is not incorrect to generalize that the more FV-friendly blogs seem to regard Meyers's response as "devastating" while the places less friendly to the FV perspective tend to view Meyers's response as unsuccessful. Doug Wilson, for instance, writes "In my view, you could summarily throw any fifteen of his reasons out the window before you start reading, and his response is still devastating." Most of the discussion of Meyers's response is occuring in the following places, if you care to listen in: Green Baggins (post 1, post2), Meyers's own blog, The Puritan Board, and there has been limited interaction on the BBWarfield list. As for private lists, we rely on news tips, but we understand that the OPC discussion group has been having a lively discussion of the report and the response from Meyers. In other denominations, an Australian minister reports his disappointment at the failure of a motion to condemn the FV in the Presbyterian Church of Victoria.

Emerging Church: On this front, the Acts 29 church planting network has received some discussion. The Acts 29 network tends to be conservative and reformed, and one of its distinctives - male ordination only - has been generating negative responses from other parts of the emerging movement (for convenience, we are thinking of the Acts 29 network as part of the emerging movement, but it is arguably a sui generis enterprise). Traphagen's blog discussed a new video titled "With Weeping for my Sisters" that contrasts quotes from various reformed authorities (including from Mark Driscoll of the Acts 29 network) with photographs of the church life of intelligent and reformed women known by the director of the video. The director writes in "the point in making this video was that I wanted a way for my friends to understand the grief I was experiencing as I have been taking a class on the history of Christianity. I wanted to share my emotional experience with them of what its like to realize how all these quotes (and soooo many others I left out!) affect me today." The video may be viewed at YouTube. Driscoll's controversial church planting video ran into distribution problems, and he discusses the matter on his own blog.

Roman Catholicism: Because of the conversion of the president of the Evangelical Theological Society to the Roman Catholic Church, the blogosphere contained many discussions of what Berkouwer called "the Riddle of Roman Catholicism" - what is the ongoing reason for the split between protestants and Catholics? R. Scott Clark, minister in the URC and professor at Westminster California asks Why Can't Evangelicals See the Canyon? and Carl Trueman of Westminster Seminary reflects on the Beckwith departure in a very irenic way. Trueman's article generated discussion at the blog Barlow Farms that included interaction with Trueman from Philosopher Bryan Cross, himself a convert from PCA membership to Roman Catholicism. Cross's own blog advocates church unity.

Other Reviews and Miscellaneous Items of Note: Paul Helm, no not this one, the professor of philosophy critiques John Franke's approach to systematic theology. Books and Culture reviews Wilson's new response to Harris's "Letter to a Christian Nation." The Work Research Foundation (neo-Calvinist) published a new edition of their Comment magazine that covered the business world, calling, etc. We at RN are impressed by the design and layout of their print version of the same and look forward to reading it each month. Covenant Seminary's magazine "In Covenant" for Summer (Download PDF) featured a fascinating interview with PCA minister Marcus Toole who currently ministers among First Nations people in Alberta. The interview is a fascinating portrait of someone who is pouring himself out for his people. Blogger Jonathan Barlow proclaims that The Kinists are Back in a lengthy post that offers a critique of the Kinist philosophy. By "back" Barlow seems to mean back online after an absence. (Background: Kinism is a kind of racial separatist sociology combined with a reformed Christianity; a throwback to the non-egalitarian consensus of Southern Presbyterian culture in the style of Dabney or Thornwell).

Bloggers and discussion list participants discussed many other things this week - politics, the abortion stance of various politicians, whether Christians should vote for a Mormon candidate, gas prices, the situation that remains in New Orleans, the tragedies in Kansas, etc. But our journey must end somewhere. RN

» News: PCA Minister Responds to GA FV Committee Report

Breaking News Today: Pastor Jeffrey J. Meyers of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA) in St. Louis, MO has released a response to the GA committee's proposed report about the Federal Vision controversy. Meyers titled his response 30 Reasons Why It Would be Unwise for the PCA General Assembly to Adopt the Federal Vision Study Report and Its Recommendations.

Meyers previously served on the Missouri Presbytery's study committee (PDF of their report) that considered some of the same issues comprehended in the denominational study committee report.

Editorial Comment: We hope to arrange interviews with Meyers and with committee members if they are willing to discuss the '30 Reasons' provided by Meyers in his response. We'll also be monitoring the blogosphere to get a feel for the zeitgeist. As far as we are aware, there has been little to no discussion of the committee report so far. As always, send us links if we are missing any interesting or inspiring news in the Reformed world.

» Discussion: This Summer's General Assemblies

Every summer reformed Christians turn their attention to Synods, Assemblies, Presbytery Meetings and assorted other outlets for pure Robert's Rules of Order-goodness. Personally, we here at RN are dying to learn what progress has been made towards the creation of a PCA logo. The PCA Historian is slated to give a report at the General Assembly, but when contacted for comment, remained tight-lipped about the "look" of the logo or even whether there would be a logo ready in time. What are you looking forward to in your denomination's summer meeting? What are you dreading? Click on the discussion link below to let us know. Be sure to include in your comments an indication of which denomination you're discussing so that other readers can nod in solidarity.

» News: ETS Responds to Beckwith's Conversion to RC Church

The Christianity Today blog contains a press release from the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) concerning the resignation of Francis Beckwith, both from the ETS presidency and from membership in the organization. Despite Beckwith's contention that he could, in good faith, subscribe to the ETS statement of belief, the ETS response contains an argument against Beckwith's position. Though the RC church holds to inerrancy, and obviously holds to an orthodox position on the Trinity, the ETS press release attempts to include the extent of the canon in its definition of inerrancy and the nature of biblical authority. The implicit rule is that ETS members must 1. hold to inerrancy of the scriptures where "scriptures" indicates the Protestant canon, and 2. must hold no position on church authority that compromises the authority of scripture.

The blogosphere discussions of the decision relate to whether this statement represents ad hoc causuistry or is simply the plain intention of the ETS statement. Two notable Reformed church historians have confessed to letting their ETS membership lapse due to concerns about the ETS's "big tent" approach that includes advocates of Open Theism.

» News: PCA Federal Vision Study Report in Under the Wire

The PCA Federal Vision Study Report is currently available only at the PCA's denominational magazine. The General Assembly commissioner's handbook has been mailed out to participants and does not contain the report.

Committee member Sean Lucas reports that "the report will be part of the supplemental packet that all commissioners will receive when the register for GA. The committee literally worked until the very last day before the supplemental materials were to go to the printer. However, we wanted to make sure that commissioners had access to it prior to GA; that was why it was distributed first through ByFaithonline."

The lengthy report will be considered for adoption between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 13 at the PCA's 34th General assembly in Memphis.

Editorial Comment: So far, there has been little debate of the report's content in the blogosphere. We will keep our ears to the ground and alert readers to discussions that develop.

» News: New Pastor for 2nd Pres, Greenville

Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville, SC will soon have a new pastor - Richard Phillips, formerly a pastor in Margate, FL.

(Sources: 1, 2)

» News: Christopher Hitchens v. Douglas Wilson

Christianity Today invited Douglas Wilson, minister in the CREC denomination, to debate Christopher Hitchens, contrarian journalist and author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. The debate will take place online, in a series of articles.

Editorial Comment: Whatever your opinion of Douglas Wilson, this represents serious interaction between the world of intellectual Christianity and the world of secular political / cultural reporting and will no doubt get the Christian worldview into the public consciousness. And Hitchens is a true liberal - perhaps he will be persuaded and go on to persuade others. Wilson's engagement with Sam Harris will be reviewed in a future post here at the RN blog.