Westminster Assembly

Westminster & Ordination: The Directory of Worship

Steven McCarthy
Oct 27, 2017
Contemporary efforts to enrich public worship inevitably emphasize increased “congregational participation”. This may mean employing special music, or returning to set prayers in which congregation has a unison voice, but the desire is to move beyond a feeling of clerical monologue. Others blame...

Westminster & Ordination: A Persistent Task

Jeffrey Waddington
Oct 26, 2017
The Westminster Assembly, which met at the behest the English parliament from 1643-1653, while not properly speaking a church court (i.e., a session/consistery, presbytery/classis, or general assembly/synod), did perform functions which we now rightly associate with the presbytery or classis level...

Calvin, Keller and the Westminster Assembly

Scott Cook
Aug 3, 2017
Over at Derek Rishmway's blog Reformedish , Tim Keller has posted an excellent article on the reality of Christ's suffering on the cross . Relying on excerpts drawn from Calvin's interpretation of the descent of Christ into hell ( Book II.16.8 ), Keller deals with the question of how Christ could...

Wednesday @ Westminster: The Anointed Priest

May 10, 2017
T hink about the last time you issued a challenge. It took a lot of confidence, didn’t it? Not only did you challenge someone else to do something, you challenged yourself to do the same. How much confidence would you need to be able to stand up in the midst of the world with the devil and his...

Wednesday @ Westminster: The Anointed One

Mar 8, 2017
N o doubt Simon Peter’s most memorable words were those of his great confession in response to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:15-16). That’s a Bible verse to memorize, isn’t it? What we don’t often realize, though, is what Jesus...

Seven Marks of a Puritan Pulpit Ministry

Chad Van Dixhoorn
Feb 10, 2017
In its reform of the pulpit ministry of England, assembly members agreed on the rough outlines of a sketch of preachers and preaching. This final study summarizes seven points of a mainstream puritan vision for the pulpit as articulated by the Westminster assembly and its members. God's ambassadors...

Seven Marks of a Puritan Pulpit Ministry

Chad Van Dixhoorn
Feb 10, 2017
In its reform of the pulpit ministry of England, assembly members agreed on the rough outlines of a sketch of preachers and preaching. This final study summarizes seven points of a mainstream puritan vision for the pulpit as articulated by the Westminster assembly and its members. God's ambassadors...

God's Ambassadors: Advice for Preachers

Chad Van Dixhoorn
Nov 30, 2016
If a hundred preachers could agree on advice to be given to other ministers, it would probably be worth weighing their wisdom on the subject. This is just what the Westminster Assembly offered in a "sub-directory" on preaching within the body's larger Directory for Worship . It is there that the...

God's Ambassadors: Advice for Preachers

Chad Van Dixhoorn
Nov 30, 2016
If a hundred preachers could agree on advice to be given to other ministers, it would probably be worth weighing their wisdom on the subject. This is just what the Westminster Assembly offered in a "sub-directory" on preaching within the body's larger Directory for Worship . It is there that the...

A God Thing

David Garner
Nov 15, 2016
Exuberant over an experience, an oh-so-sweet manifestation of divine providence, you delightedly seek to give God praise in telling your story. “It was such a ‘God thing’,” you proclaim. As you see it, God wove together an otherwise inexplicable combination of events to deliver a wonderful—even...