Is it possible that we are treating some things as being of the essence of the faith, when in fact they are only inherited from a past century, or are part and parcel of the twentieth-century middle-class culture? Are we in fact defending and propagating practices that can be dispensed with, without any compromise of Bible truth?

The purpose of this article is not to provide answers, but to raise certain questions, in the hope that readers will themselves give sustained thought to these things.

Having been in the ministry only a few years it is possible to recall vividly one impression that was mine as I entered my first pastorate. Deep in my heart was the unwritten belief that all the strings about every pastoral subject had been neatly tied up somewhere, and if I was only to read enough books, the answers would shortly be found. This was my view when, by the grace of God, I commenced what I believe to be a Reformed and Biblical ministry. As problems have arisen it has often been a joy to read some timely word in a Christian book, and particularly from Reformed authors. But on certain practical problems of everyday pastoral experience it has become clear that there are no ‘pat’ answers and on some I still have very little light at all.

So I am raising a few of my problems here. The questions I have in mind would not have arisen if the ministry had not been Reformed.

I

For instance, why does a Reformed ministry attract ‘types’? This for me has always been a matter of some concern. My experience is that once it is known that the pulpit upholds the Reformed truths, it is not long before a certain species of student appears regularly in the pew. He is well acquainted with the most prominent works of the Puritans and proudly possesses an orthodoxy which is beyond all reasonable doubt. Such is his regard for the cardinal doctrines which we believe that he seems to carry in his mind an invisible but five-paged notebook, and he hesitates to relax in the service until he has put a mental tick on each page.

But too often, as I see it, he has something lacking. His heart does not leap at the name of Jesus, and the preaching of grace only causes a nodding assent, instead of the joyful gratefulness which one expects from the redeemed. He can talk of election without worshipping. He is able to discourse on the Judgement, yet never tremble; and no tears are found in his eyes when he speaks of hell.

Shortly, others follow in his wake, and prominent among these will be a sort of spiritual ‘rolling-stone’. His orthodoxy is as impeccable as the student’s, and not infrequently after, and sometimes during the service, they will exchange nods (if not shakes) of the head. This man shares the Reformed Faith, but does not apparently share the New Testament’s view of the local church, for he is constantly wandering from one fellowship to another. The only meeting he attends with unfailing regularity is the local mid-week Reformed rally. He enters into no spiritual responsibilities and engages in no evangelism. One such man, recently challenged, admitted that he had lived in the same street for over twenty years and yet had never on a single occasion mentioned Christ to even one of his neighbours. No-one can persuade me that he is enjoying true spiritual health.

The company is swollen by the heresy-hunter, who usually stands out as an eminent example of those who assert the Doctrines of Grace without any grace at all. Sometimes he comes to the vestry with an apparent problem, but then reveals his real motive, which is to sound the minister on some controversial issue. He brings with him his close friend, who draws in his breath loudly at such ‘taboo’ phrases as ‘to accept Christ as Saviour’, and who treats all those converted at mass evangelistic rallies with the gravest suspicion.

But what is a minister to do? What is the answer?

II

Then, what is one to do in the situation where Calvinism prevails in the church, but Arminianism predominates in the Sunday School? Happily, this is something that I am no longer facing, but it has been a very real problem in the past. For it is true that in the lives of many of our Reformed churches, Sunday is a strange sort of sandwich. While the church services are characterized by abiding faithfulness to those doctrines stressed at the Reformation, too often in the afternoon it is the shaky theology of the Remonstrants that is heard. Expelled from the church, they are still managing to run the Sunday School and Bible classes.

Many will argue, of course, that this is a matter of little importance, as the Sunday School is not primarily concerned with the teaching of doctrine. May God have pity on such a Sunday School! How can any full-orbed Bible teaching, including the telling of Bible stories, be devoid of doctrinal content? And so, quite properly, there are plenty of schools that do give attention to doctrinal matters. But we must be honest enough to admit that unadulterated Arminianism predominates in too many of them.

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