We must all be tent-makers, we talk so much about the size of the tent. Is our tent too big or too small? If we are serious about the riches in the Bible, and that we’ll always be Reforming as well as Reformed, isn’t it clear that we’ll always want a bigger one?

What makes it the old-time religion? Is it the Book? That’s non-negotiable. Could it also be ‘the culture’ with which we’re the most comfortable? Now that’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because it puts something next to the Bible and waters it down. It’s also writing off the younger folks among us, to whom the world is more open-ended than it is for us seniors. If we do that too much, that’s all we’ll have left in our churches, folks who talk about the good old days. I can do that. I remember 35-cent haircuts, going on long trips on slow trains, Boy Scout air-raid drills in WW2 Iowa, only a few thousand miles from Japanese bases.

It’s very pleasant to go back in time, but somehow boring to other people. I remember when being pre-mil was vital to the Faith, when I was a student and later faculty at Wheaton. It seemed the obvious way to read the Bible, and it is if you assume it first. Wheaton dropped that 20 years ago, and I guess I missed it in the alumni news. There are other ways to say evangelism is at the top of our list, and they work too. But we Reformed people always knew that. (Almost always, Covenant Seminary carried over its Faith Seminary pre-mil heritage for a while). I remember when wearing a coat and tie in a non-air-conditioned church in August was the only right way to worship God. I wear an open collar and Ft. Worth bola now, and that shows veneration too.

I can preach that way too.

I remember when our focus on Union with Christ began. John Murray wrote his little book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, and wrote about Union in the last chapter, where the conventional outline put it. But he said it belonged at the beginning. (John, then why didn’t you put it there?) That changed the theological world. Now it’s a lot clearer, that our Christian path is always about loving and trusting Jesus, regardless of which of his ‘benefits’ that’s on the table.

I remember the Supper in tiny plastic cups of watered-down grape juice. Now it could be real wine. Or coming forward to the common cup. Or for people nervous about getting infected, dipping the bread in the cup. Centuries ago the Scots had the really right answer, as usual: come forward in groups to sit down at real tables. Because I do church history I can remember before I was born.

Abe Lincoln had it right, both Yank and Reb prayed to the same God—but had different views on slavery. So many good people were sure that biblical slavery was a good model for us. Would that help fix massive unemployment today? Help out those people who can’t pay off their mortgages, by selling off their debts by making them slaves? Wouldn’t it be better than welfare? Couldn’t we put slavery back on the table and admit the Rebs were right after all? The only problem would be celebrating that white people are qualified, too.

Abortion is truly terrible, one year after another of made-in-America Holocausts. I’ll always honor Francis Schaeffer and Joe Brown who worked so hard to show that—but it didn’t fly. So what should we do about it today? Mindlessly vote Republican because they talk a lot against it? We all know it will take a constitutional amendment, won’t it? So until we pull that off, we don’t really have to all have the same bumper stickers in the church parking lot, come November, do we?

The worst course in the seminary curriculum is Sociology of Religion. That’s where you learn why rich people are Episcopalians, almost rich Presbyterians, in the middle Baptists and Methodists, at the bottom Pentecostals. That helps you understand why Presbyterian deacons have to work so hard to find poor people to care for.

My heritage is Calvinistic Methodist. We’re basically a weird bunch, almost as emotional as Pentecostals, just not getting it that when you know how much God loves you, you need to be buttoned-down about it. The Glory of God is the heart of everything, only we pronounce it Gogoniant! We understand more than the folks who wrote the Westminster Confession, just read what we say about the Good Conscience. We understand that the Covenant is truly major—but that we can disagree about whether infants should be baptized. Just as long as you know what to say at a baby’s funeral.

After a quarter-century as OPC I moved on to the PCA. It was a good move. I think it put me among people who knew more clearly what things were really important and which weren’t. But another quarter-century has gone by! Finally, finally many are leaving the PCUSA, the church where I heard the gospel and believed. But they aren’t coming to the PCA. They think about us they way I thought about the OPC! What does that mean? Where do I belong? Could we all belong together, after all?

We must all be tent-makers, we talk so much about the size of the tent. Is our tent too big or too small? If we are serious about the riches in the Bible, and that we’ll always be Reforming as well as Reformed, isn’t it clear that we’ll always want a bigger one? And if we don’t want to be another Sociology of Religion illustration, don’t we want to give the gospel and our hearts to poor people? Could we love each other still, come the November election? I know so.

D. Clair Davis, a PCA Teaching Elder, is Professor and Chaplain at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas