Review of Brian G. Najapfour, Joseph Hart (1712–1768), Eighteenth-Century Hymnody, and the British Evangelical Movement Does your reading pile grow and grow like mine? Every month there is another devotional or magazine in our church mailbox; every week new books by outstanding authors on important topics appear; every day blog posts, newsletters, and podcasts proliferate […]
Our Worship, chapters 32–39 What is the highest point of Christian worship? Ask today’s evangelical megachurches and you might get a variety of answers: altar calls, faith-healing demonstrations, amped-up praise-and-worship sessions, or perhaps the offering. Many Reformed folk would scoff at such ideas, claiming instead that only the sermon, the preached Word of God, ought […]
Our Worship, Chapters 14, 24–29 Worship is a holy conversation between God and his people. The previous installment of this series on Abraham Kuyper’s book Our Worship considered several elements of worship in which the congregation speaks to God: through prayers, songs, and offerings. Meanwhile, God speaks to the congregation primarily through the reading of […]
Our Worship, chapters 6–8, 21, 31 Within the last few years, two important books for United Reformed worship have appeared: the Trinity Psalter Hymnal and the Forms and Prayers. As Abraham Kuyper’s discussion of liturgy suggests, these publications demonstrate a fundamental commitment of Reformed worship: providing a distinct and definite vocabulary with which the assembly […]
Our Worship, chapters 2–3, 13, 15–17, 30 Our examination of liturgy in the last issue of The Outlook emphasized that worship communicates. The design of a church’s building, the arrangement of its sanctuary, and the attire of its worshipers are all clues to the content of its faith. But this is not all. At a […]
Hymns of Devotion: 25 New Hymns for the Church Jonathan Landry Cruse Paperback: 26 pages. Self-published. Available through Reformed Fellowship: $5.00 Two hundred thousand—that’s the number of hymn texts currently catalogued in Calvin University’s Hymnary.org database, from North American sources alone.1 The ever-expanding library of Christian hymnody demands that we ask weighty questions about why […]
Our Worship, chapters 1, 4–5, 9–12 If, as my last Outlook series claimed, our culture’s crises of identity, community, and tradition threaten the survival of the Reformed church in the twenty-first century, what part can a small and vulnerable community of faith such as ours play in stemming such a mighty flood? We have already […]
A few months ago, I held the newborn son of dear friends in my arms, and I reflected on the flood of emotions that accompanies the welcome of a new life into the world. In addition to the joy and relief at the safe arrival of a baby, we also encounter hopes and fears and […]
Approximately sixty young adults gathered for the LOGOS 2019 Summer Conference, held August 7–10 at Potter’s Ranch in Union, Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati. Keynote speaker Rev. Tim Scheuers, associate pastor at First United Reformed Church of Chino, California, and a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary, delivered three keynote addresses on the theme, “Inerrant […]
A coworker approaches you with questions about Reformed theology. He’s a new believer, and he’s curious about your theological convictions. Of course, you’re eager to suggest resources that can introduce him to a Reformed articulation of the faith. So where do you begin? First of all, your friend could join one of the scores of […]