Matthew serves as the pastor and teacher of the Altamont Reformed Church in Altamont, New York. He is a Fellow of the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and teaches for New Brunswick Theological Seminary. His particular interests are church history, the Reformed confessions, and church polity. The views expressed here are his own.
Preface I am often rather critical of my denomination, the criticism comes from the reality that we are harder on those we love the most. Sometimes, however, my criticism is too sharp or too pointed coupled with less helpful. As was the case with a post that lived here for a short time yesterday. However, … More It’s Not Only Criticism: The Recommendations from Church Order
The Final final (maybe…?) report of the Vision 2020 Task Force was released. You can read it here. This series of posts will look deeper at the recommendations not just from a pragmatic lens, but also through a theological lens. While many have given up on the reality that the church order is theological, I … More RCA Vision 2020 Report: Generous Separation, Part 3: The Rules and Regulations Themselves
The Final final (maybe…?) report of the Vision 2020 Task Force was released. You can read it here. This series of posts will look deeper at the recommendations not just from a pragmatic lens, but also through a theological lens. While many have given up on the reality that the church order is theological, I … More RCA Vision 2020 Report: Generous Separation, Part 2: Rules and Regulations
It must be borne in mind that the powers of the General Synod are limited; its jurisdiction and authority are a delegated jurisdiction and authority; the sources of which are primarily in the Churches, then with the Classes. The General Synod has no power to declare tenets of doctrine, nor to establish new tests of … More Powers of the General Synod: Voice from 1881
The Final final (maybe…?) report of the Vision 2020 Task Force was released. You can read it here. This series of posts will look deeper at the recommendations not just from a pragmatic lens, but also through a theological lens. While many have given up on the reality that the church order is theological, I … More RCA Vision 2020 Report: Generous Separation, Part 1: Assumptions
The Final final (maybe…?) report of the Vision 2020 Task Force was released. You can read it here. This series of posts will look deeper at the recommendations not just from a pragmatic lens, but also through a theological lens. While many have given up on the reality that the church order is theological, I … More RCA Vision 2020 Report: New Mission Agency
The Final final (maybe…?) report of the Vision 2020 Task Force was released. You can read it here. This series of posts will look deeper at the recommendations not just from a pragmatic lens, but also through a theological lens. While many have given up on the reality that the church order is theological, I cannot … More RCA Vision 2020 Report: Affinity
The Final final (maybe…?) report of the Vision 2020 Task Force was released. You can read it here. This series of posts will look deeper at the recommendations not just from a pragmatic lens, but also through a theological lens. While many have given up on the reality that the church order is theological, I … More RCA Vision 2020 Report: Restructuring
I have not written much here lately. In part because the demands of pastoral ministry have been high, in part because my doctoral research is demanding, and in part because I recently finished work on a book discussing the foundational principles of Reformed church polity, I will announce more about that when there is more … More Notes on the General Synod by David D. Demarest
(see bottom for appendix) There are many challenges that this season has given us, and one of them is what do we do about ordinations in a time that we cannot be physically present, particularly with the laying on of hands? Can we do ordinations when we cannot perform that significant rite? And if we … More Social Distancing and Ordination
