Table of Contents
Preface
Part One: Origins and History
Chapter 1: A History of the United Reformed Churches in North America – Cornelis P. Venema
Chapter 2: Compelling New Insight for Women’s Ordination? A Review of Clarence Boomsma’s Male and Female, One in Christ -- Cornelis P. Venema
Chapter 3: Confessional Subscription in the URCNA – W. Robert Godfrey
Chapter 4: Why Is It Hard to Be Reformed in America? – W. Robert Godfrey
Chapter 5: Closing the Door on Evolution: Creation, Evolution and the Origins of the URCNA – Casey Freswick
Part Two: Theological Issues and Church Order Distinctives
Chapter 6: Covenant Debates in the History of the Reformed Churches – Daniel Ragusa
Chapter 7: Neo-Calvinism, the Two Kingdoms, and the URCNA: In Defense of an Historical, Theological, and Confessional Identity – Timothy R. Scheuers
Chapter 8: The URCNA Church Order: Continental and Contemporary – Bradd L. Nymeyer
Chapter 9: “Only with Their Consent”: A Reflection on Article 7 of the URCNA Church Order – Cornelis P. Venema
Chapter 10: Not Holy but Helpful: The “Evangelical Feast Days” & Historic Reformed Liturgical Theology – Danny Hyde
Chapter 11: “The Word as Summarized”: The Enduring Legacy of Catechetical Preaching in the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) – Paul Ipema
Part Three: Missions and Evangelism
Chapter 12: Taking the Great Commission Seriously at Home and Abroad: Missions and Evangelism in the CRCNA and the URCNA – Paul Murphy
Chapter 13: The Importance of Missional Awareness for the Future of the Local Church – Greg Bylsma
Chapter 14: Overview of URCNA Foreign Missions – Richard Bout
Chapter 15: United for the Gospel: A Decade of Shared Labor Between Covenant Reformed Church and Luz de Vida Reformed Church – Pablo Landazari
Chapter 16: A Perspective on Missions from Latin America: A Commentary on Some of the Challenges for Reformed Missions in Costa Rica – Bill Green
Chapter 17: From Vision to Plan to Practice: The Development of Church Planting in Classis Eastern U.S.—Zachary Wyse
Chapter 18: Accidental Church Planter(s) –Brian Lee
Part Four: Ecumenical Relations
Chapter 19: A Courtship Prolonged: The United Reformed and Canadian Reformed Pursuit of Church Unity – John A. Bouwers
Chapter 20: Friends in Faraway Places: The International Work of CECCA – Jason Tuinstra
Chapter 21: The Songs That Make the Church Sing: Constructing the Trinity Psalter Hymnal – Alan Strange
Part Five: Theological and Christian Education
Chapter 22: Reflections on Mid-America Reformed Seminary and the URCNA: An Academy with a Vocational Aim – Cornelis P. Venema
Chapter 23: God-Centered Schooling and the URCNA – Steve Swets
From the preface:
In answer to the question, “What do you believe concerning ‘the holy catholic church’?,” the Heidelberg Catechism responds with a rich and beautiful confession: “I believe that the Son of God through his Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community I am and always will be a living member.”
This confession reminds us that, when we consider any part of the history of Christ’s church, we must view it from the perspective of the Triune God’s purposes to gather, defend, and preserve for himself, from among all the peoples and nations of the earth, a community of believers who were graciously chosen by him unto salvation. The church is a “glorious body” of those whom the Father has chosen in Christ, whom he has redeemed by the blood of his own dear Son, and whom the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, will unfailingly gather, protect, and preserve through the ministry of the Word of the gospel.
Even though this book deals with a relatively small part of the larger story of Christ’s church-gathering work, what it recounts must be viewed through the lens of this confession regarding the church. The history of the URCNA could be told in a way that fails to see how it belongs to the larger story of the way Christ gathers, defends, and preserves his church throughout history. It could be told in a way that views the URCNA’s formation as merely another chapter in a lamentable history that, as the well-known hymn, The Church’s One Foundation, expresses it, is often one of schism and distress (“by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed”). While the history of the church “militant” is often marked by division and distress, to be sure, it is always a history that is governed by the One who is “worthy to break the seals” of God’s great plan of redemption and re-creation (Rev. 5:5). Christ is the Lord of history, the triumphant Lamb who will not be thwarted in gathering his blood-bought bride, the church. Christ alone builds his church and does so with the promise that the “gates of hell will not prevail” against her (Matt. 16:18).
Accordingly, the title of the book, Roots Renewed, aims to remind the reader that the story of the URCNA did not begin in 1995, when a number of CRCNA churches formed a new federation or denomination. The decision to form the URCNA was not made in a vacuum but took place in order to preserve a heritage that was cherished and believed to be worth preserving. This decision was also made, not merely to preserve Reformed churches in their biblical and confessional convictions but to do so with a view to propagating these convictions to future generations until the time of Christ’s coming at the end of this age. The history of the URCNA, therefore, is a history both of preservation and propagation, holding fast to the truths of Scripture and the confessions with a view to proclaiming them to future generations, even to the ends of the earth. Viewed from the standpoint of our confession regarding the church, the URCNA and its history belongs to the story of Christ’s work in gathering, defending, and preserving his church.
~ Dr. Cornelis P. Venema
