Covenant Reformed Church

06/01/2026

The gang's all here.

06/01/2026

The sermon text for this Sunday, June 7th, will Acts 20:17-21:17.

06/01/2026

Our deacon was ordained yesterday...

05/29/2026

Part 6 of our “distinctives” series…A Corporate Amen: Another thing that is common in CREC churches is the corporate amen.

This is something our congregations say when welcoming a new member. They are asked if they receive the new members into the congregation, and they are asked if they renew their membership vows as they do so. Amen is the response. Something similar happens when a child is baptized. The congregation is asked if they promise to assist the parents in the Christian nurture of the child, and they respond with amen. And, of course, the most common use of amen is at the conclusion of psalms and hymns, when everyone says amen together.

In Scripture, amen serves with the force of an oath. It is a solemn and robust affirmation of the truth of what has just been said. The force of it should be understood as something like “absolutely yes,” or “may it ever be.” It serves as a fitting conclusion. “The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen” (2 Jn. 13, LSB). It serves as an anchor point for praise given to God. “To Him be might forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 5:11, LSB). It is an appropriate response when the people have offered up a blessing of God. “Then Ezra blessed Yahweh the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped Yahweh with their faces to the ground” (Neh. 8:6, LSB).

We can see the importance of the word in how Paul uses it to describe the Lord Jesus Himself. “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20, LSB).

In the New Testament, we see the expectation that this will be a customary part of the worship service. We cannot say amen if we do not understand (1 Cor. 14:16). Consequently, we want to provide numerous opportunities where worshipers can learn how to say amen, and do so with understanding.

05/22/2026

Part 5 of our “distinctives” series…Worship Centrality: It is fairly common in CREC circles to hear folks speaking about the centrality of worship. Worship is central in the same way that the engine under the hood is central to the operation of the car. The engine is not an essential decoration, and neither is it a useless weight of heavy metal that prevents the car from moving down the road.

The task given to the Church by Jesus before He ascended into Heaven was the task of discipling the nations, and this was to consist of inaugurating them into that discipleship by means of baptism, and then to teach them obedience to everything that Jesus taught us (Matt. 28:18-20). This means that the assigned mission of the Church consists of two components—birth and growth. The Church is not supposed to take mission on as a side operation; the Church is mission.

There are two basic ways to miss the point here. One is to abandon or minimize the task of worshiping the triune God on the Lord’s Day in order to “get out there” to evangelize and influence the world in the name of Jesus. This is like taking the engine out so that the car can go faster. The other way is to grant how important the engine is, and to keep it in fine operating order, but mounted on cinder blocks in your garage. In the former error, the engine is not central, and it should be. With the latter error, the engine is central, but the wrong kind of central. An engine that runs must be connected to the car, and a car without an engine is useless.

The ancient prophets envisioned the time of new covenant glory as a time when the worship of God was rightly ordered in every place. “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be presented to My name, as well as a grain offering that is clean; for My name will be great among the nations,” says Yahweh of hosts.” (Mal. 1:11, LSB).

Because God’s name has been made great throughout all the nations, a number of other things will be accomplished (of a cultural and political nature), but we do not lobby to accomplish those things directly in the first instance. We know that they must come, however, and we teach the people to expect them. The Church is potent precisely because it is not an activist club. At the same time, we avoid the error of some who want to plant churches that are indistinguishable from occult mystery religions, practicing odd, impotent rites behind closed doors. No, the Church is a city on a hill.

05/18/2026

This Sunday, May 24th, is Pentecost Sunday...The sermon text this week will be Joshua 24:29-33—this is our final sermon in Joshua.

05/16/2026

Part 4 of our “distinctives” series…A Worship Conversation: In the medieval Church, there was a sharp distinction between the worshiping clergy and the spectators found in the laity. The Protestant emphasis on the priesthood of all believers changed all that for centuries.

But unfortunately, a very similar sharp division has been creeping back in recent decades—now in the form of professional entertainers up front, and the audience out in the seats. Many who attend church do not expect to be asked to “do” anything.

In the approach taken to worship by CREC churches, the worship service is an active conversation between God and His people. It is a dialogue—not a monologue. We are all part of the body, and we all have something to do. The service is initiated from the front by the minister. He is there in his role as a “deputy spokesman” on the Lord’s behalf. In this role, he summons the people to worship at the beginning, and he declares the benediction at the end. He reads the text for the sermon as the very words of God, and he preaches the sermon as the very oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11). After the confession of sin, he announces the assurance of pardon in the name of Jesus, and so on.

The people of God respond to all this actively. They sing the psalms and hymns and say amen after them. They say the Creed. They respond to the Scripture reading with “Thanks be to God.” They lift their hands in the Gloria Patri. They eat the bread and drink the wine weekly. In short, in worship, the body of Christ is called to be a conversationalist. One of the first things that visitors to our congregations notice is that there is so much for them to do. This is intentional. The whole body is called to work together, and worship is that work.

05/13/2026

Tomorrow (Thursday, May 14th) is Ascension Day.

Why the Ascension is so important

05/11/2026

The sermon this week (May 17th) will be a survey of "Justification in the Old Testament," and what we can glean from it.

Send a message to learn more

05/11/2026

Law Homily