“…the just shall live by his faith.”
(rf. Hab. 2:4 MEV)
The above passage was the launching pad for the Reformation period of Church history. Based on this truth and the desire to return to the Scriptures as the foundation of all faith and life, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Shortly thereafter, John Calvin was compelled to begin his work of writing a doctrinal and practical application of the Christian faith. His Institutes of the Christian Religion would become the theological textbook of the Reformation. Calvin and Luther communicated with one another on several occasions to try and coalesce the beliefs of this new movement of renewal within Christ’s Church. The results of their efforts would later become the denominations of Lutheranism and Presbyterianism, reflecting their shared beliefs and heritage within the Reformed faith.
The German Reformed Church in many ways is a marriage of the worship style of Lutheranism, the doctrinal standards of Calvinism, and the church government as taught within Presbyterianism. When the Evangelical Synod of North America (of German heritage) merged with the Reformed Church in the United States (German) in 1934, the new Evangelical and Reformed Church carried on the Reformed faith (Calvinism as expressed in the Heidelberg Catechism, the statement of faith for the E&R) even as its governmental structure was Presbyterian in origin.
St. John’s was born in 1919 as a church plant in Kannapolis for the Reformed Church in the United States (i.e. the German Reformed Church). It became an E&R church with the 1934 merger of the bodies outlined above. In 1957, St. John’s was ushered into the United Church of Christ (UCC) along with every other E&R church, thus bringing an end to the German Reformed or E&R church denominations in America. Though there are still in existence the Reformed Church in America (RCA-liberal) and the Alliance of Reformed Churches (ARC-conservative), these are Dutch Reformed churches, not German, representing a different branch of the Reformed faith altogether. The original group (German Reformed/E&R) that brought our church into being no longer exists.
Going forward, our Church Council firmly believes that the Lord wants us to be a part of a larger body, one that closely aligns with our heritage, beliefs and practices. This is the very reason that the Council has promoted and continues to promote our joining with the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO). Like St. John’s, the ECO is Reformed in their faith and governs itself according to Presbyterian principles. Entering this relationship with the ECO would not diminish our heritage nor change our identity as a Reformed church. In fact, connecting with ECO would enable us to grow stronger in the Reformed faith that we have in common. We would continue to serve the Lord as St. John’s Reformed Church (no change to name or in our owning our own property), only with a greater body behind us to support us and with whom we could work to reach our community with the Gospel of Christ.
Our Church Council has worked long and hard in its effort to search for a suitable body to join, secure the good will of contacts within that organization, and to educate our church family in the benefits and blessings of such a new relationship. Our church family can rest assured that the heart, motivation and actions of our church leadership are worthy of our trust and faith. Our Council desires nothing more than to follow the Lord’s direction so that the future of St. John’s will be secure.
Their encouragement to us all is that we (1) pray for the Lord to empower us to move positively toward the future He has in store for St. John’s, (2) freely share our concerns, questions, insights and encouragement with them so that the Council has opportunity to answer those questions and allay any fears and doubts that remain, and, (3) commit to be in attendance during worship and, especially, when informational meetings are provided so everyone can be on the same page and a part of what God has for our future as a church. The Lord has promised “a future and a hope”; let us move together as a church family to embrace it with joy and faith.
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