All of us have strengths and weaknesses as individuals, which combine into strengths and weaknesses on the corporate level as Reformed churches. As a wild olive branch grafted onto the tree of the Reformed Faith, I have an immense appreciation for our strengths, or else I would not be where I am today. I also can give an outsiders’ perspective on what may be weaknesses we need to be aware of and begin to rectify.

Strengths—Teaching
The strengths of Reformed churches can be categorized under the heading teaching. As B. B. Warfield once remarked about the Christian Reformed Church, our strength is in the systematic instruction of our covenant kids and in the preaching of the Heidelberg Catechism.

One of our great strengths as Reformed churches since the Reformation is in the principle that we are a doctrinally vibrant church. We recognize the necessity of not only confessing the truth of the Word of God and as it is expressed in the creeds and confessions, but in teaching them. One of the beauties of article 40 of the URCNA Church Order is that it enshrines this practice for all our churches: “At one of the services each Lord's Day, the minister shall ordinarily preach the Word as summarized in the Three Forms of Unity, with special attention given to the Heidelberg Catechism by treating its Lord's Days in sequence.” As well, this article gives emphasis to the Catechism, but also gives the churches freedom in teaching through all our confessions. As we move further into the twenty-first century, our ministers need to be challenged to teach and preach through all the Three Forms of Unity as we have been accustomed to teaching and preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism.

Another of our strengths as a doctrinally vibrant church is that our worship is meticulously biblical. Everything we do in worship is either a direct quotation of Scripture, a compilation of biblical texts and allusions, or is based on a biblical directive or example. As I tell my parish often, the liturgy is our chief catechist as it embodies our doctrine in a practical way. What does our doctrine of total depravity look like? It looks like the call to worship in which God summons us even as Christians to worship him. What does our doctrine of justification look like? It looks like the reading of the law, confessions of sins, and declaration of forgiveness. The list goes on as the liturgy catechizes us week in and week out about our sin and the Savior’s grace. In fact, it was Reformed liturgy, believe it or not, that drew me out of the excitement of Pentecostalism into the arms of the Reformation.

As Reformed churches, then, we have a great zeal for the purity of the truth of God’s Word as we seek to allow it to affect all that we do in worship, preaching, church government, and raising our children in the teaching and instruction of the Lord.

Weaknesses—Reaching
What about our weaknesses, though? As Jesus taught us, it is much easier to find fault in another than in ourselves. In ecclesiastical terms this means it is much easier to emphasize the speck in another group of churches than in the plank blurring our own vision. We have weaknesses. The only question is whether we will acknowledge them and seek them to be opportunities for sanctification.

First, in our zeal for the purity of doctrine, we too often become arrogant. For many young Reformed Christians, this zeal only adds to the offense of the gospel and the offense of what we are all about. This is why someone once said a new Calvinist goes through a “cage phase,” meaning, we need to put him in a cage like an out-of-control wild animal until they can calm down. Instead of being arrogant towards outsiders, we need to take up the apostolic commands of bearing with weaker brothers who visit our churches, of bearing with their faults just as we pray they do with ours, and with being hospitable.

Second, in our zeal for purity of doctrine we too often forget about the lost. I fear in all our discussion, energy, and financial commitments to produce new hymnals, new catechism materials, and to build facilities so we can preserve the Reformed Christian Faith, we do not pause and think of how those vast amounts of money could be better used to reach the lost. It should not be a burden to a church to plant another church, nor should it be a burden to the churches, but a delight that God is seeing fit to raise many in our day who seek what we have. I only pray the generosity of the saints today will be as it was in Paul’s day, when the even the poor Philippians contributed more than any other to the work of Paul.

Third, and finally, in our zeal for purity of doctrine we too often speak our own version of “Christianese” and hinder communication to the world. Learning new words like Amillennialism should be exciting, but should not be a part of our first conversations with inquirers. We need to remember that God describes us in his Word like children. And just like children, we need to learn vocabulary and grammar in our Christian walk and we need to be sensitive to others who need to do the same. When we do this our strengths on teaching the biblical faith will manifest themselves in reaching the lost and the confused in our day.