2014 RCF Pastors’ Conference
(The Reformed Congregational Fellowship involves some of our CCCC pastors and others. Co-Moderators of the group are CCCC pastors Paul Wanamaker and Kirk van der Swaagh. The fellowship meets each spring in New England. We are pleased to announce their conference, that others in the CCCC may wish to know about it and participate. — Editor)
Are We Preaching the Gospel?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” — Paul the Apostle
“The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not.” — R.C. Sproul
“Because the gospel is news, good news (even if some will hear it as bad news), it is to be announced: that’s what one does with news.” — D.A. Carson
The Church has been entrusted with a treasure and a task. The treasure: the truth that a necessary saving righteousness has been supplied by a gracious God; the task: to get the word out that the treasure is found in the person of Christ. When the Church is faithful to this sacred trust it is at its strongest.
Faithfulness to the gospel, however, requires vigilance. We need to be reminded often of its content and character lest what we proclaim as the gospel is not what has been actually been entrusted to us. The authors of the Savoy Declaration understood the need, actually adding a chapter (Chapter 20) to the companion document, the Westminster Confession of Faith, that deals particularly with the content of the gospel and the role of preaching in its dissemination.
We invite you to the annual Reformed Congregational Fellowship Pastors’ Conference, March 25-27, 2014 at the Wonderland Conference Center, Sharon, Massachusetts. Attached is the conference registration brochure.
Six presentations by colleagues serving in the pastorate will be the stepping off point for a lively and collegial consideration of the Savoy’s, “Of the Gospel, and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof.” Titles include:
What is the Gospel Promise? · God’s Progressive Revelation of His Redemptive Purposes · The Regenerative Power of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of the Old Testament: Its Content, Efficacy and Parity to the New Testament · The Gospel as to the Substance of It: Preaching Christ, the Power and the Wisdom of God · The Significance of the Gospel vs. Discovering God in His Works · How God Uses Subjective Human Experiences in Bringing the Elect to Salvation
To register, click on the Conference Registration Brochure.
We hope you will join us.
Your fellow servants,
Paul Wanamaker & Kirk van der Swaagh
