Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

saved"ago."our ills and guess at the probable causes of our decline. The real test comes when we ask, What canwe do to save our church ? If by facing honestly andfearlessly the problem together, and searching theScriptures and a-examining our creedal standardsnew, we may in God's mercy find certain guidingrules to help us find a way out, the committee's attempt to present something to Synod will not havebeen utterly vain.Causes for ThanksgivingThere is need at this point to pause to thankGod for many encouraging features of our church inthe recent past. We think first of the unusual graceof liberality which God gave to the church in enabling the people to raise the budget and go over thetop by twelve thousand dollars. As many have said,the renewal of our Covenant at Grinnell last year ishaving a beneficial effect on our church giving. Withthis, also, mention should be made of the fine educational work done by the Stewardship Committee inpromoting the tithe. This takes the church out of thespecial appeal area of response into the firm Biblicalarea of regular tithing and sacrificial liberality forall worthy causes of our church.The signing of the Covenant in the congregations has also been a blessing. Sometimes serious division was a result, and many have refrained fromsigning the covenant because they do not acceptsome of our church's principles. This shows a seriousproblem yet unsolved but the over-all effects of thecovenant signing has been to make our people seewhat is involved in the membership which we havein the Covenanter Church. That has been a blessingto all who were able to sign the covenant in a trueand repentant manner.Suggestions for ImprovementI. Organized Prayer for Spiritual Quickening andCleansing for ServiceRecognizing the cause of all failure as sin, wemust begin our plan with a new repentance, continuing our covenant vows in a more thorough manner. If the needs of the whole church could be made adefinite subject of prayer in all the congregationsand homes of the denomination this coming year,could not God's blessing be expected in a new way?"Turn us again, 0 Lord God of hosts, cause thy face(Psalm 80:19).to shine; and we shall beII. Indoctrination in the System of Truth Containedin our CreedsThis basic educational work must be done. Wesuggest the increased memorization of the ShorterCatechism by children, and the return byadults tomastery of the Larger Catechism and the Confessionof Faith.We suggest, also, explanatory articles on thesecreedal books from time to time in the CovenanterWitness. We suggest where possible, that each winter our congregations hold a short series of publicmeetings, well advertised, in which the ReformedFaith will be presented to a popular audience. Specialtraining courses once a year might be planned also,for the members of a congregation at the end ofwhich a suitable recognition of work done might bemade.III. Stimulation of Evangelism as the Regular Activity of All ChristiansThough this is ever the ideal to which we hold,our actual practice falls far below the New Testament pattern. Suggestions are made that the minister seek to train his laymen to accompany him in direct neighborhood evangelism, that Bible memorywork be encouraged, that prayer meetings in centralareas enable working laymen to come together topray out their problems and to gain courage to tryto win others. The matter of constant use of evangelistic tracts and good Christian book distributionis encouraged. Our suggestion is that everycongregation be considered a missionary team, and the endgoal of all congregational fellowship be more andmore united around the idea of winningpeople toChrist and helping them understand and accept thewhole Truth of the Bible as displayed in our standards.Out-of-bounds members, we believe, should betrained and encouraged to start neighborhood Bibleclasses, child evangelism or even Covenanter societymeetings in their homes. Let each out-of-bound Covenanter be urged to form the beginning of a new congregation.IV. Practical MethodsWhile we do not share the feeling that a changeof methods is the only improvement needed, we certainly feel that methods are important to success.Methods should change, but ever in closer conformityto the Bible pattern. We suggest that the Covenanter Church shift from the attitude which regards ourforeign work as one small part of a Protestant worldevangelism as though our doctrine and purposeswere not superior to those of other groups, and thatwe begin to think and plan in sharply denominationalterms instead. That we look on our church's specialmissions as the two-fold responsibility of revivingthe true Reformed faith in the world, and of preaching the doctrine of the Kingshipchurch and state.of Christ overIn face of these perplexing and difficult problems we recommend that prolonged discussion of thisreport be avoided and that Synod at this time turnto God in prayer and ask for guidance of the HolySpirit to help us meet our task.VINE GLEANINGS . . . Cont'dfrom page 243actively studying in the seminaries. He reports : "They havefounded four churches since their release about a yearAt this meeting they took on the project of distributing5,000 Gospels in one month. Three years ago Mr. Voelkelwrote: "The ultimate victory of righteousness over eviltaught in the Bible is of immense comfort and strength tothese men who have become victims of the titanic strugglebetween good and evil in the Orient."WCTU RAPS CRIME COMIC BOOK SALESLONG BEACH(UP) Delegates to the NationalWomen's Christian Temperance Union convention hereapproved resolutions Monday criticizing crime comic books,sale of liquor in Army camps and serving of drinks on commercial airliners.The 1,000 delegates urged in one of three resolutionsthat parents "assume their responsibilities in the promotionof wholesomereading"among children. 247October 19, 1955