All Articles For Mission Preaching in the Established Church

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. (Preceding article in series: August 2003, p. 452.) Some of our readers may not be comfortable with designating a special worship service in the established churches as a gospel service. This designation is intended to distinguish such a service from the regular worship services that take place twice every Lord’s Day. But, one might ask, if every worship service ought to include gospel preaching, and if the gospel is the good news of salvation that the pastor is commanded to bring every time he mounts the pulpit, why would...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The preacher has an awesome task. When he sounds forth the call of the gospel, heaven is opened and closed to his hearers. This is true in the mission setting when the missionary labors with a view to the establishment of a local congregation. It is no less true in the established church. At all times, the preacher calls men to repent of their sins, to turn from their evil ways, to seek and embrace Jesus Christ as the only Savior, who can reconcile them to God. The call...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Obviously, when we speak of “mission preaching” in the established church, we are focusing on the fact that the true gospel includes a call to conversion. This call is the object of our attention in these articles; we simply designate this as “mission preaching.” We are not saying that the gospel must be divided up into different kinds; we are simply establishing that the gospel preached in the local church includes such a call to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. When this is done regularly, as it...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Having set forth different views of the congregation and the problems associated with them, we now turn to the correct view, which is called the “organic” view of the church. This term was coined by Herman Hoeksema, especially in his book Believers and Their Seed. Let’s allow him to speak for himself as we quote a short segment from this work. We begin on page 114. God’s people in this world are pictured to us in nature as a plant, of which some of the branches bear fruit and...

Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. A number of years ago I had the privilege to serve as pastor of Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore. Since they were without a pastor, it fell within my duties as minister-on-loan to help them in this way. These were formative years for me, as it was my first real exposure to serving in a local congregation with a mission setting. The members were first-generation Christians, their zeal for the Lord persisted; they carried a desire to bring non-Christian family members, colleagues, and schoolmates into the fellowship of...