http://blog.cityreformed.org Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:57:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Since first writing my essay on Kuyperianism, I have gotten a lot of feedback from various people. One line of feedback has been that my characterizations of Kuperianism do not so much fit for Kuyper himself as for later people who called themselves Kuyperian. There is some truth in that, ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/12/23/followup-on-kuyper-where-the-rubber-meets-the-road-for-many-of-us/ I heartily welcome your essay on Kuyperian thought and practice and have enjoyed the discussion it has already created on this important topic. Like you, I have embraced Kuyperian ideas in the past, and would in many ways still consider myself Kuyperian in many ways. I grew up on the ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/08/18/a-response-to-%e2%80%9cthe-kuyperian-vision-for-culture-what-it-is-and-how-is-it-doing-by-j-hommes/ A Balanced View? I have been fairly hard on the Kuyperian vision. I also am not advocating the fundamentalist/Puritan model. So what is the alternative? Here are several principles for a different way: 1) Geographically near to the non-Christian, not isolated. One of the key mistakes of the early “city on a hill” ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/08/18/the-kuyperian-vision-for-culture-what-is-it-and-how-is-it-doing-part-iii/ Having laid out the general tenets of the Kuyperian vision and its contrast to the Puritan vision, I now want to cast a critical eye on it. We have now had over 100 years of Kuyperian theory and practice. How is it doing? How has it worked out? I will ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/08/18/the-kuyperian-vision-for-culture-what-is-it-and-how-is-it-doing-part-ii/ Many evangelicals have never heard of Abraham Kuyper, but most have been influenced by him far more than they know.  Kuyper was a Dutch pastor and politician who lived in the last 1800’s up to the early 1900’s. He was initially an enthusiastic “modernist” and was trained in modernism at ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/08/18/the-kuyperian-vision-for-culture-what-is-it-and-how-is-it-doing-part-i/ Every now and then I encourage people to raise their hands in worship. Generally it hasn't "taken". Typically at City Reformed you will see just elders raising their hands during worship, not many other people. Why not? I have heard various things from various people. One line is to say that ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/07/15/ack-raising-our-hands-in-worship/ As Pastor Matt announced last week at church, we are in final negotiations to rent part of the Petersen Event Center for our Sunday worship for the summer. This is because the Pittsburgh Public School district plans to renovate and reopen the Frick building as a science academy in the ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/05/08/a-church-on-the-move/ Christians have a long history of involvement in politics in democratic societies, including the Abolitionist movement with Wilberforce and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Progressive movement with WIlliams Jenning Bryan and Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives), the Civil Rights movement, and the pro-life movement, all associated strongly with ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/02/26/church-politics-and-non-profits/ I attended the Jubilee conference in downtown Pittsburgh last Friday night, as a guest. Overall, I thought it was a great time to get all these college students together to get them thinking about culture and God's calling in their lives, and worshipping together. I want to respond to some comments ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/02/19/thoughts-on-jubilee/ As our church has grown you might have noticed that we have had to become more intentional in our methods of communication. When we were a church of 60 people, most announcements could be made informally because everyone knew each other. As we have grown we have had to ... http://blog.cityreformed.org/2009/02/18/the-importance-of-communication/