The Witness surveyed several teaching and ruling elders on how they and their congregations handled some of the big societal challenges of the past few years, and what advice they might pass along. Here are responses from Barry York, president and professor of pastoral theology and homiletics at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary and an elder at College Hill (Beaver Falls, Pa.) RPC; Sam Spear, an elder at North Hills (Pittsburgh, Pa.) RPC; Rut Etheridge, professor of biblical studies at Geneva College; and Kent Butterfield, pastor of First (Durham, N.C.) RPC.

What did leaders and members of your congregation do that helped bring unity amid the isolation and challenges of Covid?

Sam Spear

We added streaming of services and congregational prayer meetings. We emphasized the importance of gathering in person. The elders worked together, despite individual initial positions.

We held a supper seminar at our church to discuss Christian civil disobedience, including key texts, statements from the Testimony, and various approaches Christians take. Meeting together in per-son and dealing with real questions fights disunity and isolation.

Barry York

At the seminary and in College Hill RPC where I serve, after the immediate emergency situation of Covid, we recognized there were various convictions regarding it. We sought to practice a Romans 14 approach, where we urged people in these communities to honor one another’s differing perspectives and practices. Thankfully, the Lord protected us from serious viral implications while giving us a large measure of peace.

What can we learn from the past two years about when and how it is proper to disobey our government (e.g., mask mandates for the public or churches, vaccine mandates for certain workers) and how the church can help individual believers to navigate this?

Barry York

I believe the events of the past few years are a good reminder about the distinction the Reformers made between magisterial versus ministerial authority. The Church of Rome believed its leaders had magisterial authority that allowed them to legislate morality and impose mandates upon the consciences of those in their church. But the Reformers countered that church authority is only of a ministerial nature, meaning church leaders cannot make laws but only declare what the Word of God teaches. So, the church must be careful not to impose upon its members convictions that are not directly supported in God’s Word.

In application to this situation, the elders of a church should 1) encourage its members to submit to the governing authorities; 2) if members choose to resist the civil magistrate, remind them that they need clear scriptural grounds for doing so; and 3) recognize members may come to differing convictions in situations such as Covid and should not be condemned for so doing.

Sam Spear

Most Christians either hold that Christians must obey the state unless it requires particular sin, or that Christians must obey the state where the state is acting in accordance with God-ordained limits and ideals, or somewhere in between.

I think we need to help Christians temper their natural tendencies in these areas. If a member tends to value independence, we need to urge them to deal with how directives to slaves in 1 Peter 2:18 and wives in 1 Peter 3:1 inform 1 Peter 2:13–14, as well as dealing with texts like Ephesians 5:21 and Jeremiah 17:9. If a member is an avoider of conflict, then the member needs to wrestle with the priority of the fear of God over the honoring of the emperor in 1 Peter 2:17, the soldier’s rebellion against Saul’s sentence on Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14:45, and the active obedience of the apostles in Acts 5:29.

Three other things are worth mentioning.

First, Christian civil disobedience often involves what we must do or must not do. It does not seem to be heavily a matter of options. If we are exercising options about obedience, then is it obedience at all?

Second, we must discern our motivations. I think some folks who are complying with mandates are doing so in part to avoid suffering related to civil disobedience. Likewise, some who are advocating for civil disobedience may be motivated somewhat by avoiding suffering related to compliance. Whether we stand subject to the state or in defiance of it, we may necessarily suffer. If our motivation is to avoid suffering, then we are missing one of the key drivers of the entire book of 1 Peter.

Last, the Reformed Presbyterian Testimony 23:24 is phrased as counsel to believers, while Testimony 23:21 is phrased as a warning to the civil magistrate, rather than marching orders for churches. We need to remember how they are phrased in applying them to our circumstances.

Rut Etheridge

Pandemic pressures force subterranean sins to surface. I’d love to see the church recognize and repent of two mirror-image tendencies that seem to have animated so much of the church’s reaction and response to Covid and subsequent government actions: autonomy on the one hand, and an uncritical, servile form of self-righteousness on the other.

As Christians in America, a land that prizes individualism and entitlement, it’s become clear that we’ve confounded genuine political liberty, a blessing from the Lord, with autonomy—literally self-law, the essence of sin. We’ve twisted Christian liberty into a grotesque form, which, instead of asking “How far can I go to serve my Christian family and every neighbor in the name of Christ?” now asks, often angrily, “How can I go about protecting my rights and comforts as an individual?”

At the same time, we’ve also been guilty of shaming those who have legitimate questions about the extent of government authority and the responsibility of the church in providing spiritual care in the midst of onerous, sometimes dehumanizing, mandates. Some authoritarian responses to the pandemic have made us all the more painfully aware of just how much we human beings, inherently social by design of our trinitarian God, need one another’s company.

If, in keeping with our history and tradition of political engagement from the pulpit, we are to continue publicly addressing the issues of our times, we must do so in a way clearly unbeholden to any political party or cultural ideology. We must think, preach, and teach much more carefully, and prayerfully, about the true nature of Christian liberty and our Lord’s true intention for its exercise in a fallen world, especially in a culture obsessed with autonomy. And we must, on the other side, carefully consider what it means to be courageous for Christ in our convictions when they seem to conflict with what our government requires. We must think, preach, and teach much more carefully and prayerfully about cultivating and demonstrating true gospel boldness rather than the godless bravado that maliciously cloaks itself with the former.

We must seek, as a church, to be as Jesus told his disciples to be: “wise as serpents, harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16). This begins, I think, by repentance and reconciliation on the local level. What are the friendships and relationships that were strong several years ago but are now fractured or altogether disintegrated? Where and with whom can we pursue healing conversations, with a “confessing my sin first” humility? How can elders take the lead in such self-denying, peace-seeking behavior? We are clearly in need of such servant-leadership.

I was made palpably aware of that in working with the TFY youth this past summer. More than any other year in my memory, the youth were intensely interested in ecclesiology. They wanted to know the principles and procedures of what it means to be the church, and they insisted (very rightly and respectfully) on being shown such from the Scriptures. Sadly, these questions were forced by their observation of how congregants and leaders have conducted themselves these past few years, including through the painful issues of abuse we’ve wrestled with the past two Synods. In addition to those horrors, youth have noted membership changes because of Covid policies in congregations, pastoral burnout, and a general sense of hostility and aggression in the alleged pursuit of justice and doctrinal fidelity. Hearing their hearts is a wakeup call for our denomination as a whole. We look to them as the future of this branch of the church, but we must not do so presumptively.

Thankfully, the youth asked these questions and shared these burdens in a galvanized, self-effacing spirit of great love, humility, and respect—a genuine desire for the good of the church and a willingness to work toward it. Their attitude was convicting to me as an elder in the church and a re-minder that young lives are watching, and young hearts are hurting, beneath the burdens we’re shouldering in our times.

Having heard them, it is clear that we need clearer communication in our congregations, greater transparency and accountability for the ways we have interacted with and talked about others, and an active, observable willingness to work toward personal reconciliation. The more these things happen locally, Lord willing, the more the body as a whole will be strengthened.

Some of our national leaders, as well as our neighbors, seem to have a hard time speaking on political or social issues without shouting. What are some ways Reformed Presbyterians can be peacemakers in the fractured environment around us?

Sam Spear

Two of the great forces dividing people today are fear and falsehood. As Reformed Presbyterians, we know that one Kingdom extends over all, and that our King does not depend on falsehood to advance His cause. Moreover, we are freed from fear by the power, love, and favor of Christ. As such, we can read, write, and interact differently.

Kent Butterfield

We are called to be peacemakers and speak with grace predominantly (Matt. 5:9; Col. 4:6; Rom. 12:18).

Christians have an advantage over the pagan, the ignorant, and the fool (who will not receive any instruction). That advantage is knowing God and having a view that spans eternity. We know what is true when it comes to the commandments, promises, and works of Christ the King. Therefore, how we are to treat one another in the faith and those outside the faith has parameters given to us in Scripture. We also know God does not change, which brings assurances to those who trust in Him (Jas. 1:1).

Another advantage as peacemakers is that we have received the mercy and forgiveness from God (Eph. 2:8). We gain the acceptance of God through His lovingkindness.

Accepting others is a great manifestation of loving them. Desire to listen to others so that you may engage them with respect. Respecting others opens the door to having them listen to you patiently.

We are to remind all people to do the good work that God has called them to do. (It may begin with surrendering to Christ and believing on Him, forsaking sin and having fruit of repentance.) Christ prevailed over the devil, unbelievers, and corrupt leaders, both civil and church.

For the Christian, we do not have to panic due to who wins or doesn’t win an election or who holds office. We can be concerned and labor for the opposition, but we have a risen Savior work-ing everything to advance His kingdom. So, to our neighbor, the question we should pose is, “Are you part of God’s kingdom and doing His work?” or “Are you waiting for everything and every-one in office to be good before you do much good?” Encourage others to start a conversation with a question and not with your own statement.

We can also listen to a person who is in opposition to our beliefs, for we have peace with our convictions and should practice humility so that we may learn from others and have a willingness to change those convictions if they are wrong or faulty.

Humility and consideration of others is what Jesus practiced among the common people. We must exhort people to find peace, grace, and mercy from Christ and to practice such as we follow the blessed example of the perfect man and our splendid and glorious Savior, Jesus Christ.

Surrendering to and trusting God’s will while His providence unfolds can only be achieved by faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These are troubling times, but evil men do not prevail against a righteous God. The only way to have peace, and therefore speak with peace on vital issues, is to possess and practice that peace derived from the Prince of Peace.