A Gentle Reformation

For Christ’s Crown and Covenant. This phrase should mean much more to Reformed Presbyterians than just an attempt to have a catchy denominational motto on a blue banner. This ancient battle cry from 17th Century Scotland captures the confluence of political and religious events, hammered-out doctrinal positions, and results of worship wars (yes, they have been going on for a long time) that had melded into a recognition of what was known as “the mediatorial kingship” of Christ.

Our forefathers taught us that by virtue of God’s Son having suffered the horrors of Calvary’s cross for our sins, God the Father raised Christ Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. This exalted appointment means Jesus is the only mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:4), with all authority seen and unseen now under His dominion (Matt. 28:18). With heaven’s crown upon His head, and the covenant promise of the Father in His heart, Christ is bringing the kingdom of heaven to bear on the earth through the instrumentation of His Church. The Church is to be preaching near and far the gospel of Christ’s kingdom, working toward making disciples of all the nations (vv. 19-20).

As the kingly mediator, Christ employs means to assist His Church in accomplishing this goal. Each generation is to use the tools He has made available toward that end. Interestingly, both the words mediator and media come from the Latin word meaning middle. Just as Christ as the Word has been placed between God and man, so as people communicate they often find a medium between them allowing them to do so. From Paul using the paved Roman roads or the common gathering at the Areopagus (an original “chat room”) to spread the gospel, to the use of the printing press to disseminate Martin Luther’s 95 theses, we see the Lord using various media in spreading the kingdom of God on earth.

This modern period, quickly being touted the digital age, has the potential for this to happen as never before. The explosion of the internet and all the ways of communicating through it—from cell phones to Skype to blogs to Facebook to Sermon Audio to YouTube to iPads and beyond—mean that the church must learn how to use the media in honoring her mediatorial King. In his book The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion, prominent blogger and pastor Tim Challies states that “God calls us to use our minds, to use our Spirit-filled hearts, to distinguish between good and evil, between right and wrong, in our use of technology.”1

Surely you have realized that making these distinctions is not as easy as it appears. We are regularly confronted with questions that reveal this to us. How soon should a child be given a cell phone or Facebook account? What wisdom can be gained from the Scriptures in applying rules of etiquette in this new age of communication? Can we use digital devices in worship services and, if so, how? How do you keep harmful excesses and harmful influences such as pornography out of the home and church? How can a congregation or seminary use the media in ministering to others without the ministry becoming impersonal? How do we train young people in their use of technology? And with American adults aged 45-54 spending over nine hours per day of “screen time” as they peer at devices such as computers, smart phones, TVs, GPS, etc., it is not just the youth that need to be trained!

To try to help answer questions such as these, the writers of the Gentle Reformation blog have been invited to offer a series of articles in the Witness about how to extend Christ’s kingdom through cyberspace. In the issues ahead you can expect us to address such topics as The Bible & Technology, The Use of Media in Church History, Great Resources on the Web, Dangers in the Digital Age, Missions in Cyberspace, and Training the Internet Generation.

When Marshall McLuhan stated in 1964 that “the medium is the message,” he did so because he saw the media in his generation not only as a channel of communication to society but as a means of changing it.2 We need to grow in our own awareness of how the new media is not only influencing but shaping us and others. Then, as believers, we must go even further still. We must learn how to lift up Christ’s banner in this new digital generation so that others can be brought under His claims.

1 Tim Challies, The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion, Zondervan, 2011, 16. 2 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, McGraw Hill, 1964.