How does Reformation theology challenge our ministry practice?

We tend to think of the Reformation as a revolution in doctrine. And so it was. We also think of it as a time when ordinary people—like Tyndale’s ploughboy—encountered the word of God for the first time themselves, and came into a personal saving relationship with God through the gospel of Christ. And indeed it was.

But the Reformation was also a ministry revolution. What church was like and how it ran; how ministers or pastors understood their role, and what they did; how the congregation saw themselves and participated in congregational life; the nature of the sacraments—all this was turned upside down by the discovery (or re-discovery) of biblical doctrine during the Reformation. The Bible was translated and read and preached in the common language of the people. Church services were also conducted in the vernacular tongue. Pastors rediscovered their role as preachers, pray-ers and personal disciplers, rather than as mediatorial priests dispensing salvific sacraments. 

This is because ministry (if I can use that summary term) always flows out of theology, and expresses and reinforces theology. Our theological convictions will drive what we do, whether we are conscious of it or not, and in turn our practices and habits and language and traditions will embody our convictions, carry them forward, communicate them and even shape them.  

This makes 2017 a perfect year not only to remember, celebrate and re-commit ourselves to the foundational doctrines of the Reformation, but also to re-assess our ministry and church life in the light of those doctrines.  

That’s what we’ll be doing at the Nexus Conference in Sydney on April 3. Nexus is an annual one-day ministry conference where ‘theology and ministry and fellow-workers meet’ (as the tagline goes). And this year, we’re bringing a Reformation twist to what we do pretty much every year—and that is to stretch one another theologically, to apply that understanding to the challenges of ministry, and to draw encouragement and heart by talking about all this together as brothers and sisters. 

Our 2017 theme is the ‘Reformation we need today’, and we’ll be looking at core Reformation doctrines like the sovereignty of God, total depravity and the power of the atoning work of Christ, and considering whether our ministry practice actually reflects our stated belief in these great truths. 

We’d love you to join us on April 3 at MBM Rooty Hill in Sydney’s West, or via Livestream wherever you happen to be. 

For more details about the program, and to register go to Nexus Conference 2017.