Watching our doctrine in Elders’ Meetings
Two things we are commanded to do as elders are to WATCH and to HOLD.
We are to WATCH what we believe, to make sure we are believing what God’s Word says.
"Pay close attention to... your teaching" (1 Timothy 4:16)
We are to HOLD firmly to the truths taught in God’s Word.
"...holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it." (Titus 1:9)
To help us to watch what we believe and to hold firmly to the truth of God's Word, in one of our Elders’ Meetings each month at Banstead Community Church, we reflect on a paragraph from the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, which is a excellent teaching tool summarising what the church has believed.
After thinking about what the paragraph means and whether this is a faithful summary of what Scripture teaches (using the proof texts and others), we spend some time thinking about it applies to us as elders of a local church by asking the question, "How then shall we lead?"
We’ve been doing this for a number of years now, and have covered Chapters 1-11 in 66 sessions.
All the notes I’ve put together can be found HERE.
Resources on 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith
When I first started doing these theological reflections, there were not many resources specifically on 1689BCF available.
I was limited to A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith by Sam Waldron, or the Founders Journal on individual chapters of 1689BCF (starting at Issue 104). I found useful as well these expositions/commentaries on the Westminster Confession of Faith which the 1689BCF was based upon, Confessing the Faith by Chad Van Dixhoorn, Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul, and The Christian Faith by David Murray.
Thankfully, we are now blessed to have two new resources which are both excellent. Confessing the Faith: Volume 2: The Second London Confession by Jim Renihan and A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 by Rob Ventura (Ed.)
Field Notes
A reminder that every Saturday I send out a Substack with 10 links from around the web worth checking out and the latest resources I’ve produced at Blog of Dan (my online Notion page).