Off to Synod . . .
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 05:45PM 
Well, I'm off next week to the URNCA synod, in London, Ontario. Synod will be held on the campus of the University of Western Ontario.
Although I enjoy seeing old friends, I'm not one who enjoys a week's worth of committee work. But we do have some important things on the agenda, including a report on the doctrine of justification and the federal vision, the issue of possible federative unity with the Canadian Reformed Churches, as well as several other pressing matters facing our churches.
For the past six years, I've been the chair of the liturgical forms and confessions committee (we are working on a new URCNA hymnal), and will be glad to hand those duties off to someone new.
Lord willing, I'll return to the big OC the next week for a bit, and then it is off to the Eastern Sierras for our annual summer vacation with church friends. I look forward to that all year!
It has been a very productive summer so far. I've been able to complete a big chunk of the first draft on my book on the two kingdoms. The book will focus on our duties as Christian citizens.
I'm tackling questions about the origin and authority of the civil kingdom. the relationship of the Great Commission to the Cultural Mandate, the redemptive role and mission of the kingdom of Christ (in the midst of the civil kingdom), the question of whether or not the United States is a Christian nation (in one sense it might be, in another sense it cannot be), the dark side of the state and the question of civil disobedience, as well as our duties to the civil kingdom as Christian citizens (praying for those in authority, obeying the law, and yes, even paying taxes).
It is not a book about politics per se, but instead focuses upon the application of Reformed two kingdom theory to our duties as American citizens. What does it mean to be a Christian and an American? Political partisans (on either side) probably won't like my answer. Theonomists and neo-Calvinists won't either!
Hopefully, I'll find a publisher and get it published well before the 2012 elections!
If I get a good Wi-Fi connection, I may have a few updates from synod. If not, Lord willing, I'll return in a week or so.
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