Title Details

Alan Janssen
— Pastor, Community Church of Glen Rock, NJ
Assistant Professor of Theology, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Brunwick, NJ
"Dutch theological A. A. van Ruler compares church order to the rafters of a church building. Church order sustains the space within which the church is met by God, where it engages in its plan with God *(liturgy), and where it is used by God in its mission in and to God's world. Presbyterian church order intends to be faithful to its root in God's Word, as it is shaped around the office of elder and governed through a series of councils of the church."

Leon van den Broeke
— Pastor, Protestant Dutch Church in the Netherlands
Assistant Professor of Religion, Law, and Society at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
"If the classis assembly wants to survive the twenty-first century, then wonderful opportunities for the classis as the Protestant diocese need to be used. Episkope and koinonia are not competitors. When there is episcope instead of bureaucracy, koinonia will flourish. When there is koinonia there will be episcope."

Joseph Small
— Director of the Office of Theology and Worship, Presbyterian Church (USA)
"Geneva's Venerable Company of Pastors recorded its roster and the proceedings of its meetings inThe Register of the Company of Pastors. These sixteenth-century records reveal a gathering of pastors who placed scripture and worship, theology and prayer, at the center of the church's life and the heart of pastoral vocation. In an age of ecclesial uncertainty and pastoral confusion, the pattern is suggestive. . . . contemporary presbyteries could do worse than to think through Calvin's originating vision for councils that were able to hear God's word as they shaped the ministry and mission of congregations and of the wider church."

Robert Vosloo
— Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
"Within the context of South Africa and its history of apartheid, 'the story of the unification of the presbyteries of Stellenbosch (within the context of the struggle for church reunification within the Dutch Reformed Church family) is . . . a testimony to the hopeful role the presbytery structure can play by offering a space conducive to dialogue and the creation of more adequate church structures."

Craig Van Gelder
— Professor of Congregational Mission, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN
"Polity need to support the ministry of the church, which in turn flows out of the very nature of the church. A church order needs to start by identifying what this ministry is and then proceed to consider the necessary shared structures and organizational practices which support this ministry."

Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae
“This is a book which should be studied by all candidates for the ministry of churches with a presbyterian polity and elders, and other members should be encouraged to read it too.”