Written by Matthew Everhard | Monday, June 18, 2018

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The Society aims to provide annual networking lunch opportunities at our General Assemblies for our members and visitors to gather around productive, in-depth theological conversations. More importantly, we hope to deepen friendships and foster professional collegiality among our ministers and ruling elders. Additionally, we seek to advocate for a strong view of the implementation and usage of our confessional standards in our churches and church courts. We hope to provide an annual print journal at each General Assembly through which we can encourage scholarship, critical thinking, and pastoral insight. Membership in the society is free and open to all EPC ministers and members.

If you happen to be attending the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) June 19-22, 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee, consider attending an event organized by the Westminster Society.

The Westminster Society is a relatively new networking group within the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Devised originally as a forum in which pastors, ruling elders, and laypersons could talk together about theology and church life, the Westminster Society desires to keep our denominational conversations centered on Scripture, as well as framed within the boundaries of our confessional standards. It is not a commissioned ministry, mission, or committee of any court within the EPC, but hopes to help assist the EPC in maintaining its confessional integrity and high doctrinal standards over the coming years. The Westminster Society holds a high view of the authority and infallibility of Scripture, as well as an ardent esteem for our subordinate standards. It encourages fellowship and unity in and among members of the EPC and seeks to foster what we call “confessional churchmanship.”

Our motto, ex animo is the Latin phrase which means “from the heart.” This implies that we hope to confess and profess our doctrine sincerely and humbly as believers. The Westminster Society Journal, the publication of the Society, exists to encourage and stimulate theological discussion and peer-reviewed scholarly work within and among the ministers of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The Society aims to provide annual networking lunch opportunities at our General Assemblies for our members and visitors to gather around productive, in-depth theological conversations. More importantly, we hope to deepen friendships and foster professional collegiality among our ministers and ruling elders. Additionally, we seek to advocate for a strong view of the implementation and usage of our confessional standards in our churches and church courts. We hope to provide an annual print journal at each General Assembly through which we can encourage scholarship, critical thinking, and pastoral insight. Membership in the society is free and open to all EPC ministers and members.

This year the reach and scope of the Westminster Society has broadened from our initial efforts last year. At the 37th Assembly in 2017, the Society debuted with one networking lunch, featuring a lecture about the history and importance of the Westminster Confession of Faith. This year at the 38th Assembly in 2018, the Society will be expanding to three networking lunches as well as four educational lectures during the Tuesday afternoon Leadership Training seminars provided by the EPC (full schedule below).

The Westminster Society Journal released volume one last year in 2017 with six full length chapters on the Standards. This year, volume two increases in length to thirteen chapters centered on the “means of grace,” all written by pastors, theologians, educators, and elders in the EPC. During networking lunches next week in Memphis, some of the contributors to the journal have been chosen to present their chapters in what is hoped to become an annual mini-ETS style forum for academic work to be shared by scholars and ministers.

Schedule of Westminster Society Events:

Tuesday Leadership Training

1pm. Rev. Zachary Hopkins “The Beauty of Reformed Worship.”

2pm. Rev. Stephen Hess, “The Lord’s Supper in the Reformed Tradition.”

3pm. Rev. Mike Glodo, “The Sacrament of Baptism in the Reformed Tradition.”

4pm. Rev. J.T. Holderman, “The Means of Grace in the Scriptures Proclaimed”

Networking Lunches

Wednesday, 12pm. Rev. Eric Tonjes, “Speech Acts and the Lord’s Supper in the Reformed Tradition”

Thursday, 12pm. Rev. Dr. Matthew Everhard, “Jonathan Edwards: What I Learned from a Dead Puritan with a Wig.”

Friday, 12pm. Rev. Dr. Aaron White, “The First Christian Sermon Series: A Study on the Sermon-like Speeches in Acts”

Matthew Everhard is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and is the pastor of Faith EPC in Brooksville, Fla. He is the author of A Theology of Joy: Jonathan Edwards and Eternal Happiness in the Holy Trinity.