Reformed Evangelism

In reformed thought, evangelism is history- and world-affirming; the gospel declares Christ’s universal providential government and cosmos-renewing intentions. Thus, we must repudiate all notions of evangelism that are intent on purely inward, pietistic concerns, seeking to escape from this world into heaven rather than seeking his kingdom coming “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

Joseph Boot in The Mission of God

The Church, the Clergy, the Laity and the Kingdom

“[The] church is more than the local building and congregation. The term is closer in meaning to the kingdom of God. It has reference to the called-out people of God in all their work together for the Lord.”1 This means that the structures of the church institution are never to be a limiting factor in extending the reign of God and pursuing the work of the kingdom – the work of ordained clergy and elders in their institutional role does not exhaust the calling of church, leaving the laity to merely ‘secular’ tasks. Neither is the church to become self-serving by becoming a wealth and power center for its own sake. The church is to be a servant institution that equips, empowers and sends out every Christian in terms of God’s glorious kingdom purposes.

Joseph Boot in The Mission of God

1. Rushdoony, Systematic Theology, vol 2, 670