According to Psalms 25:10, "All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of His covenant." How does a community keep the demands of the covenant? This brief essay seeks to answer this question by looking at how loving and faithful communities reflect Christ's covenantal character. We review: (1) the elements of the covenant, (2) historical examples of communities reflecting the covenant, (3) a covenantal confession reflecting the covenant, (4) modern examples of communities based on the covenantal confession, and (5) resources to build model covenant communities.

Elements of the Covenant

The five main elements in God's covenant are depicted in the rainbow-colored text below ¹. (According to Genesis 9, the rainbow symbolizes God's everlasting covenant.) As explained in the footnote at the bottom of this page, Scripture abounds with examples of how God reflects his character through people who...

Know Our Lord Through Biblical Worship,
Honor Our Lord Through Biblical Leadership,
Make Our Lord Known Through Biblical Education,
Enjoy Our Lord's Blessings Through Biblical Obedience, and
Extend Our Lord's Love and Faithfulness Through Biblical Church Growth

Historical Examples of Communities Reflecting the Covenant

The most successful covenantal church communities have emphasized how Christ's bride, the church, informed and influenced the entire culture through worship, prayerful leadership, education, obedience, and evangelism. A Biblical and Spirit-led emphasis on the covenant model extended our Lord's holiness and love throughout families, schools, businesses, social welfare organizations, judiciaries, and governments. Believers reflected Christ's covenantal character in the classroom, boardroom, courtroom, family room, bedroom, etc.

Some of the best examples of covenantal church communities are found in places that have applied the covenantal thinking of Augustine, Calvin, Luther, the Puritans, and similar theologians who maintained a theonomic and hopeful worldview. Such communities have been successful both normatively and positively; that is, they have maintained a very well reasoned normative vision that has informed and influenced the actual unity and effectiveness of the community. We read about such communities in works describing medieval Augustinian monasteries, Christian gatherings influenced by Calvin's Geneva, and towns influenced by early revivals and the Great Awakening (during the time of the Puritans and Jonathan Edwards).

A Confession Reflecting the Covenant

Why did some historical communities succeed while others failed? The Westminster Divines sought to answer this question by looking at which churches best reflected the character of Christ described in Scripture. The Divines assumed that successful covenant communities should encourage a consistent understanding of the Bible that prayerful men have preached throughout the centuries.

A time-tested perspective on Scripture was prayerfully articulated by the Westminster Divines from 1642-1647. The Divines summarized 33 essential doctrines in the Westminster Confession and the Catechisms. These Westminster Standards affirm Christ's covenant and show how a community can form rich relationships when members of a church all affirm the Westminster Standards. For more information, see The Practice of Confessional Subscription by David Hall.

The Westminster Catechisms provide practical guidelines for reflecting Christ's roles of prophet, priest, and king. Modern commentaries on the Catechisms suggest how church leaders can develop a healthy community by empowering prophets to cast a vision relevant to the church, empowering a priest to relate God's love and faithfulness to church members through pastoral care, and empowering the king to administer programs that help church members meet kindred spirits and grow. For more information, see the Westminster Larger Catechism, chapters 42-45, as well as commentaries on the Catechisms.

Modern Communities Based on the Covenantal Confession

There are good modern examples of covenantal church communities. Like the historic models, the effective modern covenantal communities are known for their worship services, prayerful leadership, extensive education programs, obedient members, and successful evangelism. Like the Westminster Standards recommend, the successful communities equip leaders to perform the roles of prophet, priest, and king.

Like the historical models, modern covenant communities seek to follow the leading of the Spirit. This sensitivity to God helps successful churches build on historical models but also evolve in response to changing demographics For example, church leaders in an urban area who pray about needs in their community will often notice that more than half of the local adults are unmarried. This reflects a dramatic change from 100 years ago, when less than 5% of adults were single. Successful urban churches have therefore revised the job descriptions of the prophet, priest, and king in response to the spiritual needs and suggestions of the unmarried majority. Consequently, these churches have shifted away from traditional programs, sermons, and pastoral care methods that focus almost entirely on married people and their children. Instead, the successful modern churches actively integrate singles into the type of covenant community that most singles crave but seldom find.

Some well-known contemporary covenantal communities include Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia (under James Boice until recently), Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas (under Skip Ryan & Paul Settle), Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale (under D. James Kennedy), Community Evangelical Fellowship in Moscow, Idaho (under Doug Wilson), and Christ Community Church in Nashville, TN (influenced by George Grant). Web links for model churches are at the bottom of this page.

Resources to Build Model Covenant Communities

The new Covenant Network site, to be posted soon at www.covenant.net, will cast a vision for "covenant communities reflecting Christ's covenantal character." The site will have a survey to show which communities best model the great communities described in chapter 2 of Acts, in writings about Calvin's Geneva, in books about the Puritan's New England, and in modern articles about Tenth Presbyterian, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and other churches that build solid 24/7 community on a foundation of covenant theology.

The web site will include covenant theology quizzes that will provide an engaging way to test knowledge of Christ's covenantal character. Quiz-takers can answer about 50 questions by choosing answer A, B, C, or D. The one correct answer for each question will come from the WCF and WLC. The three wrong answers for each question will come from typical beliefs expressed by the modern Christian. When taking the quizzes, believers will see how how easy it is to be seduced by Christian-sounding wrong answers not taken from the Westminster Standards.

The web site will test the hypothesis that the best communities are comprised of leaders who best teach and practice covenant theology. The web site will also help collect data from church members to show which churches fail to develop community and which church leaders fail to teach about our Lord's covenantal character.

By celebrating the communities that most honor and glorify the Lord of Augustine, Calvin, Luther (an Augustinian monk), the Puritans, and other great leaders, the web site can serve a valuable purpose. To keep the site's message positive and encouraging, the site will link to many articles, recorded lectures, and other resources to support church leaders who want to improve their scores on the church surveys or on the theology quizzes. The site will also solicit feedback from viewers who want to support or challenge any of the assumptions or statements in material posted on the site. Ideally, as web viewers provide feedback, the covenant.net web pages will eventually provide links to all resources that a church leader needs to build on the very successful church models around the world.

Below is a partial list of churches that have built strong covenant communities. With time, we hope that www.covenant.net can identify and help equip dozens of similar communities that powerfully reflect Christ's covenantal character throughout the community.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The elements above reflect God's transcendence (T), Hierarchy (H), Ethics (E), Outcomes of Obedience (O), and Succession (S). For example, the rainbow-colored text could be rewritten as follows:

Know Our Lord's TRANSCENDENCE Through Biblical Worship,
Honor Our Lord's HIERARCHY Through Biblical Leadership,
Make Our Lord ETHICS Known Through Biblical Education,
Enjoy Our Lord's Blessed OUTCOMES Through Biblical OBEDIENCE, and
Extend Our Lord's Love and Faithfulness Through Biblical Church Growth and SUCCESSION

This THEOS structure is evident throughout the Bible, especially in the organization of The Lord's prayer; the Great Commission; the writings of Moses; and the books of Psalms, Matthew, Romans, and Revelation. The THEOS structure is also evident in all covenantal commitments between God and man.

A practical application of the THEOS structure is summarized in the following passage from Colossians 1:9-12. Note how Paul first affirms transcendent wisdom and understanding. He then discusses our Lord's plan for representational hierarchy, ethics, outcomes, and succession. Paul writes, "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. [Transcendence] And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord [Hierarchy/Representation] and may please him in every way [Ethics]: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God [Outcomes], being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father [Outcomes], who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. [Succession]"

The THEOS structure can form a Biblical model for reflecting Christ's character in families, education, social welfare programs, and the government. A future version of this web page will provide numerous references to explain how successful institutions apply the THEOS structure.