Prima Verba – Part 2

As I was saying here, I’m endeavoring to paint the broad strokes of my journey into the Catholic Church by focusing on key elements of a post I made on X that ended up going viral.

Someone once wisely sang that the beginning is a very good place to start. So, I’ll be starting with the first part of that post, which read: Fifteen years as a Reformed pastor; resigned in 2024 due to burnout. The key terms here are 1) Reformed pastor, 2) fifteen years, and 3) burnout. And I’ll take them in that order.

So… I was a Reformed pastor. What does that mean? Let’s start with the easier of the two words to explain—pastor.

In short, I was an under-shepherd of the Good Shepherd, tasked with leading a portion of his flock. In no particular order, this involved preparing and leading worship services, preparing and delivering sermons, administering the sacraments of baptism and communion, leading Bible studies, teaching Sunday School, leading membership classes, serving on committees, officiating weddings and funerals, facilitating pre-marital counseling, providing pastoral counseling, casting and implementing a mission and vision for the church, evangelizing, ministering to the poor and needy, attending regional and denominational meetings, networking with other pastors and church leaders, and performing a variety of administrative tasks.

Additionally, I ended up working on an M.Div. degree while I was serving as a pastor. So, several of my fifteen years of pastoral ministry also involved rigorous academic study—complete with all the reading, all the exams, and all the written work.

All this, in a nutshell, is what I mean when I say that I was a pastor. Not that all these tasks fell only to me. As is the case in any church, a division of labor is necessary. There were many elders, deacons, lay leaders, and volunteers working together toward these common goods and common goals. But these were the sorts of duties and activities that filled my days, weeks, months, and years.

And, of course, these duties and activities characterize the work of most pastors. Regardless of their denomination, pastors share much in common. But they have their differences too. And one of the chief differences you’ll find is their personal and denominational theology. This brings us to the word Reformed. What does it mean that I was a Reformed pastor?

In truth, Reformed theology has a richness to it that precludes it from being adequately unpacked in a short blog post. Plus, many Protestant traditions are Reformed theologically, even if the word itself doesn’t appear in name of a particular Reformed church or denomination. They all have their distinctive cultures as well. So, a summary of what I mean by Reformed will have to suffice.

I’ll start with the general and move to the specific.

Reformed Christians love the Triune God, and they boldly profess both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. They are amazed at the grace of the Father in the giving of his Son and his Spirit. They are overwhelmed by the love of the Son in his willingness to go to the cross as a sacrifice for sin. And they are in awe of the power and mystery in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Hopefully, that conveys the fact that Reformed Christians not only love God, but they tend to think about him and relate to him theologically. That is, Reformed Christians tend to be deep thinkers. They love theology. They are not content to remain at the surface. They want to dive deep. They want to know God, true, but they also want to know as much about God as they can. This flows from the conviction that more of the latter will lead to more of the former.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Reformed Christians love the Bible. It is a treasure to them, because it contains God’s revelation of himself, his world, and his plan of salvation. Thus, knowing the Scriptures is at or near the top of the Reformed Christian’s list of priorities for personal sanctification, and for resisting the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Reformed Christians have a robust view of the lordship of Christ. They joyfully confess that Jesus lays claim to every square inch of planet Earth. They believe that all institutions, all governments, and all people are accountable to their sovereign Lord and King, Jesus Christ. Thus, while mission work is of great importance, so too is every work of industry. Every lawful and moral job and career is viewed as a calling—part of our common commission to shine the light of Christ into every corner of the world.

Finally, Reformed Christians place an extremely high premium on gathering for Sunday worship. The Lord’s Day service is not something to be taken lightly, nor as optional. They rejoice that God calls them into his presence to worship him, but they understand that he is to be approached with reverence and awe. This reverence is also evident in how they pray.

There’s much more I could say here, but I hope this has been sufficient to show that Reformed Christians take their worship, their walk, and their witness very seriously.

That, in general, is Reformed Christianity. Let’s move on now to the more specific—to the doctrinal distinctives of Reformed Christianity. Again, this will be only a summary, and it is bound to be incomplete. But it will be accurate, as far as it goes.

Reformed theology, in a very real sense, revolves around two sets of five doctrines—the five Solas of the Reformation, and the five Doctrines of Grace. It is not my intention to interact with these doctrines here. I simply want to identify them as being integral to what it means to be Reformed.

Here are the five Solas, along with brief descriptions:

sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) — The Bible is the sole and final authority for Christian faith and practice.

sola fide (faith alone) — A believer is justified in God’s sight through faith alone, apart from any good works.

sola gratia (grace alone) — Salvation is a free gift of God’s grace alone and can’t be earned by human merit.

solus Christus (Christ alone) — Jesus Christ is the only mediator and the sole basis for salvation.

sola Deo gloria (to the glory of God alone) — The purpose of life and salvation is to bring glory to God alone.

And then, here are the five Doctrines of Grace, along with brief descriptions. These are commonly referred to as the Five Points of Calvinism, and are often memorized using the acrostic TULIP, as shown below:

Total Depravity — In the fall, mankind became spiritually dead; thus, we are unable to choose God or do anything good on our own.

Unconditional Election — God chooses certain individuals for salvation based solely on His sovereign will and grace, not on any merit or foreseen faith in them.

Limited Atonement — Christ’s death atoned only for the sins of the elect, making it efficient for them, even though it is sufficient for all.

Irresistible Grace — When God calls the elect to salvation, his grace is so powerful that they cannot ultimately resist it. The Holy Spirit convicts and regenerates them, and they then run to him.

Perseverance of the Saints —Those who are truly saved (the elect) will be preserved by God and will not be able to lose their salvation.

Now, putting these doctrines down in writing the way I have here doesn’t necessarily do justice to the ways Reformed Christians understand them.

For example, neither sola fide nor Perseverance of the Saints leads Reformed believers to conclude that good works are unimportant. I once said in a sermon that if, as professing Christians, we feel no desire to amend our lives according to the teachings of Scripture, then we should find no comfort at all in the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. Rather, it should cause us to examine the sincerity of our profession.

This is because, in the Reformed understanding, though works are not a contributor to justifying faith, they are an indicator of it. And they bring glory to God. So, we ought to pursue the good works that he prepared in advance for us to do.

All this is to say, the ten doctrinal points listed above really only scratch the surface of what it means to be Reformed. But I hope what I’ve said here—both the general and the specific—has provided some sense of who I was as a Reformed pastor.

I loved the Lord. I loved his word. I loved his church. I loved his people. I loved worship. I loved theology. I loved proclaiming Christ as Lord, King, and Savior. And I loved helping others grow in all these areas.

I still love all these things as a Catholic.

Even more, in fact!

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In Part 3, I’ll turn to the phrase fifteen years and use it as a springboard to discuss how I came to be the pastor of my former church, what it was like being a pastor, and I’ll also share a couple of stories from my time there.

Gloria in excelsis Deo

Aaron