Stan: > Question for anyone on the list - need your opinion. > I go to a PCA church. Our pastor refers to Sunday worship services as > covenant renewal services and he wants to see everyone attending these. > Attendance is mandatory from the standpoint that he and the ruling elder > will "bind" our conscience if we don't attend "a" service. For example if > we are out of town and we don't attend "somewhere" (doesn't have to be a > PCA > service) it is a sin and I have been told that directly. Would like > anyone's comments on this. > Question #1: are they Sabbatarian? I suspect that may lie at the root of this legalistic approach to church attendance. It would be consistent with strict Sabbatarianism. Question #2: How do these elders imagine that they can bind another's conscience? Question #3: Are the members of the congregation expected to report to the elders as to where they attended when ou6t of town? Do they have to get a slip signed by the elders at the other church to bring back to the PCA elders as proof of their attendance? My immediate reaction: They are lording it over the flock. If this is a definite pattern and reconciliation is not possible either with them, their brand of "leadership", and Scripture, I would submit a letter of resignation and seek fellowship elsewhere. This smells like soul tyranny to me! Recommendations: Read _Shepherding God's Flock: Essays on Leadership in the Local Church_, ed. Roger O. Beardmore (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, n.d.), 247 pp. Also, read "When Should a Christian Leave a Church", by John G. Reisinger. This is available from the Bookstore on the Sound of Grace web site, and online at the following sites among others: The In-Depth Studies Reading Room <A HREF="http://www.ids.org/ids/reading_room.html">http://www.ids.org/ids/reading_room.html</A> [in 3 parts] Battered Sheep Ministry: Articles <A HREF="http://members.shaw.ca/batteredsheep/articles.html">http://members.shaw.ca/batteredsheep/articles.html</A> [in 3 parts] Solo Christo <A HREF="http://www.solochristo.com/theology/Church/reiwh.htm">http://www.solochristo.com/theology/Church/reiwh.htm</A> [the endnotes are not included at this site] Soli Deo Gloria, John T. "Jack" Jeffery