At Covenant Reformed Church of Nanaimo we are working towards building a true faith-based community built on the Word of God, while also recognizing and building on the faith that has been handed down through our spiritual forefathers. The current trend to reimagine our historic faith and society through the modern lens of progressivism and enlightenment thinking has led to many churches apologizing to the weak minded, and emotionally reactive world, for perceived historic wrongs. We as a church will be standing on what our Christian ancestors taught, not only in regards to theology but also on the non-theological subjects of politics, economics, nation building, law, usury, and race etc. To think, as most churches today do, that we could not come to the correct view on these topics until secular humanist enlightenment thinkers came along, is the height of arrogance and unbiblical thinking. We hold our Christian ancestors, particularly the reformed thinkers, in high regard on their views on all subjects. We believe that these highly moral and educated Men have much to say that we could learn from. These men had a hand in building some of the greatest societies of Christian Europe, America and Diaspora Nations ( eg- Commonwealth Nations ). We will be using this wealth of historic wisdom to help guide us in the building of our community. Especially now that we must build our faith communities as parallel societies, as our current Nation falls under judgment.
As Christians, building our community in the current modern Canadian context, we must recognize the state to which our society has fallen. Not only do we need to meet to build each other up in the faith, we also have to build real communities that meet our needs physically. We must recognize that we live in a society that is hostile to Biblical Christianity. That many people would see our lives destroyed for our beliefs. They will make attempts to have our businesses ruined, our wealth stolen, and our family members and friends destroyed for what we confess. Most churches live under some twisted paradigm that just being “nice” to those enemies around us, will keep us safe. They still believe we live in a just society with equal protections under the law. This is a fantasy.
Therefore we must build resilient communities, where we support each other’s businesses, help educate our children, and help meet our financial needs together.
Our church is structured as a private members group and is not open to the general public. Church members can bring visitors by a request to the elders only. We are doing this to protect ourselves from those that would do us harm.
TITHING
The concept of Christians being required to give a tithe (10%) of their income to the New Testament church is not Biblical and hence will never be promoted at our church. Tithing has been highly abused in the church and is almost always associated with some form of coercive manipulation of the weak minded for the personal financial gain or self promotion of Pastors. Even to the point of calling down curses on people. This is a heinous ideology that will be judged harshly by the Lord.