Volume 32 · Issue 1 · Winter 2026
Theology/
Confessional Identity, Ecclesiology, Sermon

Why We Exist

A conference talk from Lorenzo Small on the church's reason for being. Not its programs, not its buildings, not its institutional momentum, but the underlying calling that holds every congregation accountable: the gospel its existence is meant to bear witness to.

Listen to this essay
ElevenLabs Audio Native player will render here once the embed is wired up.

Read by an AI voice generated by ElevenLabs

Tmconference2021
In this essay
Share this essay
Continue Reading

More from

View Full Edition
Continue Reading

More Articles

peter lewis D1kher2Zx2U unsplash" alt="">

Reformed Accents

What makes a Reformed church Reformed? Small begins with Peter DeVries's wry novelistic portrait of a Calvinist boyhood and works toward a serious answer: shared Protestant emphases, yes, but with distinctive accents on Scripture, election, the priesthood of all believers, and worship as covenant response.

Tmconference2021" alt="">

Lord God and Lord Jesus – Part 2

Part two of Edwards's two-part essay on the early church's startling decision to give Jesus the most sacred name for God. This installment takes up the precedent in YHWH's own self-revelation that made the move thinkable for Jewish monotheists.

cynthia magana mFPJXEQfb9M unsplash" alt="">

The Grace of Theological Friendships: Augustine

Augustine is loved for the introspective Confessions, but Andrews argues he was never alone. This chapter follows Augustine's circle in Hippo, his theology of friendship, and the sometimes-uncomfortable question it puts to pastors today: who walks with you, and what are you actually accountable to one another for?

Preaching Gown" alt="">

Clothes Make the Man (or the Woman)?

What clergy wear in worship has changed in his lifetime, and Taylor isn't quite sure all the changes are improvements. Working from Lorimer's nineteenth-century painting of a Scottish Kirk ordination, he reflects on the theology of vestments and what gets lost when the gown disappears.

e vitka GIQJBC8d494 unsplash" alt="">

Humility as a Reformed Value

What does humility have to do with teaching the Bible? Bryant argues: everything. The breadth and mystery of Scripture, the humility of God's self-revelation in Christ, and the limits of every interpreter all push against confident overreach in the classroom and the pulpit alike.

View All Articles
Reader-Supported

"Free to all who ask."

Theology Matters is sent free in print to anyone who requests it, sustained primarily by readers like you. Tax-deductible.

Give a Gift