John Calvin -- Happy Birthday

This is the year to celebrate John Calvin's 500th birthday.
Surprisingly, Calvin continues to hold the interest of many.
The Dutch broadcaster NCRV.NL carries a two-hour broadcast on Calvin. One of the speakers, Herman Selderhuis, gave a talk on the marks of a Calvinist Church, and I am giving a brief synopsis of this talk.
Selderhuis asks: if Calvin came to your town, he would certainly look to join a local congregation, but which one?
In answer, Selderhuis gives seven characteristics that any church should have to qualify as a Calvinist congregation.

1. Any church must be a preaching church. In any service of worship there should be a sermon preached in a warm, friendly manner. It should engage people, always with the deep desire to win people for the cause of Christ. A preacher must not be an austere, aloof person, but one who is enthralled by the message.
2. The church must be a community of people who speak to the world. There should be a well-worn path between the church and the town hall. The members of the church should tell the society around it that everyone should do justice, live in peace, and demonstrate compassion in all of life. As a citizen of Geneva, Calvin often appealed to City Hall.
3. The church and state should be independent from each other, each with its own proper sphere of influence. A free church in a free country would be the ideal.
   
4. The church should be a seeking, caring community. The elders of the church should seek out people who are troubled, grieving, lonely, and try to minister to them, and the deacons of the church should seek out the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, and try to help them with the necessities of life.
   
5. The church should be a mother. Calvin often used this metaphor to describe the concern the church ought to have for all its members. This also includes discipline, for through discipline the church shows that it cares whether people are living a godly life or not. When people don't, discipline is the church's appeal for people to return to God.
   
6. The church should always be changing. The church lives and works in ever changing circumstances, and it must adapt to those circumstances.
7. The church should be a singing church. The songs belong to the people, not to the choir. When the congregation has forgotten to sing, it must learn to sing again. The church should pay careful attention to what we sing, for hymnody has a longer-lasting influence than sermons do. In his day, when people were no longer singing in church, Calvin felt that the best place to start would be with the singing of Psalms. Calvin was likely not principially against the singing of songs of human composure, but he saw danger in them. So he urged great care in singing any other songs.

So, which congregation would Calvin be likely to join in your community? Selderhuis says that you might think twice to have Calvin join your church, because being the kind of guy he was he would probably chose the church which most need reforming.