The Black Forest Project 421: Konferenz für Gemeindegründung 2026

Like the Puritans, live in terms of the settled judgement that the joy of heaven will make amends of any losses and crosses, strains and pains that we must endure on earth if we are going to follow Christ faithfully. - Joel Beeke

The Rise of the Puritan Movement

The Puritan movement rose from a demand that the English church submit more fully to Scripture in doctrine, worship, discipline, and daily life....
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://christianpublishinghouse.co/2026/03/27/the-rise-of-the-puritan-movement/]

https://www.chrisreighley.com/covenant-and-calling-the-puritan-vision-for-america/

The Free Reformed Church at Darling Downs is hosting a Church Planting Conference in April 2026. This indicates an ongoing focus on church planting initiatives within the Free Reformed Churches of Australia (FRCA) federation as of early 2026.

As a member of the Free Reformed Church in Australia, I totally supported the conference and pray for a new Church to be planted. I will post the two videos of the conference before giving my thoughts.

Puritan evangelism involved declaring the entire economy of redemption by focusing on the saving work of all three Persons of the Trinity, while simultaneously calling sinners to a life of faith and committment... Joel Beeke, Puritan Evangelism

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=604117538538496&set=a.496537782629806]

The 2026 Conferences:

Church Planting Conference 2026 Friday Evening

Free Reformed Church at Darling Downs

464 subscribers

285 views Streamed live on Apr 17, 2026

Watch 26:19 to 1:11:35 of the video to hear the Sermon from Pastor Rodney denBoer -

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/live/VShlkI64mlk?si=aUAuJJb-4ehIbXar

Zelt Erweckung -

Amish Mennonite Tent Meeting Revival at Sequoia Bible Fellowship Coblentz

Tent Meetings with Gospel Preaching! Evangelist Andy Coblentz - An Amish Mennonite Brother from Kentucky Held at Squaw Valley Rodeo Grounds, May 28, 2012

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaIjRfB2XJ4

PHOTO SOURCE: https://images.app.goo.gl/jUDXmsR8Qkh3z8kW6

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/02/sermons-on-hebrews-10-verse-24-to-25.html

Church Planting Conference 2026 Saturday Morning

Free Reformed Church at Darling Downs

464 subscribers

326 views Streamed live on Apr 18, 2026

Watch 26:34 to 1:11:35 of the video to hear the Sermon from Pastor Cornelis Kleyn -

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/live/WTPHpmeJ-TE?si=moa4O39OuJ5fl9D_

Zelt Erweckung -

2021 Spring Garden, PA Tent Crusade, Spring Garden Tent Revival Meetings

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.gospelexpress.com/2021-spring-garden-tent/]

MY THOUGHTS:

I am happy to see our Free Reformed Churches having Church Planting Conferences. I feel we should adopt the 4 core values of the Anabaptist Trio: faith, family, community and simple life. For example, we can learn from Charlton and Natasha Sweazy on how they planted a church in Uganda.

As we are Reformed in our tradition and theology, we should learn from the Puritans also, they are good role models for church community. We can learn from Pastor Cornelis Kleyn, as he was a missionary to Papua New Guinea.

As Joel Beeke said:

Like the Puritans, live in terms of the settled judgement that the joy of heaven will make amends of any losses and crosses, strains and pains that we must endure on earth if we are going to follow Christ faithfully. Regard preparedness to die as the first step in learning to live. - Joel Beeke

Photos of Puritan and Anabaptist churches:

Life inside a Puritan community in early America was shaped by faith, discipline, and a deep sense of responsibility toward both God and neighbor. These settlers believed they were building a society that would reflect Christian values in every part of daily life. Church was not simply a place of worship—it was the heart of the town. Long sermons, serious reflection, and shared prayer created a culture where religion guided how people spoke, worked, raised families, and treated one another. To the Puritans, a strong community meant living with humility, honesty, and a constant awareness of moral duty.

Family life was equally central to Puritan culture. Homes were expected to be orderly and respectful, with parents teaching children the importance of faith, hard work, and obedience from a young age. Education was valued because reading the Bible was considered essential, which is why many early New England towns quickly established schools. Work itself was seen as a form of devotion—laboring diligently was believed to honor God and strengthen the community. While their strict rules could sometimes feel rigid, Puritan communities also created tightly connected towns where shared beliefs built a powerful sense of unity and purpose that would influence American culture for generations.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWCMK3ZkjbU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-four-core-values-of-anabaptist.html

Puritan worship is famously (or infamously) plain and simple. That is to avoid superstition and invalid ceremonies, but the theological basis is deeper. Old Testament worship offered an imposing picture of the glories of worship in God’s heavenly presence and impressed on worshippers their desperate need for cleansing by sacrifice. Christ has now offered the once for all sacrifice and cleansed believers fully (Heb 10:14-22), he is exalted to the heavenly sanctuary and has brought us there (Heb 12:22-24). On that basis, Christian worship should be simple as we listen to the word of Christ who speaks to us from heaven. We no longer try to replicate heaven here; the temple and all its ceremonies are fulfilled in Christ.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/worshiping-with-westminster-a-response-to-rory-shiner/]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html

New England Church,vintage illustration. Roger Williams was a Puritan, an English Reformed theologian,speaking in a Church in England,vintage line drawing or engraving illustration

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.dreamstime.com/roger-williams-was-puritan-english-reformed-theologian-speaking-church-england-vintage-line-drawing-engraving-image163308573]

Ministers of the Eastern District of the General Conference Mennonite Church, during a conference session at the Springfield meetinghouse near Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1898. While the Eastern District never printed rules for attire, ministers wore distinct garb into the late nineteenth century. Picture from left to right are Levi Schimmel, Silas Grubb, Harvey Clymer, Augustus Shuhart (layman), Jacob Moyer, Andrew Shelly, Anthony Shelly, William Gottshall, Allen Fretz, and Nathaniel Grubb.

Forrest Moyer Moyer, Archivist, Mennonite Heritage Center

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://anabaptisthistorians.org/2018/05/17/ministers-of-the-eastern-district-of-the-general-conference-mennonite-church-1898/]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/06/team-preaching-is-like-barn-raising.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/konferenz-fur-gemeindegrundung-2026.html

The Company of Pastors or Venerable Company (French: Compagnie des pasteurs) is an organization, comparable to a classis, of ministers and deacons of the Protestant Church of Geneva. It was established as part of the implementation of John Calvin's Ecclesiastical Ordinances in 1541 and originally consisted of the ministers of Geneva's three city churches and a dozen countryside parishes. It met every Friday morning to examine candidates for ministry and discuss the theological and practical business of the church. In 1559 professors of the Genevan Academy were made members of the company. The company's powers were drastically reduced in the nineteenth century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_of_Pastors

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.auberry.church/blog/john-calvin-a-man-committed-to-promoting-christian-unity]

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/even-calvin-had-a-team

https://www.auberry.church/blog/john-calvin-a-man-committed-to-promoting-christian-unity

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/team-preaching

https://thegracelifechurch.org/2022/06/07/why-we-have-a-preaching-team-at-grace-life/

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/06/team-preaching-is-like-barn-raising.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/konferenz-fur-gemeindegrundung-2026.html

Interior of the restored Brick Mennonite Church located one mile west of Richfield. The restored building is used for an annual public hymn sing, the third Sunday in September, and other special events by appointment.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://anabaptisthistorians.org/2017/12/21/brick-mennonite-church-richfield-pennsylvania/]

http://www.meetinghouse.info/

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dordrecht_Confession_of_Faith

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/04/introducing-black-forest-farm-412-blog.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/konferenz-fur-gemeindegrundung-2026.html

Imagine your entire neighborhood cramming into your living room this Sunday. Two hundred people. No air conditioning. No microphones. No parking lot — just horse-drawn buggies lined up across your front yard. For most of us, this sounds like chaos. For the Amish, it's simply church. And they've been doing it this way for over three centuries without ever building a single dedicated worship structure.

The Amish practice of "hosting church" is one of the most remarkable examples of community logistics in the modern world. Every other Sunday, a different family opens their home, barn, or workshop to the entire church district — typically 150 to 200 people. The night before, the hosting family clears out their living room furniture, scrubs every surface, and sets up rows of long wooden benches brought in on a special wagon. The benches travel from house to house throughout the year. Nothing is permanent. Nothing is institutional.

The service itself lasts approximately three hours. Men and women sit separately on opposite sides of the room. There is no stage. No instruments. No projected lyrics. Hymns are sung slowly in High German from the Ausbund, a hymnal dating back to 1564 — making it older than the King James Bible. The preacher stands at floor level, delivering a sermon without notes or amplification. Children as young as two learn to sit quietly. The room grows warm with body heat. Yet the congregation remains deeply attentive. This is not obligation. This is identity.

After the service ends, the room transforms again. Benches are rearranged into long tables. A fellowship meal is served — homemade bread, pickles, cold cuts, peanut butter spread, coffee, and pie. Conversation fills the farmhouse. Young people linger near the barn. Children run through the fields. The hosting family will spend the entire week recovering and preparing for the next round at another home. Then, in two weeks, they'll do it all again.

What makes this so astonishing is the sheer sustainability of the system. The Amish have no mortgages on megachurches. No electric bills. No paid worship bands. No building fund campaigns. Their faith is housed in the heart of the community — literally, in their living rooms. It keeps the church humble, adaptable, and impossible to separate from daily life. Faith isn't somewhere you go. It's where you live.

Could your community survive without a dedicated building? Would rotating through each other's homes make your faith stronger — or just exhaust you? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G1SnFg3pU/]

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2026/04/konferenz-fur-gemeindegrundung-2026.html

John Calvin, yes, John Calvin, the soul winner, on Evangelism:

“If we have any humanity in us, seeing men going to perdition, …ought we not be moved by pity, to rescue the poor souls from hell, and teach them the way of salvation? (from sermon 196 on Deut. 33:18-19; taken from Ref 21 article)

…nothing could be more inconsistent with the nature of faith than that deadness which would lead a man to disregard his brethren, and to keep the light of knowledge choked up within his own breast. (from commentary on Is. 2:3; taken from Ref 21 article)

When we know God to be our Father, should we not desire that he be known as such by all? And if we do not have this passion, that all creatures do him homage, is it not a sign that his glory means little to us? (from sermon 196 on Deut. 33:18-19; taken from Ref 21 article)

Since we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, it befits us so to feel as to wish that all be saved. So it will come about that, whoever we come across, we shall study to make him a sharer of peace . . . even severe rebuke will be administered like medicine, lest they should perish or cause others to perish. But it will be for God to make it effective in those whom He foreknew and predestined. (from Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God; taken from the Founders Journal article)”

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161223543991900&set=a.10151551057726900]

RELATED LINKS:

https://darlingdownschurch.org.au/

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/11/leading-family-worship-by-joel-beeke_27.html

https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/06/mission-possible-kelyns-korner.html

https://churchandfamilylife.com/resources/60ca750123fa965169a3c94e

https://reformedbooksonline.com/topics/topics-by-subject/family/family-worship/quotes-on-family-worship/

https://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/FamilyWorship.pdf

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/puritanevangelism.pdf

https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2019/puritan-evangelism/

https://www.apuritansmind.com/the-christian-walk/the-christian-family/family-worship-by-a-w-pink/