Ampsherstel as ’n bedienaar van die Woord – ’n Gereformeerd-kerkregtelike benadering

Abstract

The restoration of a preacher or minister in church – a Reformed approachThe article is looking into the history and present practice in reformed churches with a connection to the Dutch Reformed Church of the 16th and 17th century, on the restoration of deposed preachers or ministers in the church office. Out of the Dutch Reformed history comes a tendency to list certain sins in church orders as serious enough to make it impossible for the relevant church assemblies to restore someone in office, regardless of the specific context. This list prevents assemblies from using their own discretion when a matter of restoration as a minister is attended to. It thereby kills the pastoral-judicial character of church affairs. Against this stoned approach, writers and churches opt for room for the said assemblies to decide in their own pastoral orientated discretion over matters of restoration in the office as a minister. A room to which a certain framework of broad guidelines is applied.