We Are Reformed (with a small r)

We live in a world that breathes reinvention. New brands, new identities, new truths. If something’s old, it must be wrong. If something’s firm, it must be oppressive. If something dares to speak with authority, it’s often mocked or ignored.

But here’s our confession at Pineland Baptist:
We don’t need to reinvent.
We don’t need to drift.
We need to continue in the Word.

That’s what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3. And it’s what we, as a local church in 2025 Burlington, still need to hear today.

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed...”
(2 Timothy 3:14)

Timothy was surrounded by deception and decline. False teachers flourished. Cultural pressure mounted. The temptation to soften the truth must’ve felt constant.

Sound familiar?

But Paul doesn’t say: “Adapt to the times.” He doesn’t say: “Find what works.” He says: Continue. Remain. Abide. Stay rooted in the Scriptures that shaped you from childhood, the God-breathed, soul-shaping Word.

This is why we call ourselves reformed, with a small “r.”

Not to signal loyalty to a tribe. Not to parade a system.
But to say this: we want every part of our life to be re-formed (formed again) by the living Word of God. We believe God has spoken. We believe His Word is sufficient. And we believe the church is healthiest when it humbly submits to that Word, generation after generation.

The Reformers Weren’t Innovators

The Protestant Reformers didn’t set out to create something new. They didn’t wake up one day and decide to start a movement. They were pastors and preachers burdened by a simple truth: God’s Word had been buried under tradition. They wanted to bring the church back to the Scriptures. The church had become like play-dough that was bent out of shape, away from what it was designed to be, the reformers wanted to push back the bits that had fallen out of shape with the design, they wanted to literally reform what had lost its form.

That’s what Sola Scriptura means, not “Scripture in isolation,” but “Scripture alone as the final authority.” Not creeds or councils. Not culture or consensus. Not private visions or prophetic impressions. Only the God-breathed Word stands.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable...”
(2 Timothy 3:16)

That’s not abstract theology. Because if Scripture is truly God’s breath, then we are not left to wander. The same breath that formed Adam’s lungs, the same breath that raised Ezekiel’s dry bones, breathes life into us today through the Word.

The Pressure to Drift and the Call to Continue

We live in a moment that demands clarity. Not just because the culture is shifting, but because it is shaping. Through entertainment, education, corporate policy, and online platforms, a new catechism is being written: one that calls good evil and evil good (Isa. 5:20), one that trades the authority of Scripture for the authority of self.

In this cultural catechism:

• “Love” is redefined to mean approval of all desires.
• “Justice” is cut loose from God’s law and anchored instead in self-expression.
• “Identity” is no longer received from the Creator but invented by the creature.

The result? Doctrinal fog in churches, ethical drift in pulpits, and a generation trained to reinterpret Scripture by the mood of the age.

We see it in the growing acceptance of women preaching in settings that ignore biblical clarity (1 Tim. 2:12), in attempts to revise historic Christian teaching on sexuality (Rom. 1:26–27), and in the subtle pressure to make peace with ideologies that contradict God’s Word. These are not just theological disagreements, they are tests of allegiance. Will we continue in what we have learned (2 Tim. 3:14), or will we “wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:4)?

John Calvin once warned,

“We must not think it strange if the world refuses to submit to the Word of God… for the obedience of faith is a rare virtue.”

Tertullian, writing nearly 1,800 years ago, saw it too:

“The rule of faith… is that by which we believe that there is only one God… and that He sent the prophets and apostles, whose writings we revere as the rule of our faith.”

And this is where the Reformers took their stand. Luther, before the powers of his day, declared:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason… my conscience is captive to the Word of God.”

That is still our call today. To be reformed is not to chase novelty. It is to hold fast when everything else tells us to let go. To be Reformed is to confess that Scripture alone is sufficient, even when culture mocks or marginalizes us for it.

This is why we do not bend to cultural winds or shape our theology by Twitter trends. It’s why we don’t need new apostles, prophetic impressions, or an updated gospel. We have the God-breathed Word. That is our anchor.

As Spurgeon once said:

“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

That’s the edge we walk. And that’s why we say without hesitation: We are reformed, not because we are better, but because we are bound. Bound to Christ. Bound to His Word. Bound to the truth that saves.

Formation Over Innovation

To be reformed is to be formed by the Word.

Paul describes four shaping functions of Scripture:

• Teaching: shows us the path.
• Reproof: shows us where we’ve gone off.
• Correction: sets us straight again.
• Training: builds lifelong habits of righteousness.

That’s how God equips us for “every good work” (v. 17). Not by outsourcing to the latest trend. Not by reinventing truth to suit our preferences. But by being formed, week by week, by the Word.

This is why we preach expositionally, letting the Word set the agenda. It’s why we sing the Word, pray the Word, and teach the Word to our children. We don’t gather to be entertained. We gather to be equipped.

Christ at the Centre

And all of this, the Scripture, the equipping, the perseverance, is not an end in itself. It points us to Christ.

Jesus is the true and better Man of God.

• He continued in the Word perfectly.
• He lived by every word from the mouth of God.
• He was thoroughly equipped for the greatest work of all: our redemption.

That’s the centre of the Reformation cry: Scripture Alone. Grace Alone. Faith Alone. Christ Alone. To the Glory of God Alone.

It’s not just a formula. It’s our lifeblood.

We need a Word that doesn’t shift with the wind.
We need a Saviour who doesn’t buckle under the weight of our sin.
We need the Spirit to breathe life through the Word into dry, discouraged, distracted hearts.

And that’s what God gives us, every Lord’s Day, every time we open the Scriptures, every time we gather as His people.

We are Reformed with a small r because we are always being re-formed by the living Word of God.
Not hardened traditionalists. Not theological snobs. Not driven by a label, but by a voice.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
(Isaiah 40:8)

May that Word dwell richly among us. May it shape our lives, form our church, and lead us again and again to Christ, the Word made flesh.