Christian Reconstruction in America’s Heartland

Shiloh Christian Church, a small Reformed church in Lake County, Ohio, is leaving big footprints. Some would say that its effect is “disproportional” to its size. How does a little congregation in northeast Ohio manage to affect so many people in so many places?

Same Boat, Needing a Compass

The ultimate response must include God’s providence. He has gathered at Shiloh a burgeoning group of people committed to living out their Faith, and who happen to be teachable and open to adjusting their course according to His will. Spawned from a nearby mother church, New Testament Fellowship, Shiloh began eight years ago to attract Christian activists with more zeal than doctrine, and gained a reputation for being uncompromisingly pro-life. With the leadership example of Pastor Phillip Vollman, Shiloh members were often found in the frays of what the timid would call “controversy.” To the folks at Shiloh, outspokenness and activism were merely work- a-day Christianity.

To his credit, Vollman opened his pulpit to the likes of then- pastor of another local church, Andrew Sandlin. The alliances made between Vollman, Sandlin, and Puritan apologist Jeffrey Ziegler quickly converted Vollman to the need for articulating the Faith which was being lived out by his flock. An amalgam of charismatic, evangelical, fundamentalist and former-Roman- Catholic backgrounds, the hodge-podge group’s epistemology had been founded, roughly, in: “The Word is true. Be doers of the Word.” It would soon launch into an epistemological self- consciousness from which there would be no turning back.

The pulpit ministry at Shiloh Christian Church has been systematically and carefully building precept upon precept toward a fully articulated Reformed Faith. Beginning with the principles of covenant, and moving through the principles of theonomy, Vollman and Ziegler unblinkingly promoted Calvinism, the Puritan world view and Knoxian social theory. Vollman spent two years on the Ten Commandments alone, mining nuggets of truth about the law of God and the continuity of Scripture along the way. Ziegler led the group through the systematic theology and hermeneutics he teaches in evening and correspondence courses at Reformation Bible Institute, which he co-founded in Cleveland. Meanwhile, sails full of a fresh wind of understanding of the Biblical basis for what they had been doing all along, church members moved quite adroitly into the teachings of Rushdoony, Bahnsen, et al. Jeff Ziegler was named associate pastor, and casualties in the transition to Reformed Christianity were notably few. The church has remained intact.

Calling a Spade a Spade

In the mold of Puritan political sermons, the taped messages of Vollman and Ziegler are replete with name calling, warnings to civil magistrates, condemnation of apostate clergy, and clear instruction about duties in the covenant institutions of family, church and state. It is not uncommon for imprecatory psalms and prayers to be offered up corporately on the Lord’s Day for a current crisis in the land. The communion table is a place of articulated separation between the elect of God and His enemies. It is only in the absence of such Biblical practices in the majority of American churches that these are seen as remarkable.

In a froth over the “nerve” of Shiloh members’ outspoken habits on the editorial pages of local newspapers and in public forums, others often subject the church and its leadership to vicious attack. The fact that sacred evangelical cows and popular (albeit antinomian) icons are routinely exposed by those people from Shiloh tends to invite boiling hostility from the religious establishment here. members have been accused—with the full vocabulary of the 90s—of all manner of conspiracy, cultism, brain washing, arrogance, elitism, and worse. It is interesting how Biblical Christianity offends, and also how God will use the abuse for His purposes. Church members have learned to grow thicker skins. Attendance and membership are growing steadily, thanks (in part) to the downright silly attacks on Vollman, Ziegler, and other church members who have dared to speak the truth.

There is no skittishness whatsoever among the Shiloh faithful in robust political activism. Many are the same folks who spent jail time together to shut down abortion mills before they knew they were Calvinists. The difference is that there is a new clarity on the roles of the church and the state, and a new maturity concerning political messiahs. member Ron Young is in a high-profile race for a State House seat, after running a respectable independent race for U.S. Congress in 1994. As a Republican, Young astonished everyone except his workers in unseating a popular incumbent in the 1996 primary. All manner of sabotage has been tried to defeat him for the November election. The indefatigable army at Shiloh is not about to let that happen.

Many Members, One Body

The providence of God has been seen over and over in bringing together a per-capita pool of callings that is, on the surface, somewhat remarkable. The truth is, every local church has similar latent talent. Shiloh has made its mark in its courage to practice what it preaches. Leaders who do what they preach, and members who do what they learn, are the only “distinctives” at Shiloh. Getting grounded in sound, Reformed orthodoxy has had immeasurable impact on this group of sincere believers who, a few years earlier, would have been hard pressed to identify themselves other than “non- denominational.”

Frank Ulle, for example, is a postman by profession and a musician by vocation. He has led worship at Shiloh since her first service. His original compositions are so much a part of the worship, it would be difficult for members to distinguish them from classic hymns or praise songs. Recently, Ulle set to music such doctrinal staples as the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed so that trinitarian orthodoxy can he confessed and regularly re-confessed in worship. In addition, he has studied the psalms, and has added back the “hard” imprecations which have been removed from popular praise songs for the sake of misplaced pietism or “seeker sensitivity.” Typical worship at Shiloh includes an eclectic mix of praise songs and psalms, Reformation classics, old standard hymns, and original music by Frank Ulle based on Scripture and doctrine. Frank extends his ministry with in-concert visits to other churches.

Member Dona Setzer has been uniquely trained and suited for administration and was given a calling to spare throwaway children. She founded an adoption agency called NewStart Foundation. Distinctly pro-life and Christian in its approach, NewStart counsels birthmothers, trains adoptive and foster parents, and places infants in Christian homes. Because of the disposable mentality rampant in our institutions, NewStart has earned its reputation for placing special-needs children successfully. Many are infants with serious health problems. “Hopeless cases” often prompt the calls to Dona. True to the premise of leading by example, Shiloh’s pastoral couple, the Vollmans, are the parents of two adopted youngsters from NewStart in addition to their three grown children. A natural extension of its love for babies, horn and pre-horn, the people of Shiloh take a very personal and intimate interest in the NewStart babies and their families.

Rejecting the view that “full-time Christian Ministry” is limited to clerical vocations, members of the church have adopted the salt-and-light notion that they are to be agents of reformation wherever they are. Small business owners in the group frequently testify to making impressions in the marketplace with their transparent determination to honor the Lord.

Jim O’Leary, a hospital administrator, recently completed law school and passed the bar exam. Shiloh members understand the dominion principle of advancing God’s kingdom through righteous leadership, and that reconstruction comes one community at a time — by means of the high ground taken in every aspect of society. All agree that they have “started late,” and are diligently training the next generation to live covenantally — and without the erroneous sacred/secular, spiritual/material, dichotomies so prevalent in the church today.

Two church members, Abby Oberst and Maggie Tuscano, are currently teaching at a local, evangelical. Christian high school and have added some Reformation saltiness to its savor. Karen Ziegler and Debby Ulle are also certified teachers. Debby has developed a comprehensive, toddler- through-elementary Sunday school curriculum for Shiloh children along with Bernadette Bileci. Long-range church plans include opening a distinctly Reformed day school. Most families with school-aged children are now involved in home schooling. A clear understanding of parental responsibility, and not mere preference, drives this determination to educate the next generation. (Shiloh families tend to be large. The ratio of children to adults is very high.) The long view of dominion through succession, and of “making disciples” in the family and community, have also rekindled an evangelistic flame in the church. A door- to-door evangelism effort and visitor follow- up, headed by Ron Auvil, includes unapologetic Calvinistic soteriology, and the hard truth of the Gospel.

Feeding the Sheep

Doctrine, doctrine, and more doctrine has been the fuel driving this machine. To hold the view that Reformed churches are “dead,” and only the feel-good churches are “alive” is to be ignorant of the Word, of church history, and of what God is doing in His church today. No one could observe this newly Reformed church and legitimately accuse it of being all “head knowledge” and no heart. This has had much to do with the informed and inspired instruction of its leaders. members are encouraged to attend classes at Reformation Bible Institute (RBI), and to apply all that they have learned in the practicalities of daily life.

Using the weekly bulletin as a teaching tool, rather than merely an announcement hand-out, bulletin editor Abby Oberst has reinforced the pulpit ministry with essays, lessons and assorted readings to equip the saints. Citing liberally from such sources as theonomist William Einwechter, colonial pastors, and a host of historic documents, the bulletin has served as a timely and topical doctrinal aid. Reprints of the bulletin have often assisted members in saying to others, “Here is what we believe.” Revs. Vollman and Ziegler have formed important alliances with pastors all over the country who are seeing — or seek — similar conversions to Reformed orthodoxy in their churches; they are charter members of The Association of Free Reformed Churches. The two devote much of their time assisting other pastors in the often-difficult molting process of shedding the error, antinomianism, and pietism which are choking their churches. Christian Evangelistic Endeavors is the linchpin organization, headed by Jeff Ziegler, which is now reaching three continents with what is known as The Puritan Storm. Ziegler patiently guides churchmen and their churches through the irrefutable facts of historic revivals, Biblical reformation, and the Puritan world view that we have lost. He establishes long-term relations with these congregations to ease them through the process of reclaiming orthodox, historic, trinitarian, creedal Christianity. For many, this is a painstaking process.

Ziegler has discovered a new way to reach thousands of pagans and pietists: by preaching “Calvinistically” at Civil War reenactments. He was recently invited to assume the role of Stonewall Jackson’s chief of staff and chaplain, the great R. L. Dabney, at a reenactment in Ohio. In full military regalia, Ziegler delivered a Dabney-style address at the Sunday service. He is now “on call” to portray Dabney at the countless reenactments being held throughout the country, year ‘round. Hearers never fail to be struck by the thunder of Biblical preaching in this generation of ear ticklers and pulpit therapeutics.

Principles of Covenant Realized

God has encouraged and blessed this small-but-mighty congregation. With covenant- member families currently numbering only forty. He continues to transfuse new blood into the body with strong new families who are committed to the cause of Christ. After seven years meeting in a public school gymnasium, Shiloh recently acquired thirty-one acres and a building in a strategic location — for an only-God-could-do- it price. Blessed with other member vocations such as excavators, carpenters and building contractors, Shiloh now meets in a comfortable at-capacity sanctuary. The church family shares the joyous prospect of erecting a larger building, a school, and a center for Reformed communications in due time.

Don’t bother trying to discourage their aspirations. These folks are a lean, “mean,” orthodox fightin’ machine. Someone put them on to Calvin, Knox, the Scottish Covenanters, the Puritan divines and Reformed theonomy.

Katie, bar the door.