The allure of shortcuts is an ever-present temptation, in matters of faith just as in other spheres of life. Friendship is hard. Church life is difficult. To cultivate a rich and meaningful life with God takes time and effort. We won’t grow in holiness and righteousness by racing to supplements designed to help us bypass the difficult labors of church life. It’s precisely in and through those labors that spiritual growth takes place.

When the COVID-19 lockdowns went into effect across the world in March 2020, pastors and church leaders pivoted quickly to live streaming and video as a way of keeping the lines of communication and connection open. Twenty-two percent of churches did a live stream before the pandemic; within weeks, the number had jumped to 66 percent, with 92 percent of Protestant pastors providing some kind of video sermon or worship service during the stay-at-home season.
On the other side of the pandemic, the number of churches live streaming their worship services has grown, and even though there have been some thoughtful calls to stop doing so, I suspect the practice is here to stay. (A new Pew Research survey offers an interesting look at churchgoer perspectives on live streaming.)
Larger churches have gotten especially good at presenting a cohesive and engaging broadcast of their services, rivaling the shiny Sunday morning television broadcasts from a generation ago. As any church with a television or radio ministry will tell you, a professionally packaged experience can extend the reach of a local congregation and the influence of Bible preachers and teachers.
The Supplement Is Not a Substitute
But there’s a downside to this boom in online worship services. We’re vulnerable to a cultural malady ailing Americans today: “substitutism.” That’s a term from Joshua Mitchell’s American Awakening. It’s a label that describes our perpetual quest for easy alternatives and shortcuts. It refers to our tendency to make a supplement a substitute.
In his book, Mitchell never discusses online church or live streaming worship services. He sees “substitutism” at work in other areas, such as social media and friendship. Take a look at his diagnosis of substitutism in these areas, and then I’ll apply these insights to worship.
At its best, social media enhances real-life relationships. Mitchell writes,

Social media can supplement our existing friendships; it can be a stimulant, which helps us keep in touch with old friends when we are not able to confirm through a handshake, a pat on the back, or an embrace, that we are indeed friends. We feel the presence of our friends through this supplement; but the supplement by itself, without the preexisting competence of friendship, cannot produce the feeling of presence. (xxiii)

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God, being rich in mercy, has begun to visit the church in Egypt over the last two and a half decades. In 2005, the Alexandria School of Theology (AST) was founded under the Anglican church of Egypt, with a missionary from the Presbyterian Church in America as its first principal. This seminary has played a pivotal role in reintroducing sound doctrine to the Egyptian church. AST, with its emphasis on Reformed doctrines and solid biblical teaching, started training a new generation of theologians and pastors. Graduates from the school, along with other like-minded believers, have now begun to reintroduce faithful teaching to local churches throughout the country.

Kirollos, a young man from Alexandria, Egypt, was part of a local-church Bible study on the book of Romans. The study profoundly impacted him, revealing depths of God’s grace and sovereignty he had never seen before. Through this study, Kirollos embraced Reformed doctrine, moving away from previous beliefs strongly shaped by man-centered theology and the prosperity gospel. His passion for sound doctrine led him to enroll in the Alexandria School of Theology (AST), where he deepened his knowledge and commitment to biblical principles. This year, Kirollos is set to graduate from AST, equipped to spread the truths he has come to cherish in a context that desperately needs faithful gospel proclamation.
By God’s grace, Kirollos’s story is not unique. Today, God is raising up a growing number of men and women who long to see Egypt and the Arab-speaking world filled with the knowledge of Christ.
Egypt’s Doctrinal Decline
Christianity in Egypt dates as far back as the first century. In the early centuries of the Egyptian church, prominent theologians such as Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria emerged, significantly contributing to Christian theology. Despite this rich heritage, however, the Egyptian church soon faced significant challenges — particularly after the Chalcedonian debate about the person of Christ in the fifth century, and even more after the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. The church in Egypt became known as the Coptic Church (“Coptic” is the name of a language descending from ancient Egyptian).
The Coptic Church constitutes about 9 or 10 percent of Egypt’s population, while Muslims make up around 90 percent. The Coptic Church, with its episcopalian governance under the patriarch of Alexandria, holds doctrines that differ significantly from Protestant beliefs, such as the mass as an atoning sacrifice, the priest as a mediator between God and man, the saints (especially the virgin Mary) as intercessors, fasting as an important means of mortifying sins, and baptism as regenerative. Protestants in Egypt form only about 1 percent of the population, with the majority of them Presbyterian (at least in name!).
The Protestant movement in Egypt began with Moravian missionaries in 1752, followed by the Anglican Church Mission Society in 1825, which focused on Bible distribution and education. Then the American Presbyterian Mission began in 1854, establishing the first presbytery in 1860 and a theological seminary in 1863. Tadrus Yusif became the first Reformed Egyptian minister in 1871. For the next century or so, the Presbyterian work was marked by vibrant churches, sound biblical literature, and a church constitution based on the Westminster Confession of Faith.
In the last few decades of the twentieth century, however, doctrinal decline and a shift toward the social gospel weakened the Presbyterian Church in Egypt. Over time, man-centered theology became rampant. Foundational Reformed doctrines, such as the doctrines of grace, were lost or even abhorred. Liberal professors and ideas invaded academia. Feminism spread throughout the church. And expository preaching was replaced by shallow motivational speeches, leading to a loss of the gospel message. This was the state of the Protestant church around the year 2000.
However, as the Scripture says, “But God . . .”
Sovereign Resurgence
God, being rich in mercy, has begun to visit the church in Egypt over the last two and a half decades.
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Written by J. Chase Davis |
Saturday, August 26, 2023
Hooker called on his countrymen to turn back to God by parting from their rebellious ways and pleading with God not to depart. It is not gold, wealth, and prosperity “that makes God to be their God.” But it is God’s ordinances that bring his presence. Hooker called people to right worship and to find their prosperity in God. For God to remove his presence from a nation, would be a sure sign of his judgment.

Jeremiah 14:9 “We are called by thy name, leave us not.”
Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), distant relative of the more well-known Richard Hooker (1554-1600), arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633 from England aboard the Griffin with fellow passengers Samuel Stone and John Cotton. Born in 1586 and a graduate of Emmanuel College, Hooker was appointed to the church of St. Mary’s in Chelmsford, Essex in 1626 where he became renowned for his preaching and lectureship. However, under Archbishop Laud, in 1629, Hooker was cited and summoned to the Court of High Commission for his Puritan practices and teachings. He was to be arrested and tried for his Puritan ways. In danger of having his ears cropped or face branded, Hooker absconded and fled to Holland for several years before taking the great journey to New England. There he would become known as the “father of Connecticut” having migrated there to found the Connecticut Colony as well as being instrumental in the development of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. But, before all of this and prior to his departure from his native land, he preached a final sermon titled “The Danger of Desertion.”
At this juncture in our nation’s history, any God-fearing American Christian must ask: are we suffering the judgment of God? Moreover, to the degree that we are, what is to be done? Hooker’s sermon provides critical insights from Scripture into what it looks like for a nation to suffer under God’s judgment and what it should do given such a severe state of affairs.
Expounding on Jeremiah 14, Hooker recounts how the people of God sought the Lord in order that his presence would not leave them, “This is the great request of the saints, they desire not to be left of God, though God may justly leave them.” Hooker applies this to the nation of England. Hooker’s choice of Jeremiah 14:6 reflects an assumption common among the Puritans, one which causes evangelicals today great discomfort. It was the belief of the Protestants that God covenanted with nations.
Through the blood of Jesus Christ, God purchased the nations, and for Hooker, England was one such nation. God had delivered them from captivity and bondage. Furthermore, for Hooker, God may “justly leave off a people, and unchurch a nation.” One need look no further than England today to see just such a nation.
There were three primary manners in which God may depart from a people, according to Hooker:

He takes away his love from a people as well as his means. For Hooker, the means of God are varied, but in this case, he refers to God’s active care flowing from his presence. The means are the ways in which God has ordained right worship and provides security for a people.
God takes away their protection by taking down their walls of defense: magistrates and ministers. The magistrates and ministers of God serve as a wall of defense for a nation covenanted with God, and God will remove these two means of protection when God leaves a people.
The teaching and counseling become rotten with bribery and false teaching.

Hooker asks:
“May God cast off a people, and unchurch a nation? Then let it teach us to cast off all security for miseries are nigh by all probabilities. When we observe what God has done for us, all things are ripe for ruin, and yet we fear it not, we promise safety to ourselves, and consider not that England is like to be harrowed, we cannot entertain a thought that England shall be destroyed, when there are so many professors in it; we cannot be persuaded of it, according to the conviction of our judgments, either it must not be, or not yet, as if it were impossible for God to leave England, as if God were a cockering Father over lewd and stubborn children: God may leave a nation that is but in outward covenant with him, and why not England?”
Hooker preached about the formerly Christian regions of Palestine and Denmark and begged his hearers to see that England may find itself in such disrepute as these if they were not to plead with their God. He entreats his countrymen to not believe their Christian numbers to be so great as to prevent God’s departure. “Do not say there are many Christians in it, can God be beholding to you for your religion? No surely, for rather then he will maintain such as profess his Name and hate him, he will raise up of these stones children unto Abraham; He will rather go to the Turks, and say you are my people, and I will be your God.”
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