I’m reading Patricia Caldwell’s exceptionally-researched and well-written study, The Puritan Conversion Narrative: The Beginnings of American Expression (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)

, while in Ireland and it details the “relation” (spiritual autobiography) that the Puritans were asked to provide for membership. Furthermore, not only where they asked to provide a “relation” they were also often examined by both the leaders and the entire church to see if the marks of grace were truly evident.

There are plenty of interlocking issues here — like the difference between the English and the Americans on this issue, the debates by Presbyterians against the Congregationalist Puritans for developing the “relation” into an art form and into a mandatory exercise, the connection of the “relation” to travel to America, the connection of a genuine church member and the ability for a local church to limit membership to the “visible saints”  etc … but those are not the issues.

As I read this study, I routinely put it down to ponder what is required of us today? What do they expect of you at your church?