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What To Expect When You Visit...

One of our Communications Group members asked me to write a section for our webpage aimed at Newcomers so they would know what to expect when they attended the church.  There are whole books devoted to helping people navigate the dangerous waters of back pew surfing.  But hopefully, this will make people feel a little more at ease before they attend New Hope:

Park your Harley right next to all of the other iron ponies out front.  You’ll probably have to push your way through a bunch of overweight, smoking hippie types to get to the door, but don’t worry, we don’t let ‘em light up their cancer sticks inside ‘cept during the special smoker’s service on Remember the Martyr’s Fires Sunday.

Inside the church you’ll have to give us the make and model of your ride, as we like to keep track of those kind of things.  We won’t ask nothin about you, cause we know you might be wanted, and we want you to be comfortable with your anonymity.  Just stop by the visitor’s table and pick up your free guide to all the local biker events, as well as a special coupon for an oil change and wash provided by Iron Pony in Westerville (the owners are charter members). 

You can find your way to the sanctuary by followin the sound of Hank William’s Jr’s voice preparin us durin the pre-service with a couple verses from “Little White Church in the Dell.”  Someone will probably stuff an order of service into your hands at some point in the foyer.  Don’t worry if you can’t read, just follow along the best you can as things get movin.  After the sound guys turn Hank off, Hog will stand up and give us a welcome and some announcements.  If he finds out you’re visitin with us, you should probably be warned that he likes to make you stand up and show us your tattoos.  We especially like it if you’ve got some that have religious significance.  We only ask that you be careful about which ones you show us and where…if you know what we mean.  We’re sure glad to have you here!

Followin the tattoo-tell-all, Betty Joe will get our worship goin in a fine style by beltin out a couple special numbers she wrote herself.  She used to be a groupie with Black Sabbath, but she’s learned to take all that great rock-n-roll and put good words to it.  We try to keep the musicians in the back of the sanctuary, just because honestly, they’re so ugly it is distractin to most.  The music will just kind of blow past you from behind, and don’t be shocked if people start shoutin and swayin.  A couple of us even like to hop on top of one another’s shoulders and wave our bic lighters in the air, so feel free to flick yours as well.

After the free concert, Tex will read a section out of the Biker’s Bible, lead us in a word of prayer, and ask us what we believe.  Just nod your head and say “amen” like the rest of us while he’s reading, that way you’ll fit right in.  Here’s the prayer so you can practice, “God is great, God is Good, He gave me a Harley, Like I knew He would.  Let me ride in straight, And do nothing wrong, Till You take me to heaven, Where I’ll ride it long. Amen.”  When he asks you what bikin believers believe, just say, “I believe I was a prisoner of the highway, but Jesus came to set me free.  I used to ride my bike just my way, but now I’ve given the handlebars to Thee.  I give you the clutch, the brakes, and the throttle.  Amen.”  If you can do all of that, you’re in, and the sermon will be a piece of cake.

Speakin of the sermon, there ain’t much to worry about here.  Our preacher, a current chaplain for the Hell’s Angels, will light your fire!  He likes to jump about a bit, and spit, and sometimes swear a little, but you’ll be inspired to ride for Jesus like never before.  Smooth Joe accompanies him on the organ the whole time he’s preachin, and it is downright movin.  When he gets done, we all usually rush the stage and fall down at the altar repentin of somethin.  He puts his hand on all our foreheads and prays a bit, callin down fire from heaven.  We’ll give you a rag to wipe his sweat off you before you go back to your seat.

When it’s all over, we like to pass a helmet around and collect some money, so kindly bring along some cash so we don’t have to ask for an IOU and hold up the whole process. After the service, stick around for some brats, beer, and football.  We’ve got a deal with a cool local cabbie if you need a ride home.

Oh, and about your kids, don’t bother bringin ‘em to all this.  We don’t like ‘em, and frankly, most of our parents or children’s services took ours away from us long ago.  See ya Sunday, man!

Flotsam & Jetsam (9.13.06)

An extended quotation from Richard Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences, the fourth chapter entitled "Egotism in Work and Art":

The sin of egotism always takes the form of withdrawal.  When personal advantage becomes paramount, the individual passes out of the community.  We do not mean the state, with its apparatus of coercion, but the spiritual community, where men are related on the plane of sentiment and sympathy and where, conscious of their oneness, they maintain a unity not always commensurable with their external unification.

Such withdrawal, which has been given the disarming name of enlightened selfishness and which more often than not is inspired by the desire to be "equal," is pulverizing modern society.  And there is no precept in modern ideology with which to rebuke it; for, is not this equal man a kind of king, superior to the trappings of royalty, and cannot such a one do what he will with his life?....

Inevitably, there follows an increase of selfishness.  It is the simple nature of egotism to view things out of proportion, the "I" becoming dominant and the entire world suffering a distortion.  Once more we are face to face with the fact of alienation from reality.  No man who knows himself in his ab extra relationships can be egotistic.  But he who is cognizant mainly of self suffers an actual derangement; as Plato saw: "the excessive love of self is in reality the source to each man of all offenses; for the lover is blinded about the beloved, so that he judges wrongly of the just, the good, and the honorable, and he thinks that he ought always prefer his own interests to the truth."

Accordingly, self-absorption is a process of cutting one's self off from the "real" reality....

All of us, to one degree or another, are infected with this disease of the "self."  We are tempted, especially in dark days, to retreat each to our own secret place, and only to go through the motions in community.  We live in a world so infected by this plague that to be sick is to be normal.  The illness crops up in the Church, where one may hear the words, "It's not about you," but every syllable and action communicates the opposite sentiment--it is about you, and we'll design the product and package it nicely for our fickle consumers several tastes.

Well, it really isn't about us, and the Creator has placed within our grasp His Word and His Church to speak that truth into our lives.  The Word, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, urges us daily to cast the right verdict regarding self and be nailed to a cross.  Christ speaks truth into our lives, and correctly aligns us with reality as He, being external to self, is a fixed star upon which we may confidently navigate.  The Church, via Word, ordinance, and discipline, buttresses our journey with truth and places us in proximity with other travelers requiring us to know ourselves in ab extra relationships, as Weaver admonishes.

We must beware of the creeping symtoms of self-absorption that threaten to cut us off from reality.  It is no wonder we are admonished to "not forsake the assembling of ourselves together," and when finding ourselves in such community, to "pursue the things which make for peace and the building up up one another."  Let us truly say, "I love Thy Church, O God!  For her my prayers ascend; to her my cares and toils be give'n, till toils and cares shall end."

Flotsam & Jetsam (9.11.06)

Yesterday we took up the story of Ahab and his duel confrontations with Ben-hadad recorded in 1 Kings 20.  The story is too long to recount in F&J, and the sermon will probably be here soon if you want to be reminded of the content (the first several minutes retell the tale), but I am most interested lately in trying to make accurate application from OT narrative.  Keeping in mind the original audience (the generation returning from the exile), and the main intent (to inform the exiles of how they arrived in their current predicament, and the need to be reminded at this new start that God will be faithful to His word, those who obey it will be blessed, while those who ignore it are judged), here are four observations made after dealing with the narrative:

1.  God is absolutely sovereign over all human events.  Four times the flow of the story is interrupted by an anonymous prophet's words (20: 13-14; 22; 28; 42) communicating God's intentions.  By the time a wall falls on a large portion of Ben-hadad's army (20:30), there is no doubt who "pushed it."  Therefore, we should acknowledge and submit ourselves to the rule of God in every aspect of our lives--whether at a national or individual level.  A believer should demonstrate a calm assurance in the face of life's circumstances.

2.  The human factor, not the miraculous, is key to God's will being accomplished in this instance.  Ordinary events are viewed from a theological perspective.  Too often we expect God to interrupt the ordinary course of events to perform at our whim or do our bidding.  His kingdom operates by larger underpinning principles that work themselves out in the course of human history and individual lives.

3.  God is abundantly gracious to consistently disobedient people.  God is faithful to His covenant people, though they are undeserving.  His reputation is at stake in Ben-hadad's assault via the gods of the mountains and valleys.  Ahab certainly did not deserve the deliverance he received, but he did deserve the judgment he finally got.  The last chapters in 1 Kings explain the "bow at a random" of 1 Kings 22:34.  It was not so random.

4.  God expects his people to know His word and obey it.  Ultimately, Ahab is judged after a seeming success because he ignored God's warning, and operated in blatant disregard of the law commanding Israel to destroy whatever is "under the ban" (Dt. 20:10-18).  Whether Ahab is familiar with the text is not mentioned; he is obviously held accountable to the law as his position as king demands.  We are reminded of our personal accountability to God's revelation.  So often we see believers operate in blatant disregard of clear commands, and then respond in bitterness or despair at the consequences...flee youthful lusts, do not forsake the assembly, forgive one another, etc.  Somehow we think we are immune to the outworking of God's kingdom principles in our lives.  Ahab reminds us that we are not.

On Confession

For a period of time last year we added lengthy and sometimes specific times of confession to our worship service.  This focus usually consisted of a responsive reading that ran something like the following:

Leader: Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.   

All: Most Holy and merciful Father, we confess to you, to one another, that we have sinned against you by our own fault in thought, word and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

Leader: We have been deaf to your call to serve as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit.

All: We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives.

Leader: Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, 

All: Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves. 

Leader: Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work, 

All: Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us, 

Leader: Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done; for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, 

All: For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us. 

All: Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us; Hear us, Lord, for your mercy is great.

However, some of the congregants thought it disinguenuous to consider sins they did not think they had committed.  So we adopted a more general kind of confession, resembling what you may find in the Book of Common Prayer:

Out of the depths we cry to You, O Lord; in Your mercy, hear our prayers. 

All: We confess that formerly we were dead in sin, cut off from You, cut off from each other, rebels wandering in a wilderness of our own making. We long to put off the sin that so easily entangles, but in our own strength, Lord, we cannot. 

Leader: Father in heaven, deliver us from temptation!

All: The human heart is deceitful above all things; how dare we trust in ourselves? Pride and greed make their home within, and we so quickly turn to worship anything but You. 

Leader: Answer my prayers, O LORD, for your unfailing love is wonderful. Turn and take care of me, for your mercy is so plentiful. 

All: Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” 

Leader: And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.  The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” 

All: So open our eyes that we may see wonderful things out of your word.

Though I understand the difficulty of confessing a sin or sins that one does not necessarily believe they have committed, I think it healthy to ponder sins we may not always consider our own.  Is it possible the Holy Spirit may use such a naming to cleanse us of hidden faults?  I see the wisdom of confessing the glittering generalities in the BCP, but I also found it wholesome to stick a needle in now and then to see if it draws blood.

Duly Dedicated

Yesterday was a wonderful day in the life of our church.  Family and friends from many places gathered with us to acknowledge God's goodness in our lives as we dedicated (set apart) our new facility for God's glory (to be used in a way that gives other people the right opinion of the worthy/weighty character of our God).  It hardly seems possible that eight years have almost passed since our first service, but thumbing through pictures of families revealed the changes, especially in our children (we parents certainly don't look any older). 

As Sean Maxfield reminded us, if we had known on the founding Sunday (January 4, 1998) it would be this long before we finally had our own tent pitched on our own little patch of the planet, it might have been cause for despair.  But God wisely keeps those things to Himself.  Ed Jaeger told us his chicken and pig story (again)...the chicken is involved in breakfast (gives an egg), but the pig is totally committed (gives his life to make bacon).  Every church family is made up of chickens and pigs, hopefully we're all moving toward a willingness to be pigs.  Thad Claggett rehearsed for us why we built, from the unique perspective of a builder and church member.  Here are his words:

And so, there are those of us today whose profession is that of a builder.  I want to share with you the current methods that we employ, address the question of why to build and then consider the conclusion of this matter.

As builders, we stand on the knowledge of current and past generations for the techniques of good construction and the application of the principles of engineering and the artistry of architectural design. With this knowledge, we excavate and compact the myriad of soil types and stone. Our suppliers bring us the now common wonder of modern concrete whose ingredients of course aggregate, sand, pozzolan, lime and water are mined from the great storehouses of the earth. From this we build that strong foundation and lay the pre-cast masonry units that extend the structure out of the earth on which the superstructure will then be built. From there, we employ the services of the timber men who bring us the strength and beauty of the various lumber species from the great forests of America and beyond.  Iron is mined and steel in produced. Zinc is used to protect this steel from the destruction of rust. These pieces are combined to form the skeleton of our walls and roof.

The factories then supply us with products that are engineered from the raw materials of wood fiber, resin, and gypsum that produce the sheathing materials of drywall and plywood. Asphalt, vinyl and aluminum materials are then applied to resist water penetration. In combination, these products form assemblies that momentarily resist the consuming effects of a cursed world. Fire, water and wind; vibration and decay give any builder pause as we consider the forces arrayed against us, as we try to build in such a way as to protect the safety of our assuming fellow man who passes mostly unaware of the peril of structural failure that sometimes awaits each of us.

From this point the building takes on the finishes that reflect the innate sense of beauty and practical features of cleanliness, durability and timelessness given to man as part of the image that was endowed by his creator.

But why is this building even necessary? Truly, for the Christian to worship God, it is not necessary. But in its features, this building mirrors the instructions given by God to his people. In the desert, God instructed the Israelites how to dispose of waste to prevent disease. Our plumbing does that same job today. The blessing of the vibrating atom powers our electrical system that allows all things to be done decently and in order. The temperature of our air is raised or lowered, dried or humidified, filtered and exchanged in order to allow the human body to be at rest from the conditions of an ever changing climate. The rooms create havens of learning and comfort for the smallest child to the honored aged. Music and the spoken word is transmitted properly so that it truly ministers grace to the hearer.

All of these building materials and devices flow from the hand of our benevolent creator, who, although He subjected this word to futility, had mercy in His judgment in the days of Noah, that we might even to this day have an abundance of products for our dominion that make our lives easer and more productive in His service.

To this end, the individuals of the Christian Church have through the ages returned a portion of their earnings to finance the work of our God that we might acknowledge the owner of all things, that we might learn the obedience of Christ likeness as we dwell together in unity.

This is why we have built.

We prayed these words:

To You, God and Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord:

We dedicate this house.

To You, eternal Son of God, Redeemer of Your people and Head of they church:

We dedicate this house.

To You, Spirit of God, lord and giver of life, our teacher, sanctifier and comforter:

We dedicate this house.

For the worship of God in praise and prayer;

For the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God;

For the celebration of communion and baptism:

We dedicate this house.

For the diffusion of sacred knowledge;

For the promotion of righteousness;

For the extension of the kingdom of God:

We dedicate this house.

For release of the captives;

For recovering of sight to the blind;

For rest to the heavy laden:

We dedicate this house.

For comfort to those who mourn;

For strength to those who are tempted;

For assurance to those of little faith:

We dedicate this house.

For the sanctifying of the family;

For the nurture of the young;

For the perfection of believers:

We dedicate this house.

In gratitude for the gracious keeping of the divine covenant;

We dedicate this house.

In reliance upon the promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail;

In hope of the eternal glory of the Church triumphant;

We dedicate this house.

Service order here.

This may not excite you much...

...but it sure does me!  It was just a week and a half ago that the Deacons considered purchasing a new pulpit.  We were looking at $1500 for a cheappie constructed of less than stellar materials.  Last night, Mike Johnston hauled this baby into church!  It is actually an almost exact replica of a pulpit I have preached behind (well, I was behind it most of the time) at Grace Bible Church in Moore, SC (pastored by Champ Thornton and his elder team).  I especially like it because it is low (you can't hide behind it), but wide enough to hold several open books, or even a laptop.  Thanks for a quality job, Mike, and thanks for inspiration, Champ & Co..

The New Digs

A week of hard work culminated in the the first services in our new building on Sunday.   Ahead of schedule and under budget, the new place fit the congregation like a hand in a glove.  Though the first service was on Sunday, the first use of the facility actually took place the day before.  The John Richards' family hosted their loved ones for a meal after the funeral of John's father.  It is wonderful to have a facility through which we can serve others.  The dedication will actually take place on October 16th at 2pm.  Here are a few more photos.

So Built We the Walls

Well actually, somebody else is building the walls, but we are paying for them!  We went over to the property tonight for another look at the new building.  The outside is almost complete, the drywall has received a primer coat of paint, the ceiling grid system is just about in, most of the plumbing fixtures are installed, and even some bulletin boards and mirrors are hung.  I hope everybody waits for me to get back before they move in and dedicate the thing.  Here are a few photos from this evening's trip.  I managed to catch a hoodlum messing around with the builder's equipment in one frame.

Recovering Mother Kirk: Reflections

This evening I found most of the entire first chapter of Hart's work in an essay at Touchstone here. You can decide if my summaries have done it justice.  The purpose of this post is to look back on the chapter and share some thoughts.

Hart is obviously appealing for low-church Presbyterians to move toward a high-church model.  This is removed from where we are as a free-church congregation.  I was raised in a non-denominational bible church founded by a man that came out of mainline Presbyterianism in the 1930's.  Many streams fed that first church:  revivalism, pietism, a loose form of Presbyterian polity mixed with Baptist congregationalism, fundamentalism, militant separatism, dispensationalism, an infrequent, but reverent observance of the Lord's table, and a mixture of Calvinism and Arminianism.   

The church that I pastor would be considered a third generation descendent of that church.  We are more reformed in doctrine, elder-rule in polity, more mildly dispensational, concerned for demonstrating both the purity and the unity of the church (realizing there is not one without the other), and baptistic in our view of the ordinances (not hung up on mode of baptism, though we practice immersion).  The list could be extended.

Having grown up in the "free-church" all my life, and having pastored for fifteen years (as an assistant for 8 yrs, and as an elder/pastor who is compensated for laboring in the word for 7 yrs--still a short time, I know), I find myself with several concerns for our local assembly.  Many of these have to do with finding a reference point outside of ourselves to which we are accountable, and that will sustain us in future generations. 

Of course, Christ is the Lord of the Church.  He is the Head of the Body, and we must be yielded to the Holy Spirit as we are led into truth through the process of study and illumination.  We must trust Him implicitly to be our Guide and Anchor.  The Word contains all the instruction we need for faith and practice; it is our inerrant and God-breathed authority.  We have the foundation of the Apostles and prophets upon which to build. 

It is just this foundation to which we find ourselves drawn, as well as to the work of others who have long labored in the same love.  Here is what we are finding important: 

--expositional preaching (dependent upon a second rate expositor and communicator at present)
--the maintenance of church discipline
--guarding a regenerate membership
--body life as expressed in small groups and "one another" relationships--here is where discipleship and accountable relationships can/should take place
--a more careful liturgy (praying scripture, confession, reciting the Apostle's Creed, moments of silence, music that is God-centered, theologically accurate, sung in a style appropriate to the occasion, and characterized by beauty and excellence to a significant degree, more frequent observance of the Lord's table, etc)
--a life lived transparently between two worlds (eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we live) from which one may witness authentically to the Gospel, etc.

We are far from Hart's high church model, but we are drawn to the roots of creed and confession.  We are not sacramental, but we want to repent of our self-sufficiency and lack of gospel-centeredness.  We are not denominational, but we are so radically independent, that the Church (capital C) is too far removed from our thoughts, prayers, and lives.  We do not believe that adopting a set liturgy or form will rejuvenate Christ's Body (either locally or more broadly), but we have been far too careless in how we worship our Lord and nurture faith in our community. 

Our congregation represents a breadth of church affiliations.  Though we are small, we have members and adherents from these groups:  ELCA, PCA, OPC, LCWS, SBC, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Independent Baptist, Independent Bible, and unchurched.  I am sure there are others.  We enjoy the diversity in our group, but we also have a healthy unity around the creed and our core confession.  It enables us to be transparent about our differences where some denominations might demand uniformity.  I believe we have been able to draw from a number of denominational backgrounds because we are more careful in our liturgy.  Though we do not strictly follow the BCP, or the church year, or various rites, there is enough formality and carefulness in worship and philosophy of ministry to guard it, by God's grace, from becoming overly enthusiastic, programmatic, seeker-driven, or worldly.   

That is where we are in our journey.  There are some aspects of congregational life with which we are quite satisfied, but others that are burdensome and imbalanced.  For example, it will take some time to drive fundamentalism’s internal focus and fear out of our hearts so that we can truly love and give ourselves for those different than we are.  I appreciate the overall emphasis of Hart's work without sensing a need to adopt the high-church view he advocates. I don’t have reference points in his world (no doubt that blinds me to some of the implications of what he is saying). Some aspects of our theology won't let us go there anyway.  And at the end of the day, we don't want to replace a man-centered congregational life with a Spiritless dead orthodoxy (not that this is where high-church liturgy implicitly leads).  As others have noted before, we seek orthodoxy (right doctrine), orthopraxy (right practice--wisdom), and orthopathy (right affections).  God help us to find our way, but the point is, we tread where others have walked, and we do so on their shoulders.

Recovering Mother Kirk (pt 6)

    The last section of the first chapter of D.G. Hart's book, Recovering Mother Kirk, is entitled:  Church as Mother or Personal Trainer?  I must admit to a special affinity for the heading (for obvious reasons); it is a unique comparison (the previous five entries concerning the book can be found under this heading).

    Hart contrasts two ways in which congregants may view their local assembly, either as nurturer or coach.  If the latter, then church is a hub of activity in which "God requires good works to be performed."  While the citizens of Christendom go about the business of being good Christians in Vanity Fair, they stop in at the church once or twice a week to recharge their batteries, display their energy and enthusiasm, and get fired up through pep talks and personal enrichment classes.   If on the other hand, church is viewed as mother, pilgrims come to her seeking the grace of God through the ordained means of preaching, sacrament, and life under authority.  There is no life without an intimate relationship to her. 

    Hart rightly points out that one's view of the church is intimately connected to one's view of self.  "Chances are that an impoverished estimate of the church stems directly from an overly high estimate of one's self....Less confidence about our abilities and a greater recognition of our infirmities would lead to a different view of the church."  As an illustration to reveal our true heart's position, Hart wonders how desirous we are of regular observance of the Lord's Table.  Do we really believe that we stand in need of God's grace as revealed on the Cross (skip whether or not you believe real grace is offered in the partaking--my interjection not Hart's)?  If so, then that need will be expressed in a regular attendance at the Table, a need to be there.  Hart is critical of low-church Presbyterians who only celebrate the sacrament twelve times a year.  If the Israelites had ceased eating the manna because it was the same meal everyday, they would have perished in the wilderness. 

    Hart recognizes that simply adding forms or high-church liturgy to worship will not produce a dependence on mother church.  If we are to recover the idea of church as mother, then a change of heart is required.  Congregants "need to learn that the ministry of the church is a means of grace."  Correct words, forms, prayers, hymns, and sermons are essential, and God promises to use them, but "high-church liturgy requires a high-church piety."  Hart commends a return to the appetite Christ commends in John 6--a hunger for the very Bread of Life.

"For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like angels" (John Calvin).