Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 15, 2018

This past week I had the privilege of sitting under the ministry of Dr. Derek Thomas, Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. Years ago, Dr. Thomas was my systematics professor at Reformed Theological Seminary and a colleague in ministry at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS. Dr. Thomas has long been a mentor and friend in ministry, but it’s been a decade since I’ve had him in class.

This week we walked through John Calvin’s magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion in detail. As many of you will know, this work served as the theological backbone of the Reformation during the 16th century. There are so many beautiful things to say about the work, but one aspect that stood out again to me this week is the way Calvin understands and speaks of the Christian life.

Calvin summarizes the Christian life with the term piety. That’s not a term we use often today. In fact, as we think of piety today, we tend think pious—a term that carries the sense of being religious, self-righteous, and hypocritical. Of course Calvin doesn’t mean that. He uses piety to speak of the proper knowledge and attitude that we should have toward God. He says, “I call ‘piety’ that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces.”

What’s interesting is that Calvin joins together two things we often keep apart—love and reverence. Today, we often say that if we love God and know God loves us then there should be no fear, but that’s not true knowledge according to how Calvin sees it. Because God is God and is all-powerful, able to do whatever He desires, even if he loves us (and he does in Christ), there is a holy reverence that is still an appropriate and even necessary Christian response.

It’s the point C.S. Lewis was making in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when, after learning that Aslan is a lion, Susan says to Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, “Ooh! I thought he was a man. Is he quite-safe?” And Mr. Beaver responds “Safe? … Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe! But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Even the goodness of Aslan and his obvious love for Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy did not take away the sense of fear and reverence. For Calvin, this bringing together of love and fear is evidence of true knowledge and the spirit through which true godliness is formed.

So much to be said here, but let me sum it up. On the one hand, if your understanding of the love of God is not joined with fear of God, your relationship with God will come to be casual and flippant. On the other hand, if your understanding of the holiness and power of God is not joined with the love of God, your relationship with God is likely to be distant and cold. It’s only by holding these two equally important aspects of the nature of God together, that a loving reverence for God arises.

It has often been the case in church history that revival comes when a strong sense of the holiness and love of God are recovered. To that end, pray for us in this regard. Would it not be most glorious for God to grant to His church in our time a true sense of who He is? O that our love for God would be reverent and our reverence to be full of love, and that in pondering him we grow from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor. 3:18).

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 8, 2018

In the past few weeks, our very own Greg Wilbur published an excellent piece on worship online at Christward Collective. I found Greg’s piece so helpful and thought provoking that I decided to republish it here for your benefit. Last week, the article focused on what confessional worship is and guidelines for how worship should be led to encourage the congregational and confessional aspect of it. This week, Greg talks about the role of beauty.

Guidelines for Worship, Part 2

God has placed us here in this time and place for a purpose, and our corporate worship should reflect that reality within the context of redemptive history. We are reformational, not revolutionary. We are confessional, not traditional or modern. In order to be truly contemporary, “with the time,” we must understand our place in the lineage of the Church—which necessitates an understanding of what has gone on before. We should appreciate and utilize the wisdom and artistic excellence of the past without worshipping the forms; we should seek to create new work, without divorcing ourselves from our history.

As we relate and communicate to the culture around us, we must use great wisdom to discern that which are “the patterns and customs of this world,” as opposed to those things that are biblically permissible. Instead of falling to the least common denominator, we should be accessible to our culture, yet excellent. Without creating artificial barriers to the Gospel, we should, however, move from the milk of the Gospel to solid food.

As we seek to follow the guidelines above, the distinctive aesthetic of worship calls us to pursue the beauty of Christ and to make Him known. Consider beauty in worship in the following ways:

· Beauty is an attribute of God and is therefore a theological issue. God is the standard of beauty as well as its source; therefore, there is an objective standard for what is beautiful. Aesthetics is the study of beauty and the ability to apprehend it. From a theological perspective, the Word of God is the rule by which we make aesthetic judgments. God speaks to the role of artists in the description He gives of the artists for the tabernacle: filled with the Spirit, ability, intelligence, knowledge, craftsmanship, and able to teach others. Good art and music should be the product of these types of characteristics.

· Beauty is best understood in its relationship and balance to goodness and truth—otherwise it can be trite, transient, trendy, temporary, deceptive, insubstantial, or gimmicky. There is a significance and weight to true beauty.

The very fact that something is beautiful is an apologetic of the Gospel and of the realities of truth and goodness. All beauty is God’s beauty. In addition, beauty can be a winsome adornment, and it can be a challenging stumbling block. Beauty can also open the heart to that inexpressible sense of the transcendence of God that causes great desire for the Truth.

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, July 1, 2018

This past week our very own Greg Wilbur published an excellent piece on worship online at Christward Collective. I found Greg’s piece so helpful and thought provoking that I decided to republish it here for your benefit. Enjoy!

 Guidelines for Worship, Part 1

 The concept the confessional worship creates an unfamiliar category that challenges the better-known ideas of contemporary or traditional. Practically speaking, what is called contemporary or traditional can be very subjective depending on time and place. As such, confessional worship offers a corrective which transcends both categories. The following thoughts may begin to help point us towards what that really means:

·       Worship is the work of the Church—all other ministry flows out of right worship.

·       Worship is coming before the throne of God and joining in worship with the Church visible and invisible.

·       Worship instills joy, rest, and peace. It is restorative and preparation for Godly living.

·       Worship is an efficacious tool in the process of sanctification.

·       Worship is an antidote to the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

·       There is no substitute for corporate worship in the Christian life.

·       Worship is about what God requires, not what we like or prefer.

Because worship consists of the above elements, our attitude and posture in leading worship should consist of the following:

·       Worship is not performance.

·       The role of leading and facilitating worship is for the purpose of encouraging the congregation in worship, not to worship “at” them.

·       Arrangements and songs should be chosen that are ecclesiastically appropriate—what is appropriate in other venues may not be appropriate for corporate. worship.

·       The criteria for what is ecclesiastically appropriate refers to text, music, the combination text and music, arrangements, and execution.

·       As leaders, we should be growing and stretching in worship even as the congregation is called to grow and stretch in the knowledge of God.

·       Worship should be accessible yet excellent.

·       As musicians, we should be growing in skill and depth—musically and theologically.

·       Craftsmanship is a biblical concept; originality is a humanist concept.

·       How we play and lead should be different than how we play and sing at a recital, coffeehouse, or concert.

·       God is the standard of beauty and excellence—our worship should seek after biblical excellence and objective beauty, goodness, and truth.

Continued Next Week…

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, June 24, 2018

The General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) meets every June to conduct the national business of the denomination. This year’s GA was one of the more encouraging GA’s in recent memory.

One reason for the meeting’s efficiency and expediency was Dr. Irwyn Ince, the first African American moderator of the PCA. Dr. Ince serves as the Director of the Grace DC Network for Cross Cultural Mission and has been actively involved in the denomination the last several years—serving as chairman of the Study Committee on Women in Ministry from 2016-2017 and the Overtures Committee in 2016. When being nominated for election as moderator this year, Dr. Charles McGowan said of Dr. Ince, “The PCA is blessed to have chosen Irwyn Ince as her newly-elected moderator. We have done more than elect the first black moderator in the history of our denomination. We have wisely chosen a proven, capable young leader and a respected and faithful churchman. He will be a skilled moderator and represent the denomination well throughout the year.” Dr. McGowan is absolutely right. We are indeed blessed to have Dr. Ince as the 2018-2019 moderator of the PCA.

Aside from the historic election of Dr. Ince to moderator, here are two other items of note coming out of this year’s General assembly. First, an overture (item of business) was passed to strengthen our denomination’s commitment to a biblical definition of marriage. Though our confessions and catechisms already clearly set forward a biblical view of marriage being between one man and one woman for life, it was believed that by making our Book of Church Order’s (BCO) chapter 59.3 on marriage “constitutionally binding,” our position would be strengthened all the more and may serve as a needed protection for our denomination in the days ahead. The approved statement reads as follows “Marriage is only to be between one man and one woman (Gen. 2:24-25; Matt. 19:4-6; 1 Cor. 7:2), in accordance with the Word of God. Therefore, ministers in the Presbyterian Church in America who solemnize marriages shall only solemnize marriages between one man and one woman.”

Finally, two years ago the General Assembly Ad Interim Committee on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation was formed to “…assess the current situation in the PCA concerning racial and ethnic reconciliation” and to “identify specific problems the PCA needs to address to promote racial reconciliation and ethnic diversity.” Further, the committee was to help the denomination “develop constructive guidelines and suggest concrete steps for the use of the PCA, including all presbyteries and sessions in order to make progress toward the work of racial reconciliation.” The committee’s report was biblically sound, thoroughly researched, and pastorally wise. The report’s suggestions for churches, academic institutions, and presbyteries for ongoing reconciliation and minority inclusion and development were well received and approved by the GA. This report will be published at some point later this year. When it is available, I will be sure to let you know.

If you have any questions about the items above or other actions of the General Assembly this year, do not hesitate to reach out. I would be glad to speak with you further. 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, June 17, 2018

In today’s passage, Paul calls us to be constant in prayer. Whenever I read those words from Paul, these words from J.C. Ryle come to mind, “When Paul says, ‘Continue in prayer’ and ‘Pray without ceasing,’ he did not mean that people should be always on their knees, but he did mean that our prayers should be like the continual burned-offering steadily preserved in every day; that it should be like seed-time and harvest, and summer and winter, unceasingly coming round at regular seasons; that it should be like the fire on the altar, not always consuming sacrifices, but never completely going out.”

Ryle is right, of course. But how do we pray in this way?

I’ve always found it interesting how little time John Calvin spends theologizing on the doctrine of prayer in The Institutes of Christian Religion, but how much time he spends on the practice of praying. Calvin understood that prayer is communion with God—an intimate and ongoing conversation built on love. Like all forms of communication, there are certain guiding principles—you might call them rules—that one follows to facilitate and maintain close relationship.

Helpfully, Joel Beeke, President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI, explores Calvin’s writing on prayer in a work entitled, Taking Hold of God. Reflecting on Calvin, Beeke distills four basic rules for conversation with God.

1.     Heartfelt Sense of Reverence – Our prayers should take into account who we are speaking with, namely, God. Being moved by His character and the fact He desires to speak with us; should create within us a sense of awe, a holy reverence. Why? Because the God of the universe is mindful of us, desiring to hear from us.

2.     Heartfelt Sense of Need & Repentance – As soon as we come in contact with the nature of God, we see our want. Calvin says we should have the “disposition of a beggar.” We see His glory, and with yearning that His will is to be done, we pray with the sense that our very life depends on it.

3.     Heartfelt Sense of Humility and Trust in God – Naturally flowing from the two previous points is the realization that we despair of our position and ability and yield ourselves entirely to God. Confidence in self is drained, and transferred wholly to God, knowing that the heavenly Father will give to us all we need (Luke 11:13).

4.     Heartfelt Sense of Confident Hope – Because the Scripture assures us of the Father’s great and unchangeable love for His children, we can pray expectantly. If we are in Christ, we have no reason to fear and every reason to hope. Our inheritance is absolutely sure (I Peter 1:3-4). Our prayers must reflect this surety, issuing forth with an unshakable confidence and joy.

If these four rules were to become the heart habit of your prayer life, what a difference it would make in your relationship with the Lord! Be forewarned though: these rules must not become rote. The key word in every point is “heartfelt.” So, let love for God stir your heart, filling your every prayer with enjoyment of heartfelt communion with the living God.