It’s Even More Official

Well, as we posted not that long ago that Rock Presbyterian Church (Greenwood, SC) had voted unanimously on June 22 to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  Well, the cake has risen and all we need icing.  The Church Development Team of the Mid-Atlantic Presbytery voted unanimously to receive Rock Church into the denomination July 31.  The EPC is the third largest presbyterian body in the USA.  Rock Church used to be PCA until 1998.  We voted to leave for a variety of reasons, one of which was the sorry job the shepherding committee did to shepherd the church, despite all of her difficulties at the time.  Rock was courted by the ARP church, but the presbytery would have wanted the property deeded over to them, as presbyteries are prone to do–witness the property wars in the PCUSA right now over churches leaving the denomination (ironically for the EPC).  One of the reasons we went with the EPC was precisely the fact that the Book of Order states clearly that the property of the church belongs to the church trustees.

No really, going back to the PCA thing for a minute.  One thing I was very impressed with about the EPC was their intense desire from their incpetion (1981) to keep the Gospel the main thing.  They have dilenated 10 “Essentials” which they believe are an evangelical summary of the Westminster Confession.  This is what they focus on; they are more concerned about bing a missional church to a post-Christian America than they are about heresy trials, e.g. the Federal Vision “controversy.”  Me like it very much.  i have to agree with a recent post by Anglican, Fr. Michael J. Pauls wrote recently:

It is also quite fair to note that the OPC/WTS/NAPARC agenda is misguided and quite probably quixotic. If we have learned anything from the Norm Shepherd affair, the creation days debate, paedocommunion, Auburn Avenue/ Federal Vision, the New Perspective on Paul, and now the Enns dismissal from WTS, it is that a 17th Century White European confession cannot possibly be employed to speak with unequivocal force to define a 21st Century, multi-ethnic, and  globalized Christian body. Such a refusal to engage in the hard work of communal introspection, continuing reformation, and renewed self-definition (John XXIII’s ressourcement and aggiornamento) impedes the all the [super]natural linguistic, spiritual, theological, and ecclesial developments of faith communities. This strikes me as an effort to close the barn door after the departure of the horses. The result will only be continued “group think” and  increased irrelevance in a globalized Christian context.  Barring accord on these issues, it would be my hope that we could at least be clear with regard to our own ideological commitments and charitable with regard to those who do not share them.

Very much where I believe the leadership of the EPC is headed and where Rock Church needs to be after all these years.  We are in a post-Christian context and sadly enough for this fellar, Christendom is dead in the West.  The “OPC/WTS/NAPARC” bunch (as Pahls calls them) produce book minth after month that broader culture cares nothing about; this crowd will do like Muggeridge said and educate itself into imbecility.  Soon they will be writing books to hear themselves talk and pat themselves on the back, saluting their deep scholasticism and their proud devotion to an era gone by.

Well, I’m a postmillennialist, so I believe Christendom will be recovered, but only after generations in this country have been chastised and disciplined by our covenant-keeping Lord.  And I have to watch it happen.  However, it gives me great hope to belong to a denomination that is deeply concerned that America be our primary mission-field, and our presbytery is spear-heading this move at the forefront.  May God be gracious to us and empower us for the task . . . Amen . . .

 

A Beacon on a Hill

     In our post-Christian culture, as we become increasingly Marxist, my vision for ministry is one of desperation.  It is hard for me to watch Christendom crumble around me.  So instead of worrying about the “Big Picture” and all the global nonsense, I have become convicted to focus on my sphere of influence which is primarily my family, the parish under my care and the community in which I serve.  We do want to support those that are church planters and foreign missionaries, but in order to see the foundations restored, my task is local. 

     Recognizing the post-Christian character of our culture, my own philosophy is not to dumb-down the reformed message or adopt the trends of the present in order to “reach this generation.”  I firmly believe the historic church has its own meta-narrative.  We have our own legitimate vocabulary, traditions and story.  In order to reach those in an increasingly post-Christian culture, I desire to see people come to church and feel as if they have stepped into another world.  In my leading worship, I emphasize that when we gather together on the Lord’s Day, we are taken up in our call to worship to heaven in the communion of saints; we are assembled with the martyrs, angels and are in the presence of the Holy Trinity.  All this is meta-empirical and supra-historical, but nonetheless very real.  I do not de-emphasize the immanence in the transcendence, but underscore the later precisely because of the former.

     I envision churches becoming cities of refuge; beacons on hills and the elders as watchmen on the walls.  The church does not have to lose its historic worship, her language, her liturgics in order to be relevant.  The Truth is the Truth and it is the same message properly expounded; it is the same proclamation that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and in that faithful exposition, God the Holy Spirit raises the dead, like Aslan in the castle of the White Witch—breathing on the statues—giving them faith and granting them repentance; calling the elect from the four corners of the earth.  This happens every Sunday, every Sabbath of the New Creation.  In our celebration of the Christian year, we offer a meta-narrative that transcends the gossip and mudslinging of the newsmedia and the profane idolatry of the entertainment industry.   As we watch the deterioration of our culture, our church culture can provide an atmosphere of safety that transcends the aforementioned evils.  The trends will come and go; sufficient for today is the evil thereof.  The Church as the Church, anchored on Christ will weather the philosophical storms of the current age.

 

Providence Smiled on the Scots

I was talking recently with a good friend in the ARP Church and he told me some wonderful news.  First, a little background.  The ARP church is the oldest presbyterian body in the country.  They are composed of a merger that took place in 1882 in Philadelphia of two Scots-Irish presbyteries (“Ulster Scots”).  The Associate Presbytery (“Seceeders”) and the Reformed Presbytery (“Covenanters”) both at different times left the Church of Scotland for various reasons.  When they arrived in the US, the issues that kept them apart were not issues in the states.  So they merged and formed four regional Synods; the Synod of the South as it was called is all that is left of the original denomination with roughly 35,000 strong.  They have a college and seminary in Due West, SC.

The denomination like many in the times had a brief love affair with liberalism that supposedly ended in the late 1980’s.  Presbyterians more to the right would still have issue with the ARP position that the local church determines whether or not they will ordain women deacons, but not elders.  The EPC, which uses the same 1903 version of the Westminster Confession that the ARP church does, takes that one step further.  Some congregations in the EPC have female deacons AND elders and in some presbyteries, there are women who serve as teaching elders.  But alas, I digress . . .

Recently at the ARP General Synod, the Synod by a large majority moved to ammend the Form of Government to state explicitly that the denomination affirms Scriptural Inerrancy.  That may not mean much to many of you, but I was part of that bunch for seven years and inerrancy was touchy, depending on who you talk to; in fact, it’s one of the issues that drove many an ARP student to Reformed Theological Seminary rather than to Erskine (the ARP seminary).  But to hear that this has happened means that this puts the ARP denomination squarely in the conservative reformed camp and an honest member of NAPARC.  Kudos to the work of good churchmen and all praise to the Holy Trinity for what appears to be a timely act of Providence.  The world may yet be saved by the Scots once more!