A heritage from the Lord

Two of our three sons left it fairly late to marry and the middle one left it fairly late to reproduce, so we thought we would be thankful for a few grand-children, if the Lord willed. The seventh was born yesterday (quickly and without problems) and we understand that an eighth is on the way

(soon after this the Lord took him).

The seventh, a boy with three older sisters, will have Welsh names; neither Ben nor Emma speaks Welsh. It will please their grandmother no end - she learned Welsh and can converse. Like all converts she is something of a crusader for it in the family. She grieves that grandchildren born in Wales but now domiciled in the USA already have American accents - (Abraheyam!). So we have Chloe Fflur, Ffion Ruth, Anwen Grace and now Tomos John Dafydd - (subject to possible change!). We also have a Garin.

Sad to say, Welsh culture, which at one time was almost synonymous with Evangelical Christianity, is now secular and post-Christian. The language but not the way of life saved by Bishop Morgan survives without him.

But we remain thankful for another covenant child and heir of God's promises. As with the others we pray that the 'heir' might 'inherit' through faith in Christ. It is all about that wonderful biblical tension between privilege and responsibility isn't it?

Church planting - again.

The OPC website has online versions of its two main publications, New Horizons and Ordained Servant, the latter as the title indicates, is for church officers. When visiting their general Assembly in June this year, I was very impressed by the church planting activity of their home missions committee. Since the beginning of 2008 they have planted 29 causes. Equally impressive was the fact that when the church planters present were asked to stand and be recognized a very high proportion were middle-aged and in some cases 'retired' ministers. I was duly rebuked and reminded once more that retirement is not a Biblical idea.

Ross Graham, convenor of their home Missions Committee has written an article outlining six stages of church planting as a kind of follow-up to the OPC's policy document on Church Planting. It makes good Biblical sense to me so I thought I'd put the info on this blog for others to share.

On the OPC website look for Ordained Servant . The article I especially liked is How to Plant a Presbyterian Church - Ross W. Graham.

Frustration!

The question about fencing the communion table came up recently and led to a wider discussion about authority and accountability in the church. I'm not a from-the-top-down Presbyterian and prefer to think of the so called courts of the church as wider rather than higher but still worry about democratizing church leadership on the one hand, and a kind of seeker-sensitivity influencing what and how we act, on the other.

For example, what do we expect from those who sojourn with us for a long time without ever formally committing to membership - sort of cohabiting without marriage? And what about the many members and non-members of local churches who go about preaching? Who gave them permission to go and to whom are they accountable? Why worry about training ministers when all sorts of people appoint themselves?

I agree that the church is in such a parlous state that some congregations would have no preacher at all were it not for lay preachers. I also agree that we should be patient and sensitive and give people time to come to terms with the kind of church we happen to be (right or wrong). I just worry that anxiety about what people think tends to stop us being the church we are so that we end up wondering whose tune we are dancing to. Once, when discussing the form and content of some incarnation services a young woman chided us for not including songs that would appeal to outsiders. None of us knew the songs in question, and more to the point, neither would the average outsider, but they would have been more familiar with the traditional ones.anyway and I'm sure the outsiders didn't either but probably knew the traditional ones.

It is general practice to play down the importance of church membership and to allow people to do what the want, provided they think God told them to do it,so is the quest for identity, authority and accountability now redundant? Or can we continue to be what we are or ought to be in order that those who sojourn with us will know whom they are sojourning with? It cannot preclude patience and sensitivity and certainly doesn't argue for pressuring people to join up. Actually it isn't about them but us. I'm just asking whether we can be ourselves so that we may be honest about it and others might know that we are being honest.

I sometimes feel as if these are the concerns of dinosaurs (among whom I have been occasionally numbered) but I don't have the impression that our Lord Jesus Christ was relaxed about authority and accountability and I am certain the apostle Paul wasn't. I know that those not against us are for us and rejoice that the gospel is preached for whatever reason but as churches, doing it honestly and in the right way ought to count for something don't you think?

Final victory

S. Africa 2 - Lions 1! But the Lions were not smashed in scrum and line-out or in the loose or in the backs or anywhere else in this the final rugby test at Ellis Park. One is tempted to think that justice triumphed in the end but of course that is rather silly when set beside the doctrine of Christus Victor and the vindication of the saints. It's good to be on the winning side, especially when immediate results suggest otherwise.

Encouragement & comfort!

It’s more fun to look at things from a distance to see how the Lord is working than to be in the midst of what seem to us to be the tumultuous providences of God! The Lord gives us much of the former to help us w. the latter!

This came from my friend Bill Shishko, pastor of Franklin Square Orthodox Presbyterian Church, New York. I mentioned to him the sudden providence which threatens to remove our youngest son to a pastorate in the U.S.A. We have already lost one son to a church over there, which leaves only our middle son and daughter in law, plus their children to comfort us in our old age.

Calvin on true worship

'I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word. The very opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it were in their very bones and marrow, is, that whatever they do has in itself a sufficient sanction, provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honour of God.' Tracts & Letters, Vol. 1 THE NECESSITY OF REFORMING THE CHURCH, 129.

Substitution

The Lions were smashed in scrum and lineout in the first test at Durban. One small compensation was the difference made to the scrum when Rees and Jones joined Jenkins in the front row. Maybe Powell should have a start in the second test. Substitution - wonderful doctrine!