Nancy was surprised when she found out. It wasn’t what she had expected, either. Perhaps you’d be interested to learn that it wasn’t John Calvin who brought the Protestant Reformation to Geneva. In fact, he would even admit that he was a beneficiary of the work of others. Three men, lesser known to us today, were preaching the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Geneva before Calvin ever set foot there. Antoine Froment, Pierre Viret, and Guillaume Farel were teaching in such a way that the hearts of the people were captivated by God’s Word. And it was Farel who urged Calvin to stay in Geneva, waylaying him on his journey to Strasbourg.
St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Old Town of Geneva is an amazing structure. There has been a gathering of God’s people on that hill since the 4th century AD, and that is reflected in the architectural design of the Cathedral. Curiously, the name never changed; it ceased qualifying as a “cathedral” in the 1530s. The people of Geneva, so moved by the teaching of Scripture, removed all the vestiges of Roman Catholicism, taking down statues and icons and stripping the building clean. And that happened before John Calvin arrived in 1536. The effect of the gospel was such that John Knox, the lone Scot on the Reformation Wall, having arrived in Geneva some 20 years after Calvin, would call that city “the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles.”
But this isn’t a history lesson so much as a biblical and theological observation. As we read the history of this beautiful city, we have to ask, “How does a regular old city like Geneva, find itself so radically influenced by the gospel?” Because the reality is, it’s fine to know the history of these European cities, but we want our own regular old city to be radically influenced by the gospel.
The answer is the same for Athens as it was for Geneva – the Holy Spirit used the Word of God and prayer to advance the kingdom of Christ in the hearts and lives of his people. Sometimes, that happens quickly. Sometimes, it’s a long slow process. But that’s up to God and his wisdom and timing. Our calling as a church fellowship is to commit to teaching and preaching God’s Word and to praying for the Spirit to use that Word to change lives in and around Athens.
This is why Grace Covenant places such a high priority on the ordinary means of grace – Word, sacraments, and prayer – because these are the tools that God has given to the Church to accomplish its mission of reaching the lost and equipping them to serve. Pray with me that the Holy Spirit will give our church and our city such a hunger for God’s word, just like he did in Geneva almost 500 years ago.
Getting Organized
Every church in the world has the same mission. The terminology may be different, but the mission remains the same. The reason for that uniformity is that Jesus has instituted the church on earth for a very specific purpose – gathering and perfecting the saints. We could look to Matthew 28:18-20 for evidence.
“18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
As you’ve heard me say numerous times over the years, “go” is not an imperative in that passage. The command is “make disciples”. But we’re given the means by which we are to make disciples – by going, baptizing, and teaching. The implication of “baptizing” is that people are being brought into the covenant community for the first time. By “teaching” we understand what we might call discipleship – the church instructing her members so that they learn to keep all that God has commanded. Typical church-speak to summarize these two would be “evangelism and discipleship”. The Westminster Confession of Faith uses the language of “gather and perfect” (WCF 25.3). Whatever the language, the mission remains – the Church is given to the world for the purpose of establishing and growing Christ’s kingdom on earth.
How will we know if we’re accomplishing that mission? That’s the purpose of stating goals for any organization. Establishing and meeting goals is an indicator that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.[1] To that end, we have four goals – Worship, Growth in Grace, Evangelism & Missions, and Fellowship & Service.
For several years now, our budget organization has reflected these goals in anticipation of the structure and organization. But, in order to better serve Christ, His people, and our community, we need to organize around these four goals.
That’s why we have four committees, or ministry teams, under the oversight of the session for the purpose of carrying out ministry through the gifts of the congregation and to one another and to Athens.
Who’s Responsible?
We need your help in serving on these ministry teams to help execute the ministry of Grace Covenant.
Responsible for What?
For example, if you feel like you’re wired for missions and want to help GCPC connect more with the missionaries we support and plan for future support for future missionaries, then the Evangelism and Missions Committee is for you .
It’s the Growth in Grace Committee that has the most responsibility, especially early on. Everything from Women’s Ministry and Men’s Ministry to adult and children’s Sunday school and nursery – all of these and more fall under the oversight of the GG Committee.
Fellowship has, to this point, technically been the lead on Sunday Night Fellowship and the coffee/snacks before worship and, I trust, Worship is fairly obvious.
Therefore
If you have a desire to serve on one of these committees, please let me (Jeff) know as soon as possible. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
[1] If you want to have a discussion about comparing and contrasting goals in the church vs. the business world, let’s get coffee or lunch
Ash Wednesday, Lent, and GCPC
Maybe you noticed that Ash Wednesday came and went without any fanfare at Grace Covenant. Have you ever noticed your neighbors or coworkers walking around with ashes on their foreheads while your church isn’t even mentioning it? In the coming days and weeks, you won’t hear anything about Lent at Grace Covenant, either.
Why doesn’t GCPC observe the church calendar?
First, there’s just no command in all of Scripture to follow any particular church calendar. There’s no evidence that the church today is supposed to organize its annual preaching schedule around particular events that occurred in the Gospels either to Jesus or in connection with his earthly ministry. And, as confessional Presbyterians, Scripture is “our sole rule of faith and life,” and especially so when it comes to something like this.
What Do Worship & Architecture Have in Common
As GCPC is preparing to move into a new building for worship (and Sunday school, but that’s another discussion), the facility itself has raised questions of architecture and furniture and décor. In the past, this building has been both a dance studio and a music recording studio (the Alabama Shakes, no less). And to look at it from the outside, I mean, it’s a metal box; it doesn’t exactly “look” like a church.
However, as Andrew Fuller, the English Baptist pastor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, reminds us, we don’t “go to church” so much as the “church gathers for worship.”
“Under the gospel, it is not place, but the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth, that is of account.”
Since the church is people (as we will see, Lord willing, from 1 Peter 2 this coming Sunday), the place we meet isn’t what matters so much as why we meet. We meet to worship the one true God.
But what do we believe about Him? Just whom do we worship? Both our architecture and our worship service should communicate what we believe about the God we worship and serve.
God is completely other. He lives outside of time and space, not limited by a physical body the way we are. He’s infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.[1] God alone is “holy, holy, holy” as Isaiah tells us from his heavenly vision in Isaiah 6. And we need to communicate God’s transcendence in our worship.
But he’s also accessible. God has come to us in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. He has come to us in language we can read and understand in the written word. God invites us into his presence through the blood of Christ. He welcomes us as his children. And just as we seek to communicate God’s transcendence in worship, we also seek to communicate his immanence, his nearness, his approachability.
This is where worship and architecture meet. When you meet in a 17th century cathedral with solid stone walls and a 50-foot ceiling and your eyes are drawn upward as you enter, the transcendence of God is made plainly evident to all. Because of the architecture, communicating God’s immanence will take some thoughtful work.
That’s not our situation in this new building. We have the reverse scenario – a metal building with 10-foot ceilings on a relatively small footprint of land. God’s immanence is clear. Balancing that nearness with the transcendence of God takes thoughtful work. That’s part of the reason our liturgy[2] is the way it is – traditional with familiar structure and elements so that it feels more historic and reinforces God’s transcendence.
But this balance is also affecting some of the decisions being made in our new building – paint color and furniture and lighting and such. We want the space we meet in to help us communicate theological truths proclaimed in worship – that God is absolutely transcendent and over all, but he’s absolutely immanent, near to all who call on him.
[1] Question 4 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism
[2] Order of worship
Defending the Book
Technology is really cool. Just think of all the “technological” advancements that have taken place throughout the centuries that have improved life in some form or fashion. You don’t have to walk outside in the winter to use the restroom thanks to indoor plumbing. A minor explosion occurs in your car ever time to start it and you aren’t afraid of it getting out of hand AND your car will take you where you wan to go. Can’t find your way out of a paper bag? Now your map is actually able to give you verbal directions while you’re driving; you don’t have to pull over on the side of the road to figure out which way Rand and McNally are telling you to go.
But with every technological advancement, something is also lost.* We don’t remember anything in more because Google is in our pocket
To Speak My Truth
This past Wednesday, we had a dozen Athens High School seniors in our home for pizza and Bible study. Some of these students are in church regularly and some aren’t. Some have visited GCPC a fair bit over the years. Since we weren’t starting the actual study, we had a lengthy discussion about truth.
I told them the story about getting in trouble in school when I was in 9th grade. I’ll spare you the details but will simply point out that there were two versions of what happened. There was my version of the events and the Middle School principal’s (Dr. Adams) version of what went down.
My question to these teenagers was simple: Is there a scenario in which we both are telling the truth?
I. Was. Shocked.
Nearly every single one of them was prepared to argue that I could have been telling my truth and Dr. Adams was telling hers.
How do you argue against personalized, relative, subjective truth in the minds of high school seniors? Simple.
“Have you ever accused a friend of lying to you?”
If truth is relative, lying doesn’t exist. If truth can be up to each individual, then that individual can’t twist the truth. They can’t fabricate falsehoods. They can always hide behind, “Well, this is my truth.” And there’s nothing we can say back.
This is just an example of what the church is facing today. We must first believe that truth is objective, is from God, who is Himself true, and has been communicated to us in His word. For that matter, Jesus promised that the Spirit would “guide [us] into all truth” (John 16:13).
We must also learn how to speak that truth and defend that truth from the moral relativism so pervasive in the world around us. Part of our mission, as a church, is to be aware of the schemes of the evil one (2 Corinthians 10:11; Ephesians 4:14), in the world without being of the world, have our thinking renewed according to the Word of God (Romans 12:1-2), so that we might be better prepared to reach the lost and equip them to serve in Christ’s kingdom – even in Athens.
TDF & Church Planting
I love the Tour de France. I always have. As long as I can remember, I’ve watched the Tour wishing I could be a participant. Even at my age, I wake up early, watch as much of the day’s stage as I can, and wonder what it would be like to be able to ride that long, that fast, that hard.
In addition to the yellow jersey, the jersey worn by the rider currently leading the 21-day event, there are other jerseys given for other reasons, including the polka dot jersey worn by the king of the mountain. Already this year, and we’re only 9 race days into the Tour, the cyclists have ridden in the Alps and the Pyrenees. And there are ways to earn mountain points during most stages of the race, points given at various locations throughout the day following a climb of some significance.
Just the other day, as the race climbed its way up to nearly a mile above sea-level, as the road narrowed to the width of a single car, and as the lone leader for the day struggled his way towards the top, I noticed signs or banners marking the way, arches, if you will, announcing just how much farther the rider had to go to reach the top. 4km. 2km. 1km. Until he finally reached the pinnacle of the mountain and had earned himself 10 mountain points as the first rider across that line for the day.
But here’s the thing. Although he had earned his 10 points and crossed that line painted on the road, he hadn’t finished the race. In fact, he still had another hour or more left in the saddle. He had crossed a line and reached a milestone and accomplished something significant, but he hadn’t finished the Tour de France or even that day’s stage.
We should think about particularization the way a Tour rider thinks about the King of the Mountain points. As the day approaches, we are surely crossing a significant marker and reaching a milestone. We are accomplishing something worthy of celebration. But it doesn’t mark the end of the race.
You and I have been called to plant a church in Athens. The role of the church in the world is to gather and perfect the saints, to reach the lost and equip them to serve Christ and his kingdom. That calling doesn’t stop with the election and installation of our own elders and deacons. It may change how we do some of the things that we do, but it won’t change our role in this community.
So be encouraged because we’ve climbed that peak and earned 10 mountain points. But let me encourage you to press on. It’s amazing how many times the Bible encourages us with words like those in 2 Thessalonians 3:13. There must be a reason that God reminds us regularly not to grow weary – and it must be because we are so prone to growing weary.
It would be tempting, having gained our mountain points for accomplishing that long, steep climb, to fall over and rest – from tired muscles, from aches and pains. However, we must press on. May God grant us the grace not to grow weary of doing good.