The Orthodoxy of Community

Art by Nancy Hooker

Ligonier article by Burk Parsons

The love language of all marriages is self-denial. When both husband and wife are consumed not with their own immediate happiness but with the happiness of one another, they will enjoy a happy marriage. The same is true for enduring friendships and for authentic community.

With the disintegration of marriage has come the dissolution of community. As such, community has fallen on hard times. What every generation in every society in all of history has enjoyed, the rising generation will have to fight for. With the rise of online communities, online church, and online everything, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, shoulder-to-shoulder community has become increasingly difficult to find. Moreover, many don’t know what real community is and thus don’t know what to look for. Real community doesn't happen on its own—it takes time, patience, repentance, forgiveness, and love that covers a multitude of sins. The church community is not just a crowd of people on a Sunday morning; it is the gathered, worshiping people of God in a congregation where masks aren’t needed and where real friends help bear the real burdens of one another. Community is not just getting together; it is living together, suffering together, rejoicing together, and dying together. continue reading...

Israel, Palestine, and The Church

It seems like just a land conflict. And it’s not even a very big piece of land. What’s more, it’s 6500 miles away from Athens, AL. However, it’s caused quite the stir in the church in our neck of the woods.

Now, I’m not qualified to interact with all the ins and outs of the Israel-Palestine relations, nor am I qualified to interject my opinions into the political relationships between the US and all groups involved. Besides, those things won’t help here anyway. There is one question, though, that some of you have asked, that has come up in a variety of contexts, that needs at least a little bit of interaction. To be fair, in this setting, it can only receive a little bit of interaction and not a thorough examination.

It seems that the default position of the broadly evangelical church in the United States today holds that Israel is the true people of God and the Church age is just a parenthesis in the timeline of God’s dealings with human history and salvation. There’s this assumption out there that everyone agrees that God is protecting Israel because they're his chosen nation, that God is obviously going to ensure that his special nation will win this latest conflict because he’s on their side. And this even spills over into the voting booth – the US is obligated to support Israel no matter what, precisely because and only because they are God’s people.

However, the New Testament epistles go out of their way to say that the true Israel doesn't consist only of those who descend from Abraham genetically, but who, like father Abraham, believe the promises of God and to whom it is counted as righteousness. To say it another way, all Christians are the sons of Abraham because all, like Abraham, are saved by grace through faith. True Israel is the Church and the Church is Israel. Israel was always about, not bloodline or genealogy, but about salvation by grace through faith. Just go read Romans or Galatians or Hebrews.

There is only one people of God, not two. There is only one plan of God, not two. There is no other way of salvation for anyone, Jew or Gentile, except through faith in Jesus Christ.

Want some resources to help you think more biblically about this issue? I’ll give you two, not one.

The first is a brief video, a snippet from a Q&A session at a Ligonier Conference, featuring Drs. Derek Thomas and Stephen Nichols.

The second is a book by O. Palmer Robertson called The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Do you remember the TV show, Cheers? There were very few episodes that didn’t take place exclusively and completely in that bar in Boston. Cheers, as in the bar, was operated by has- been baseball player Sam Malone and Ernie Pantusso, aka “Coach,” who had been Sam’s coach along the way. There were, of course, the regulars who spent every evening in that bar.

But now that I think about it, how many customers, apart from Norm, of course, ever drank more than one beer in the course of the evening? In my memory, most customers were given a new mug before they had consumed much of the first. Nobody (well, except for maybe that old guy at the other end of the bar who only made occasional appearances for comic relief) was getting drunk.

Well, if they weren’t there to drink a lot, why were Frasier and Cliff and the rest hanging out there every evening? 

I think it’s the theme song that gives it away. Remember? “You wanna go where everybody knows your name.”Ultimately, that’s why the regulars were regular – they had a place where everyone in the room knew them. They were known by name (“NORM!!”). They had connections with the others around the bar. They became regulars because they wanted to go where everybody knew their name.

Maybe we should change the name of our church to Cheers Presbyterian Church. I’m kidding, of course, but the concept is good. Our church is a place where everybody knows your name, or where everyone should know your name. I can only think of two reasons people wouldn’t know your name. The first is that they aren’t trying. The second is that you aren’t trying. Sure, we’re a small congregation right now, but the regulars are known precisely because they are regular. If you’re infrequent and irregular or you don’t plop yourself down on a stool and stay a while, it’s no surprise people wouldn’t know you.

It’s tough to hide at GCPC. It’s hard to sneak in and out. You will be known at GCPC. But that’s part of how the church should operate. The church should be a place of regulars, a place where everyone knows your name.

Radically Influenced by the Gospel

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.

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[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

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.”

— Andrew Fuller

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