Entries Tagged 'church search 2005' ↓

We have a winner (we think).

After lots of prayer and wrestling and such, we’re pretty sure that God wants us to be part of the work he’s doing at Grace Central Presbyterian Church. We just resonate with what’s going on there.

I’m glad that the search is pretty much over. It was a real struggle to even get up the gumption and desire to go through the process of trying to find a new church. The phone calls and e-mails to church offices to find out more . . . the website surfing . . . the actual church visits which were sometimes great and other times horrible . . . worst of all, the inevitable comparisons to our church “back home”. It’s been an arduous and annoying process.

Plusses and Minuses . . .

+ Solidly reformed (PCA)
+ Young, as in the church isn’t 90% 60-and-up
+ Young, as in this is a newly planted church
+ Retains traditional reformed liturgy (confessions, creeds, antiphony, etc), but progressive in their approach to it
+ Weekly communion
+ Hymns (mostly RUF arrangements!)
+ Excellent, expository preaching
+ Pastor has excellent taste in music and describes himself as an “aging hipster”, though he’s only 32 or so.
+ He preaches primarily from the ESV.
+ He also blogs.
+ Very arts-oriented (the pastor has a BFA degree, as a matter of fact).
+ Intentionally located in the Short North district of downtown Columbus . . . rich in culture, spiritually bankrupt.
+ Aims to serve the “religiously disenfranchised”.
+ Gives money to Christian aid, relief, and justice services and ministries.
+ Planning to establish an “indigenous mercy mission” to serve Columbus.
+ Zoë likes the kids.

- grape juice only
- exclusively sings hymns . . . so no more praise songs from Sovereign Grace. - paedobaptism (but we obviously knew that was part of the Presbo package, so meh . . .)

+/- Meets at 6 PM
+/- We’re still adjusting from WillowContemporary-style worship to Reformed liturgy. We love it, but we sometimes miss the former as well.

We did promise Amy’s mom that we’d wait to hear the guy preach who’ll likely become her church’s pastor before we made a firm decision, but if God’s pushing us in Grace Central’s direction, then that’s it.

(BTW, speaking of paedobaptism . . . Greg actually mentioned and explained that a little bit in his sermon tonight. What he said really makes a lot of sense, though I still have my disagreements with it. We plan on being teachable, though, as long as we’re under this church’s authority . . . just as I’d expect any paedobaptist to be if they joined a credobaptist church.)

So anyway . . . yay!

The Apostle Paul, writing to the ancient Roman church, said this:

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. - Romans 2.6-11 (ESV)

This little passage has irked me for a while now, especially since God began “reforming my heart” about a year and a half ago. Statements like “he will render to each one according to his works” and “there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil . . . but glory and honor and peace for eveyone who does good”, at first glance and thought, betray my Protestant sensibilities. Does this teach a works-based salvation? Is the very thing that Martin Luther went to battle with Rome over sitting right here in Scripture? Salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone, right? Sola gratia! Sola Fide! This is a “hill upon which to die” for us! What’s all this talk of works?! My mind has wrestled with this passage for hours at a time without resolution, and all of the commentaries in the world (ok, on my bookshelf) didn’t offer much help.

When I looked in the bulletin and saw that Greg would be preaching on this passage tonight, I silently said “PLEASE God, use him to explain this to me”.

God answers prayer.

It was made clear tonight . . . Paul was in no way teaching that one is saved or justified by his works. Indeed, that’s the very thing he rails against in the very next chapter of Romans. We are justified by faith; we are judged by works. To put it another way, God provides our salvation through the faith in Christ that he gives; our works prove that salvation. This is what Paul is saying here, and it echoes James’ sentiment that “faith apart from works is useless” (James 2.20). Yes, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us when he gives us the gift of faith, but he does not stop there. He does not only elect us to salvation, but also to sanctification, that is, to right living and right thoughts and right attitudes . . . to be “conformed to the image of his son” (Romans 8.29).

Amen.

Thank God for answered prayer, and thank God for people who are willing to be used as vessels to communicate his truth. Soli Deo Gloria!

Now, to glorify him by listening to some old school Havalina Rail Co.

From tonight at Grace Central . . .

It is a wonder of Christ’s mercy that we don’t burn in Hell for withholding the Gospel and allowing it to “rot on the dock”, while spiritually hungry people starve and die.

(This is an approximation . . . the line was likely more powerful in its true form.)

(Note to those who noticed: There is indeed no entry for week 2 of the search. We . . . as in both Amy and I . . . went back to Lifepoint last week and again enjoyed it thoroughly. Writing about it, though, would largely be a rehash of the previous week’s post, so I decided to spare everyone. Your powers of observation are impeccable. :D)

This week, another church that meets at 6 PM (yes!), and again, I was alone, as my wife wasn’t feeling too great.

Week 3: Grace Central Presbyterian Church, Columbus, OH.

I’ve long maintained that, were it not for infant baptism, I’d almost certainly be a Presbyterian. So when someone from the Vagrant Café suggested this young PCA upstart church in downtown Columbus, it intrigued me.

This congregation of about 50 people meets in a beautiful old brick building (owned by another church) in the “Short North” district of downtown Columbus, surrounded by Victorian housing and eclectic shops . . . the arts community of the city (which happens to have a rather large gay population as well). There were some folks hanging out on the church steps as I walked up, Bible and notebook in hand, dressed in my favourite sweater and jeans (I was relieved when I saw that everyone else was dressed rather casually as well). After some introductions and handshakes, I was shown around and told more about the place.

Walking inside, I saw some things that stood in stark contrast to my most recent church experiences . . . stained glass, wooden pews rather than plush individual seating, the communion table as the centerpiece. I grabbed a bulletin and took a seat in an empty pew.

Things soon got started with a welcome from Greg, their shaven bald 30-something pastor, and a call to worship from Psalm 19.1-6. After a prayer, we sang Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing, probably one of the greatest hymns ever penned. Greg then stood before the congregation and explained, in simple terms, our sin and how it separates us from God. He then led the repentant in a Confession of Sin that seemed to be adapted from the Strassburg Liturgy. Good stuff.

The whole service was likewise filled with beautiful hymns (including Derek’s She Must And Shall Go Free) and liturgy (catechism readings, The Lord’s Prayer, etc.). Greg preached on Romans 1.18-32 (from the ESV, even). Long, but good sermon. Really impressive, especially for a preacher so young.

We concluded by celebrating Communion . . . something that they do every week, which I think is great (see my LiveJournal post from December on this topic).

I left this place with a really good feeling about it. The blend of ancient Reformed liturgy with the contemporary really resonated with me in a way I can’t recall happening elsewhere . . . the fact that it’s a conservative Reformed voice in a part of town that so desperately needs the Gospel helps, too.

I wasn’t anticipating such a dilemma in choosing a church. When I moved to Jackson, we visited two churches and almost immediately knew where we were supposed to be. So far, we’ve visited two and I like them both a lot, and for different reasons, as they’re very different churches. A good dilemma, I suppose.

Amy opted to sit this one out for two reasons. First of all, we had already been to her mom’s church today. Second, since it’s Mother’s Day, she wanted to stick around and spend time with her.

So, flying solo to . . .

Week 1: Lifepoint Church, Westerville, OH.

I caught this very young (both in its own age, and the age of the people) church’s weblink over at RELEVANT Magazine’s “Church Network” database. A pretty website is always a good way to hook me into giving a place a longer look. Reading the church’s prospectus really piqued my interest, as they’re a plant of a great church I knew in Memphis.

They currently meet at the Westerville Community Center, a spanking-new facility. Walking into the building, I was almost immediately greeted by a broadly smiling young lady. We talked for a few moments, and when I got around to telling her I’d moved to Columbus from Jackson, TN, she immediately brightened up even more and exclaimed “my sister goes to Union University!” After telling her that’s where Amy was transferring from, she started introducing me to some other people there who were either from or had lived in West TN recently (there were quite a few).

Upon walking into the conference room that served as the “sanctuary”, there were snacks of all sorts and small bottles of water on tables in the back, and various sign-up sheets on a side table. About 70 people were either already in there or were in the process of coming in. Shaking a few more people’s hands (I guess a new face is like honey to a bee), I took my seat and placed my Bible and comp. pad on the floor beneath. The band (which consisted of two guitarists (one of whom was the worship pastor/male vocalist), a bass, a djembe drum, and a female vocalist) started playing, then the girl opened her mouth and started singing a song (which I did not know) based on Job 1.21: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” WOW. This young lady had an impressive voice. After singing the chorus at one point, she began speaking about how God indeed does both give and take away, about how the good and bad in life both come from his hand, and how easy it is to praise him when he hands us good, but not so when he hands us bad. She took pause for a moment and talked about how she’d seen that personally in losing her mother 16 months ago, and that it had particular poignancy since today was Mother’s Day and how hard it was to sing his praises. Still, she did it, and beautifully.

We sang a few more “modern” worship songs I didn’t know, as well as a couple of hymns (How Great Thou Art and I Surrender All). A church that doesn’t forget its hymns is alright with me.
Dean, the lead pastor, came to the front (dressed in a great lime green diagonal-striped shirt and jeans, btw) and prayed before launching into his message, which was based on Hebrews 12.5-11. “God’s Discipline” was the topic. I was pretty impressed: first by the fact that he was using a more literal Bible translation (the New King James Version) . . . I expect most young pastors and young churches to use the not-so-great NIV or the horrid NLT. The New King James isn’t quite my beloved ESV, but it’ll do. Secondly, I was impressed by what he said about God’s sovereignty and how it works in concert with our free choices. Overall a good sermon.

We finished by hearing the worship pastor sing the Byrds’ Turn, Turn, Turn (quite a biblical song), and we were dismissed. Troy, one of the guys who I’d spoken to earlier, came to me and plugged their small group ministry and invited me to come to his group. When I told him how passionate I am about small groups (and that I had just started leading one in our old church), his eyes lit up. Turns out that Troy is the “Community Life” pastor . . . the guy who is in charge of the small group ministry. He introduced me to a few of the groups’ leaders to give me a feel for the way they do things . . . I filled out a visitor card and then headed home.

Overall, a really good experience at Lifepoint. There are certainly other places I want to visit, but I won’t be at all surprised if that’s the place God ends up putting us.

I’m back, kids!

If you’ve been looking at my LiveJournal or keeping up with me in some other manner, you know that my family and I recently packed up and moved from Jackson, TN to a suburb of Columbus, OH. One of the biggest challenges in moving to a new place is making connections and forming relationships, and for us, that entails (at least partially) finding a local church to join ourselves to.

Since I originally purposed this blog for posts of a theological nature, I figured that writing about the church search would be the perfect way to bring it back to life.

So without further ado . . . let the Church Search posts begin.