Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church

In his book, This Momentary Marriage, John Piper describes western culture in this fashion:

“…where the main idol is self; and its main doctrine is autonomy; and its central act of worship is being entertained; and its three main shrines are the television, the Internet, and the cinema; and its most sacred genuflection is the uninhibited act of sexual intercourse.”

It is within this culture that God’s design for marriage is not only under attack and losing ground daily. But it is not a losing battle. God’s design for marriage will endure to the end of this age. He gives us his strength and his might so that we can stand firm against the schemes and forces arrayed against the church, the home, and the marketplace.

Piper maintains a strong emphasis throughout the book mentioned above on the way the union between husband and wife reflect the union between Christ and his church. This Pauline doctrine has been integral to my marriage counseling–both pre-marital and in crisis–and Piper’s instruction has served to undergird that even further. It is an excellent book and I would have every husband and wife and prospective husbands and wives read it.

This is one of my all-time favorite hymns. The message is beautiful; the truths are transformational. It is the gospel. Written by Horatius Bonar in 1861 it appropriately follows Amazing Grace in the new Trinity Hymnal.

Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ,
Can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
Can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God,
Not mine, O Lord to thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest
And set my spirit free.

Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy pow’r alone, O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.
No other work, save thine,
No other blood will do;
No strength, save that which is divine,
Can bear me safely through.

I bless the Christ of God;
I rest on love divine;
And with unfalt’ring lip and heart
I call this Saviour mine.
This cross dispels each doubt;
I bury in his tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear,
Each ling’ring shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace;
I trust his truth and might;
He calls me his, I call him mine,
My God, my joy, my light.
‘Tis he who saveth me,
And freely pardon gives;
I love because he loveth me,
I live because he lives.

While on my second week of study leave this year, I was sitting in a coffee shop on 2nd Avenue, the main north-south thoroughfare in Gallup. I noticed several students from a local high school walking around with band instruments and others with American flags and realized they must be getting ready for a parade.

In actuality, they were getting ready for a parade to be preceded by the 2nd Annual Veteran’s Day Celebration. The celebration was held right outside the cafe on the grounds in front of the McKinley County Courthouse. The celebration included an opening prayer–addressed to Almighty and Gracious God and closed in Jesus’ name, the singing of the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, a speech by a city councilman and the recognition of a World War II Veteran who parachuted onto Corregidor Island in February of 1945.

It was a great small-town demonstration of patriotism and honor.

To top it off, sitting in the crowd was a good friend of mine from High School. He also went to Dordt College with me and we roomed together in Las Cruces during my first year of teaching after college. He is also now in the first year of his third term as District Attorney for McKinley County. After the Ceremony he took me on a tour of his office(s). He’s a strong Christian man in a demanding secular job. His parting words to me were, “Pray for me. Pray hard for me.”

Below is my summary of a recent discussion that the Session at RMPC had regarding the inclusion of a greeting time during the worship service. The questions at hand are, “Is it biblical? Is it God-centered? Is it appropriate?” I reiterate here that this is my summary of the discussion. Individual Session members may want to clarify or add to what I have written. Here is my summary of our reasons for continuing to include a greeting time in the middle of our worship service.

1. Corporate worship by definition involves elements in which our vertical relationship with God and worship of him find expression in the horizontal relationships we have within the covenant community.
2. Greeting others within the body of Christ is a biblical mandate. However, Scripture does not mandate that this only take place in the context of worship.
3. Care should be taken by all attendees to greet and welcome all with whom they come in contact on Sunday morning. Again, this should not happen only in the context of the worship service and it could even more fruitful if it occurred before or after the worship service.
4. Care should be given in all greetings before, during and after the worship service to not allow our greeting to become idle chatter. The well-being of the saints should be at the heart of any questions asked and the knowledge of the grace of God should be at the heart of any prayer or blessing we extend.

The Session wants to emphasize that the purpose of our greeting each other–which ought to be reflected in the content of our greetings–is the exaltation of God and the edification of the saints. We want to encourage worshipers to keep the greeting worshipful through ‘other’ focused greetings and to purposefully and intentionally seek out those who are new.

Theologically speaking I suppose I would have to answer this question by saying that I am Presbyterian by God’s providence and grace. Defining ‘presbyterian’ might be a better place to start. In its simplest form, ‘presbyteryian’ means ‘elder ruled’ or run by elders. It refers primarily to governance in the church.  The word presbyterian comes from the Greek word for elder. It is a representative form of government in which knowledge of the flock by the elders is assumed. It secondarily speaks of theological positions.

I grew up in a church that utilized a presbyterian form of government and when I graduated from college and began my first search for a church on my own, out from under my parent’s direction, I naturally gravitated to a church with a presbyterian form of government.

As a pastor in this denomination I willingly and eagerly subscribe to the governance position that our denomination holds. In other words, I sign my name to a document saying that I believe that the presbyterian form of government is the form best represented in the Bible. And I do so without hesitation or pain of conscience. What I grew up knowing through my parent’s direction is what I have come to embrace myself.

Why? Because it is biblical. Exodus 18 shows Jethro instructing Moses in the need for a plurality of elders in order to stave off death by overload of duties. Was that mere pragmatism or divine instruction? Since it is recorded in Scripture I would say both. Acts 15 describes the first church council. At this council, elders from surrounding churches came to discuss and deliberate upon the biblical answers to current issues in the churches. Paul speaks to the elders from Ephesus in Acts 20 and encourages Titus to appoint elders in the churches he establishes on Crete.

I have to admit that there are times when I don’t like being presbyterian. I do not like being associated with all presbyterians. There are many flavors of presbyterianism. Some are more rigid in their governance and views of worship than I think is biblical or godly. Others are too liberal when it comes to social issues and are completely wrong in their outright rejection of the authority of Scripture. I guess I’m like most people who want others to hold views that are similar to mine. That would definitely be easier but I know it would not be best. I need those to the right of me to keep me from going left and I need those to the left of me to scare me enough to keep me from going left.

Anyway, that’s why I’m a presbyterian.

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

In Psalm 80, Asaph writes a song for the choirmaster according to the tune ‘Lilies’. Given the tune and the content I am guessing that the original song swayed and ebbed and flowed like lilies in the wind upon the sides of Mt. Hermon or along the irrigation ditches of lower Palestine.

In this Psalm Asaph uses a refrain three times but each subsequent usage after the first includes an amplification. The cry for salvation and deliverance to the One who restores Israel is carried to new heights as the song progresses. The first refrain, found in verse 3, prays for restoration from Elohim, that his face would shine and we would be saved. The second refrain, found in verse 7, prays for restoration from Elohim Sabaoth, the God of hosts, that, again, his face would shine upon his people and we would be saved. The final refrain, found in the final verse of the song, verse 19, prays for restoration from Yahweh Elohim Sabaoth. We hear in the Psalmist’s testimony of restoration an intensification of his cry which correlates to the great and mighty strength of Jehovah Lord of the Hosts of heaven.

“Bring all your might to bear upon my enemies who besiege me and rescue me from their grasp, Almighty God!”

These revealing and heartfelt words set to the tune of the Lilies display the beauty of our mighty God as he restores his people out of enmity and into his favor. Beautiful!

I feel older. That does not surprise you so much, I suppose, but it has been one of the answers I have given to the question, “What did you learn on your sabbatical leave this summer?” And, frankly, it has kind of surprised me. Here are a few reasons I feel older:

1. I hurt. Nothing major, nothing necessarily new. Just more often and I tolerate the pain less gracefully than I used to. I ruptured my left calf muscle on Super Bowl Sunday last spring playing touch football with a younger crowd. I felt it was back to 100% this summer when I played beach volleyball a couple of times and had no problem. But then I tried playing basketball with the men from our church and pulled my calf muscle again. Today, I had to cancel a bike ride with a good friend because the joint at the base of my right big toe is swollen and inflamed.

2. My hair. I cut my hair quite short at the beginning of the summer and haven’t cut it since. It is still growing out. That doesn’t make me feel older. But when my youngest son told me yesterday that “your hair is grayer” that made me feel older. And my hair is getting grayer. My wife says it makes me look distinguished and I still believe her. When the younger couples in our church hesitate at guessing my age and then offer “around 50″ instead of “around 40″ even though I asked them to guess low, I feel older. Oh yeah, you know that saying, “as you get older you lose more hair where you want it and you grow more hair where you don’t expect it?” Bingo!

3. Eye sight. I have taken up the practice of keeping “cheaters” (reading glasses) in strategic places, .ie., in the truck, next to the bed, at the office, in the living room. If it is dark, if the print is small, if it is at the end of the day…these factors humble me every time.  Pride keeps “cheater” usage in the pulpit to a minimum but the day is coming…

There’s three reasons. There are more but that should suffice.

So, I feel older. Now, here’s the good part. Instead of being 46 and feeling 30, now I’m 46 and feeling 40! That’s awesome! No, this is not a weekend warrior pity party. This is celebration! I’m still ahead of the game. I’ve got that James Brown classic rolling through my head, “I feel Good!” I really do.

Feeling older has actually been a good thing for refocusing my work as pastor. I relish the thought of being a father figure to young singles and to the young married couples. I love being around my children and their friends and being perceived as the lagging-behind-the-cultural-curve dad who gets away with corny jokes and deftly placed words of wisdom camouflaged as “that’s just the way their dad is”. 20 years of marriage and raising two teens and a 9 year-old gives me more ‘street cred’ with those who are older than me.

No, feeling older isn’t such a bad thing. At least not today. I’ll bounce back from the injuries. Maybe a little more slowly than in the past but I’ll bounce back. I’ll be back on the bike again soon and back in the gym. More importantly, I’ll get to impact other lives with the gospel in a little bit different way than in the past. I’m older, wiser, and daily more in touch with the Lord.

It’s all good!

The fifth means by which we believe the vision of RMPC finds expression in the ministry of the church is through…

Grace-centered evangelism and outreach

We desire to see people around us changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be effective in the proclamation of the good news of the grace of God in Jesus Christ to those near and far. And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world (Acts 1:8)

What does this evangelism and outreach look like? Proclaiming the good news nearby, in our ‘Jerusalem’, is best accomplished as we live faithfully in community with one another. This aspect of evangelism is vital and foundational to any outward expression of our faith to unbelievers.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35). The command to love applies to all Christians, and one intended effect of that command is evangelistic witness.

The lives of individual Christians and the life of the church as a whole are a central part of evangelism. We must look for ways to use our practical love and holiness to attract others to Christ.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16).  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35).

Local outreach involves the RMPC family demonstrating the love of Christ to hurting, broken, and damaged families in east Tucson. This can be practically accomplished through family-to-family mentoring, teaching marriage enrichment and parenting seminars, and providing divorce recovery counseling. The statistics and research taken from our Ministry Area Profile demonstrate that these are avenues of ministry that will meet specific needs within a 5-mile radius of our church.

While loving others with the love of Christ we should indeed try to persuade them like Paul did, but in doing so we should acknowledge that only God convinces and grows people, and His converting mercies are His to bestow as He wills, and to whom He wills.

Building upon the integrity of a loving community, our goal is to equip each member of the church with an array of evangelistic tools. Regular and consistent training and instruction in Authentic Outreach, Two Ways to Live, Evangelism Explosion and other evangelistic methods is imperative. Utilizing the strengths of each of the many methodologies provides a well-rounded approach to reaching hearts with the love of Chrsit within their individual cultural settings. Instruction and discipleship in apologetics is also employed as a means of breaking through the well-defined and long-standing false beliefs of the skeptic.

Globally, our evangelism and outreach must carry the same focus as our local ministry. We must love those in the household of faith and be eager to tell the gospel to all in both word and deed ministry. Our participation in global missions focuses on those who are overtly gospel oriented and also eager to extend mercy to those who suffer.

All of our evangelistic and outreach efforts must be undergirded with prayer. Prayer expresses our dependence on God, and reminds us that only He has the power to convince, convict, and convert even the most ungodly of us.

Again, this is a starting point for discussion and growth in grace-centered evangelism and outreach.

The fourth means by which the vision of RMPC finds expression in the church is through…

Gift-oriented ministry

God’s people have been given gifts through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that are to be used for the edification of the body of Christ. These gifts are found in greater and lesser degrees in every believer according to the grace given him. These gifts must be identified, developed and utilized in each believer in order for the church to reach its full potential in Jesus Christ.

At RMPC we seek to provide many and varied opportunities for each member to exercise their gifts. We have generally categorized these opportunities in the follow ways at RMPC:

1. Exaltation

• Worship preparation including sacraments
• Praise team
• Choir
• Sound

2. Edification

• Children’s ministry
• Youth ministry
• Adult Education
• Workshops, seminars, conferences

3. Evangelism

• Evangelism training
• Visitation
• Mercy ministry
• Local outreach
• Global missions

Again, this is a starting point with much more discussion and clarification required.