pilgrim people

What was the significance of the golden lampstand in the Tabernacle and how did it testify of Christ? Join us for the means of grace at Christ URC this Lord's Day morning and find out. Exodus 25.31-40 is our text.

In the evening, the Divine Service will include a meal from Acts 21.17-26.

The 23rd stated Classis Southwest U.S. of the URCNA met in Escondido on June 30-July 1, hosted by Escondido United Reformed Church. We adjourned at around 7.30pm on Wednesday. The greatest highlight of the meeting for our Consistory was watching Mr. Brad Lenzner and Mr. Mark Vander Pol sustain their candidacy exams. They are picutred here, surrounded by the members of the Christ URC Consistory (from left to right: Trent James, Matt Jumper, Mark Vander Pol, Roy Lopez, me, Brad Lenzner, Dan Palmer, Brett Watson, and Dave Butts). Both men are are now eligible for a call to the pastorate within the URCNA. Please pray that they receive calls soon.

For those of you who do not know, the URCNA candidacy exam is tough. It is not a cake-walk. It is open only to seminary graduates who are put forth by a Consistory. It is a closed-book, oral exam before the delegates of classis that lasts about five hours. It consists of seven areas: practica, Bible knowledge, exegesis and knowledge of original languages, confessions, Reformed doctrine, church history, and ethics. Moreover, the candidate is previously assigned an Old Testament text and a New Testament text and must submit an exegetical paper and written sermon on each, as well as a catechetical sermon. The candidate is grilled in these seven areas in order to test his knowledge, and is then subject to questions from the floor (i.e. other delegates). Not everyone passes these exams the first time they take them. By God's grace, and through the means of Brad and Mark's self-discipline and hard study, these two men sustained all seven areas. Soli Deo Gloria!

The rest of the two days of Classis was taken up with more examinations for two other candidates, church discipline cases (in which, according to our Church Order [namely, Article 55], local Consistories sought the advice of Classis before proceeding in the course of discipline), one overture, committee reports, home and foreign mission reports, and church visitor reports. Both days were filled with long hours of work (about 12 hours both days), and required from the delegates much concentration. Yet, the work was a joy and filled with encouragement and even some refreshment.

Other Classis highlights included:

• Excellent food and hospitality by the saints of Escondido United Reformed Church.
• Encouraging response and advice from delegates of Classis regarding the report of the work in Italy.
• Great fellowship with the brothers from the other churches in our Classis.
• Having Scott Clark present as a delegate (which, as you could imagine, made Classis a whole lot more fun - I think he should be a delegate every time).
• Seeing Rev. Derrick Vander Muelen in a tie for possibly the very last time. (He left for his new call in Kauai the following day.) We will see if he dons one for Synod. :-)

The Consistory returned from Classis encouraged and motivated in the work of the kingdom, and humbled by the opportunity to serve our Lord and his church. Thank you for your prayers.

The next Classis meeting is scheduled for January 19-20th in either Oceanside, CA or Ontario, CA (the location is yet to be confirmed).

This Sunday, after the morning worship service, Pastor Brown will give a short presentation on his trip to Italy and the work of establishing a federation of Reformed churches in that fair country. All members of Christ URC are requested to attend.

This Lord's Day, Christ United Reformed Church in Santee will have the privilege of having Dr. David VanDrunen serve us God's Word and Table. Dr. VanDrunen is the Robert B. Strimple Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Westminster Seminary California and a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He is the author of a number of books and many scholarly articles, mostly on the subject of natural law and ethics in the Christian life. You can find out more about his credentials here.

Dave is also a very fine preacher with a pastor's heart for the people of God and a passion to open the Scriptures to them. If you are in the area and would like to visit Christ URC, this Sunday morning may be an excellent time to do so. May the Lord bless his Word to us, and bless us to his service and glory.

(this post was originally posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 08:50AM)

With the rise of American biblicism and "Scriptura Solo" (in contrast to the Protestant and Reformational principle of Sola Scriptura), came the erosion of ecclesiastical authority. Populist hermeneutics, which promoted the autonomy of the individual conscience, gave way to an anti-clerical, anti-authoritarian attitude. Like creeds and confessions, the value and necessity of well-trained clergymen was challenged. As Hatch points out, a revolution within the church was called for “to place laity and clergy on equal footing and to exalt the conscience of the individual over the collective will of any congregation or church organization.” This was seen most vividly in the renouncement of all institutional forms of church government (including church membership) and the upsurge of untrained preachers and their vernacular style of preaching.

Ironically (and sadly), American biblicism - both then and now - fails to see in the very Bible they tout as their "only creed" the divinely prescribed order of the church and the offices God has given her (Acts 14.23; 20.28; 1 Tim 3; 5.17; Tit 1; Heb 13.17). The canon of Scripture is the means by which Christ shapes his church and exercises his authority over her (Mt 16.19; Tit 1.13; 2.15). This is the very reason for subscription to creeds and confessions; they act as summary statements of biblical truth to keep the church on course and from falling into error.

Yet, in its attempt to free the Bible from the fetters of the traditions of men, American biblicism has actually removed Scripture from its authoritative function. Rather than being guided by the principle of Sola Scriptura, biblicists have been guided by the egalitarian spirit of the American culture. The result has been a Protestantism that "has been pushed and pulled into its present shape by a democratic or popluist oreintation."

Sadly, this continues to be a great problem for the Christian Church in America. Anti-authoritarian attitudes that scorn ecclesiastical offices and church government incessantly prevail. Well-educated and well-trained clergy (both pastors and missionaries) is increasingly becoming a norm of the past. Just as the American biblicism of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries produced self-called ministers who relied completely on their inward call and neglected “almost every ministerial qualification required in the sacred Scriptures,” so too at the present day nearly anyone possessing skills to persuade a crowd and a belief of some personal, inward experience can proclaim himself a minister, set up shop, and often obtain celebrity status...sort of the ecclesiastical version of a garage band. As one of our elders at Christ URC likes to say, it becomes the Church of Frank Sinatra: "I Did it My Way."

Creeds and confessions help curb that sinful spirit of autonomy in each of us. They protect the church from wild-eyed biblicism and privatized religion. They protect us from "Scriptura Solo" while upholding Sola Scriptura. They protect the health and care of the church from American egalitarian ecclesiology.