Preaching

Today I preached for the first time.  It was a little nerve wracking.  You see, I'm good at public speaking, but it makes me really nervous.  I couldn't believe that I was actually going to preach when I stepped into the worship service.  I have sat and listened to many preachers in my day, but I never once imagined myself as one.

Thankfully, God spoke this morning.  In a public speaking situation there are a lot of things that I can control.  But in a preaching situation I can never control the action of God speaking through the preaching.  I say that very thankfully because when I preached, it seemed like my only goal was to sound eloquent and doctrinally sound.  I didn't care whether or not I engaged peoples' hearts with the gospel.  That is one reason Grace North Atlanta ends their service every week with the Lord's Supper.  The spiritual reality behind the Lord's supper is dependent upon God;s grace, it is something that man cannot manufacture.  No matter how poor the sermon, the congregation is always led to Christ and the gospel through the Supper.

My Grace is Sufficient for You

As I think about going into the ministry after college, I come up with endless objections.  I keep saying “God, I can’t do ministry because…”  Even though ministry is a passion of mine, I come up with plenty of objections.  The problem is, when I do this I am still sitting on the throne of my life.  My conversation with God is completely centered on myself and why I can’t do ministry.  I focus on my issues instead of on Christ.

This Sunday I am preaching on 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.  In this passage Paul discusses the thorn in his side that constantly reminds him of his weakness.  But in verse 9 the Lord tells him “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Only when we are honest about our brokenness can we lead others to Christ and not ourselves.  As I think about pursuing ministry I need to remember that it is okay to be broken, it is okay to have problems.  There is not an elite standard which I have to meet in order to be in the ministry.  It is God who works in our weakness.

More Pictures

You can still see some affects of New York's past life as 'New Amsterdam'

The crew in Times Square

Wall Street

Freedom Tower under construction

Center Church on the Green, an important church in early America.

Theology Camp with Preston Graham

Our crew on East Rock

View of New Haven from East Rock.

Discussing the importance of living while gathered around BB Warfield's grave

We spent the night at Princeton Theological Seminary on the way back.  I thought Prof. Cioffi might appreciate this.  Sadly, I did not meet George Hunsinger.

The view from atop Stone Mountain

Respect the 'Stach

The Barbers

Attempting to play crab soccer

Playing Wiffle Ball

Leadership in Repentance

What makes a leader in the church a 'Christian' leader?  We can learn a lot about leadership from secular leaders and thinkers.  There are thousands of books on leadership, there are leadership seminars, there are even leadership retreats.  However, none of these sources can help us be a distinctively 'Christian' leader.

Leadership in repentance is one distinctive of a Christian leader.  A Christian leader must lead in obedience, however a Christian leader is not someone who is able to be a 'successful' Christian and then teach that life to others.  Anytime we try to obey we always fail end up failing.  This is true for leaders and non-leaders, everyone fails at obedience.  Christian leaders still sin.  So Christian leaders, must lead in repentance. Repentance is obedience.  This keeps Christian leaders humble, because we will continually realize our need of the gospel.  This is sort of Henri Nouwen's idea of the wounded healer.  Only when we are open about our brokenness can we try to lead other broken people.  May we lead them to Christ and not to ourselves.  See Matthew 18:1-4.

Unity

Two weeks ago the Grace North student ministry went on a mission trip to New Haven, Connecticut.  While in Connecticut we worked with Christ Presbyterian Church.  For that week we were effectively one church.  We spent all day working together and then at night we split up and stayed at host homes.

Sin is a relational problem.  Because of our brokenness we are now in a state of enmity and animosity with our neighbors.  Thankfully God is doing something about our broken relations.  Christ died so that all people may be one.  Unity is a gospel issue.  In Ephesians 4:4 Pauls claims that there is "There is one body and one Spirit... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all"  Note the repetition of 'one'.  Paul is driving home the point that if we are indeed Christians, we are in fact already united.  However, we do not always live this out.

In New Haven a church full of people associated with Yale University and a church full of Southerners from suburban Atlanta were united in Christ.  At the end of the trip there was a sincere since of loss because we had to leave our family in Christ in New Haven.  It was a beautiful experience, praise be to God.

Familiar Faces

     On Thursday Dale Cooper came down from Calvin to pay me a visit.  Needless to say it was an awesome day.  On Saturday I had lunch with Micah Hoeksema (for those of you who don’t know Micah, he is a friend of mine who is also going to be a senior at Calvin next year).  Micah is in ATL for the summer organizing week long mission trips for youth groups.  Saturday night I met up with the John Parks clan for dinner and exploring downtown.  It was good to see some old friends during the past week.  I can’t help but think of Philippians 1:3-5.

John Hardie on the left, Dale Cooper on the right.

The John Parks crew.

     Between my time with Micah and with my family, I stumbled upon the Martin Luther King Historic Site near downtown ATL.  Now growing up in southwest Ohio I never really considered racial issues to be a big deal.  It wasn’t until arriving at Calvin that I encountered people who took racism as a serious issue.  Over time I have grown to see that it is still a much bigger problem than we tend to think it is.  However, I had never really thought about it until recently.  Since Grace North is a PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) congregation, I have been learning more about the denomination.  The PCA has history of racial segregation and other racial issues.  One church in the PCA actually started a seminary because they did not want any blacks to attend the seminary.  By God’s grace there has been much healing in the PCA, but the history of racism is still a weight that the denomination carries. 

     As old members of Ebenezer Baptist Church could probably tell you, racial hate and animosity is a divide that is only healed through the gospel.  One of the many reasons that Jesus came to die is so that there would be healing among the races.  In Acts 2 we hear that “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God draws near.”  The covenant of God is for all people.  In Matthew 28:19 Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”  The mission of God is for all people.  In Ephesians 4:14-16 Paul asserts that Jesus “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”  So the promise is for all peoples and the mission is for all peoples, but God desires more than that.  He desires unity.  Ephesians 4:14-16 uses the same type of language that is used to describe marriage (two people becoming one).  Racism is a gospel issue and that is why all churches must push for the unity of the body of Christ.

Pictures

So I know that I mostly do theological reflection on this blog, but I would like to change it up today and provide you with some pictures.  On Sunday mornings, Grace North worships at the Alpharetta Community Center.  Worship is taken very seriously at Grace North, so the process of setting up for a 10am worship service begins at 8am when Gene Singleton rolls in with a trailer full of carpet, chairs, and other various supplies.  From there the gym is slowly converted into a sanctuary (kind of).

 The ACC.

The trailer.  Gene is standing in the doorway.  He is about 70 but he lifts the carpet rolls and climbs on the storage racks inside the trailer like he is 20.

The development of the gym over time.

 Unloading the trailer.

Almost done.

 One of the Singleton twins, doing his part to help set up...