Hearing the Music

Seven Thoughts

Have you ever noticed that sometimes in life things just lack coherence, such as the conversations that you have with your teenager, the reporting of world events, or the fact that one day your car can work and the next day it won't? Now you can add this week's Friday letter to things that lack coherence, as I have assembled a collection of thoughts with no discernible theme.  

1. Be praying for Jerry Stutzman, Bryan Burke, and Bob and Cheryl La Fleur who will all be traveling to Memphis next week to take place in the PCA's General Assembly.  It is fantastic to have Ruling Elders involved in these denominational processes. Pray for the business of the church. Pray for the Spirit attended worship of the church which is sure to be meaningful in the wake of losing men like Stephen Smallman, Harry Reeder and Tim Keller so recently.
2. I will not be attending GA this year because Lisa and I have been given the opportunity to go to Israel with a group led by a good friend of ours. We will be leaving next Friday and returning around the 28th. We are grateful for this opportunity and would appreciate your prayers for safety in travel, a teachable spirit to take in the lessons that the Lord would have for us, and the ability to hike through the heat of an Israeli summer.
3. How do you feel about pickleball? It is actually an intensely debated topic with many proponents and some fierce detractors. Regardless, you can now get a group together for some play at church. That's right, when you pull in this week you will notice the newly re-asphalted lots resplendent with new striping AND two pickleball courts! Game On! (Many thanks to the deacons and Greg Meibeyer for leading this long talked about repaving project to completion.). 
4. I have had so many songs from the Festival of Praise in my head this week ... It has been a blessing.
5. Couple of things I have been listening to: I really appreciated this interview with Molly Worthen, author and journalist, that focused on conversion to Christianity. It is great to hear how God is at work. For those of you who have fostered, are thinking about fostering, or are interested in being more informed advocates for Foster Care, some friends of ours share their story. This episode on the Lost Art of Dying is really thought provoking. Lord help us to live well and to die well.
6. Strong black coffee in the morning is such a gift.
7. This Sunday we will install Michael Anderson as an associate pastor. This is a sweet time, not only for Michael, but for the church as well to pause and give thanks for God's provision of an undershepherd. In God's good providence (there is that word again) we will reflect on 1 Samuel 12, Samuel's own reflections on his leadership role with the people and God's faithfulness through it all.

Well, they say seven is the number of perfection. I guess perfect is as good a place as any to stop.  I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Just Can't Quit

Do you have something that you just can’t quit? Maybe a TV show, an author, a musician, golf, pickle ball, pickles? Even after a bad outing, a disappointing album, something sour; you just find your self going back for more! You can’t quit even if you tried. In many ways this describes YHWH as we are seeing Him in 1 Samuel. It probably is more accurate to say that He won’t quit His people than he can’t, but such is his determination. This week we are going to be looking broadly at chapters 9-11, focusing on Saul’s call to the kingship and his anointing in chapters 9 and 10. These are not glorious chapters, either for Saul or for Israel. Saul’s reticence and Israel’s rejection of YHWH are still front and center. But despite that (maybe because of that?), YHWH continues to purse his people. D. Ralph Davis puts it this way in his commentary,

      “Although YHWH sees Israel’s idolatry in her cry for a king, he also hears her distress in her cry for relief (9:16). Israel’s stupidity cannot wither YHWH’s compassions.” YHWH just won’t quit his people!

I look forward to digging into this good news with you Sunday morning. My guess is that we could all look at this past week and, if we are honest with ourselves, see a lot of reasons why YHWH might give up on us. But praise be to Him, the Gospel is that no matter how hard we might run away, He pursues us with His grace even harder.

GLP

For some reason the PCA loves abbreviations??!! We have the MNA, MTW, and RUF committees. Our TE's and RE's go to GA. And we are a part of this thing called the GLP.*

The GLP is short for the Great Lakes Presbytery and is our regional body of PCA churches in MI and Northern IN that convenes 3x per year. We met this last Saturday on the campus of the University of Michigan for a meeting hosted by our Ann Arbor churches and our RUF ministry at U of M. As you know it was a big meeting in the life of Christ Church, as both Michael and Roger were examined by the GLP. Michael was examined as a transfer candidate, coming in from the MO Presbytery, while Roger completed his ordination exams on his way to becoming a TE. Both of them acquitted themselves wonderfully.  

There are times when the seemingly tedious and ponderous nature of Presbyterianism gets a bad rap, but I wanted to take a minute to attest to the joy of fellowship with these other churches. First, I am so glad that we have standards with respect to Biblical knowledge, theology and polity that we ask our TE's to adhere to. We will only be as strong as our commitment to understanding and living out the Scriptures. We have seen around the world and across our land, when a church loses those things, it inevitably fails as a church. Second, I am excited by the shared ministry that we get to engage in with the GLP. Currently we have about 21 particular churches, with another 7 in the process of being planted. In addition, we have an active campus ministry at U of M through RUF and many of our churches are supporting other campus works through CO. We even have a church in Malawi, through our missionary Confex Makalira, that is under the oversight of the GLP!

As you may have heard, there is an 8th mission being planned for the GLP, this one in Muskegon. It is a work overseen by the Presbytery with leadership from Christ Church, Hudsonville Reformed, Trinity PCA, Gracehill, and Christ the King in Hastings. The families invested in planting a PCA church in Muskegon County are a close knit group who value the structure and governance of a presbyterian church, as well as the rich reformed tradition of the PCA. Although none of the families come directly from a PCA background, they are excited by the prospect of a gospel-centered, well-governed church in Muskegon. They are a mix of long time Muskegonites and transplants from other states, most of whom have young families. Will you pray with us that the Lord will send a church planter to love and serve these folks?  

On the topic of prayer and church planting, I would invite you to take note of the prayer time being set aside for our own future church planting endeavors, as committed to in our recent capital campaign, to take place at Christ Church on May 17th at 7pm.  

God is on the move. We will see this encouraging truth play out this week as we look at 1 Samuel 4-6.  God cannot be contained, either by his enemies or his people!

*PCA = Presbyterian Church in America
MNA = Mission to North America
MTW = Mission to the World
RUF = Reformed University Fellowship
TE = Teaching Elder
RE = Ruling Elder
GA = General Assembly
CO -- Campus Outreach