Part III: Other Distinctives of Being Presbyterian
In the last post, I talked about the main distinctive of Presbyterianism--its form of church government. This post will fill out the other distinctives of the Presbyterian tradition.
(1) Covenant Theology and Infant Baptism
Covenant Theology sees fundamental continuity between the Old and the New Testaments, as opposed to Dispensationalism which sees discontinuity. It’s a way of reading Scripture, so that Genesis through Revelation is a single narrative arc: God rescuing his people in Christ. Closely related to Covenant Theology is the practice of Infant Baptism. Presbyterians baptize the children of believers for the same reason Israelites circumcised their children. There is a fundamental continuity between the covenants.
(2) Confessionalism
How do we determine between true and false doctrine? Rather than each individual believer determining for themselves what Scripture teaches, we listen to what Christians have historically believed throughout the centuries. These classic doctrines are preserved for us in the historic creeds and confessions of the church. This is called Confessionalism. The confessional documents of the PCA are the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms. We also subscribe to the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds from the ancient church.
(3) Doctrine of Predestination
Predestination teaches that God is the author of our salvation. As Jesus said in John 6:44 – “no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
There are other minor distinctives, but these are the big four: Ecclesiology, Covenant Theology, Confessionalism and Reformed Soteriology.
Finally, it’s important to emphasize that one doesn’t need to agree with all the tenets of Presbyterianism to be part of Indelible Grace Church. In fact, most IGC members are not necessarily Presbyterian by conviction. What unites us as a church community is the gospel of Christ. If you believe in Jesus as savior, you are welcomed to be a member of IGC. I hope this three-part series has been informative and encouraging.
Part II: What is Presbyterianism?
In the last blog post, I wrote about why we are in a denomination. Today, I want to talk about the main distinctive of being our specific denomination--Presbyterian. Every denomination has a historic reason for existing, namely, why it broke off from the larger established church. For example, Baptists objected to infant baptism, thus their name. Presbyterians objected to the authoritarianism of the Church of England, believing that church power rightly belongs with ordained elders, not the king or a solitary archbishop. "Presbyter" is the Greek word for elder.
Presbyterians saw in the New Testament plentiful evidence that Christ entrusted the care of his church to elders. Elders are called "overseers" and "manage" the household of God (1 Timothy 3:1-5). And church members are called to "obey" and "submit" to elders (1 Peter 5:1-5, Hebrews 13:17). Elders are wise, godly shepherds who are tasked to love the congregation and even lay down their lives for the church. In the PCA, a gathering of local church elders is called a "session."
Presbyterians also see in the New Testament that elders from various churches meet together as a council to discuss and deliberate on matters pertaining to all churches. The PCA calls this regional gathering of elders a "presbytery." The biblical model for this is the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, which decided the matter of circumcision for all churches.
So the "session" and "presbytery" is the main distinctive of being Presbyterian. Our church is to be ruled by a session of godly elders. And over the session is a presbytery of regional elders.
Picture: Assembly of Westminster Divines drafting the founding document of Presbyterianism, The Westminster Confession of Faith, in 1646, during the height of the English Reformation.
Part I: Why a denomination?
Our church is part of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). But not everyone is familiar with this denomination. So we are going to do a three-part series explaining and introducing the PCA through these blog posts. The hope is that this will be informative and encouraging to you!
First, let's address the larger issue of denominationalism. Why are we in a denomination at all? Why not be a non-denominational church? And aren’t denominations contrary to the spirit of unity?
Our response is that denominations are a healthy way to be connected to a church heritage. We do not “do church” ex nihilo, out of nothing. But rather, everyone is influenced by a particular church heritage – a certain way of practicing church leadership, baptism, orthodoxy, community life. In other words, everyone is doing church within a tradition. The only question is whether we will be self-conscious of it.
Being part of a denomination acknowledges our heritage and gives us a self-awareness of the flaws and weaknesses of our heritage. For example, Presbyterians are strong on theology, but a big weakness is that we are a very cerebral, heady tradition, and rather weak on “doing” the gospel. Historically, Presbyterians are great at writing theology textbooks and founding seminaries, but not very good at frontier evangelism and community engagement.
Being Presbyterian doesn’t mean we arrogantly look down on other denominations. Rather, it means we humbly acknowledge the weaknesses of our own tradition and respectfully listen to the strengths of other traditions.
2014 Year-in-Review
Our year in photos:
January – Two new community groups have began this year
February – Serving our neighbors at Marshall Elementary School
March – Third "Skeptics Night" held at Bodi’s Java
July – Church picnic at San Felipe Park
July – Five church members went to Haiti through Mission of Hope
August – Thinking about suffering in Job at our annual retreat
September – 22 women gathered for the Women’s Mentorship kickoff
October – The men of IGC spending time together at Castro Village Bowl
November – Packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child
December – IGC Christmas Party held at the Castro Valley Community Center
The Heart Key
"If I found a key on the road, and discovered it fit and opened a particular lock at my house, I would assume most likely that the key was made by the lock maker. And if I find set of teachings set out in pre-modern oriental society that has proven itself of such universal validity that it has fascinated and satisfied millions of people in every century, including the best minds in history and the simplest hearts, that it has made itself at home in virtually every culture, inspired masterpieces of beauty in every field of art, continues to grow rapidly and spread and assert itself in lands where a century ago the name of Jesus Christ was not even heard; if such teaching so obviously fits the locks of so many human souls, in so many times and so many places, are they likely to be the work of a deceiver or a fool? In fact it is more likely that they were designed by the Heart Maker." -- G.K. Chesterton
Summer-in-Review 2013
Photo Caption:
Top left: Women's Fellowship Tea Party
Top middle: BBQ Picnic at Valley View Park
Top right: Mercy Ministry at Emergency Shelter Program
Middle left: Men's Fellowship Hike
Middle: Your typical summer day at IGC
Middle right: Women's Summer Retreat
Bottom left: Men's Summer Retreat
Bottom middle: Church at the Park (Palomares Hills Park)
Bottom right: Mercy Ministry at Alameda Food Bank
Christian Marriage
On the radio program, This American Life (you can click to hear the actual story), there is an amusing tale of a woman who in a moment of romantic despair, decided to write her name “Esther” on a dollar bill with the idea that if some guy should give it back to her, it would be a cosmic sign that he was the one she was destined to marry. A few weeks afterwards it actually happened. She was dating a guy, Paul Grachan, who by the most remarkable coincidence, happened to find Esther’s dollar while receiving change at a deli and, not knowing the story behind it, thought it would be fun to present it to Esther in a frame.
Years later, they were married. And the dollar has been the source of much commitment and strength in the relationship. As Esther explained it, whenever she and Paul experienced difficulties, whereas she might have ordinarily just broken up with him, she would go into her room, take out the framed dollar, and remind herself, “how can I break up with him if he’s the one who gave me this dollar? How can I walk out on my cosmic soul-mate?”
There is something so very charming about this story. We can all relate to Esther wanting certainty about who to marry. But that certainty does not come from some cosmic sign but it comes from a promise – the marriage vow. How do I know this person is the one God intended for me to marry? In truth, we don’t know until we’ve made the promise on our wedding day. And from that day forward, we know this is the one we’re supposed to be with. So that whenever we experience marriage difficulties (and they will happen), whenever we encounter someone else who seems more intriguing, whenever the love feelings ebb and flow, we can go back to the promise and remind ourselves, “how can I leave him if he’s the one I’ve promised myself to?” Marriage is ultimately not based on romantic feelings or situational happiness. Marriage is based on a covenant – a life-long promise to be faithful and true.
You can listen to the two-part Sunday school series on Marriage on our Sunday school page.
Christian Singleness
The gospel defines every area of our lives, including our relationship status. Therefore, when we talk about singleness we have much more to offer than mere advice on dating and tips on how to deal with the struggles of being single. The narrative arc of the Scriptures gives us a much deeper understanding of what it means to be a single person. If we properly understand what the Bible has to say about singleness, those who are single can have freedom from anxiety in this stage of life. And those who are not single can better appreciate the vital role single people play in the Kingdom of God.
The Old Testament was marked by a number of covenants, including the Adamic Covenant, Abrahamic Covenant, Mosaic Covenant and the Davidic Covenant. Each of these covenants included a component of offspring (which implies marriage and familial relations). In fact, continued offspring was the primary promise of these covenants. Physical procreation was the primary mechanism God used to build up the covenant people. In the Old Testament marriage was assumed for everyone; almost every person ended up marrying. Starting a family, raising children, continuing a lineage and gaining honor for a family name was of utmost importance to those living in the days of the Old Testament. If a person was married and able to procreate, he was considered blessed (in accord with the Mosaic covenant). Those that did not marry or were unable to produce children were considered cursed by God. While this seems harsh to modern minds, we must remember that these things were assumed in light of the covenants Israel lived under.
The book of Jeremiah introduces another covenant that fulfills and supersedes all previous covenants. The New Covenant is first given to Israel and ultimately to all mankind. In this covenant, God promises to forgive sin and open up a whole new relationship with people that is marked by deep acceptance and intimacy. This relationship is not brought about by keeping the rules, but by the work of God alone. The book of Isaiah speaks of a man who has no family but will have offspring (Isaiah 53:8-10). How is this possible? The man the prophet speaks about is Jesus the Messiah, and it is Jesus who sheds his blood to make the New Covenant possible. He fulfills the law of Moses (Matthew 5:17) by perfectly obeying God’s commandments and living the life that we could not live. And we find in the New Testament that the promises of offspring in the Old Testament covenants are finally and fully fulfilled in Jesus. It is ultimately Jesus who the covenants were promising when they promised offspring.
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)
And it is no longer physical offspring that make up the covenant people of God, but the Church.
And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:29)
Marriage and children are no longer necessary to continue God’s work in creating a covenant people as it was in the Old Testament. The implications of these truths for the single life are many:
It means that we are all children of God’s promise and that all the blessings of God fall on us. It means that our season (or life) of singleness are not an indication of God’s curse upon us. In fact, the apostle Paul tells us something incredible: singleness is a good thing (1 Corinthians 7). Christianity is the only religion that affirms both marriage and singleness as good. That is because the gospel says we are already blessed and already have everything we need because of what Christ has done for us.
It means that even in our moments of deep sorrow and loneliness as single people we never have to wonder if God has forgotten us.
It means that the family we long for is found in the Church, whether or not we ever have a biological family of our own.
It means that because we are free to be single, we are free to direct our time and energies toward serving the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 7:32-35) rather than be anxious about our relational status. The command to seek first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) is much easier for someone who does not have the responsibility of caring for a boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife.
It means that while our desire for relational intimacy in a romantic relationship may go unfulfilled, our deeper desire for relational intimacy with a better and truer Lover will never go unfulfilled.
In the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, Jerry Maguire tells his romantic interest, Dorothy Boyd, how much she means to him and caps off his mini-speech with the famous phrase “you complete me.” That phrase articulates what so many people want someone else to do for them. They hope for someone who will complete them. But the gospel tells us that we are already complete if we are in Christ (Colossians 2:10).
It is not wrong to want and actively seek a romantic relationship. This is a good and godly desire. But while we wait for God to intersect our lives with those of whom we will eventually end up with, we can know that we already have everything that we need. For the believer, every relational stage in life is an opportunity to showcase the goodness of God. For those that are waiting for the right person to come along, we can use our season of singleness to tell people that even though the loneliness of singleness hurts deeply, Jesus is enough. And even though we are unsure if we will ever find marital bliss, we know for certain that we will one day know an eternal joy that even the best romantic partner cannot compare to.
You can listen to Pastor Wade’s two-part Sunday School series on our Sunday school page.
For an extensive yet accessible exegetical treatment on the topic of singleness, check out Redeeming Singleness by Barry Danylak (Crossway, 2010).
2012 Summer-in-review
"Let us not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" -- Hebrews 10:25. It's been a busy summer here at Indelible Grace Church. Rather than laboriously recount everything, here's a photo review of the past 3 months!
Photo legend:
Top left: church picnic
Top center: "Church at the Park," our annual outdoor worship service
Top right: Mercy Ministry event at Claremont Middle School in Oakland (in partnership with Project Peace)
Middle left: Our retreat speaker, Britton Wood
Center: New members being inducted
Middle right: men's fellowship hike
Bottom left: photo from our summer retreat (theme: 'Getting Real with God')
Bottom center: church babies!
Bottom right: women's fellowship picnic