God Be Praised!
March 5th, 2008 by tempe
I attended another eventful presbytery meeting this past Monday and Tuesday. The most eventful thing, believe it or not, happened Monday night, in the early hours of the morning. That is when about a foot of snow was dumped upon the area surrounding the town of Pottsville, Arkansas (the weather reports were predicting 1-2 inches). That’s right: central Arkansas, in March, gets a foot of snow. Go figure.
The last time I attended presbytery, I blogged about it here and called it an “eventful” meeting. The reason for that name was because two of our churches wished to leave the ARP, each for completely different reasons. However, I was very pleased to find out that both churches have had 180 degree turnarounds since then. The church wrestling with the issue of paedocommunion has decided (unanimously) not to pursue that course and remain within our presbytery (they even want to host an upcoming presbytery meeting). And it turns out that the church that requested the pastor who refused to submit to the Westminster Standards…well, he had never actually read the Westminster Standards. Turns out he was ok and submissive once he began to look at these things. The church and pastor agreed to submit to the direction of the presbytery, and all seems well. And, lo and behold, presbyterian polity does sometimes work!
In addition, our presbytery has a church plant about to organize as a church, and plans for another plant (an Hispanic mission in central Arkansas, or, as I like to call it now, the frozen tundra) going forward very well. Even after flying half the day on Monday (including 3 take offs and landings) and half the night on Tuesday (two more take offs and landings), it still makes it all worth it to see God’s Kingdom continue to grow. May He be praised!
Thanks for the good report. I’ve been spending some serious time in Calvin on the sacraments and am surprised at how little of his thought was preserved in the Presbyterian churches. Have you read Given for You by Mathison (or any of the Mercersburg theologians)?
Chris, not only have I read Given for You, I actually wrote an article on the subject! It was published in the 2006 edition of The Confessional Presbyterian, and you can find it here: http://www.cpjournal.com/
The article (actually based on a term paper I wrote it seminary) is actually focused on the development of the Lord’s Supper in Scotland during the 1500’s. I was interested because Scotland (like most of Europe) was heavily influenced by Lutheran theology, yet there is no indication that Luther’s view of the LS was ever embraced. Of course, Calvin’s view of the Supper was a major influence, and was actually a sort of via media between the views of Luther and Zwingli.
I also had a wonderful time at Presbytery this week. What a great feeling to go to a presbytery meeting and not here Israel bashed.
I’m assuming that you also had the treat (one of my favorite things to do) of singing the 133rd Psalm (”Christian Unity”) in the Bible Songs book:
Behold how good a thing it is
And how becoming well
Together such as brethren are
In unity to dwell
In unity to dwell.
Amen Sir!