Preparing for the King

I am sure most of you noticed that the president came to town this week.
From roadside stands hawking t-shirts and placards, to secret service ensuring security, to crowds gathering from early morning on, Grand Rapids was transformed for his arrival.

This week we will be digging into Psalm 72. It is known as a Royal psalm, a celebration of the true King of Israel. It concludes with these words: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!" (Psalm 72:18-19) In a similar way to the way that GR was prepared for the arrival of a president, the whole earth is being prepared for the arrival of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! The earth is being, and will be filled, with his Glory!

This is the story that we are in. We are invited to think “whole earth" big with our lives, our church, etc. We are preparing for the arrival of the King! More than t-shirts, we point people to robes of righteousness. We invite people to join us in line, to gather with the throngs so that we may greet the One who comes in perfect righteousness, justice and compassion.

To that end I am grateful that the motion to push forward with mission at Christ Church by making our facilities a place for the “sparrows and swallows" of the world to find a home overwhelmingly passed this past Wednesday (referencing Psalm 84). I am grateful that there was an embrace of a continuing commitment to church planting. Preparing for a King gives us a lot of work to do in the coming months and years, but we take heart that it is the King's work!

I know many of you are out on spring break adventures. Our prayers are with you for refreshment and safety. For those of us holding down the MI fort, I look forward to greeting our King together Sunday morning.

To the King! To the Kingdom!

In the Courts of the Lord

Psalm 84 is next in our series of Lenten psalms. In it, the psalmist expresses his longing for the courts of the Lord, a place for him that encapsulates joy and security that comes with resting in the Lord. I look forward to unpacking it with you this Sunday as it is a treasure trove of encouragement for the believer.

I think it is also incredibly timely for our particular community. This coming Wednesday we have called a congregational meeting to primarily consider the session’s recommendation that we move forward with a building renovation and a capital campaign to support it. This is a big decision for the life of our local body. We consider that God has given us a beautiful community that is pressing into the Gospel. We want to nurture this Gospel life among ourselves and to continue to share what we are experiencing with others, both those finding their way here now, as well as those in the greater GR area who have no connection with this beautiful Gospel. We believe the proposal before us supports and encourages that mission.

But following the Lord, in big ways and small, always has its challenges. One challenge we have as we come to our meeting Wednesday is that our general fund giving has been down the last quarter in a way that gives pause. Honestly, we are not sure what to make of this. The Lord has blessed us in the last 4-5 years and we have responded by increasing ministry within our church, in our community and throughout the world. This means we have taken on greater responsibilities from a budget perspective. In an effort to help us all understand our situation clearly, we have prepared a handout available this Sunday that seeks to outline where we are clearly.

We do hope that you will make an effort to be present at our meeting Wednesday. One of the principles of presbyterianism is the importance of the gathered assembly, seeking the Lord’s will together as we collectively make decisions*. Like the psalmist, we believe that the Lord is our Sun and our Shield. He is the one that lights our paths and protects us in the face of adversity. Blessed is the one who trusts in Him (Psalm 84:12)!

Think Big, Think Long, Think Biblically

We welcome this week's letter from the desk of Cheryl LaFleur...

Happy Friday Christ Church!

Picture yourself with one of your hands reaching forward and upward as you pursue Jesus. In that same picture, your other hand is extended behind you as you take someone along on that journey. This is leadership. This is discipleship. Does the picture describe you? Are you pursuing Jesus and calling others to come along? Then perhaps you are a leader.

On Sunday morning Pastor Addison will lead us through Psalm 32. The psalmist praises God for the ways He deals with our sin then after the “therefore” in verse 6, describes how we are to respond to that: with bold prayer, with trust, by yielding to God and through rejoicing in Him. At the PCA Women’s Life-giving Leadership Conference in February, Lynnette Hawkins and I learned that forgiven, life-giving leaders respond like this by:

THINKING BIG – Do I aim to do something that is doomed to failure unless God is in it or do I play it safe? Do I ask God to do “exceedingly abundantly more than I can ask or think?"

THINKING LONG – Do I lead others in the light of eternity or are my investments short-term and short-sighted?

THINKING BIBLICALLY – Do I take advantage of opportunities to listen to good teaching, to study God’s Word for myself, to ponder it, apply it, memorize it, talk about it with others, and pray about it? Do I allow it to convict and correct me? Does it inform everything I do?

Here are three other takeaways from the conference:

We serve an amazing God, and He is at work in powerful and life-giving ways.

We are part of an amazing denomination. From work being done on college campuses, at Covenant Seminary, in the military, overseas, in engaging disability with the Gospel, in pursuing justice and mercy, through publications, in small and large churches, through church plants and a host of other ways, the Word is being declared, lives are being changed and the Gospel is going forth.

The PCA is full of amazing women (and men, too). We met many leaders that fit the description in the initial picture. They are strong, humble, wise and godly, and they sacrifice much so the Gospel goes out.

Lynnette and I were privileged to be in their company and our prayer is that we will be servant leaders who pursue Christ and continually invite others to join us on the journey. Here are the large group talks and seminars from the conference which can be downloaded and listened to at your convenience! There is a lot of wonderful information packed into these talks.

We look forward to seeing you for worship Sunday as Pastor Addison walks us through Psalm 32 in our Lenten series.

Orientation, Disorientation, Reorientation

Could it be? Could the hold of the White Witch be loosening here in GR? I am pretty sure I heard birds chirping this morning. Furthermore, I am seeing pavement through the ice-trough that is our street! With the rise in temperature comes an anticipation for spring. We are longing for the day when we can throw open the windows, get out the buckets of Mr. Clean, and chase all the staleness and stuffiness of winter away.

This season of Lent is similar. It is an opportunity to "open the windows" of our hearts and let the fresh breezes of the gospel blow through, chasing away the staleness and stuffiness that inevitably collects. I love the psalmist in Psalm 139:23-24 where he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" This is a spring cleaning type prayer, an honest invitation to allow God to "clean house" in our soul. Not in a groveling sort of way that focuses on our effort or sees a need to deny ourselves to earn God’s favor. Rather, proper Lenten “cleaning” is a fresh application of the promises of the gospel joyfully brought to bear on our lives.

What better place to look Scripturally for guidance in this Lenten season than the psalms! The psalms speak to us of life as we know it. They speak to us of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation; a cycle that seems to capture the story of humanity on a daily basis as we relate to God in the midst of a messy and broken world. During Lent this year we will learn how God uses the Book of Psalms to lead us through this ongoing cycle. Together we will explore how it teaches us to speak and sing to God in a way that expresses the full range of our emotions to God in prayer. Because psalms are prayers composed for singing, we will not only learn about them, but will pray with and from the psalms by singing them together in a variety of different forms. God’s people have been singing this biblical hymnbook to pray to God in worship for 3000 years since the time of King David. Jesus himself learned to pray using the language of psalms, and in his life and prayers we find their greatest fulfillment. As we learn the discipline and delight of following Jesus in the way of the cross during this season of Lent and preparing for the great celebration of Easter, we anticipate the guidance of God’s prayerbook.

This week Pastor McGee will be leading us in a look at Psalm 116. As is our tradition at Christ Church, we will begin a cycle of weekly communion during the Lenten season to aid us in connecting afresh to God’s grace.

O Lord, search us and know us! Lead us in the way everlasting!

Side by Side

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,” Philippians 1:27

What are you striving for these days? Personally, I have been thinking a lot about this verse and what it means. I have been trying to keep my walk shoveled, (yet again), trying to keep the salt off of my car, and just trying to stay warm. I’ve been trying to keep up with all of my commitments. Winter can put me in survival mode. But what am I truly striving for?

Paul reminds us that our real purpose is to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. What a noble purpose God has given us in this life! Our great Savior has gone before us and now has given our church community a commission to be His ambassadors to a waiting world. We get to do this right here in Grand Rapids. But God’s heart is for this whole world. We also get to be part of His work by striving side by side with the missionaries that Christ Church supports.

During Lent, (Yes, Ash Wednesday is coming on March 6th!), we have the opportunity to strive with our missionaries in prayer as a church community.

A booklet entitled, Praying With Our Missionaries through the Season of Lent is available for your use. It is comprised of 40 entries highlighting missionaries and their prayer requests. Each entry features a scripture, song, hymn, or thought that is dear to one of our missionaries. It also gives specific prayer requests for the day. Please consider making this part of your daily routine for the next five weeks.

This Sunday, each child from kindergarten through high school will also come home with a leaflet highlighting one of our missionaries. The information is presented in simple, straightforward language so that it is accessible to everyone, both young and old. During the next five weeks the children will be learning about and communicating with their particular missionary in their Sunday School class. It is our hope that the children of Christ Church will deepen their understanding of missions, know who their missionaries are, and faithfully pray for the cause of Christ. Will you join with them and encourage them in this endeavor? The leaflets will be available to everyone in the congregation the following week, so that we can all take part.

The last week, (April 7th through 14th) will culminate in our Missions Festival, Beyond our Doors: Missions 2019. We are excited to see what will happen.

It is our hope that our own faith will be strengthened as we pray together with our missionaries. May they know that we are” standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side” with them.

Alice den Hollander for the Missions Committee