Christ Our Hope PCA blog - Tony Phelps, pastor

An Epistle to the "Un-churchy" (part 4, final installment)

The Relevance of these Gospel "Mega-themes"

Yes, I realize this has been a long way around to answer the basic question, "Why should I visit your church?"  Now I can be more concise!  There are two reasons why you should visit our church, even if you (think you) are not religious.

1) God is present with the worshiping church to rescue and renew rebels like us!

In the worship service of Christ Our Hope, these mega-themes of Creation, Rebellion, Rescue, and Renewal are worked out.  God our Maker reminds us that our highest joy is to live for and delight in Him.  He reminds us that we are to turn from our rebellion, embrace the rescue He's provided in His Son, and receive the renewal of the Holy Spirit through worshiping Him.  How exactly is this worked out in a worship service?  Through the reading & preaching of His Word, the celebration of the Sacraments, and the Prayers of His people (spoken & sung). 

2) A church that seeks to understand, declare, and live out this story of God's rescue & renewal through Christ is the best place to inquire about the reality of that story!

If you do not yet believe this message, but are at least persuaded that this story is something you should look into further, then visiting a church that declares this Gospel (like Christ Our Hope!) is a great place to start. 

 

Why should I visit your church . . . if I already consider myself “spiritual”?

Many folks today describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” Well, in light of the previous blogs (which, by the way, I hope you’ve read!), how do you think God views our self-defined spirituality? Again, those of us who describe ourselves in this way are reflecting the reality that we have a religious (or as you might prefer, a “spiritual”) impulse. But the very problem is that our “spirituality” is self-defined. In other words, because our spirituality ignores the reality that God has spoken in the Bible, and goes its own way instead, this spiritual self-effort is simply another expression of our rebellion against Him.

To say the least, I understand this sounds so “politically incorrect.” Who am I to judge another’s spirituality? Well, I’m a nobody – simply a rescued rebel, trying to share the good news of the rescue that Jesus has accomplished. But the good news makes no sense if we don’t first hear the “bad news” of the various ways in which we rebel against our Maker – including our self-made spiritualities.

So, to my “spiritual, but not religious” friends, I refer you also to the two reasons provided above.

Why should I visit your church . . . if I already tried church, and it didn’t work for me?

Sadly, this is a common complaint. Perhaps you “tried church,” whether it was because your parents dragged you there as a child, or you gave it a chance later in life. If you concluded that church doesn’t work for you, of course I’d ask, “In what sense didn’t it work for you? What were you expecting of church?”

In many cases, there are churches that no longer believe or teach the biblical framework of Creation, Rebellion, Rescue, and Renewal. In that case, no wonder that church “didn’t work for you” – from the perspective of God’s Word, it wasn’t even a faithful “church” to begin with!

If, however, it was a church that sought to teach this story and show what it means for our lives, then where do you think the blame should be laid? Going back to the Bible’s mega-themes, dare I suggest that the “Rebellion” theme still applies to you? But the good news is that Christ Our Hope is made up of recovering rebels – so you’d fit right in!  (Also, see reasons 1 & 2 above!)

Why should I visit your church . . . if I’m not “un-churchy” at all?

Well, the short answer is – you shouldn’t! If you already belong to a church that believes and seeks to live out the biblical story of the gospel – please stay where you are. I’m delighted for you. (And, by the way, thanks for reading these blogs anyway! Maybe you could pass along this blog site to an “un-churchy” friend?).

But if you are a church person, and your church seems to avoid, obscure, replace, or deny the story of the gospel, then I don’t feel even the slightest twinge of guilt to extend the invitation to you. Again, reasons 1 & 2 above still apply!

 

A Final Invitation

Thanks for taking the time to read these blogs. If you are “un-churchy,” I hope you have found this challenging – and that you have been encouraged to visit Christ Our Hope, or some other church that is faithful to the "Gospel mega-themes" we discussed. Again, we don’t pretend to be something we aren’t – we’re not better than anyone else! We’re simply recovering rebels, seeking God’s renewal every Sunday when we assemble for worship, so that we might learn to live for and delight in Him more and more every day of the week. And we don’t pretend not to be something we are:  we’re the church, a community gathered to worship God – on His terms.

By the way, if you haven’t ever been to church (or at least, not in a long, long time), what happens in worship might seem a little strange at first. Singing & praying to a God we can’t see; listening to a man explain and apply a passage from an ancient book; seeing bread and wine distributed and consumed as an act of worship. But in all this apparent strangeness, something ancient, wonderful, renewing, and eternal is being transacted. My prayer is that you will ultimately come to see and experience this glorious transaction for yourself – and begin to live for and delight in the One who made you for Himself.

For more information on our church, please visit our website:  Christ Our Hope Presbyterian Church, Peace Dale, RI

 

An Epistle to the "Un-churchy" (part 3)

Creation & Rebellion

While we were created to live for and delight in our Creator, “rebellion” is what describes our current standing before Him. We reject God’s purpose, and go our own way, worshiping the stuff He’s made rather than the Maker Himself. This is what places us in danger. The bad news is that God would not need to apologize if He simply decided to deal with all of us as rebels – and forever crush our rebellion by His all-powerful hand. In fact, the danger we need rescue from is God’s own anger against us for our foolish rebellion – and this danger has both present & eternal consequences.[1]

Rescue

But there’s good news. In a display of amazing love, God has determined to rescue a people for Himself from this eternal danger, and to restore us to our original & ultimate purpose of living for and delighting in Him. He has done this by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into this corrupt & disordered world. Jesus perfectly fulfilled God’s original purpose for humanity in His own perfectly obedient life. And to rescue those of us who would believe in Him from our eternal danger, He took the punishment for our rebellion on the Cross.

In other words, for those of us who believe, Jesus lived for us the perfectly obedient life we fail to live (living for and delighting in His heavenly Father), and died for us the death we deserve (that of a condemned rebel). This is the message that Christians call the “gospel,” or good news.

Renewal

There’s more to this message. Not only did Jesus work an eternal rescue for His people by His obedient life and death, but He rose again from the dead on the third day. This brings us to the fourth “mega-theme” of the Bible – renewal. The disorder of this world is seen not only when people live as though their Maker did not exist.  But it is also displayed in the consequences for that – death and suffering.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we can enjoy present, spiritual renewal (which is the work of the Holy Spirit[2]) – and we look forward to a day when all the rebellion, misery, suffering, and death that characterize this world will be taken away forever. This is our hope, our unbreakable confidence in God’s renewal of us and His creation through Christ. This, by the way, is why our church is called “Christ Our Hope.” 

In the next blog, I'll talk about what all this has to do with visiting some church (like ours) that declares this message! 

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[1] God’s anger is not like ours. It’s no emotional outburst. God’s anger is that of a just judge who loves what is right (because His own character defines what is right), and must punish evil. The evil of our rejection of the infinitely good and holy Creator to go our own way is infinite in its offensiveness. And so, the ultimate consequence is eternal punishment. I know that’s a hard reality, yet it is true nonetheless.

[2] Of course, I’m assuming here the Christian understanding that God is triune – One God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

An Epistle to the "Un-churchy" (part 2)

Why should I visit your church . . . if I’m not really religious?

Perhaps you might describe yourself as “not religious.” Before we attempt to answer the question as to why we’d encourage even the “non-religious” to visit our church (or some other church that believes in and faithfully proclaims Christ as the one who alone can reconcile us to God), I’d like to ask you a question or two. What is the one thing that you really “live for”? What is it that you delight in?

There was a (pretty crummy) rock song when I was in high school – “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend.”[1] That title conveys a view of life:  I work at my job & get my paycheck so I can “really live” on the weekend. This one example shows that all of us have some sense of purpose – even if it’s summed up for some of us by a couple of six packs, a ball game, clubbing, or a movie.

The reality is that we all “live for” and “delight in” things greater than ourselves, something more. As human beings, we all have what we could call a religious impulse. Where does it come from? Is it simply a quirk of evolution? Well, even the most staunchly atheistic “believer” in evolution betrays the reality that he still lives for and delights in something greater than himself – whether it be “reason” or “scientific truth” (or on a more personal level, physical pleasure, respect, reputation, etc.). Whether we “live for” and “delight in” human relationships, status, money, our families, the Boston Red Sox (enough to drive anyone to despair!) or helping others less fortunate, we show that we are religious by nature.

We were created to worship something greater than ourselves, to live for and delight in the one true God. In fact, this religious impulse is from Him. Sadly, though, this impulse is often directed towards other things.

A Christian from long ago once wrote, “Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”[2]

Now, at this point, you might expect me to say, “Come to our church so you can worship God – to learn how to live for and delight in Him.” And yes, that will be my ultimate challenge. But first, I would imagine that you see we have a problem. If we are somehow obligated to live for and delight in this one true God, but we in fact live for and delight in other things, what does God think about that?

Well, the answer to that question is brief: He’s not happy, and we’re in trouble! How do I know that? Because this one true God has been good enough not to leave us in the dark about who He is and what He requires of us. He has spoken in order to reveal Himself, and in order to rescue us from our danger. Where has He spoken? In the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments – the Bible.

There are four “mega-themes” that unfold in the story of the Bible – Creation, Rebellion, Rescue, and Renewal. These themes serve as a way of understanding both what the Bible is all about – and by extension, what our lives are all about. The stories of our lives are to find their place in this one true story of Creation, Rebellion, Rescue, and Renewal.[3]  We'll explore these themes directly in our next blog.
 

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[1] I reluctantly confess I went to a “Loverboy” concert when I was in high school. So even if you are a fan of the band, that proves you’re still not beyond the reach of God’s mercy!

[2] From Augustine’s Confessions.

[3] Among other things, this reflects the truthfulness of the Bible. It is this framework alone that most effectively accounts for why the world is the way it is (both the good & the bad of it), why we are the way we are, and what hope there is both for this world and us.

 

An Epistle to the "Un-churchy" (part 1)

Who are you calling “un-churchy”?

Are you an “un-churchy” person? Someone who thinks that church is too weird, too outdated, or too corrupt to be of any real help in today’s world? Well, I’m glad you’re reading this. The writer of this blog (and pastor of Christ Our Hope Presbyterian Church) was once militantly “un-churchy” for all of those reasons and more. 

 
Honestly, folks like you are a real challenge to the church today. Did you know that you have an official label? You are known as “the un-churched.” So apparently our goal as church people is to “church you” (I had no idea “church” could be used as a verb!).

Some churches today try to attract “un-churched” people like you by making church less “churchy.” Church is made to look & feel more like a pop concert (usually, with pretty bad to mediocre music), followed by a motivational, self-help talk (with a few Bible verses thrown in). More and more un-churched people are saying this newer format often comes across as “cheesy” and inauthentic.

 
Well, Christ Our Hope is a more “churchy” church than that (even though we currently meet in a rec-department – not a cathedral!). We don’t want to insult your intelligence by pretending we’re something we’re not – or more accurately, by pretending we’re not something we are. We are a church, not an entertainment venue or self-help seminar. However, there’s something more important than not insulting your intelligence. As the church, we do not want to insult the One before whom we gather to worship – the one true God who made us, renews us, and rescues us from the danger we are in. . . but more on that later.

 
So I hope you read these future blogs, and consider them an invitation, a challenge, and an encouragement to visit Christ Our Hope Presbyterian (or some other Gospel-preaching church in your area) – even if you are “un-churchy.” And even if you consider yourself a church person, I hope you’ll continue reading, as well. For you, this may serve as either an encouragement or a challenge – depending on your church!