I regularly get glossy mailers from the latest and greatest church plants in/around our community and instantly run to the computer to check out their website. The newest one has a “Sunday worship experience” and seeks to “be Jesus” to our community. In other words, it seems as though worship is about feeling good and getting excited. And I hate to break it to my new neighbors, but they will never be Jesus to anybody, nor should they want to. We are all lame, broken, fallen substitutes that fall far short of the true King of kings. I don’t want a substitute and I don’t want to offer one either. I want Jesus.
Here’s their teaser: “When you come to a Sunday experience at ____ you can expect a coffee waiting for you and friendly faces. Your kids have an exciting safe environment for them with fun in mind. They won’t be bored to death. Our worship is upbeat and passionate and will probably look more like a concert from a venue downtown.”
Lovely.
I think I’ll stick with biblical worship on the Lord’s Day and catch an actual concert at a venue downtown some other night.
I’m so grateful the Lord has given us clear instruction from the Bible regarding ecclesiology, worship, and the importance of the ordinary means of grace. I am humbled by God’s truth and have a great desire to pray all the more for the purity of Jesus’ bride.
Whenever the church becomes increasingly man-centered, she begins the downhill slide, often without recovery, and always to her detriment. Once yielding the high ground of Calvinism, a self-absorbed church puts its full weight onto the slippery slope of Arminianism, resulting in a loss of its foundational stability. Tragically, however, the descent rarely stops there. Historically, man-centered doctrine has served only as a catalyst for an even greater fall.
Rappelling down the slippery slopes of Arminianism, one is soon to find the church sinking deeper and deeper and deeper into a murky quagmire of heretical ideas. Such a descent inevitably gives way to liberalism, the utter rejection of the absolute authority of Scripture. From liberalism – given enough time – the church always plunges yet lower into ecumenism, the deadly philosophy that embraces all religions as having some part of the truth. Continuing this downward spiral, the church plummets into universalism, the damning belief that all men eventually will be saved. Yet worse, universalism gives way to agnosticism, a degenerate view that one cannot even know whether there is a God. Finally, the church falls into the deepest abyss – the hellish flames of atheism, the belief that there is no God.
-Steven J. Lawson, Foundations of Grace: 1400 BC – AD 100
On Sunday afternoon, May 22nd, around 4:00pm, my wife and I were taking a nap when Paige’s mom, Lisa Satterfield, called Paige’s cell phone from Baxter Springs, Kansas. Lisa casually told Paige that a tornado hit Joplin; then she had to take another call and said goodbye.
Paige woke me up, told me what her mom said, and I quickly jumped online to check out any tweets from Joplin. Sure enough, I immediately began reading things like, “Total devastation;” “Hospital hit hard;” “Massive tornado.” We turned on the Weather Channel to see footage of reporter Mike Bettes in front of St. John’s Medical Center. It looked terrible. I got back online and mapped St. Johns in comparison to Paige’s grandparents home. According to Google Maps, their home was approximately 1.6 miles from St. John’s. By this time, we started to worry, though we were only beginning to understand the sad enormity of the disaster and the personal effect it had on our family.
We were pulling into our church parking lot at 6:00pm (Arizona time) when Paige’s brother, Drew, called from Baxter Springs to share the much-anticipated news: “Grandma and Cathy are okay,” he said, “but Grandpa…”. Paige interrupted him with her voice shaking, “But what about Grandpa?!”
Grandpa didn’t make it.
Paige and I decided at that moment that we would turn around, go home, and book the next flights out of town to be with the family. After a brief time of prayer in the parking lot with some dear family and friends, we headed home, bought two one-way tickets, reserved a rental car, packed, and caught a few hours of sleep. We were on a plane headed for Tulsa at 6:30 Monday morning, May 23rd.
After a long day of traveling, Paige and I arrived in Baxter Springs, Kansas, just 16 miles from Joplin, late Monday afternoon. For the next 72 hours we spent our days searching for valuables and keepsakes at the site of where the Buttram’s home once stood and our evenings sharing smiles and tears with family.
Below is the video recounting some of our time in Joplin. Even in the midst of sadness, God brought comfort and relief.
Also, here is a link to view some of the pictures I took while there.
I want to thank all of those who knew of this event and offered prayers of behalf of me and Paige and the Satterfield/Buttram family. We have much to thank God for. Clearly, it was nothing short of a miracle that anyone survived in that home. God was merciful.
God continues to teach us many things through this providence. We are learning to better trust in Him through all of life’s tragedies; to be mindful of the brevity of life; to rely solely on Christ for our every need; to know the comforting power of the Holy Spirit; to grow in love for one another; and to be grateful and content with all that God has given us.
Our faith is strengthened knowing that God is sovereign over the winds and rain. Grandpa Odell didn’t die a minute sooner or a minute later than God planned it. And as my sister-in-law Morgan said, “It’s kind of comforting knowing that Grandpa died in a tornado.” Thinking that an odd statement, Paige probed for some clarification. What Morgan meant was that it’s comforting because we know that tornadoes are acts of God, not acts of men. He wasn’t killed in a car accident or by a gunshot, but in a tornado. Therefore, we rest fully in God’s providence knowing that Grandpa was taken by God from this sin-cursed earth to heaven where he now sits at the feet of His beloved Jesus. (But knowing how much of a collector of precious metals Grandpa Odell was, we’re just hoping he’s not chipping away at the gold pavement!)
Paige and I love these words from Psalm 91, and they seem especially relevant in light of what has occurred:
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” …If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.”Psalm 91:1, 2, 9, 10
Thank you again for continued prayer on behalf of this family and all of the families affected by the Joplin tornado. We know that the faithful prayers of God’s people are effective as we see God’s strength and comfort touching Grandma Evelyn, Cathy, and the rest of our family.
I am very thankful for the emphasis in the following quote regarding the church as a place and as a people. A proper understanding of the means of grace and their use necessitates an understanding of the Church, not as either/or, but both/and:
We do not have to choose between the church as place and as people. Because it is first of all a place where God is at work, it becomes a people who leave the assembly as forgiven, renewed, and strengthened disciples who are prepared to love and serve their neighbors in the world. Of course, the church is not a building, but it is a public assembly where the Triune God is the primary actor. We are not the church merely as individuals and our private spiritual disciplines and moral activity are effects of grace, not the means of grace. Therefore, we mustgo to church if we are to be the church…in the formal gathering of the church, God serves his people through Word and sacrament, and they leave the assembly to fulfill their callings in the world. This is where their good works go: to their brothers and sisters, co-workers, family members, and neighbors who need them. God’s Word comes to us from outside of ourselves, outside of our ability to control it and make it an echo of our own felt needs and aspirations. And then as the Spirit wins our inward consent to its searching judgment and surprising promises, we are filled with love for our neighbors who need our vocations and witness.
(By: Chris Powell) This week the “Ardent Criers” will be at the 2011 ARBCA GA at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada California. The topic this year is “The Means of Grace.” If any of you would like more information you can view the website here. Perhaps we’ll see you there!
