Pastor's Post

Dear People

Recently on our trip to Idaho and Washington, we had a couple of interesting corporate worship experiences.  The first one was in Moscow, Idaho at Christ Church.  It is the home of a fairly well-known evangelical pastor, Doug Wilson.  It is also the home of the classical education school, Logos Online School that our oldest grandchild James graduated from.  The reason for us being there.  Christ Church is a reformed church which is fairly similar to a Presbyterian church.  They are strong on the doctrines of grace, believe the Church to be the New Israel, and therefore baptize infants as the sign of the New Covenant like circumcision was the sign of the Old Covenant.  This paedo-baptism, infant baptism, does not save the child, but rather it is the entrance into the covenant community of the church.  Hopefully, I’m not misrepresenting Christ Church’s ecclesiastical doctrine.  As a reformed church, its worship service is very formal and liturgical.  Something as a lifelong Baptist and now an EFree pastor, I’m not very familiar with.  Interestingly, Doug Wilson started as an EFree pastor.

As we walked into the Worship Center, we were given an Order Of Service guide.  Two pages in fairly small print were dedicated to the worship service itself with two more pages of written sermon notes, and then a final page of announcements and prayer requests.  The worship service was divided into four parts, Call To Worship, Confession, Consecration, and Communion.  I found out right away that I needed to pay attention to the Order Of Service, or I was going to get left behind, so to speak (Which happened a few times!).  Scripture was read both by worship leaders and responsively throughout the service, as well as the singing of hymns and Psalms through the use of their hymnbook/psalter.  It was during the Confession part of the service where we recited the Apostles’ Creed.  And the sermon was delivered during the Consecration portion.  Pastor Wilson is presently preaching through the Book of Esther.  Good message.  After Consecration was the final part, Communion.  At the bottom of the second page of the Order Of Worship was a paragraph entitled “May I Come To The Lord’s Table?”  In it were the requirements needed to partake.  Which are to be a baptized disciple active in their congregation, or yours if, like me, you were visiting.  I believed I qualified.  Interestingly, although there were provisions for grape juice, their cup distributed was wine. 

The service moved rather quickly.  It had a lot of moving parts and lasted an hour and twenty minutes.  And they needed to keep things moving as they have four services on Sunday morning at the location we were at.  That being the case, as a visitor it was a whole lot to keep up with.  The service felt maybe a little  rushed.  It didn’t seem very visitor friendly.  At one point during Communion, I didn’t attempt to sing the assigned hymns.  I couldn’t turn to them quickly enough, and I didn’t know them anyway.  But in fairness, their theology/philosophy may be such that their worship service is designed primarily for members.

That was the first week – Christ Church, formal, liturgical.  The second week we were in Spokane, Washington visiting a couple of Fran’s sisters and their families.  On that Sunday, we went to the church of one of the families, Real Life Valley.  It is part of a network of independent Christian churches and campuses originating out of Real Life Post Falls (Idaho).  It is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Christ Church, informal and non-liturgical.  As you enter the church building, there’s a huge lobby with a coffee shop.  After getting a coffee or another drink of choice, you then enter into their huge Worship Center.  As we did that, greeters encouraged us to take a communion cup/wafer package out of the large baskets by the door.  Worship was led well by a tattooed laden man with a studio quality worship band.  As the lights were dimmed, all of the music was contemporary with one of the songs being a remake of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” not with the familiar tune, but a few of the same words.  By his own admittance, this talented worship leader didn’t grow up in church, and doesn’t know any hymns.  After the music, Communion was introduced by one of their staff members.  To my knowledge, nothing was said about the requirements of partaking in Communion.  After the introduction, while music played, the elements were taken individually, and not together as a congregation.  Following Communion was the sermon.  They are presently studying Colossians, and one of their staff pastors brought a really good practical message.  And then the service was over

Interestingly, at both churches, at the conclusion of their services, people didn’t just bolt out, but stayed around and visited.  At both places there was real warmth and friendliness.  And even more importantly, both of these churches are gospel preaching, desiring that lost people come to Christ.  But besides that, and maybe another thing or two, this is where the similarities end.  These churches are as different as night and day.  And me, being a church nerd, thought it was fun to visit both of them, especially one right after the other.  What an interesting comparison between the two.  Besides Scripture, in both situations, their historical, ecclesiological theology, and denominational backgrounds very much inform their philosophy of ministry and congregational worship.  We at Holcomb in our corporate worship practices are somewhere in between Christ Church and Real Life Valley Church.  In some ways we are more like Christ Church, and in other ways more like Real Life Valley.  But the bottom line point I’m making is the diversity in the Universal Body of Christ.  Both of these churches are endeavoring to worship and glorify God, and see people come to Christ.  How interesting it was to witness their extreme differences.

This Sunday is Father’s Day.  Happy Father’s Day dads!  In light of this, I will be preaching a message from I Corinthians 16:13-14 entitled, “Act Like Men.”  In these two verses, the Apostle Paul gives us men, whether fathers or not, four commands to obey to be real men.  It should be a great convicting, and yet, encouraging, hopefully motivating study.  See you all on Sunday!

Thankful For Our Local Body Of Christ

Randy