The Reason for the Season

We all know how easily we are distracted from the true meaning of this season, and how easily thoughts of "God with us" dissolve into anxious busyness. This video is a pretty good inoculation against the virus of commercialism. Enjoy.

A Heart for the Lost

"In Psalm 85, God has brought back the captivity of Jacob. Confession of sin in the Bible is often expressed in the first person plural. Forgive us, Lord. Restore us, we pray. When we confess our sins, the first thing we do is confess on behalf of our sinful nation—and we don’t pray, “Forgive them, Lord.” We ask for a spirit of repentance to be granted, as a gift of grace, to our people at large, to our people as a whole. God can do this, and there are many times in history when He has done it. If we have a heart for the lost—as opposed to being reconciled with the way things are—we will consistently be asking Him to do it again." (Douglas Wilson)

You can read the whole post here.

Is the Truth of Jesus "Ice Cream" or "Insulin"?

Columbo Tactics

It would do us a lot of good to remember that God gave us two ears and one mouth. Truthfully, we need to do a lot more listening than we currently do. Listening is a powerful expression of love and respect, but can also be employed to direct our conversations in edifying directions. Greg Koukl has some very helpful teaching on this topic. Enjoy.

To the Utter Ends of the Earth

It is breathtaking to consider how widely the Gospel has been preached and received in the two millennia since Jesus commanded his followers to disciple the nations. However, there remains much work to be done. I am encouraged by the modern church's renewed emphasis on "home missions." But I pray that we retain our focus on "foreign missions" as we recover the importance of sharing the Gospel with our neighbors. As Bruce Ashford notes below, our neighbors have relatively easy access to the Gospel compared to the billions in the world who "could leave their homes and search for days and months, and never find a church, a Bible, or a Christian."

(Bruce Ashford, regarding his new book, Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church and the Nations.)  "Revelation 5 is perhaps the most breathtaking and powerful vision in all of Scripture, and it serves as the climax of a major thread that runs throughout the Scriptures–God’s determination to make himself known to the nations so that they may worship him. In this vision that God gives to John, all of heaven bursts forth into praise of the Lamb who was slain. Among those represented are worshipers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. This is the vision that drives us–that our Lord will be worshiped from all corners of the globe.

Sing a New Song to the Lord

Reflections on Worship Music

Kevin DeYoung

1. Love is indispensable to church singing that pleases God.

2. Our singing is for God’s glory and the edification of the body of Christ.

3. We ought to sing to the Lord new songs.

4. Church singing should swim in its own history of church singing.

5. Sing the Psalms.

6. We should strive for excellence in the musicality and the poetry of the songs we sing.

7. The main sound to be heard in the worship music is the sound of the congregation singing.

8. The congregation should also be stretched from time to time to learn new songs and broaden its musical horizons.

9. The texts of our songs should be matched with fitting musicality and instrumentation.

10. All of our songs should employ manifestly biblical lyrics.

Psalm Singing (Douglas Wilson)

One marked feature of worship in the CREC is the abundance of psalms. There have been some in the Reformed tradition who have insisted on singing only psalms, but that is not what we are doing. We do not hold to “exclusive psalmody,” but it would be fair to say that we seek to practice common psalmody. While we sing other hymns as well, we do want our dedication to psalms to be overt and evident. Psalms provide the backbone of our musical worship. Why is this?

Behold the Lamb of God

If you are looking for some fresh material to help you keep "the reason for the season" in view through the month of December, Russ Ramsey's, Behold the Lamb of God along with Andrew Peterson's CD by the same name look like excellent resources. I've only seen an excerpt from the book and listened to a couple of tracks of the CD. But I really liked what I read/heard, and they do come highly recommended by some people whose opinions I trust. You can order the book here.

But I Already Know How to Do This...

How To Become a Legalist (by Mark Driscoll)

1. Make rules outside of the Bible.
2. Push yourself to try to keep your rules.
3. Castigate yourself when you don't keep your rules.
4. Become proud when you do keep your rules.
5. Appoint yourself as judge over other people.
6. Get angry with people who break your rules or have different rules.
7. “Beat” the losers

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Tullian Tchividjian is the grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham and the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Here are a few quotes from his excellent book, Jesus + Nothing = Everything, which Tchividjian wrote following a year of constant criticisms and bitter assaults from within his church. Enjoy.

"It's always the gospel of God's free grace that should motivate our right doing; otherwise we're nothing better than Pharisees, making sure we're keeping all the rules, mainly because when we do, we feel better about ourselves - especially when we compare ourselves to those who aren't doing right."

"The gospel is good news for losers, not winners. It's for those who long to be freed from the slavery of believing that all of their significance, meaning, purpose, and security depend on their ability to 'become a better you.'"

"Christianity isn't turning over a new leaf; it's receiving a new life...The Gospel liberates us to be okay with not being okay. We know we're not - though we try very hard to convince other people we are. But the gospel tells us, "Relax, it is finished."

Men's and Women's Fellowship

On the 30th of this month, at 7:00 pm, we will be meeting together at the Welch home to discuss the following:

Chapter 12: Idol Shattering (From Darrin Patrick's, Church Planter)

"Gospel Fluency I and II" which you can find here.

And then if you have the time, Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian which you can order here.

Hope to see you there!

The Church is Mission

"The task given to the Church by Jesus before He ascended into Heaven was the task of discipling the nations, and this was to consist of inaugurating them into that discipleship by means of baptism, and then to teach them obedience to everything that Jesus taught us (Matt. 28:18-20). This means that the assigned mission of the Church consists of two components—birth and growth. The Church is not supposed to take mission on as a side operation; the Church is mission." (Douglas Wilson)

You can read the whole article here.

Top Ten Reasons to Join [King's Cross Church]

Here is a top ten list from Justin Buzzard detailing good reasons to join a church plant. The only one I take exception to is the first one. I'm not eager to see Jesus do something new. I only want to see him do what he's been doing all along, namely, build his church. And I don't think that being "sick of the status quo" is a good prerequisite for anything, especially a change in churches. Grumpy ingratitude is a perilous foundation upon which to build. I would offer the following as a replacement for number 1:

1. If you love and respect the brethren at your present church and are grateful for the struggles that you've had there, but are interested in serving Christ in fresh new ways.

1. If you want to see Jesus do something new and are sick of the status quo.

2. If you dream of being part of something bigger than yourself.

3. If you want to get into a fight/enter a battle for the kingdom of Christ.

4. If you feel a constant itch to see people who don’t know Jesus come to know Jesus and you believe church planting is the best way for the gospel to advance.

5. If you want to give your time, money, energy, and talents to starting something new and you want to make sacrifices to see a mission to succeed.

6. If you fully support the vision, mission, doctrine, and leadership of a church plant.

7. If you want your faith to grow and you want God to fundamentally meddle with and change your life.

8. If you want to love your city.

9. If you want to watch God move in ways you never imagined and you want an adventure (with all it’s discomfort and risk).

10. If you’re not afraid to bank your life on Matthew 16:18 (“I [Jesus] will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”).

Top Ten Reasons Not to Join [King's Cross Church]

Top Ten Reasons Not to Join a Church Plant (Justin Buzzard)

1.  If you’re looking for the next cool thing in town (We want to grow by conversion growth, not church-goer transfer growth).

2.  If you’re a Christian and you don’t like your current church (You will find reasons to not like this church).

3.  If you have a bad track record at churches of being un-teachable and causing problems (You won’t change here, you’ll repeat the pattern).

4.  If you’re a consumer wanting to “go to church” 1x a week for a nice show (We are not a Sunday show, we are a community of disciples on a mission).

5.  If you want religion (This church will be built on the radical gospel of grace).

6.  If you have an agenda (We have our vision, our mission, and our values—your private agenda does not supersede them).

7.  If you’re a wolf (We will sniff you out).

8.  If you think this will be a nice little church that stays the same size, where everybody knows your name and you have my cell number on speed dial and we have a picnic lunch together every week (By God’s grace, we want to grow).

9.  If you think this will be easy and smooth (This will be hard and difficult; this will be a fight, a battle, and a challenging mission).

10. If you want to hold onto your comfortable life (You must lose your life).

I also shared a quote from Sir Ernest Shackleton, from the advertisement he used when recruiting men for his expedition to Antarctica in 1914: 

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

King's Cross Church Launches!

We are very excited to announce the launch of King's Cross Church here in Wenatchee, WA. We conducted our first Sunday worship service November 6th and are very thankful to be officially "up and running." Our in-house leaders are: Gene Helsel (pastor) and Tom Aumell, Ken Johnson and Scott Welch (deacons.) And in order to have a plurality of elders, we have temporarily added elder Marc Barger of Trinity Church, Wenatchee, and elders Brett Baker and David Hatcher of Trinity Church, Kirkland.

We have plans to add a full-blown website later on, but until then we will use this blog to post teaching articles and update you on events at King's Cross Church. So please stay in touch.