It’s Officer Nomination Time Again!

Three new deacons were elected into office by our congregation in January, and are being officially installed into that office during worship this morning. We are grateful for our new deacons, but as our church grows, we need more than just deacons – we need new elders too.

The process of getting men into the office of elder and/or deacon starts when they are nominated by members of this congregation. In the past, our nomination period has occurred in late spring, but because the offices of deacon and elder are so vital to the health of a church, the elders have decided to move the nomination period ahead a few months so that more time can be devoted to training throughout the year.

So, here’s the plan: we will receive nominations for elder or deacon between today and March 21. The elders will review those nominations and then recommend candidates for training, which will last from April through December. While we welcome more nominations to the office of deacon, we would ask that you give special attention to those men you think are qualified to serve as elder.

The office of deacon is one of “sympathy and service.” Deacons are responsible for maintenance of the church building and grounds, as well as ministering to those in need (Acts 6:1-4; I Tim. 3:8-13). Elders are responsible for spiritual oversight of the church, including discipleship, shepherding, Sunday morning worship and church discipline (Acts 20:28-31; I Peter 5:1-4; I Tim. 3:1-7).

Here’s how to make a good nomination: read the passages listed above to understand the Biblical qualifications for office. Pray for wisdom and guidance as you discern whether the person you have in mind is a good candidate. Give consideration to persons who are faithful on Sunday mornings; who exhibit godliness, maturity, humility and love for the church; who have a firm grasp of the Gospel of grace, and a commitment to the doctrine of the Reformed tradition. Of course no one lives up to these standards perfectly, but you should consider whether the person’s life is generally characterized by these traits.

You must be a member of New Life to make a nomination. Also, seek permission from the individual before you nominate him, and make sure he also is a member of the church. If he agrees to be nominated, write his name on one of the forms available in the foyer, and drop it in the white box in the foyer by March 21.

Of course we ultimately trust in Jesus, the Head of the church, to lead and guide us into the future, but we also believe God has delegated authority to certain godly men to take part in leading local congregations. This nomination period, therefore, is an opportunity for you, the members of this congregation, to play a vital part in determining who leads us forward in pursuing the exciting and good plans the Lord has ordained for us.

My love to you in Christ,

Bob

Results from NLPC Annual Meeting

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend New Life’s annual meeting last month. Church meetings have a reputation for degenerating into squabbles, but that has not been my experience here at New Life. I have always been impressed with the gracious and respectful tone of the conversations that take place, and this year’s meeting was no exception. It was also the highest attended meeting in the 17-year history of our church.

I wanted to take time here in Lifeline to report on two developments from the meeting: First, all three men who were on the ballot for election to the office of deacon were overwhelmingly approved by congregational vote. Our three new deacons are Larry Harting, Paul Nagelkirk and Mark Parkison. They have been elected to three-year terms and will join Randy Thompson and Mark Bergman on the deacon board.

There were no new elder candidates this year. Bob Clark’s three-year term expired, and since he chose not to serve a second term, that leaves the session with Wendell Conner, Tony Guinn, Scott Jordan and myself. Please prayerfully consider whom you might nominate as an elder candidate this year.

The second development is related to the congregational survey about overflow space in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings. In December, we sought input from the congregation on how to respond to the space limitations we have been dealing with.

George Saunders compiled the results (59 people responded) and discovered that your first choice was to add a third worship service, which would take place on Saturday nights. Coming in a close second was a simulcast overflow room in the new building. Third was to offer a third service on Sunday morning. There was a weak response to the other two options: building a new sanctuary or starting a new congregation.

After reviewing the results, the elders and deacons unanimously decided that we should create an overflow room in the new building where the service would be shown by simulcast video (second service only). In the meantime, we will continue to explore the option of offering a third service.

Among other things, the Saturday night service was not chosen at this time because we would need twice as many volunteers to make it happen — especially given the fact that we’re already strapped for volunteers on Sunday mornings.

If you have any questions about this, or if you would like to see the survey results, let me know. In the meantime, praise God for his guidance and presence among us during our annual meeting.

My love to you in Christ,

Bob

Membership Class on March 5 & 6

If you are interested in becoming a member of New Life, or if you would simply like to learn more about our church or the PCA denomination, please consider attending the New Member class in March.

The first part of the class will be held on Friday, March 5 from 6:30pm to 9pm, and the second part will be Saturday, March 6 from 9:00am to noon at Bob and Mary’s home. Participation in the class does not obligate you to become a member. If you are interested in the class or have any questions please contact Pastor Bob at Obannon@newlife-pc.org

An Evangelical Blind Side

Over the holiday weekend I checked out a Yahoo News link for the top 10 box office movies of 2009. Many of the expected films were there such as Transformers 2, New Moon, Avatar, etc. However, sneaking into the number 10 spot was the movie The Blind Side. The Blind Side tells the true story of how a well-to-do white family takes in a homeless African-American teenage boy and helps him to reach his full potential as a student and an athlete.

The movie did downplay the fact that it was a Christian family and it was their love for Christ that motivated their actions. And this fact seemed to motivate an email I recently received explaining more of the religious significance of the movie and urged me to tell the story to as many people as I could so that “just as the young man in the movie reached his full potential, the truth of this gospel tale can succeed in being used as the evangelistic tool it was meant to be.” This email, and the hype surrounding movies like this, is a clear example of a trend in Christianity to overemphasize the use of media in evangelizing.

First of all, let me be clear on two things. I am not against the use and media in Christian efforts such as evangelizing. This is the 21^st Century and I believe that we are called to use the tools of our culture to engage it. I am also not discrediting the movie The Blind Side. From what I have heard it sounds like a great inspirational story of grace — an inspiration to how we should act as Christians.

But that’s exactly my point: I have seen far too many Christians use movies like this as if they were the greatest evangelistic tools known to man. In fact, when the movie The Passion of the Christ came out, I heard several Christian friends say, “We have to buy as many tickets as possible and bring as many non-Christians as we can because this is the greatest witnessing tool our culture has ever had.” While they may not realize the loftiness of that comment it does reveal the faith we have in the power of media in evangelizing over scripture, our personal walks with Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

The Blind Side is an inspirational depiction of the type of mercy and grace Christians should show to the people around them, BUT it is not a substitution for that calling! I feel too many Christians try to live for Christ through this kind of media and they miss our calling to actually live a life that honors, glorifies, and embodies the humility and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Movies, music, television, and books are all incredible media and great tools to use to engage our culture, but they are not the things we should rely on. God has given us people and opportunities to show His grace and humility to those around us, and He has given us the scriptures and the Holy Spirit to encourage and give us strength in this calling.

My New Year’s resolution this year is to seek these opportunities and put my faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to use me to impress the truth of the gospel in the hearts of those around me, and to be eager to respond and be used in that calling. It is my prayer that we at New Life, and Christians around the world, would be eager to respond to this calling as well.

In Him,

Adam

This Is My Body: How We Understand the Lord’s Supper

It may surprise some people to know that former President Bill Clinton was not the first person to suggest that a lot can hinge upon what one’s understanding of the word “is” is!  When Jesus says, “This is my body,” what does “is” mean?  How are we to understand Jesus when he refers to the bread as his “body” and the cup as his “blood” in instituting the sacrament of the Supper (Mat. 26:26-27)? On the third Sunday of every month, the congregation at New Life celebrates the Lord’s Supper, but what exactly is happening when we partake of the bread and the cup?  There is, undoubtedly, mystery involved in the Lord’s Supper, but just what that mystery precisely is has been an area of debate in the church, especially since the time of the Protestant Reformation.

There have been basically four ways of understanding Jesus’ words of institution. Some understand the Lord’s Supper to be merely a memorial that recalls the death of Jesus for sinners in the giving of his body and the shedding of his blood.  This view regards the bread and the cup as purely symbolic and rejects the notion that by receiving the elements one partakes of Christ himself.

Over against this “memorialistic view”, others argue for the real presence of Christ in the sacrament.  For example, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ is physically present – really and truly – as the elements of ordinary bread and wine are transformed through priestly consecration into the literal body and blood of Jesus.  Though outwardly the elements still look like, taste like, and smell like bread and wine, they are, in reality, the physical body and blood of Christ.  This view is referred to as transubstantiation.  Martin Luther rejected this view at the time of the Reformation and the Lutherans eventually formulated a view that has come to be called consubstantiation, in which the ordinary elements of bread and wine are not transformed into the body and blood of Christ but the physical body and blood are mysteriously “added” to the elements so as to be “in, with, and under” them.

Contrary to common assumptions, the historic Reformed position, following John Calvin’s interpretation of Jesus’ words, does not deny the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper and does not regard the sacrament as merely a memorial.  Instead, the Reformed position argues that while the elements are not transformed into the physical body and blood of Christ, nor is the physical body and blood of Jesus “added” to the elements, Jesus is spiritually present – really and truly – in the sacrament.  So while we do not feed upon Christ with our mouths and teeth, we do feed upon Christ – really and truly – by faith to the nourishment of our souls.  As surely as our bodies are nourished and sustained physically by the bread and the cup, we can be certain that our souls, too, are nourished and sustained as we feed upon Jesus spiritually in the sacrament by faith.

One of the important implications of this view is that by receiving the bread and the cup, we are not simply pledging our consecration to God, but we are receiving God’s continuing work for us and in us as He nourishes us and our faith by drawing us into union with Christ and the saving benefits of the cross.  In other words, observing the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper isn’t primarily about us doing something for God; it is about God doing something for us. For this reason, many, including Calvin, have maintained that the Lord’s Supper should be observed and celebrated as often as possible.

In His Abounding Grace,

Brian

Imagine the Possibilities If Christians Simply Tithed

Two weeks ago, I delivered a sermon on the subject of wealth, particularly with regard to the teaching in Proverbs on the way Christians should handle money. One of the questions I submitted for discussion in Life Groups during the following week was this: imagine that all people at New Life were willing to give 10 percent or more of their income to the church. What could we do with that kind of money?

My hope is that your imaginations ran wild, and that you considered the various ministries that could be started, the missionaries we could support, the seminary students whose tuition we could supplement, the number of poor people in the community and in our church we could help, the single mothers we could assist, the aid we could provide to the Muncie Mission, the churches we could start planting, the mortgage debt that could be relieved, the plans we could make to expand our crowded sanctuary — all if Christians simply tithed.

The word “tithe” actually means 10 percent. It is commanded in various places in the Scriptures. For instance, Deut. 14:22 says: “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.” The prophet Malachi spoke bluntly about the failure of God’s people to tithe: “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse — the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me.” (Mal. 3:8–9)

I personally have no knowledge of how much any of you gives to the church, and I plan to keep it that way. So I don’t have anyone in mind as I write this article. But I do know that tithing provides a great opportunity for you to tangibly demonstrate that you trust God, not your money, to meet your needs. Tithing is an act of faith, a counter-cultural declaration that you are willing to part with your wealth for the sake of God’s kingdom. Tithing is not just for the benefit of the church — it is for your own personal spiritual enrichment.

Donald Whitney put it simply: “The more we believe God will provide for our needs, the more we are willing to risk in giving to Him. And the less we trust God, the less we will give to Him.”

Some of you might like to give 10 percent of your income, but you feel it is currently impossible. Let me suggest that you increase your giving incrementally. If you give 2 percent of your income, try giving 5 percent. Then keep increasing your giving over time until you reach 10 percent. Better to do this incrementally than not at all.

You might feel the sting of sacrifice in this life when you give of your wealth, but when you meet Christ in glory in the next life, I assure you that you will not regret anything you have given to Jesus’ beloved church.

My love to you

In Christ

Bob

Finding Joy in the Kingdom

“Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you. Do not be afraid, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” ~Luke 12:29–32

This passage in Luke is often used for dealing with stressful situations. And rightly so, it is a charge to have faith in God and His work and provision in our lives. However, it can be easy to focus on the promise of God’s provision and miss the promise of the kingdom and our charge to seek it first in our lives. A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of
visiting a church and experiencing a group of people truly excited and rejoicing in the spreading of the kingdom.

On October 10 Jessy and I and three of the girls from the Youth Group, Jessie Jordan, Jenna Bergman, and Kelsey Johnson, traveled to Tennessee. The purpose of this trip was to attend the Missions Conference at First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga. For the past three years New Life has partnered with First Pres on the Mexico missions trips, and it has been so exciting to see the relationships that have formed between New Life and First Pres.

First Pres has a tremendous heart for and history with missions. The church was actually planted in 1838 by missionaries that came to witness to the Native Americans. Every year they have a weeklong missions conference where they invite over twenty missionaries to come and speak to the congregation, meet with the small groups and Bible studies, and share what God has been doing in their lives and ministries. It was exciting to see so many missionaries from all over the world and hear their exciting stories of God working and how the kingdom is growing. But it was also really exciting and encouraging to see a church body excited and focused on the work of the kingdom.

The girls and Jessy and I instantly felt welcomed and appreciated by the congregation. Not only did we receive a warm welcome and generous hospitality from our brothers and sisters at First Pres, but they also showed such joy and enthusiasm in our ministry and what God was doing at New Life. The girls mentioned that at times they felt like they were being treated just like the missionaries, because the congregation was so excited to hear from them too.

The church has several rooms that are dedicated to supplying missionaries with anything they might need like clothing, travel accessories, and luggage. One of the missionaries shared a story about how all of her luggage had been stolen, but because of the church’s passion for the kingdom God used them to meet all of her needs. This is a vivid example of the passage in Luke 12 at work. It was through First Pres’s kingdom focus and sacrifice that God provided for His people.

As we enter the holiday season and prepare for a time of thanksgiving, let us focus our hearts first on the kingdom trusting in God’s provision for us and looking for how He might use us to provide for others.

In Him,

Adam

The Blessing of Communicant Membership

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a British pastor regarded by many as one of the finest preachers of the 20th century, concluded that church membership is “the biggest honor which can come someone’s way in this world.” Having heard the six-part sermon series on the church that Pastor Bob just completed in which he set forth the church as the premiere institution in all the world, we must agree with Lloyd-Jones and praise God that He would receive us as members into the body of Christ by His grace.

In considering membership in the church, our denomination (PCA) distinguishes two kinds of membership: non-communicant and communicant. Non-communicant members are children who, by virtue of being born into the covenant community through one or both believing parents, are baptized as a sign of the promises of God in Christ Jesus. Thus, our baptized children are non-communicant members privileged to receive the instruction and the nurture of the church as they grow up in the faith but not permitted to partake of the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper requires the instruction provided through the church and the promises signified in baptism to be embraced by personal faith and repentance on the part of covenant children. The Reformed practice of infant baptism has never regarded baptized infants as saved regardless of faith and repentance. In order to become a communicant member of the church, one must make profession of faith before the elders of the church so that the session might determine its soundness. A credible profession of faith includes a testimony of conversion marked by repentance and personal faith in Christ, an understanding of the person and work of Christ as it is set forth in the gospel, a commitment to obey the commands of God, and a proper understanding of the sacraments.

Having been examined by the elders of the church, the believer then makes public profession of faith before the congregation by taking vows of communicant church membership. It is worthy of note that many have criticized the practice of infant baptism because it allegedly robs the believer of giving a personal testimony of faith in Jesus before the congregation at the time of his or her conversion. This argument clearly fails to consider the steps involved in becoming a communicant member in a Reformed church where covenantal infant baptism is practiced.

In communicant membership, one can enter into the full privileges of the church, which include sharing in the Lord’s Supper through which believers are spiritually fed and nourished in faith, and (in accordance with church by-laws) receiving a voice in the government of the church by voting for officers. Of course, with privileges come duties. The communicant member, whether young or old, commits to keep the Lord’s Day, to take an active part in spreading the gospel, to support the work of the church financially, to submit to church leaders in an effort to keep the peace and purity of the church, and to seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through personal Bible reading and prayer.

In concluding, there is no set age at which one must move from non-communicant status to communicant status. But the parents of covenant children and the church as a whole should be diligent and faithful in nurturing children in the truth of the gospel with the aim that our children would embrace the promises signified in baptism by faith. In the end, we are together, as members of Christ’s church by grace, being increasingly fitted for lives that honor and glorify God not only in this life, but in the life to come.

In His Abounding Grace,

Pastor Brian

Welcome to New Life’s New Website

Welcome to New Life’s new and improved website!

As many of you know we have recently been changing and transitioning a lot.  We just started Sunday School classes in the new building, there is new paint and carpet in the foyer, and we are thrilled to welcome you to our new website.  The idea behind this new site is that it will be a catalyst through which we connect with each other more as a church, reach out to the community, and encourage one another.  We have tried to make this site as user friendly as possible but still fairly cutting edge, so easy enough for those not computer savvy to use but still cool enough for the techies out there.  On this site you will be able to access information about New Life, our staff and church leaders, the church calendar, current events, related videos, sermon mp3s, and regularly updated articles from staff and members of our congregation.  You will also be able to comment on and discuss the various articles and events coming up, as well as subscribe to articles, calendars, and events so that you received email updates about their changes and activity.

Hopefully you will find this site exciting, encouraging, and easy to use.  To receive updates via email when the site is updated click here to subscribe now, or you may enter your email address in the “eNews & Updates” box located at the top of the right column. When the site is updated you will automatically be notified by email. Or, you may subscribe to the RSS feed using your favorite RSS reader.  Additionally, you can leave comments or questions on anything that you find interesting (comments will pond approval by site administrators so they will not appear automatically).

We are going to try and continually update the site with new activities, events, and articles so please check back often.  We have just gotten this all up and running so there are bound to be some problems and correction to be made in the future, so please bear with us.  Thanks a lot for checking out the new site and have a great day!

What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.
~1 Corinthians 14:26