I want to thank all of you at Covenant of Grace for the love that you all have extended to my family and me these past couple of weeks and months. We have been overwhelmed by your messages of love, offers of help, and the many ways y’all have already assisted us in this time of transition. We are excited to be joining you and cannot wait to be among you as our new church family!
Right now, my wife and I are beginning that daunting phase of a moving that includes boxing up things, deciding what you don’t really love and throwing it away when no one’s looking, and trying to have some kind of order. At this point the question that hounds everyone transitioning to anything new comes to the forefront of our minds: where do we begin? As you probably know, this is not just a question concerning preference. When we move into our new home, where the first items are laid determines where the next items can and cannot be laid. Precedence is established. Space is filled up. Rooms immediately begin to take on a particular character, which demands that certain other belongings go into one room where they match, and others are banished where they would otherwise clash. So where one begins has implications for where everything else will go, what elements will be featured or included, as well as what will be excluded. This applies not merely to packing or interior decoration, but to the lives of Christians individually and the church corporately.
As Covenant of Grace transitions to a new chapter in life it is important that we unpack the most important boxes first, laying the proper foundations. First, what is the great calling of the church? I suspect that many would say missions, which is a great guess, but there’s one calling that takes even more prominence: worship. Westminster shorter catechism question #1 states, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” In the introduction to his book, “Let the Nations be Glad” Pastor John Piper writes, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.” This is an insightful point that Christians would do well to remember. Each of us exists individually and the church and mankind exist corporately to glorify God. Worship is at the heart of what we do and we will continue to worship into eternity, so this must be the first box that we unpack as a church, one that takes precedence over all others. Worship and glorifying God in all things must always be at the heart that drives everything else we do as a body.
To that end, missions comes second, though it should be missions in the broadest sense. We are to go unto all the nations making disciples, baptizing, and teaching people to observe everything Christ commands. As say missions in the broadest sense because making disciples includes nurturing covenant children in the faith, seeing immature Christians grow into maturity of understanding and walk of life, as well as reaching the unconverted. This too is necessary to remember because there’s a lot of good things to which we could be tempted to be distracted. The church is not called to build schools or orphanages, to improve the culture, or lift people out of poverty. That doesn’t mean that those are bad endeavors or that Christians shouldn’t be involved with such efforts. Those are good things. In fact, love of Christ and love for all his image-bearers compels us to be concerned about the well-being of all persons. Yet man’s greatest need is to be reconciled to God.
A final important box to unpack is how we pursue this. As Reformed Christians we
believe in the sufficiency of scripture. God, not man, determines how we draw near, come to know, and worship God. God determines not the just mission of the church, but the means as well. We should commit ourselves to the means which God has ordained by which we are to carry out this mission. Since God is the one who created the soul, He is the one who decides what will and won’t be beneficial to it. As much as I love good music or being outdoors (when it isn’t hot), good music and time in nature are not the primary ways God calls and grows his people. Rather, the means of grace which God has revealed as acceptable ways of worship and that he has promised to bless for the gathering and building up of his church are the word, sacraments, and prayer. Therefore these are the means which we as individual Christians and as a congregation should commit ourselves to if we desire to be faithful in glorifying God and growing his church in his way.
In His Grace,
Pastor Norris