Church is no longer somewhere to go and serve, it is now God’s people gathered together to receive Christ and the benefits of His work of redemption through the means He has established. I now believe when we gather for corporate worship, something happens that doesn’t happen at any other time or in any other place, and it happens through the ordained means of Word, Sacraments, and Prayer. I am now trusting in His means of grace not my own list of what another friend of mine calls means of growth (spiritual disciplines). 

Multiple news outlets have reported the Church of England is no longer describing their new church start-ups as church plants. A new study says the Church is opting for terms like worshiping community and worshiping congregation that reflect the culture change or rejuvenation that is taking place. The designation church is apparently no longer sufficient to describe the new things that are happening like Shh Free Worship for young families with children, Silent Disco Worship for young adults, and Outdoor Worship for those who like to listen to the audio Bible and pray while they walk. But in the words of one Vicar, this movement reflects “a misplaced desire to be relevant and modern-sounding” and communicates “the Church has given up on church.” The author of the report even admits the change is forcing those within the Church to redefine what they think a church is and that it has “left certain parts of the Church – for whom fidelity to ecclesial forms and practices is central – feeling outside of the planting conversation.”(1)

I’ve been a part of three church plants over the course of my ministry. Two as a Baptist and one as a Presbyterian. The first was in 1997 after being sent to the very first Saddleback conference where I drank the Purpose-Driven Kool-Aid. The second was in 2006 after returning from the first T4G Conference as an official card-carrying cage-stage member of the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement. The third was twelve years later after arriving in the PCA. I spent my years in the seeker-sensitive (seeker-centered) movement exhibiting my misplaced desire to be relevant which resulted in being labeled defiant by the denominational establishment due to what they believed to be a lack of restraint within the limits they had deemed to be proper and in good taste (they were right). I didn’t fare any better during my stint with the YRR. Rather than humble me, my newfound knowledge of and appreciation for God’s sovereignty in salvation became an incubator for my pride. I, as so many do, overcorrected and spent a few years reacting to the err of my former ways by being condescendingly critical of other churches and harshly communicating what I was against more than what I was for. This opened the door to a legalism that left me and my family in need of an indefinite period of respite.

The PCA church we began attending was an oasis. We were immediately welcomed into the fellowship and ministered to and restored by a faithful pastor who was committed to the ordinary means of grace and the regulative principle of worship.

Read More