Pastor’s Blog

 

 

Thoughts from the Pastor by Rev. Douglas J. Kortyna

 

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A Time to Refresh

“Context is King”—as my Hebrew professor Erika Moore used to say. As a smaller church, I think this is true whenever we approach summer. Those who faithfully serve throughout the program year—which is basically our whole church!—need a time of rest and relaxation in the goodness of the Lord. While you rest and recharge, I would like to take some time in this blog post to encourage you to take a “Christian formation” inventory this summer.

First, I think we should be asking ourselves where we have seen our faith in the Lord flourish over the past year. Have we been challenged to actively engage those who do not know the Lord? Have we found ourselves increasing with our fervency in prayer? I know over the past year that I have been challenged by the Lord in the area of seeing the world through the lens of eternity.

Within the world of broader Evangelicalism, I’m really convinced that eternity is rarely discussed. Watch the vocabulary that is deployed. I think you will notice people choosing words that are man-centered and not God-centered.

As I pour over the Scriptures week after week, I am reminded that being “grounded in heaven” is supremely important. Sara and I see this on display every single night when we read through the Psalms with Zoe. I’m amazed at how often the topic of the beatific vision pops up in the Psalter.

Secondly, I would ask that you pray through how you can serve the church in the coming program year of 2020-2021. For those of us who serve and feel “tapped out,” please take time this summer to relax and recharge! The Lord’s words of encouragement to you are: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

For those who might feel convicted by the Spirit to serve in a higher capacity in 2020-2021—that is, in a more engaged way—please reach out to me, or to a member of Session, and discuss areas where you might be able to serve. What talents and abilities would you like to give to the Lord by serving our church?

As you enjoy the respite the summer provides, never negate the power of prayer. In the eyes of the world, prayer is inefficient. But in God’s economy, it is the most efficient tool that the church has at her dispense!

Please be in prayer for the Session this summer, as we work towards re-opening the church. We hope to have some truly exciting news for you very soon. We need wisdom in implementing policies that will keep our church safe during this pandemic. We are a congregation that is disproportionately in the demographic that is most at risk (60 and above). I would always encourage us to be cautious as a congregation.

Please know that I love you very much and miss your presence on Sunday mornings and throughout the week! I look forward to seeing you all face to face, hopefully, in the near future!

—Posted: Wednesday, June 3, 2020

 

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Proclaiming the Written Word

Over the next couple of blog posts, I want to take the time to revisit some of the “big themes” throughout the Book of Acts. My primary role as your pastor is to aid and assist the members of the congregation to become “people of the Book.” This means my primary concern is to always push us towards higher biblical literacy. Furthermore, everything we do as Christians should have its foundation in Scripture. It’s how the Lord communicates with us and how He directs our lives.

I keep highlighting that perhaps my biggest takeaway from the Book of Acts is that it places primacy on speech. I have spent countless hours pondering this phenomenon in Acts. Preaching is the primary vehicle for conversion and church growth. But, that primacy of preaching does not only exist in the Book of Acts. A careful study discloses that the primacy of preaching is found throughout Scripture! What does Jesus do constantly in the gospels? Preach!

The ability to speak is what distinguishes us from other creatures. It’s the primary marker of what it means to “be made in God’s image.”

Let’s use a positive example first. What’s one of the first actions that Adam does in the garden? He names the animals! What sets us apart from dogs or cats is that we can speak in comprehensible words formed in a wide variety of languages. Other species in creation simply cannot do this. In creating them, God did not choose to give them this ability that He reserved solely for humans.

Now, let’s use a negative example with regards to speech. Sara and I recently watched a documentary series titled “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez” on Netflix. We were not able to finish the series because the abuse in the documentary made us sick to our stomachs and made us both cry. (I have gone on record and stated that I rarely cry!) But, what stood out to us during the series is when the District Attorney—who himself was physically abused by his father—says that verbal abuse is worse than physical abuse. My interpretation of the documentary was that the mother and boyfriend in “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez” didn’t just abuse Gabriel physically, they de-created him through their speech. Sara and I walked away from this experience thinking more about the negative impact our words can have on other human beings.

Let’s bring this conversation into the life of the church. When the gospel is not preached, spiritual abuse occurs. Why? Because God is not present when His written Word is not preached. Sure, God’s presence is felt whenever we spend time in nature, or participate in introspection. But God’s presence is thickest whenever the written Word of God is preached and His sacraments are properly administered.

This fact is precisely why the COVID-19 lockdown continues to weigh heavier on my heart each and every week. As a community of faith, bonded together by the fact that God dwells within each of us, we are missing out on the divine presence of the Lord Jesus Christ that comes truly alive when we gather together to hear God’s wriiten Word preached, and when we join as one body for worship, praise, and prayer.

I strongly believe that the Book of Acts challenges us to snap out of our every day world and be challenged by the world that the written Word of God creates. It’s a world full of surprises and not the one we imagined.

—Posted: Tuesday, May 19, 2020

 

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When We Worship In-person Again

I cannot fully predict the date when the people who attend Redeemer Presbyterian Church will worship in-person again. But, I sense that we are closer to that date than many of us may imagine.

One of my biggest takeaways in the past few weeks has been my understanding of how important public worship is for Christian formation. Week after week, I am reminded that we truly are bodily creatures who need to gather in-person.

Watching church through the medium of a video or computer screen is not worshipping in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). I don’t know about you, but I cannot remember the last time that I missed public worship for roughly two months! It might have been when I was a teenager!

Let’s use the illustration of family. I am sure those who are reading this blog post truly miss their extended families during this time period. Phone calls, video chat via Facetime or Zoom, along with text messages and emails, simply do not replace that special something we sense when we experience bodily presence.

For the Kortynas, it has been especially hard not visiting my parents. Due to my mother’s illness, we want to visit my mom and dad as often as we can. And, we have to come to grips with the possibility of not seeing Sara’s parents in Mexico sometime during 2020.

Most of us naturally crave seeing our families in-person. The angst and anxiety can become crippling. I can also see the American public beginning to experience restlessness and depression during the current lockdown.

I am proud that many of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church congregations, with which I am in touch, have implemented what we might call “online church.” I am overjoyed we have the technological tools to enable us to have a homebound liturgy and sermon. Furthermore, “online worship” is a wonderful tool for shut-ins and those who might be ill on a given Sunday.

However, while many EPC pastor’s express gratitude for the technology, they also lament the downside. Online worship does not have the same sense of community that worshipping together in-person has. To me, it is not truly worshipping the Lord.

Throughout His written Word, the Lord places a premium on the public gathering of the people of God. I am pleased with the response of those within our churches who lament the current situation. Just think about all the big parties—with social distancing rules, of course—that will take place whenever we can gather together again in-person!

My blog will be pivoting over the next few weeks in order to suggest how we can prepare our hearts for when the day will come for us to meet in-person once again. I believe we are moving slowly out of the darkest days of COVID-19 lockdowns and that we are now pressing towards public policies on how to mitigate future infections.

As we inch closer to being able to meet again in-person, please pray that our Session will continue to lead Redeemer Presbyterian Church well. Please pray for God to guide us as we think about how to practice social distancing in the future.

Finally, if you find yourself in need of prayer, in need of pastoral guidance, or in need of something else where I can help you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

—Posted: Tuesday, April 28, 2020

 

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The Truth About Miracles

As we continue to slowly work through the Book of Acts, we are confronted with miraculous stories. There are generally two things happening in Acts: preaching and miracles. In good Reformed Protestant fashion, I am more attracted to the preaching in Acts rather than to the miracles. After getting to know you all over the past two years, I assume many in our congregation are, too.

Why is that so? I think because if we went through the public school system, we have been catechized to interpret the world through the lens of skepticism. I know this is true because all of my Christian friends from the global south do not have this problem. It’s a distinctly Western Christian reading of the text. Sara always pushes back against my skepticism in life. My response: I blame it on the catechism of my youth! It has taken me, personally, at least a decade to snap out of my bad practices of Bible reading through a lens tainted by my skeptical catechism.

This past weekend, I was listening to a series of lectures by Michael Heiser, who wrote a book titled, The Unseen Realm. I really enjoyed his lecture because Heiser writes about issues that have really been popping out to me while I’ve been slowly reading through the Bible over the past year. Heiser advocates that we should shed our skepticism towards the unseen realm and, instead, notice that references to the unseen are common in the Bible.

Two such examples include the talking snake in Genesis 3 and the divine counsel in Psalm 82. We might attempt to demythologize the Bible by explaining miracles in a naturalistic fashion, thinking that such action will make the Bible accessible to our age. But, Heiser will have none of this and I would concur. He believes that we are the problem and not the Bible. Once again, I agree.

Why don’t we see miracles today? The first answer is because we do not live in the Apostolic time period. Now, you might retort, “Well, I have heard about X,Y, and Z miracles occurring on the mission field.” I would acknowledge that is true and would argue that cutting-edge missions are often accompanied by miracles. Such miracles serve to validate the preaching and teaching ministry of the missionaries.

My second answer is that miracles happen all the time when people have a conversion experience. These stories can be fairly common in a growing church where the church routinely baptizes adults and confirms children. This is what makes conversion stories so fun to hear. They flood us with a series of emotions.

Whenever you listen to the sermon this coming weekend, I would ask you keep all of this information in mind. I would also want us to continue to keep our guard against prioritizing the “sign” (miracle) over what it signifies, namely the gospel.

All miracles in the New Testament are done for a purpose. They point us towards the eternal rule and reign of Jesus Christ and give us pictures of what it means to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light.

—Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2020

 

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The Heart of the Gospel

For the past couple of months, I have been placing an emphasis at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on evangelism. I would like to continue that emphasis this Easter Sunday.

I had mentioned in my sermon that because Jesus rose from the dead “everything changes.” I strongly believe that is true. I do not negate the importance of sharing one’s faith journey with Christ. But, I think emphasis needs to be placed on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead bodily as noted clearly in the Apostle’s Creed.

Why is this an issue in the local church? I think it’s because we normally share, or express, our faith in sentimental terms. I have stolen this idea from the great Hebrew Bible scholar at Harvard, Jonathan Levinson.

I think Levinson argues correctly that most, if not all, people do not read the Bible as a book that changes one’s entire world. They ignore its commands concerning how to think about the Lord’s will for finances, how one chooses his or her spouse, how parents raise their children, and many other topics. He argues that most people just think the Bible is a book designed only to provide them with help to cope with death or depression. These people do not comprehend the deep-rooted faith that the Bible challenges us towards. He laments that these “poor readers” exist within his tradition of Judaism, as well as within Christianity at large.

Sentimentality isn’t a bad concept per se. But, Scripture intends to engage us so that we may go deeper with the Lord. I think this is true whenever we share the hope that we have as Christians.

When we share the gospel with our spouse or family members—even Christians need to be evangelized and reminded of the good news of the gospel—or when we share the gospel with our neighbors, co-workers, or others who cross the pathways of our lives, we must remind them that Christ has acted in time and space to save sinners. It’s not mere opinion; it’s the truth! We must remind them of the grace that we receive in Christ. Furthermore, we must remind them that because Jesus rose from the dead bodily, so will we! That is the great gospel promise!

Let us more and more become people from a church that focuses on the power of the resurrection. Let us become a church that proclaims this day after day.

As your pastor, my prayer is that we will grow deep in our faith and move past sentimentality. Sentimental faith will not help us cope with the great tragedies in life, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, deep faith will energize our ability to face the challenges of life straight onward!

Deep faith in Christ, anchored in the reality that He was raised bodily from the dead and sits at God the Father’s right-hand, truly changes everything. It shakes our world up and summons us to order our entire lives around God’s perfect will.

When we share our faith, we must share this great gospel promise. When we go through times of suffering, we must focus our thoughts on this great gospel promise. Jesus being raised bodily from the dead secures our future and helps us cope with all of life’s anxieties!

—Posted: Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020

 

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Through What Lens Do
We View the Crisis?

I know I have mentioned to several of you that, personally, I could not wait to watch Terrence Malick’s film, A Hidden Life. Because it was released for rental on Amazon Prime, Sara and I were finally able to watch the film this past week. If you have some free time this week and have the ability to watch the film, I would highly recommend watching A Hidden Life.

From my point of view, I thought it was one of the most visually breathtaking films that we have ever watched. Furthermore, the film was steeped in biblical imagery. Scenes of separating the wheat and the chaff and planting seed among the fields were beautifully shot. One gets the impression the main characters, Franz and Fannie Jagerstatter, are Adam- and Eve-type figures. Those who did not “get” the film and why Jagerstatter would not sign a piece of paper swearing allegiance to Hitler are people who most likely didn’t understand the movie was profoundly religious from beginning to end. I also think one needs to have some basic knowledge of the Bible to understand the film.

A Hidden Life really challenged me to see the world through an eternal lens. Jagerstatter, as portrayed in the film, lives up to the prayer of Jonathan Edwards: “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” Jagerstatter is so vivified by the Holy Spirit that he sees how multiple people around him are used by Satan to try and tempt him to sign a paper that swears allegiance to Hitler.

I think this same kind of thing happens to us constantly in our day to day lives. However, if we are not sensitive to the Spirit, we will often fail to notice these crucial moments.

The greatest line in the film is when Jagerstatter is again asked to sign the paper so that he can go free. He responds “I am the one who is free.”

My questions this week for you are the following:

I was very pleased at our online Chronos Group meeting this past Wednesday. As your pastor, my prayer is that the people of Redeemer Presbyterian Church would use this time to think about prayer and repentance. Most of our time spent together on this past Wednesday night was spent talking about these two important concepts.

Personally, the absence of talk about prayer amongst some of my Christian friends during the current crisis has become alarming to me. How can we change the world being confined to our homes? Through prayer! If every moment in our lives is charged with eternal worth, prayer is only “efficient.” Through our sermon series in the Book of Acts, I think we have found that this is correct!

Please keep our government officials, healthcare workers, and first responders in your prayers this week. Over the coming week, I am hoping that the government, guided by public health scientists and doctors, will have more clarity about the crisis. I hope they can come to an agreement on a public health policy about how to move forward.

Please also pray fervently for the grace and mercy of the Lord to rain down on those who are afflicted with COVID-19 and also on those who have lost loved ones to the disease. The world we moderns have constructed has assumed we are in control. I think this crisis has demonstrated that is a façade.

If the Lord wishes to do so, He can reveal our idols rather quickly. I think we need to realize that great truth as we continue to wait for clarity. The Lord be with you all this week and know that I am praying for all of you!

—Posted: Monday, March 30, 2020

 

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Never Waste a Crisis

Rahm Emanuel said: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” I am not so interested in the unique social context of this famous statement. What I am interested in is its truth. As Christians, we find ourselves at a time of crisis. As we are hunkered down inside, we should not let this crisis go to waste.

When we read church history, very quickly we will run into times of chaos and turmoil. But, what is the biggest difference between the response of say Cyprian and Augustine and the response we may see in the church today? The church historically and throughout her Scriptures has responded to crises with prayer and repentance. What might the Lord be calling us to pray for and repent of in this current crisis?

First, I ask the question: “In general, is the American church a praying church?” I really cannot know with absolute certainty because I am not the Lord! But, I have my suspicion that the church has lost her way.

If we do an inventory of the amount of intimate time spent with the Lord, what do we discover? In our distracted age, do people in the church spend five minutes a day with the Lord? Or, do we spend countless hours with our beloved Lord, as stated in texts such as the Song of Solomon? Like Jacob, do we wrestle with the Lord until we get our answer? Or, do we give up after five minutes? Do our behaviors reflect the mechanistic worldview of our American context? Or, do we truly know that eternity is at stake when we wrestle with the Lord? These are all great questions to ask when we pray through our current crisis!

Secondly, I ask this question: “Of what do we need to repent?” Is the Lord calling Christians throughout the world to think about the endless business of our lives? Could we be diagnosed as a nation with a spiritual version of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

It’s been enlightening to observe certain people’s inability to hunker down, as the government has instructed us to do. I think that says a lot about our culture and its predilection to frenzy and chaos. I hope Christians use this experience to second-guess some of our unhealthy practices as a society.

Throughout this journey on which we find ourselves, I would ask you to slow down and ask yourself the two questions above. Also, I suggest that we use the various questions throughout this blog post as prayer guides. Pray through Psalm 46:10 ESV, which states:

As your pastor, during this crisis I would ask you to join me in wrestling with the Lord. Perhaps, over these coming weeks, we can grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and place repentance and prayer at the forefront of our Christian imagination.

—Posted: Monday, March 23, 2020

 

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Responding to COVID-19

Session and I have decided that the best course of action for Redeemer Presbyterian Church (EPC) to take, in response to government advice regarding the social distancing necessitated by the spread of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, is to suspend Sunday Christian Education and Worship Services and weekly Chronos Groups for the next three weeks. We anticipate that Sunday Christian Education and Worship Service will resume on Sunday, April 5, 2020, and that Chronos Groups will resume the week beginning on Sunday, April 5, 2020.

The biblical text in our New Testament that speaks about this specific topic is found in Romans 13:1-7. In this passage of Scripture, we are instructed by Paul to “respect our authorities” because they are “ministers of God.” We believe that as this pandemic spreads from sea to shining sea, we should respect the authority of our local, state, and federal governmental officials. It appears restrictions will only tighten over the coming weeks. If there were ever a time to make certain that we pray for our officials, it is now.

For the next three weeks, we will post the sermons online through the churchs website in both printed and recorded audio formats. I would ask that you listen to the sermons, or read them, and commit the other half-hour you would normally spend in church to praying for our nation and for the world. Pray that the Lord has mercy upon those who are sick and infected. Pray for protection over our denomination and our church in particular. Pray for your neighbor. Pray for your family. This has been the plea of many of our EPC ministers, as most, if not all, of our churches are suspending worship services this coming weekend.

Hospitals and healthcare professionals will also covet your prayers over the coming weeks. Pray for UPMC Hamot, St. Vincent, the VA, and all of the other hospitals and rehabilitation facilities—along with retirement communities and patient care facilitiesmdash;in Northwestern, PA. Pray for the doctors, nurses, technicians, aids, and other staff members who will most likely be stretched to serve their neighbor in love. (We can already see this happening in Italy.) Pray for Christian healthcare workers, as they boldly testify to the love of Jesus Christ in their workplaces.

Many of you know that this virus has been on my mind and heart for several weeks. I have prayed for this specific issue from the pulpit three times. It wasn’t only me who felt alarmed and worried about the future. All of my clergy friends have also felt a burden about this pandemic and its effects on the people we serve. We have a duty to love and protect our flocks. Furthermore, we have a duty to serve and protect the most vulnerable—our senior citizens and our children.

As your pastor, please know that I love you and I am praying for you at this time. We are called not to fear the Coronavirus. Rather, we are called to fear the Lord (Proverbs 1:7). The Lord is sovereign (Psalm 104) and we trust in Him during this season of life. There is no greater time to learn the sovereignty of God than when we are on our knees in prayer.

—Posted: Friday, March 13, 2020

 

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Protestant Lent

One of my favorite Roman Catholic thinkers was the late Avery Dulles. He was one of the signers of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together. What I appreciated about Dulles was that he practiced true ecumenism.

For example, he understood that Reformed Protestants and Roman Catholics would have key differences in their understandings of belief and practice. This is the opposite of the warm fuzzy ecumenism that is often experienced in the mainline churches. If we believe we are all the same, we negate our differences and what makes us unique as individuals, or as a tradition. The results: we don’t understand the key differences and we will not learn to practice our faith in the most meaningful ways.

When we come to the Reformed Protestant tradition, Scripture is king. Our tradition operates by this regulative principle: if a practice cannot be verified by the written Word of God, it should not be practiced. This is one of the things that makes Presbyterians distinct and at times gives us the reputation for being no fun! In application of this principle, I am okay with practicing Lent as a Reformed Protestant, as long as we believe the Season is a time to focus on repentance. The Scripture text that comes to my mind are the words of Jesus found in Mark 1:15 ESV:

When we learn the art of repentance, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are conformed to the King of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we focus on the word “repentance” during Lent, let us learn the Christian virtue of dying to self. Matthew 16:24 states:

Most of the great Reformed thinkers had sections in their theological treatises on dying to self. They are continuously speaking about dying to the image of Adam and living and being transformed into the image of Christ.

During this Season of Lent, let us learn the practice of dying to self. We must repent of specific sins that have been plaguing us. We must repent of sins such as gossip, coveting, and self-centered ambition. We must learn to practice silence. We must learn to pray for extended periods of times.

We must, as believers in Christ, repent and die to self. It’s the gospel imperative and it’s a battle. It’s not easy. But, it’s the life to which the Lord calls his disciples. It is only through repentance and reorientation that we truly find ourselves “in Christ” and “in Christ, alone.”

—Posted: Monday, March 2, 2020

 

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A Report from Presbytery

I wanted to take some time from the blog posting this week and highlight the most recent Presbytery of the Alleghenies (POA) meeting. I am not just being kind and saying that our own Jim Moelk did the best job while being examined. I say this because it’s true. He answered all the questions well with biblical and theological insight. After he was transferred onto the retired teaching elder rolls, he did his duty by asking a hard question to another candidate! Praise the Lord!

I was blessed to be able to give a short report to the POA about our trip to Mexico. I pitched to fellow churches within the POA to partner with us in the future. I had one church respond to my challenge and asked me to keep them in the loop about our next trip (tentatively June of 2021). They would be interested in sending some people with us in the future.

The theme of the meeting was the holiness of God. Harper Brady shared his experience with asking people about the one attribute of God that would define His character. However, he wanted the individuals to define the attribute through the lens of God’s non-communicable attributes. He mentioned people really struggled with this exercise because they rush towards love. Love is a communicable attribute between Creator and creature. Harper’s answer to his question was the word “Holy.” The God we worship is love. But, the word that defines his character most is “holy.” This is the God we worship as Christians.

I would encourage you this week to think about God’s holiness. When one is confronted by the holiness of God, he or she respond with an acknowledgement—hopefully—of their sinfulness. The gulf between God and man can seem infinite. He is holy and we are not. God has acted and allowed human beings to have fellowship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. We can only understand the love of God whenever we understand that God is indeed holy. It is God’s covenantal love that allows sinful human beings to fellowship with the Triune God. May we always be a church that understands and adores our holy God!

—Posted: Monday, February 17, 2020

 

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Becoming People of the Book

The Reformed tradition has always held fast to the Creator and creature distinction. That is why when we read the Westminster Confession of Faith II.I, it feels like climbing a mountain. This God is other-worldly. He is described as immense, immutable (non-changing), most loving, and abundant in goodness. These are attributes that are non-communicable with creatures. We, as creatures, are not immense, are always changing, often hate instead of love, and are dead in our trespresses in sin. He is holy and we are not.

I don’t know about you, personally. But, when I encounter a large mountain, I am overwhelmed with a sense of smallness. This emotion has stirred up whenever I drive to the top of Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh and most recently when our family went to Rocky Mountain National Park. The incommunicable attributes of God might come across as making God cold and distant. But in reality, this is the God we can trust through the fiercest storms in life.

When Sara and I went through infertility issues, we were offered the chance to speak to a therapist. We both agreed that would not help us very much. We believed we needed the medicine of prayer and reflection on the “otherness of God.” The God who is infinitely bigger than Mt. Everest would bless us and keep us in His covenantal love (Numbers 6:24-26). We needed to pray to the One who is truly free to bless us with children.

Holding onto the “otherness of God” is very much important for the Christian life. It was defended by church fathers such as Athanasius and Augustine, the great medieval minds of Anselm and Aquinas, and preached and proclaimed by Luther and Calvin. All of these individuals had crises in their lives. But, they held strong and fast to the Lord who is the maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 124:8).

In a world where we are always tempted to speak about God’s communicable attributes, may we be a church that daily reminds ourselves of the holiness of the Lord.

—Posted: Monday, February 3, 2020

 

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Becoming People of the Book

“Oh God, why won’t you speak to me?” This is an idiomatic phrase that has been recited by millions of Christians. Perhaps, you have stated it yourself. I confess that I have stated this phrase while praying in the past. Over time, I have concluded that it is a shortsighted prayer because God does speak. He speaks through Scripture.

As Christians, I believe that one of the primary problems we encounter in the late modern world is that we are transitioning from a “culture of the book” to a “culture of the eye.” This transformation influences the prayer “Oh God, why won’t you speak to me?” Let me try to explain.

At the Radius Cowork, where my office is located, we have many people who design websites. One of the themes that keeps on coming up from my interactions with these designers is how the internet has transitioned from a “text-based platform” to an “eye-based platform.” Websites run lean on text. Furthermore, many seasoned educators have become alarmed at the inability of the up-and-coming generations to read and interpret texts. The “medium is the message.” And, the medium of the internet wants to shape us into being “people of the eye,” if we do not adopt proper practices.

Why are we transitioning from a “text-based culture” to an “eye-based” culture? I think because we are transitioning from a “Christian culture” to a “non-Christian culture.” Protestant Christians have always been known as “people of the book.” As church attendance declines, it should be no surprise to us that literacy rates decline, as well. I am willing to bet that as Protestantism declines literacy rates will decrease. However, I am willing to be proven wrong!

Back to our prayer: “Oh God, why won’t you speak to me?” The Westminster Confession of Faith answers this question. The confession starts its first chapter with the doctrine of Holy Scripture and defines Scripture as God’s speech. God has spoken and we can learn the rule of faith and life whenever we read our Bibles. We really can know who God is through reading His written Word. We are not left to ponder the works of creation, or to look inwardly. We look outwardly to God’s holy writ and discover who the Triune God is and what His plan is for our lives.

In the year of 2020, I would propose that we help Christians become “people of the book” again. I would exhort you to read Scripture because it’s the means by which God speaks to us. If we feel God hasn’t spoken to us in a while, I would guess it’s because we haven’t been reading Scripture. God is not silent. He has spoken through His written Word and continues to speak anew through the Holy Spirit each and every day.

—Posted: Monday, January 27, 2020

 

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What is your story?

“What is your story?” How often have we heard these words uttered when meeting a person for the first time? I would imagine too many times to count! We are a people obsessed with story. One only needs to canvas social media, or the self-help book shelves, to find people giving us advice on how to improve our stories.

In the day to day trenches of life, we interact with social media. I see social media as a medium that is obsessed with story-telling. The photos we post tell a story—one that is often not true! We construct a persona and share what causes are near and dear to our hearts. On Facebook, for example, there is a biography section where we can share about who we are and what we love to do. But, the real irony is that, in an age of limitless ways to share our story, we often feel lonely, lost, and left out. What’s the problem?

As we discuss catechesis on this Blog, we first need to learn whose story matters the most in life. We are told, in Question 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith: “What is the chief end of man?” The response is: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

One could spend his or her entire life just focusing on that one question! Or, we could consult John Calvin: “In the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts toward the God in whom he lives and moves” (Institutes I.I.I). And, “Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him” (Institutes I.I.I).

Calvin’s statements are striking and bold. He is making the argument that we can only find out “who we are” outside of ourselves through the Lord God. We should not search inwardly. It is God’s story that matters most in life, not ours. As John the Baptist says: “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30). We learn who we are by “dying to self” (Matthew 16:24). The paradox is that by losing our life we find it (Matthew 10:39).

Let us always be reminded and instructed that it is not our story that matters most in life, it is the story of the risen Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:6-11). As we grow in our faith in the new year, let us turn away from all the various ways to make ourselves the center of the universe and center our lives on the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is true, as St. Augustine famously said, that “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in him.”

—Posted: Monday, January 20, 2020

 

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The Catechesis of
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

Throughout my time as your pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, I have used the word “catechesis” on numerous occaisions. Catechesis could be defined simply as “religious instruction.” But, I would not narrowly define catechesis to only religious instruction. I think we are being actively catechized every living, breathing moment of our lives. It’s the water we swim in!

I was attuned to non-religious catechesis while watching an episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood with my daughter Zoe during Christmas break. The episode was about “choice.” I found the theme of choice for a children’s television show weird. However, I also believe that choice is “the god of this age.”

For example, we often ask small children in our American context: “What would you like to be when you grow up?” We assume they are like little gods and have more agency than they do in reality. We do not ask children, as we should: “How has the Lord gifted you and how might you serve your neighbor?” Or better yet, in my Millennial demographic, we ask each other: “How many children do you plan to have?”

Again, this would have been a weird question to people in my great-grandparents’ generation. Though it might seem innocent, I think Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood was catechizing Zoe and I to see the world primarily through the lens of “choice” and not through the lens of the Lord “who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8). The show was habituating us towards being citizens of the “world of choice.”

If we are going to become more and more transformed into the image of Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10) like Scripture argues, we need to become properly catechized through the preaching of God’s written Word, the administration of the Sacraments, and the discipline of learning the great creeds of the church. Choice is not the governing factor in our lives.

I think as we increasingly find ourselves in a culture that is not like the world—a culture that Scripture speaks into existence—we need to learn to become catechized well. Again, it’s not a matter of if we are being catechized. It’s a matter of who is catechizing us. Is it Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the 24/7 news cycle, or some other agency?

It wasn’t that long ago that Presbyterian ministers wrote their own catechisms for their congregations. This is what I am trying to do through this particular blog starting in 2020. I will be attempting to catechize our congregation through the medium of blog posts.

Please join me once a week, as we learn about the importance of doctrine and how to apply it to our lives!

—Posted: Sunday, January 12, 2020

 

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Reading About a Master

I have often stated that my three favorite theologians are Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, and John Calvin. Biographies of these three individuals can be technical and boring! However, Herman Selderhuis has written a biography on John Calvin that is very accessible and fun to read!

The major strength of the book is that it focuses on John Calvin’s writings and not so much the world in which Calvin lived. I find this a major strength because the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin’s commentaries and various other writings, are texts that I find myself turning to over and over again.

It is also important that Calvin’s life is framed around the concept of the “pilgrims life,” which is essentially what the Christian life is all about. This concept of a life lived as a pilgrim is taken from Augustine writings.

Protestants do not worship saints. But, we should study those who came before us and “look up” to them. This is precisely why I would recommend reading this particular biography on John Calvin. He truly was a man who thirsted for the presence of Christ and whose writings understood that all of the Christian life was to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

—Posted: Friday, August 23, 2019

 

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Being Ordinary is Okay!

We seem to live in a world that could be defined as restless. It’s a world where we either have endless options for amusing ourselves to death, or where we’re constantly being told “everything is awesome.”

Somewhere deep down inside, we know everything is not awesome and we are not “all that and a bag of chips,” as I used to say in high school! If you think or feel this way about life, I would recommend reading Michael Horton’s book, Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World. In this marvelous little book, Horton argues that God works using ordinary means of grace through ordinary people. Horton believe this is the radical message that American Christians desperately need to hear.

This past June, I had the pleasure of attending a “Millennial Workshop” at the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado. During this workshop, the speakers said one of the liberating forces that Millennials need to hear is that being average is okay. In other words, the word that could have been chosen is “ordinary.” Being an “ordinary Christian” is okay.

In a world where we are constantly told we “need to change the world and make it a better place,” what if the recipe for true happiness in the Lord was being okay with our radical call to be ordinary? I would ask you, if this idea sparks your interest, to purchase Horton’s book and learn to love our call to live as ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God.

—Posted: Thursday, July 11, 2019

 

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Personal Devotion
and
Religious Practice

Glittering Vices, written by Rebecca DeYoung, is one of my favorite Christian formation books. It introduces readers to virtue/vice tradition and how that relates to the Christian life. This tradition has specifically been neglected by the Reformed tradition and Evangelicalism at large.

Throughout this book, DeYoung walks the readers through the categories of vice, such as vain glory—think people addicted to social media as personified in the Kardashian clan—ambition, and greed. The author discusses these vices in detail. She offers the reader specific virtues to combat them.

In a world where personal devotionals have been prioritized above all else, I think Glittering Vices opens up new doors for Christians to walk through while on their journey with Christ. It is not personal devotion versus religious practice. They both go together and Glittering Vices helps us understand this concept.

It is because of this confusion over personal devotion versus religious practice that Carl Trueman of Grove City College often laments the neglect of cultivating good character through the virtue-practicing tradition.

—Posted: Friday, June 7, 2019

 

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Pastor’s Book Recommendations

Occasionally, someone will ask me for a list of books that I believe every serious Christian shold read. As a bit of a bookworm myself, I find it somewhat hard to select a relatively few books from the vast number that I have had the privilege of reading over the years.

Nevertheless, I have given this task quite a bit of thought and have compiled the following list. I hope it will prove helpful to those who want to delve into matters that will promote solid Christian formation.

I have divided the list into three parts. If you haven’t done much reading of Christian literature, I suggest you start at the beginning.

Please be sure to let me know if this is helpful and also give me some idea of what you are learning.

Note: In each case, if you click on the book citation, your web browser will take you to Amazon.com where you can purchase the book, if you wish to do so.

—Posted: Thursday, May 16, 2019

 

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Ben Myers—The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism

Starting on Sunday, December 2, 2018, Redeemer Presbyterian Church will begin celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion on a weekly basis. The Communion liturgy will include reciting The Apostles’ Creed each and every Lord’s Day.

Christians might have this important creed memorized and tucked away in their hearts. However, they might not fully grasp the weight of this creed.

Ben Myers does an exceptional job explaining the creed in a short amount of space—a mere 135 pages. The results of reading this book will be a better understanding of the nature of the Triune God and how this important doctrine relates to the life of a Christian.

Please click here to find this book at Amazon.com.

—Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2018

 

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