FROM PASTOR TIM JOHNSON:
Sunday’s message hit on the “right” pursuit of righteousness (by faith) versus the wrong way to pursue righteousness (through the Law). Zeal without knowledge leads to death, zeal with knowledge leads to life. As always with Paul, and life, right thinking leads to right living.
We walk by faith, not by sight and we cherish the righteousness that belongs to Jesus as our own when we believe that Jesus is the Messiah who died on the cross as our substitute. For Paul, most of the Jews missed these fine points, though some, including himself, were blessed with open eyes to see it clearly.
I did not get a chance to talk to people after church who may have had thoughts on the sermon as we were moving quickly into a congregational meeting with Jon Payne from the EFCA. I want to thank all of those who took the time to attend the meeting as the meeting will play a pivotal role in how we approach our future relationship with the EFCA.
I have received feedback from the staff, and the Elders and Stones will discuss the meeting tomorrow (Wednesday evening), and we will hold a congregational meeting this Sunday after church for about 30 minutes to receive feedback from anyone who was at the meeting.
I will wait to provide fuller feedback after all of that has happened, but my initial observation is that it was a respectful, cordial, collective conversation that allowed for open dialogue with Jon and among ourselves. I do think our time together was heavily seasoned by grace and respect, and for that I am very thankful. Praise the Lord.
In essence, our conflict comes down to how to pursue righteousness. The means by which we come to our decisions matters, and that’s the primary concern we have going forward. It is true that Premillennialism is the question under scrutiny, but it’s really the process to removing that is driving our discontent.
There are right ways to pursue change, and wrong ways. Right thinking leads to right action…. And righteousness will never be had by seeking a “righteousness of our own” that fails to freely invite the Holy Spirit to influence the process.
If you were not at the meeting, or, if you were and cannot attend this coming Sunday’s feedback meeting, please forward any of your thoughts to me or any of the Elders as we’d love to hear from everyone who has prayed and thought about this matter.
We love you all and seek to feed, protect and grow our flock for God’s glory.
Rescued by Christ,
Pastor Tim