On Advent and Time

This is the first week of the church season of Advent. Many of us did not grow up observing Advent or any church season. So I want to explain what Advent is and what the benefits of the church calendar are.

Not long after the apostles, the early church started celebrating the birth of Jesus. The incarnation, that is, the coming of the unseen God in human flesh in the person of Jesus, is the mystery that lies at the heart of Christian faith. However much the cross lies at the center, the incarnation is the prior reality that makes the death of Jesus meaningful, the death and sacrifice of God’s son. So it makes sense the early church looked to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Contrary to many myths about the origins of Christmas in pagan rituals, the actual date lies in the math of a Christian historian named Africanus who concluded that Jesus was likely born on Dec 25. The church quickly accepted this and institutionalized it. It wasn’t long after that church leaders started commending their people to attend church daily in the lead up to Christmas. By the 6th c. it became part of the church calendar. (If you want more deets, check out “Christmas Isn’t Pagan” and “The History of Advent.”) 

Advent comprises the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. Its themes are a preparation for the coming of Jesus. Advent comes from the Latin word for “coming.” Actually, it’s a preparation for the comings (plural) of Jesus. It’s a remembrance of the incarnation, the first coming of Jesus Christ as a babe born to Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. Even more prominent is the second coming of Christ for which we are still waiting.

 So why don’t all Christians observe advent? Most Christians do recognize some version of the church calendar: Orthodox and Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and even some Calvinist denominations. But those dear English Puritans considered the church calendar to be a Catholic add-on. Lent, Advent were not in the Bible, so they discarded it. Those low church Puritans are the theological ancestors to modern day Baptists, non-denoms, charismatic, and evangelicals, which dominate the California church landscape, who typically don’t observe the church calendar.

Now, I love the Puritans. The PCA is a Puritan denomination. The Westminster Standards, which is our confession, were largely composed by English and Scottish Puritans of the 1640s-1650s. But I think they were wrong on throwing out Advent and the church calendar. Let me give you three quick reasons: a cultural, a biblical, and a pastoral argument for advent and the church calendar.

First, cultural. Organizing time is central to creating and changing culture. What and who we celebrate really matters and reveals what we value as a people. Revolutionaries know this. Both the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution created alternate weeks and holidays to stamp out the influence of the Christian church. The French increased the week to 10 days and they replaced Christian holy days like Christmas and Easter with festivals celebrating the nation. A calendar has a significant influence in shaping people and culture. Just think about the controversy of Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Both have whole narratives and implications about American history and identity attached to the second Monday in October.

Related to the significance of time and culture, it is a cliché to speak of Western culture as increasingly secular and less religious. In his tome, A Secular Age, philosopher Charles Taylor tells one historical account of how Western culture, in which God was once universally presumed, has lost its belief in God. A key transition Taylor notes is the modern notion of time. It was once believed that time could be sacred, that it could be consecrated and set apart. By contrast, modern people believe time has no sacred meaning. It’s just one endless stream of meaningless minutes.

But I’d argue that sacred time still creeps back up on us. Even when you kick it out the front door, it comes in the back. Americans still have a sacred calendar. The holidays (holy days) involve Thanksgiving, July 4, Presidents day, MLK day, and Veterans Day. We use time to remember our country, to be thankful for it. Rather than celebrate God and rest in him, we celebrate America and rest from work. Actually, in the absence of a transcendent God to worship, American holidays are more often consecrated to Mammon, to the god of money. Business loves the American church calendar. It’s deeply ironic that the biggest sales, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, immediately follow the one consecrated day on which we’re supposed to be thankful. Apparently we’re not that thankful.

Biblically, there’s a strong biblical case for the church calendar. Actually, I’d argue this cultural argument for a church calendar is a biblical argument. After God saved his people from Egypt in the Exodus, alongside the giving of the law, the tabernacle, and the priesthood, God also instituted a calendar. The most basic unit was the Sabbath, every seventh day, marked by worship and feasting. Every month’s beginning is also celebrated with a special sacrifice (Num 28:11). This was in addition to the daily offerings. At the beginning of the litany of scheduled offerings, God says “Command the people of Israel and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time.’ (Numbers 28:2). Time was organized around God and his appointments of time. These regularly scheduled sacrifices are framed as food for God, not in the sense that he needs to eat, but in a regular fellowship meal with his people. This is a Father scheduling regular family meals with his children.

 Then there were the special festivals and holidays: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks (their Thanksgiving festival). The seventh month was especially packed, The Day of Atonement, Feast of Booths. These holy days were never arbitrary. For instance, in the Feast of Booths, the people would make tents out of palm branches, willow boughs, sticks, and leaves and camp out for seven days in these “booths.” The reason? That your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

God is not going to save every generation from slavery in Egypt and have them camp out in the wilderness. But every year, the people will reenact this great salvation act. Children are enculturated to a deeply symbolic ritual about how God gave their ancestors homes in the desert. Actually, the meaning is more profound. We’re always living in booths on this earth, because God is our permanent home. How about that for a sticky cultural practice? How fun would that be for a child?

So in sum, the Old Testament calendar from the seven-day week with its Sabbath to the daily offerings to the special annual festivals was all about God’s providence and redemption. They were about remembering and celebrating and reenacting God’s mighty works, his provision, his salvation.

Now, that’s the Old Testament. The argument of the Puritans and their offspring is that this all ended with Jesus. The New Testament does not continue the Jewish calendar.

There’s some truth to that story. At several places, the apostle Paul addresses issues related to the Jewish calendar. For instance, in Romans 14, Paul contrasts Christians who consider one day more sacred than another with Christians who consider each day alike. He puts these calendar issues in what he calls matters of opinion, Paul says don’t quarrel with each other. Rather let your conscience guide you and love and accept those who think differently than you. The church calendar is a place where Christian liberty and charity should reign. I could not agree more.

There’s also Colossians 2:16. He writes let no one pass judgment on you…with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Then v. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. This passage is particularly interesting, because Paul gives us the key to interpreting the Jewish calendar. The substance of the calendar is about Christ. It’d be ridiculous to celebrate the Day of Atonement completely missing how the cross of Christ fulfilled it. Every part and festival of Jewish calendar, Passover, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Booths, are all about Jesus. He is the Passover lamb. He is the true thanksgiving provision. He is our home.

But let us be careful here. Paul is not saying that time and calendars don’t matter and should be discarded. They do, as we’ll see. He is rather saying that Christ is the substance of the calendar. Merely observing the Jewish calendar will not save you, because only Jesus saves. But time and calendars do matter.

Paul himself continues to mark time by the Jewish calendar. In his closing remarks in 1 Corinthians, he discloses “I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost.” (16:8). Or Acts 20:16 notes Paul’s desire to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost. The New Testament has many references to the Jewish calendar. Jesus on the last day of the Feast of Booths, the celebration of God’s provision in the dry wilderness, gets up and says that whoever believes in him “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Or the significance of Jesus being sacrificed right after Passover. Or the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Weeks. The New Testament does not abolish the Jewish calendar. It rather shows how, as Paul says in Col 2, Jesus is the substance of it.

Which leads us back to the church calendar. The calendar that developed in the early church is organically connected to the Jewish calendar. Easter has supplanted Passover. The church also celebrates Pentecost, not as a harvest festival of crops but as a harvest of the Holy Spirit who’s been given the harvest of the nations. The Feast of Booths, also called Tabernacles, approximates Christmas as we celebrate both that Christ is our permanent home and that God has come to the tabernacle with us (John 1:14).

The church enacted a calendar seeking to make time revolve around Jesus Christ, the substance, around his birth, death, and resurrection, and his giving of the Holy Spirit. Lent, Advent, Pentecost, Easter. It’s an aid to help us make time literally revolve around Jesus, rather than our own agendas.

Finally, a pastoral concern. There is Christian freedom here. You are free in Christ to observe Advent or Christmas or not. But what you are not free to do is to keep your time to yourself. Everyone is called to consecrate time itself to the Lord of time. Without intentionality, your time will inevitably revolve around work or your kids’ school, your leisure or your vacation or travel. That reinforces the myth your time is about you. You’re the Sun the universe and God revolves around you

We’re told in the Bible that we must have a right relationship with time. The old KJV translates Eph 5:16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Or Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. It strikes me that numbering our days or redeeming our time probably involves intentionality with how we structure our calendar. And it’s helpful here to think again of the Jewish calendar. God split it into days, weeks, months, and years. How do we consecrate our days to the Lord? Do we have a family worship time? The obvious week consecration is the Lord’s day Sabbath. We worship each week with God’s people. But what about months and years? I’ve been a part of churches that had monthly prayer meetings. I really like that as a continuation of the spirit of the new moon sacrifice. Annually, celebrating the great Christian seasons of Lent, Advent, Christmas and Easter, are ways to think about a yearly calendar oriented around Jesus. I’ve personally found it helpful to make Lent a time of personal fasting. Honestly, if I don’t have a season for it, I would not do it in any regular way. Or maybe you and your family decide to do an annual spiritual retreat, each August or maybe January.

So finally, what about Advent in particular? Let me first invite you to do the devotional our church has put out. It’s got some good questions to draw out the heart. Advent has traditionally been a penitential season, meaning it’s focused on showing penitence. As Protestants, we don’t believe in penitence, at least not in the stereotyped and formulaic rubbing our noses in the ground when we sin or going to the confessional. But we very much do believe in repentance, which could in fact involve confessing your sins to a brother or sister. It is good to spend this time of Advent with some concentrated time with the Lord asking the invitation of Psalm 139: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Perhaps you journal this month every Sunday. Perhaps you go for a 10 minute prayer walk each day at lunch.

And if you fail, that’s ok. That’s actually built into Advent. Advent is about how things are not right, how we are so frail and faulted. But Jesus is coming. And he has come. And he will come again! Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Why Children's Worship?

We recently replaced our three children's classes that met during the sermon and communion portion of our service with a children's worship time during only the sermon. I saw this as a shift from what was essentially a Sunday School to something more akin to a worship service for our children. A thoughtful parent and former teacher in the old model recently asked "Is there really that big a difference between the two?" There's a lot in children's worship that resembles a traditional Sunday School. That's true. Why make a distinction? Why prioritize worship over Sunday School? The following seeks to explain what in my mind was the difference as well as why I think it matters.

When I think of Sunday school, the goal has to do with some mastery of knowledge, hopefully the Bible or some doctrine. That's why Sunday schools were started in the late-19th century. It sought to give religious and biblical instruction to children whose parents weren't Christians and who didn't attend church. It wasn't happening at home, so reformers sought to supplement the neglect with the church. The model for the Sunday school is in the name: the school. A school presumes ignorance as the chief problem and seeks to remedy that problem with instruction and information.

Education and schools are massively important in our society. There's been an extraordinary explosion in the amount and quality of schooling over the last hundred years. Education has produced unprecedented wealth, expertise, and technology. I feel this personally. Higher education provided a door out of poverty for my grandparents and even my parents. Conservatives and liberals alike believe in education as a pillar of our society. That's produced a deep faith in education. One Ivy-league historian has called the twentieth-century faith in schooling the "education gospel." (Even to name drop an "Ivy-league" professor confirms that gospel). Education is the answer not only to poverty and economic mobility, but racism and prejudice and inequity and hatred. We can educate the ills out of our children. Bay Area people will move all over, commute long distances, and pay exorbitant amounts for a better school for their kids.

This education gospel undoubtedly has an influence on the church and especially how we think of children's ministry.

Christianity involves a system of knowledge that needs to be taught. It was that way from the beginning. The Lord commissions Aaron as high priest and commands him to "teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken." Jesus was a rabbi, which means "teacher." Paul referred to his work in terms of teaching. Christians from an early time have sought to express their beliefs in creeds and confessions. We are to give away and guard that body of teaching. That's why our denomination calls the ministry the office of teaching elder. Teaching is important. (Lev 10:8-11; Matt 8:19; 1 Tim 4:11, 16)

But Christianity is not merely a system of knowledge and a sermon is not merely the dispensation of information. To miss the relational and personal (or what theology calls covenantal) nature of our God and his salvation is to completely miss the proverbial boat of salvation. It is to see the trees and miss the forest. We do need to believe the right things about God. But just as important is knowing God, personally. Here's how Jesus defines salvation: And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3) This is not just a knowledge about Jesus. It is knowing Jesus. There is dispensation of information in a sermon, to be sure. But the goal of the sermon is to know God more. To hear him personally. To love him more, to believe him more, to have his Word intervene into the chaos of our internal life and the grind of life lived and make some difference in how we breathe and live and love others.

So what does this have to do with Sunday school and what our kids do during the sermon?

Here's an illustration. Let's say as a child, you're parents told you about a wild Great-Uncle Bart. He was legendary in the family. Great Uncle Bart had traveled around the world in a hot-air balloon. He was a co-owner of a Premier League team and was an original investor in Apple. There was nothing he hadn't done. You loved hearing stories about Uncle B. But you had never actually met him. You knew a lot about Uncle Bart but you don't know him. Imagine the joy of the day when you got to meet Great Uncle B and hear his stories from him.

Sunday school is talking about Uncle Bart instead of talking directly to Uncle Bart.

My primary concern about doing Sunday school during the sermon is that it communicates to them that faith is primarily about knowing something about God rather than knowing God. The Sunday sermon is NOT analogous to a classroom. Salvation does not come through acquiring knowledge. That's a post-Enlightenment heresy that sees new data, new science, new knowledge as salvific. That's the education gospel. It's also a very old heresy called gnosticism, which viewed knowledge or "gnosis" as the key to salvation. The Christian gospel by contrast says salvation comes through being introduced to God in the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing and loving him who first loved us.

I know lots of people who grew up in church. They went to Sunday school. They knew about God, his rules. But they didn't know God. Scores of millennials and Gen Z who grew up in church are walking away from faith and church. They know about God but they don't know God.

Such can be true of us with God. In fact, you could say that this was the prime problem of the Old Testament saints. They knew about God, but they did not know God. That's what God says will be the difference in the new covenant. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying “Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. ..I will be their God and they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31:31-35).

And our children CAN know God. That Jeremiah passage, God says that they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest. When the disciples ask Jesus who is the greatest, Jesus says Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:1). God holds up a child to say, "be like this child." Know me like this child.

Too many Sunday school formats never take a moment to discern what God is already doing in this child. They major on the dispensing of knowledge and rewarding it. They don't expect God to do anything in the child at that moment. They don't invite the child to repent and believe. And the entertainment-music-thumping-high-energy-self-esteem-boosting production that passes for children's ministry in many modern churches is ill preparation for the kind of sober-minded, thoughtful, prayerful, God-exalting attitude needed for participation in the worship of our God.

Now my hope for our kids' salvation is not in some program. It is in the Holy Spirit's regenerating power. And I actually do think we need a time to teach our kids the Bible, to teach them doctrine. But if we're going to only have one program for our children (and right now our church appetite and volunteer willingness seems to indicate we can only sustain one program right now), I think we should major in creating an environment where kids will not just be talked at by adults or taught new information or be rewarded for content mastery. We should major in kids being invited and encouraged to relate to God personally. I always want to keep forefront in our minds the goal of introducing them to God, of them hearing from God themselves and talking to God themselves.

The goal of our children's programming needs to be preparing them to participate in the church's worship service fully. We need to grow them in hearing Jesus' voice in the Scripture. We need to grow them in paying attention to the Holy Spirit's movings. And we should not wait until they are in  junior high or high school. Children can know God now.

One last thought on your contribution as a parent (or your support of a parent). The studies all show the parents' faith as the most determinative factor in passing down the faith. We can in children's ministry help them experience the living Jesus who is their Good Shepherd. But most importantly, your child needs to see you in worship and in the preaching hearing Jesus' voice and responding to the Spirit. Children's ministry begins and ends with knowing God through Jesus Christ. But children's ministry also begins and ends with you, parent, with God working through you to introduce your child to your Lord that you know, surrender to, trust, love, and worship.

Pastor Jesse

Why I'm Grateful to be Presbyterian

I had the privilege of attending our denomination's (the Presbyterian Church in America or PCA) General Assembly this June. Now, you might not know or care much about our denomination, which is why I want to speak about why I'm grateful for our denomination.

What is General Assembly, you might ask? It's a meeting of all our church's leaders from all over the nation. Presbyterianism is a lot like the American federal system of government, which has local (city and county), regional (state), and national (Washington DC) levels. Presbyterians have local sessions (a particular church's leaders), regional (presbyteries), and national (general assembly) levels too. Actually, it would be better to say the American government is a lot like presbyterianism, since it came after, but that's off topic. Anyway, we had our general assembly in Richmond, Virginia this year. General Assembly is like a giant church conference with worship and speakers and seminars combined with a huge business meeting where important matters of the church are reported, discussed, debated, and determined by vote.

I grew up in a Baptist church. Baptist churches are known for being autonomous and independent, which means they do not recognize any external authority outside of their leadership. Autonomous churches sometimes associate with other churches (like Southern Baptists) but those associations are rarely binding. I've found that the further west and north you go in the United States, the more autonomous churches there are. Non-denominational churches are the epitome of autonomous churches, and California is a veritable hub and hotbed of non-denom churches. All that to say is that I know it's strange for some of us, that our church is part of a denomination. And if the latest religious polls are true, non-denoms is ironically the only "denomination" currently growing.

But against all those trends and what seems to be the non-affiliative waters here in Cali, I'm incredibly thankful to be in a connected church. By virtue of being in the PCA, we are really and organically connected to churches all over our country and even the world. I shared an Uber with a pastor from St. Louis and a church planter from Connecticut. I was a stranger but we immediately had something in common by virtue of the same faith we profess. I loved being led in worship by brothers and sisters from a different corner of the church. And there's a lot of us former Baptists in the PCA (some tongue-in-cheek call the PCA the second largest Southern Baptist denomination) who love being in a more churchly and connected church.

Being part of a denomination like the PCA means we have to submit to each other. That's a bad word among many Americans. Submission or subjection is a threat to our independence and our liberty. But this is one blind spot for Americans. Christ does not say that the life abundant is marked by independence and autonomy. Rather, he says that it is in dying to ourselves for the sake of thers that we actually discover life. Subjection is the path to life; first and foremost to the Lord and then to each other. If you remember our 1 Peter sermon series, the command to subject ourselves formed the core of the book, running from ch. 2 until the end. It's because of this prevalence that subjection is baked into our denomination. Pastors, elders, and members vow to subject themselves. "Do you promise subjection to your brethren in the Lord?" they asked me when I was ordained. Being Presbyterian gives me lots of opportunities to fulfill this vow.

As you know, subjection is hard. So is being a connectional church. We are connected to churches that hold radically different cultural and political ideals than Indelible Grace. If you were to attend General Assembly, you'd hear a panoply of American accents, especially the plethora of Southern accents (Tennessee sounds different than Texan which sounds different than Mississippi). Sometimes people and churches and presbyteries say or propose things that I do not agree with and even potentially find offensive. But that again is the point. The difference is the point. The PCA is not about us, not about me, or my team. The PCA is about Jesus who is making for himself a people from every nation, tribe, and language. And submission is usually more spiritually important than being right. Being right often puffs us up with pride, whereas submission forms us into the image of Jesus.

You don't have to love or know about the PCA. That's yet another thing I love about our denomination. In order to be a member, you don't have to know or agree with all the PCA doctrine (though you should, because it's beautifully biblical :). You just need to believe in the simple gospel that Jesus came to save sinners like you and me by virtue of his death and resurrection. But I do hope that we will all grow in our capacity to submit to the Lord and to each other. I do pray we will become a little less American (and Californian?) in the personal value we put in our independence and autonomy. The path to spiritual maturity is in the opposite direction, towards needy dependence and a life surrendered to Christ.

Pastor Jesse

Why Discipleship Groups?

Apollos needed a spiritual tune-up. Acts 18:24-25 describes this leader in the early Jesus movement as having been "instructed in the way of the Lord" and that he "taught about Jesus accurately." It even says he was a bold speaker about the way. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak, it says "they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately." Apollos was a faithful follower of Jesus. He was a leader and teacher. But he was lacking in some department and needed correction, edification, and encouragement. Apollos needed discipleship.

When you hear the word discipleship, what do you think of? Perhaps for many of us, we think of a long-term teacher-student relationship, a kind of Christian Mr. Miyagi who will whip you into spiritual shape. Our paradigms for discipleship often come from college or high school ministries where there was a clear age and maturity hierarchy. Such discipling relationships are precious and formational and often rare. Yet they do not exhaust the meaning of discipleship. We have no indication Apollos' relationship with Priscilla and Aquila was long term. Indeed, Apollos was sent off from Ephesus shortly after to help the church in Achaia. Discipleship in the case of Apollos was fixed and focused.

One danger in the Mr. Miyagi paradigm is its potential passivity. You're waiting for some older Christian to come, see potential, and take you under her arm. We must remember that our discipleship is first under Jesus. Discipleship is primarily about following Jesus and becoming like him. And Jesus was never passive. We are responsible to God for our own discipleship. Yes, the church is the context where discipleship happens, and the church must provide opportunities and invitations for discipleship. Like Priscilla and Aquila. Discipleship will not happen on accident. You cannot wait on the church to do it for you. It requires ownership, intentionality, boldness, pursuit, and perseverance.

It's this kind of fixed and focused discipleship we see in Acts 18 we are seeking to do with our Discipleship Intensive Groups (DIGs). They're short-term groups meant to explore some area of Christian discipleship so we can understand and live "the way of God more accurately." And there are all sorts of benefits to such a format. These groups are meant to mix up our church community in good and healthy ways. In our first DIG anger meeting last Thursday, it was a delight to see people who've worshipped together for months get to meet and talk for the first time. These groups are short term commitments, which is also advantageous in the midst of the busy schedules of Bay Area people.

What about our community groups? This is a season of respite and reorientation for our community groups. Please thank your community group leader. They have been leading for a long time with little break. And it's a difficult job, navigating everyone's expectations and schedules. As a community groups pastor, I've found that it's easy for community groups to to become cliquish and in-grown. They become more self-focused and less hospitable. Even good goals like vulnerability and intimacy can easily quench spiritual vitality and a missional consciousness. A major reason alongside community for our groups has to be discipleship, growing in Christ-likeness together.

So we have need for a recasting of vision and an equipping of leaders before we relaunch community groups. But this is not to say you can't hang out with your CG in the meantime! Indeed you should! The summer is a great opportunity for some social hangouts. I've found that the more people hang out outside of CG, the better CG actually is. Your desire to keep going in CG means that CG is working! So in the meantime, three things:

  1. Keep pursuing those relationships you had in CG and make them about Jesus. Ask how you can pray for each other this summer.

  2. Join a DIG this summer and fall. We'll have several options in the fall.

  3. Please pray for the relaunch of CGs and consider if the Lord might be calling you to lead or host in some way.

Children in Worship at Indelible Grace Church

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. (2 John 4)

At IGC, we love children. They are not simply the offspring of our members. They are not distractions to what we do on Sundays. They are not even the future of the church. They are the church. Our covenant children are the living stones that comprise the house of God (1 Peter 2:4-5). Therefore, it is our duty and privilege as parents to help foster their love for Jesus and what he’s doing to shape them as worshipers of the living God.           

When it comes to our Sunday gatherings, we have an opportunity to train them to participate fully in the worship service.

 

Before Sunday

  •  Ask the Lord to search your heart and prepare it to worship alongside your children. Consider your attitude and tone when you talk about church on Sunday. Is it something to check off our list of duties, or are we genuinely excited? 

  • Remind your child that you will be going to church together the next day. You can build anticipation by reminding them of why we attend: to meet with God’s people, to hear him speak, to respond in worship, and to be equipped to live lives that honor him. Jesus eagerly anticipates meeting his children at church (Mark 10:14).

  • Do what you can to ensure you can leave the house to make it to service before it begins at 10:30m. Set the alarms. Lay out the outfits. Plan to be in the car early enough so you don’t have to rush. etc.


Before service begins

  • Consider sitting toward the front. Children tend to pay attention better when they’re closer to the action up front.

  • Take a few moments before service to calm down and focus on what is about to happen.

  • Explain the elements of the liturgy:

    • Song of Ascent. This opening song is a call to God’s people to gather and focus our attention on God.

    • Call to Worship. This is God’s word inviting God’s people to worship him.

    • Singing. We sing because God commands us to. Singing is a way to express our hearts to him. The songs also contain truths about who God is, and they are a way for us to learn more about him.

    • Scripture reading. When we read scripture, we are hearing the very words of God. He is speaking to us through his Word.

    • Sermon. The preacher explains what God is saying in his word and is helping us see why it matters to us.

    • Communion. The bread represents the broken body of Jesus. The wine represents his blood that was spilled for our sake. Eating and drinking these elements reminds us of his sacrifice and feeds our faith, which constantly needs nourishing. Communion is only for those who have been baptized and have professed faith in Jesus (and confirmed by the church if they were baptized as babies).

    • Song of response. After the Word of God is preached and communion is taken, we respond to God through music.

    • Benediction. This is God’s word of blessing over his people as service concludes and God’s people go back into the world.

 

During service

  • Sit with your children. They may want to sit with their friends, but they are less likely to be distracted when they are with you. And you get to model to them what it looks like to be attentive, reverent, and worshipful.

  • Sing the songs and let your child hear your voice. Even if you’re not a great singer, it’s better that your children will remember their parent singing out-of-tune to God than not at all.

  • The sermon should be (hopefully) intelligible to your child. A handout will be given to your child so they can follow along with the sermon.


After service

  • Ask your child what their favorite part of service was, and why they liked it.

  • Ask them to share what they learned from the sermon, and you can share what you learned as well.  

  • Talk about how your family might apply the things you learned in church. 

  • Find the songs that were sung in service and play them during the week. You can find every song IGC sings on Spotify or Youtube.

““I cannot read the Word, I cannot sing, I cannot pray, without leaving some trace on the tender mind. How solemnly, how affectionately, how believingly, should I then approach this ordinance with much godly fear and preparation!””
— J. W. Alexander

Why have a nursery?

The answer lies in an often-overlooked Scripture. Each Christmas, we read Luke 1 about how Mary is visited by an angel announcing a virgin will conceive a son. But it's what comes after that's intriguing. Mary goes to visit her relative Elizabeth, also miraculously pregnant in her old age. Luke 1:41 says, "And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb." The baby leaped. The baby John knew something special was happening. The presence of the Messiah in utero was enough to make another baby in utero leap for joy and praise. This infant knew the presence of the Lord immediately.

Our children can know Jesus even in the womb. That's one reason we baptize infants here. It's also why we're starting nursery. We believe our youngest can know and praise the Lord, and we want to create an environment where that knowledge is intentionally guarded and fostered.

From this central reason, we can deduce other reasons.

We believe our youngest know the Lord through the body of Christ, the church, expressing his love and care. Baby John knew the presence of Jesus from the voice of Mary. Nursery is an opportunity for our children, whether they are verbal or not, to hear the presence of Jesus in our voices.

We believe nursery is a place where the congregation can fulfill their baptismal vows to assist parents in the "Christian nurture of this child.” Nursery is a place where the church can fully be the household of God (1 Tim 3:15), where children are prayed for, cared for, and known by their Christian aunties and uncles.

We believe our youngest are called to praise the Lord in ways fitting to their age. Baby John could not speak, but he could leap in the womb. Far from being a childcare service, nursery is a context where we want to foster our little ones' worship in age-appropriate ways. Nursery will prepare our toddlers for children's worship and congregational worship. They will learn and sing songs, lift their voices and hands in praise, learn to pray and listen to God, and hear God's Word read and taught to them.

We believe there is no strict separation of the natural and spiritual in Christ's kingdom. Our nursery time will be structured to grow our children in knowledge of the Lord but also in self-control, in submission and obedience to good authority, in responsibility, in loving and sharing, and in stewardship. In other words, their sanctification requires things like learning to share toys and spaces, learning to follow the leader, cleaning up after themselves, and even eating in a conscientious, caring way.

Please join us in praying for our nursery care. Ask the Lord whether he is calling you to serve in this beautiful and crucial ministry. Our Lord Jesus promises that whoever welcomes one of these little ones is actually welcoming him (Matt 18:5). Nursery then is a ministry of and to the Lord.

A New Start to Our Children's Ministry

When many of us think of kids and church, we think of wiggly, little toddlers that call our attention away from the worship song, the prayer, or the sermon. Parents of little ones think of the power struggle every Sunday morning from 10:30. You're just trying to manage without a meltdown until children's classes start. We often have a deeply rooted impulse that children, whether ours or others, are a distraction that keeps us from paying attention.

The Christian ethicists Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, write "Interestingly, Jesus put a child in the center of his disciples, 'in the midst of them,' in order to help them pay attention . . . The child was a last-ditch effort by God to help the disciples pay attention to the odd nature of God's kingdom. Few acts of Jesus are more radical, countercultural, than his blessing of children" (Resident Aliens, 1989, p.96)

Listen to Jesus in Matthew 18:1-5: At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

Few things reveal the heart of a church than their response to children.

Do they have the heart of Jesus?
Do children get the feeling that they're welcome?
Do they have a sense that the God their parents are worshiping cares about them?
Are they shuffled out of service with relief so that now the adults can do real church and their fun hangout time with friends can begin?
Are their classes haphazardly put together?
Is it glorified babysitting?
Do they see their parents hanging out at the back of the class chatting with their friends, rather than hearing the sermon?

All this forms our children's view of God and the gospel.

The Bay Area has long been a national leader in education. WalletHub has designated the San Jose area the #2 most educated area in the country and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley as #4. Several of the school districts where Indelible Grace members live and send kids to school are some of the highest ranked in the state of California. Our culture values education, sometimes even idolizes education.

But what kind of education is it? It might create kids that perform well on standardized tests or have a better chance at admission into the UC's but most of that education is at best neutral to the Lordship of Christ or at worst outright antagonistic to Christian doctrine and ethics. We live in this intellectually-rich area where Christian claims are increasingly implausible and even viewed as immoral.

If we just wing our children's ministry, we are setting our kids up for confusion and a weak formation. The powers of cultural formation are undeniably in the hands of the tech and media companies. I was talking to an area pastor who was born in Africa but moved to the US in junior high years. He said one of the primary anti-Christian and secular influences is public and college education.  I know many of us have kids in public schools. I'm not saying that's bad. Where our kids go to school must be a conscienced, prayerful, and discerning decision. But I am saying that we should not be naive about the power of that formation and we as a church have a primary mandate from the Lord to provide an alternate education that is rooted in a different kind of power, the Spirit of power, love, and self-control.

That's why we're starting this children's ministry study committee. We do not want to just put a band-aid on. We want to pray first of all. And we invite you to pray for us. But then we will do the hard work of biblical study. We want our vision of children's ministry to be rooted in God's Word. Then we want to apply wisdom as constructing a vision and plan for children's ministry we believe God is calling this particular church to put in place.

While this committee gets to work, the session approved some immediate changes for the summer.

We're going to end our regular children's programming this May for an alternative pilot program to be tested this summer. The pilot is going to be a children's worship service that will be concurrent with the sermon for our preschool and early grade school kids. Grades 2nd - 5th would remain in the service for the sermon with resources to help them process and attend to the sermon in an age appropriate way.

You might ask, why? Why not just wait?

There is lots of evidence that the crucial years of childhood development are the early years, especially for linguistic, cognitive, and emotional capacities. Preschool is actually a spiritually crucial and formative time - I'd be so bold to say even more so than grade school. One prominent Christian psychologist has described the first seven years of a child's life as "prime time" for spiritual formation. 

At Indelible Grace Church, we believe our children are in covenant with the Lord from the beginning. John the Baptist was moved in the womb when his pregnant mother came near to Jesus in the womb of Mary.

One final note. Our confession begins with this beautiful question: What is the chief end of man? We could replace man with children.

What is the chief end of children? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Notice, it does not say to know Bible stories. Surely knowing the Bible is the primary way we know God. But you can know about God without ever glorifying and enjoying him. Our models of religious education too closely follow the Enlightenment paradigms of modern education that's more about information than formation, more about data than character, more about facts than love. I remember in my Sunday school, I could school all the rest of the kids because I had a good memory. I still remember this arrogant superiority I felt by knowing who was the youngest of Jacob's children. Paul says that if we understand all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, we are nothing.

That's why we want to do a test program in children's worship. We want to instruct our kids in how to worship and who we worship. But we also want to worship! We'll have songs to sing together. We'll work on some scripture memory verses together. We'll read Scripture and hear a sermon catered to children. And we'll pray together. One of my favorite experiences was a worship night at my former church. We had a corporate time of prayer but all the children were invited up to the front for their own prayer time. I had 5-7 kids ages 3-8 and we went around the circle and prayed for each other and for our city.

Who will be leading this children's worship? We want to have a rotation of teachers that are particularly gifted with leading kids and teaching. I'm actually super excited to be in rotation. Weeks that I'm not preaching here, I'll be helping lead there. I’m looking forward to pastoring our children. 


Pastor Jesse

Why wine?

In our past worship services at Grace Lutheran Church, we’ve offered wine at communion in addition to the grape juice we typically offer at Creekside. I wanted to briefly explain why as we prepare to meet at Grace Lutheran again this Sunday.

Let me start on a personal note. I grew up in the Southern Baptist church which has a denominational proscription against all alcohol. I never partook of wine in communion (I still don't really like wine). There are many Bible-believing faithful Christians that view alcohol as inherently sinful or unnecessary. If that’s you, I deeply respect your conscience and conviction. That’s why I need to explain why we will offer wine at communion when we can (Castro Valley schools have a policy forbidding alcohol on the premises). I’ll first address the matter biblically, historically, and then pastorally from a view of conscience.

The main reason we will serve wine is a matter of simple obedience to Christ's command. The supper Jesus instituted involved unleavened bread and drinking wine. Jesus refers to the cup as the “fruit of the vine” (Matt 26:29, Mark 14:25, Luke 22:18). Regarding this term, a biblical scholar explains that “the Jews from time immemorial have used this phrase to designate the wine partaken of on sacred occasions, as at the Passover and on the evening of the Sabbath… The Christian Fathers, as well as the Jewish rabbis, have understood 'the fruit of the vine' to mean wine in the proper sense.” (Philip Schaff, ed. A Religious Encyclopedia, 1887, pgs. 2537-2538). Jesus then calls all his disciples to “drink of it, all of you” (Matt 26:27) as does Paul’s institution of the Lord’s Supper: “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25). Jesus calls us to total and complete obedience as disciples and followers of him (“observe all that I have commanded you” Matt. 28:20). Jesus drank wine and calls us to drink that same cup in the Lord’s Supper.

When we zoom out to the rest of the Bible, it was natural for Jesus to use wine. Presbyterian pastor Ken Golden insightfully points out that in the Bible, wine was considered both a common blessing and a covenantal blessing ("Drinks and Concessions"). As a common blessing, wine is a gift from God to man that is for his joy (Psalm 104:15), his health (1 Tim 5:23), and for celebrations. That's why Jesus provides the wine at a wedding for his first miracle (John 2). But more importantly for the Lord's Supper, wine was used by God as a means of representing and sealing his covenants with Israel. Wine was offered as a drink offering to the Lord (Exod. 28:40; Lev. 23:13; Num. 15:5). And overflowing vats of wine were one of the preeminent symbols of God's blessing contingent upon Israel's obedience to the covenant (Deut. 7:12-14; Jer. 31:11-12). The prophets envision the restoration of all things to be marked by an abundance of wine: "the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it" (Amos 9:13-15; cf. Joel 3:18). Biblically, wine is a gift from God to man that is for his joy (Psalm 104:15) and symbolizes God's covenantal grace.

Like all gifts of creation, it must be stewarded well. Drunkenness is a state of foolishness and a sin. Drunkenness reveals a lack of control and an indulgence that is not proper of God's redeemed people. Proverbs 23:29-35 insightfully lays out the appeal and danger of alcoholism. Proverbs 20:1 calls alcohol a "mocker" and a "brawler" and can easily lead you astray if you're not wise. Paul similarly calls Christians to be wise and "do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:16-18). Alcohol has its dangers, yes. But to forbid it is to go beyond Scripture. In fact, Paul warns against such a teaching in 1 Timothy 4:1-5: For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if is received with thanksgiving. There's an analogy to sexual union. Sex, like alcohol, has tremendous power to lead us astray. But within God's design and boundaries, it is a good and beautiful gift that points to greater spiritual realities (Eph. 5:22-33).

I'll keep my historical observations brief. The replacement of wine with grape juice is an American novelty and an innovation from the centuries and centuries of Christian practice at the Lord's table. After the Civil War, a temperance movement gained a lot of momentum and the support of many Christian pastors who thought total abstention from alcohol to be necessary. A teetotaling Methodist Thomas Welch was determined to replace communion wine, which he believed to be the "cup of devils" rather than the cup of our Lord. Remember, this was before the time of electric refrigeration. He applied the pasteurization process to grape juice to prevent fermentation into wine. Welch's grape juice would take off as many churches, especially Methodists, Baptists, and liberal Christians, replaced wine with juice. The temperance movement culminated in a federal ban on alcohol in the passing of the eighteenth amendment to the American Constitution which started Prohibition. After the 21st Amendment reversed the eighteenth and ended Prohibition, conservative evangelicals, especially those of the fundamentalist and Baptistic traditions, maintained alcoholic abstention as a hallmark of Christian living. Many of you, like me, came from churches in those traditions.

So what do we do? Paul in Romans 14 lays down some relevant principles. The presenting issue seems to be differing convictions in the church about eating meat. The issue was not merely about the validity of vegetarianism but probably had deeper theological stakes since much available meat came from animals who had been sacrificed to idols. The principles Paul lays out are as follows: (1) Don't quarrel over matters of relative indifference, and food and drink qualify; (2) You are fully entitled to your own opinion. In fact, follow your conscience as long as it does not violate God's Word; (3) Don't judge your brother or sister who disagrees with you. God is the judge; and (4) Rather, love your brother or sister and do not grieve their conscience. The practical application of this to communion for many churches is to provide both wine and grape juice to accommodate those who have conscienced objections to wine. In my view, this is a wise and loving solution that honors Scripture, our particular context and history, and the diversity of conscience present in our congregation.

So in conclusion: any time that we can serve both wine and grape juice, we will, both in obedience to Christ's command to drink his cup and to his command to love one another. Because that is, let me remind us, the meaning of the Lord's Supper. It is an expression of our unity in Christ. We have all been saved by Jesus and welcomed to feast at his table, where the wine will never run out. In fact, it is making us one even as we eat and drink it. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?...Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

Pastor Jesse

A Recap of 2023

 “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” (Psalm 119:68)

God was good to Indelible Grace Church in 2023. After a season of without a senior pastor, God was gracious in providing one for us this year. And though that may have been the most notable thing to happen, it is not the only thing. In fact, there is a long list of things The Lord has done in IGC in the past year: members were inducted, children were baptized, new community groups were formed, new friendships were established, difficult conversations were had, the community was served, people came to faith in Christ, the sacraments were administered, the gospel was preached, and Jesus was worshiped.  For many of us, this year was one in which the renewed hope we had for the life of the church came to life. We are thankful for 2023 and looking forward to what God will do this year.

In Psalm 119:68, the psalmist praises God for his goodness. He’s referring to the moral purity, kindness, generosity, and faithfulness of The Lord. In light of the character of God, he expresses his desire to learn the law of God. His experience of God’s goodness drives him to know God and his word all the more. Our prayer is that this would be true of IGC - that we would continue to experience and recognize God’s goodness, and that this would instill in us an even deeper desire to know and worship him. 

2023 & 2024: Praying God’s Immeasurably More

I don’t know how you’re closing out this year. Maybe you’ve crushed this year. Maybe it feels like you’re limping towards the finish line. Maybe you’re hopeful for 2024. Maybe you’re not. You could be relaxing on vacation right now. Or perhaps you’re just trying to survive home life until the kids go back to school.

In Ephesians 3:20 Paul nods to the Lord who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. This benediction has long been a favorite prayer. God’s creative power extends beyond our imaginations, which is both comforting and confounding all at once. It is comforting because God’s capacities for good in our lives are beyond our wildest dreams. We put limitations on what God could do. We doubt that God can really change our life or our loved ones’. We hedge on hope and joy, stoically grinning and bearing it. We doubt that God can really restore that ruined relationship. We doubt that God transcends our life circumstances. Yet God is not limited by our doubt, our failure of imagination. He is able to redeem and restore beyond our wildest imagination.

Yet it is also confounding because God is doing more than all we ask or imagine. He’s the author of our story. Wouldn’t we love to take the pen from his hands? “Lord, I know how this part should go: the new job, the fulfilling marriage, the rich community.” But we are not able to do immeasurably more. That’s God’s role. In fact, growth in wisdom is coming to terms with the considerably limited agency we indeed have. That’s humility. And growth in faith is trusting the Lord with the pen. Let him write it. He’s a way better author than you.

Don’t we see the same in the cross of Christ? None of us would have written a story where God gives himself for us in suffering, in sacrifice, in servanthood, and in death. It is confounding. But it is infinitely comforting because, as Paul says in Romans 8, if God was willing to give us Christ, will he not give us everything else (Rom 8:32)? And the death of the cross is followed by resurrection and power and life and glory.

At the risk of being autobiographical, my being at Indelible Grace is one of these places where God did more than all I asked or imagined. I could not have guessed at the end of 2022 that I’d be writing this a year later in the Bay Area for a church with a unique name I had never heard about. But I’m profoundly thankful to the Lord. He outperformed my imagination. I am not and will never be omniscient, however much I might pine after it or pretend I am. But every now and then I catch a vision of what God’s doing and why he’s doing it. And it’s compelling and convicting. It’s a better story than I could or would write. And unlike the stories we’re all tempted to write, the hero is not me, but the Lord. It is his power and imagination that is immeasurably more. And perhaps most comforting is also his love that is immeasurably more. Indeed, that’s really what Paul is praying in Ephesians 3:14-21. He says, “I want you to have the strength and gumption and boldness to see and know the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love for you.”

So Indelible Grace, let’s pray that we would have the strength to know the endless dimensions of his love. And let’s pray that we would know God’s immeasurably more in 2024. May we know it as a church. May we know it as families and households. May we know it as God’s beloved sons and daughters. And may he do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to hm be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Pastor Jesse