Reflections on our vision in 2019

"Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men." – Mark 1:17

As we approach 2019, I want to reflect on the vision of our church that we laid out in the summer of 2018. This was the fruit of many months of discussions with the elders and lay leaders of the church. Remember, IGC only became particularized (electing and installing elders) in March of 2018. The first goal of the Session was to set forth a guiding vision for our church.

The vision of our church is "following Jesus and helping others to follow Jesus." There are two parts to our vision, and the key is that you cannot do one without the other.

First, the Christian life is to follow Jesus. This means to leave behind our old life of sin and idolatry, and to start a new life of love and obedience. This is a radical call that demands our whole life.

Second, the Christian life is helping others to follow Jesus. And here is the key. You cannot follow Jesus without helping others to follow Jesus. These are inseparable pursuits. In other words, Christianity is not a solo endeavor, but can only be done in deep community with others. We do this through evangelism in the world and discipleship in the church. In this way, the whole church is involved in the work of ministry.

What does this look like practically in our church? Many people have asked what new program or what specific ministry will this involve. The answer is that our vision is less about starting new programs, and more about creating a new culture. It’s about everyone leaning into the church and pouring themselves out for others. And it will look different for different people. For some, it means joining an intensive discipleship group. For others, it means serving in Children/Youth Ministry and mentoring young hearts to follow Christ. And for others, it means finding the courage to share Christ with a co-worker.

Here is one practical suggestion to start. In your relationships in the church, be more intentional in your conversations. Ask someone about their walk with God. Take someone out to coffee to talk about spiritual things. Invite a family over for dinner and share prayer requests. Talk to your children about the Christian faith.

This will be a long conversation in our church. We do not expect to arrive at our destination in a few short years. There will be many steps along the journey. At our upcoming January leadership dinner, there will be a discussion about how the vision intersects with community groups. In February or March, there will be a congregational meeting. And all the time, the elders are continuing to meet with ministry leaders to flesh out the vision. And lastly, we invite you to join us this Sunday morning, 10:10am at the library, to pray about the vision for our church in 2019.

Photo caption, from top to bottom: A baptism, Particularization service, Missions conference with MTW, Children's Ministry class, Mercy Ministry event in Oakland, Men's Retreat, Women's Retreat, and Youth Ministry mini-golf.

Good Friday Reflection

During the Christmas season, we hear the following words:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found…

In the Bible, thorns are more than a nuisance to gardeners and farmers. They represent the curse that the entire world was placed under after the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Because we don’t live in an agrarian society, we don’t give much thought to thorns. But anyone who works in agriculture will tell you how difficult thorns make their lives. They injure. They choke out life. They mar beauty. Thorns remind us that this world is cursed with disease and selfishness and sorrow. But we don’t need thorns to remind us of these things. Every moment of pain and sadness in our lives testify to the curse the world is under.

As Jesus made his way to the cross, soldiers placed a crown of thorns on his head. They didn’t know it, but in doing so they placed the very curse of God on the Messiah’s head.

by Pastor Wade

Particularization Service

On March 11, 2018, after nearly 8 years, Indelible Grace Church was a church plant no longer, and having ordained and installed ruling elders, became a fully established and self-governing church. In PCA lingo, this is called "particularization." Jeff Murry, David Yi and Sammy Zheng were ordained and installed as ruling elders. They took solemn vows in the discharge of their duties, and there was the laying on of hands and prayer. The congregation also make solemn vows of obedience and faithfulness, as we became an organized church. And finally, Pastor Michael was installed as pastor. Elders and pastors from neighboring PCA churches participated in the service.

Part III: Other Distinctives of Being Presbyterian

In the last post, I talked about the main distinctive of Presbyterianism--its form of church government. This post will fill out the other distinctives of the Presbyterian tradition.

(1) Covenant Theology and Infant Baptism
Covenant Theology sees fundamental continuity between the Old and the New Testaments, as opposed to Dispensationalism which sees discontinuity. It’s a way of reading Scripture, so that Genesis through Revelation is a single narrative arc: God rescuing his people in Christ. Closely related to Covenant Theology is the practice of Infant Baptism. Presbyterians baptize the children of believers for the same reason Israelites circumcised their children. There is a fundamental continuity between the covenants.

(2) Confessionalism
How do we determine between true and false doctrine? Rather than each individual believer determining for themselves what Scripture teaches, we listen to what Christians have historically believed throughout the centuries. These classic doctrines are preserved for us in the historic creeds and confessions of the church. This is called Confessionalism. The confessional documents of the PCA are the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms. We also subscribe to the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds from the ancient church.

(3) Doctrine of Predestination
Predestination teaches that God is the author of our salvation. As Jesus said in John 6:44 – “no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

There are other minor distinctives, but these are the big four: Ecclesiology, Covenant Theology, Confessionalism and Reformed Soteriology.

Finally, it’s important to emphasize that one doesn’t need to agree with all the tenets of Presbyterianism to be part of Indelible Grace Church. In fact, most IGC members are not necessarily Presbyterian by conviction. What unites us as a church community is the gospel of Christ. If you believe in Jesus as savior, you are welcomed to be a member of IGC. I hope this three-part series has been informative and encouraging.

Part II: What is Presbyterianism?

In the last blog post, I wrote about why we are in a denomination. Today, I want to talk about the main distinctive of being our specific denomination--Presbyterian. Every denomination has a historic reason for existing, namely, why it broke off from the larger established church. For example, Baptists objected to infant baptism, thus their name. Presbyterians objected to the authoritarianism of the Church of England, believing that church power rightly belongs with ordained elders, not the king or a solitary archbishop. "Presbyter" is the Greek word for elder.

Presbyterians saw in the New Testament plentiful evidence that Christ entrusted the care of his church to elders. Elders are called "overseers" and "manage" the household of God (1 Timothy 3:1-5). And church members are called to "obey" and "submit" to elders (1 Peter 5:1-5, Hebrews 13:17). Elders are wise, godly shepherds who are tasked to love the congregation and even lay down their lives for the church. In the PCA, a gathering of local church elders is called a "session."

Presbyterians also see in the New Testament that elders from various churches meet together as a council to discuss and deliberate on matters pertaining to all churches. The PCA calls this regional gathering of elders a "presbytery." The biblical model for this is the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, which decided the matter of circumcision for all churches.

So the "session" and "presbytery" is the main distinctive of being Presbyterian. Our church is to be ruled by a session of godly elders. And over the session is a presbytery of regional elders.

Picture: Assembly of Westminster Divines drafting the founding document of Presbyterianism, The Westminster Confession of Faith, in 1646, during the height of the English Reformation.

Part I: Why a denomination?

Our church is part of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). But not everyone is familiar with this denomination. So we are going to do a three-part series explaining and introducing the PCA through these blog posts. The hope is that this will be informative and encouraging to you!

First, let's address the larger issue of denominationalism. Why are we in a denomination at all? Why not be a non-denominational church? And aren’t denominations contrary to the spirit of unity?

Our response is that denominations are a healthy way to be connected to a church heritage. We do not “do church” ex nihilo, out of nothing. But rather, everyone is influenced by a particular church heritage – a certain way of practicing church leadership, baptism, orthodoxy, community life. In other words, everyone is doing church within a tradition. The only question is whether we will be self-conscious of it.

Being part of a denomination acknowledges our heritage and gives us a self-awareness of the flaws and weaknesses of our heritage. For example, Presbyterians are strong on theology, but a big weakness is that we are a very cerebral, heady tradition, and rather weak on “doing” the gospel. Historically, Presbyterians are great at writing theology textbooks and founding seminaries, but not very good at frontier evangelism and community engagement.

Being Presbyterian doesn’t mean we arrogantly look down on other denominations. Rather, it means we humbly acknowledge the weaknesses of our own tradition and respectfully listen to the strengths of other traditions.

2014 Year-in-Review

Our year in photos:

January – Two new community groups have began this year

February – Serving our neighbors at Marshall Elementary School

March – Third "Skeptics Night" held at Bodi’s Java

July – Church picnic at San Felipe Park

July – Five church members went to Haiti through Mission of Hope

August – Thinking about suffering in Job at our annual retreat

September – 22 women gathered for the Women’s Mentorship kickoff

October – The men of IGC spending time together at Castro Village Bowl

November – Packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child

December – IGC Christmas Party held at the Castro Valley Community Center

The Heart Key

"If I found a key on the road, and discovered it fit and opened a particular lock at my house, I would assume most likely that the key was made by the lock maker. And if I find set of teachings set out in pre-modern oriental society that has proven itself of such universal validity that it has fascinated and satisfied millions of people in every century, including the best minds in history and the simplest hearts, that it has made itself at home in virtually every culture, inspired masterpieces of beauty in every field of art, continues to grow rapidly and spread and assert itself in lands where a century ago the name of Jesus Christ was not even heard; if such teaching so obviously fits the locks of so many human souls, in so many times and so many places, are they likely to be the work of a deceiver or a fool? In fact it is more likely that they were designed by the Heart Maker." -- G.K. Chesterton

Summer-in-Review 2013

Photo Caption:
Top left: Women's Fellowship Tea Party
Top middle: BBQ Picnic at Valley View Park
Top right: Mercy Ministry at Emergency Shelter Program
Middle left: Men's Fellowship Hike
Middle: Your typical summer day at IGC
Middle right: Women's Summer Retreat
Bottom left: Men's Summer Retreat
Bottom middle: Church at the Park (Palomares Hills Park)
Bottom right: Mercy Ministry at Alameda Food Bank

Christian Marriage

On the radio program, This American Life (you can click to hear the actual story), there is an amusing tale of a woman who in a moment of romantic despair, decided to write her name “Esther” on a dollar bill with the idea that if some guy should give it back to her, it would be a cosmic sign that he was the one she was destined to marry.  A few weeks afterwards it actually happened.  She was dating a guy, Paul Grachan, who by the most remarkable coincidence, happened to find Esther’s dollar while receiving change at a deli and, not knowing the story behind it, thought it would be fun to present it to Esther in a frame.

Years later, they were married.  And the dollar has been the source of much commitment and strength in the relationship.  As Esther explained it, whenever she and Paul experienced difficulties, whereas she might have ordinarily just broken up with him, she would go into her room, take out the framed dollar, and remind herself, “how can I break up with him if he’s the one who gave me this dollar?  How can I walk out on my cosmic soul-mate?”

There is something so very charming about this story.  We can all relate to Esther wanting certainty about who to marry.  But that certainty does not come from some cosmic sign but it comes from a promise – the marriage vow.   How do I know this person is the one God intended for me to marry?  In truth, we don’t know until we’ve made the promise on our wedding day.  And from that day forward, we know this is the one we’re supposed to be with.  So that whenever we experience marriage difficulties (and they will happen), whenever we encounter someone else who seems more intriguing, whenever the love feelings ebb and flow, we can go back to the promise and remind ourselves, “how can I leave him if he’s the one I’ve promised myself to?”  Marriage is ultimately not based on romantic feelings or situational happiness.  Marriage is based on a covenant – a life-long promise to be faithful and true.

You can listen to the two-part Sunday school series on Marriage on our Sunday school page.