New Book

A new book is out, entitled "Always Reformed: Essays in Honor of W. Robert Godfrey." I have yet to pick up my copy, but it can be ordered at the reduced price of $20 (normally $25) through this Friday. Some of the contributors are R.C. Sproul, Cornel Venema, Michael Horton, and Sinclair Ferguson.

You can order your copy here.

Ripon at 8 Weeks

It's hard to believe that we've been in Ripon for almost 8 weeks now, having arrived here on August 12th. For the first 2 weeks or so, it felt like we were on an extended vacation and would be heading back to the Pacific Northwest. But it didn't take that long before we settled in and it's definitely feeling like home now. While it wasn't easy to leave our former church, we feel very blessed that the Lord has led us to a group of people who are excited about the future ministry here and who love to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from Lord's Day to Lord's Day. The girls have settled into school quite nicely...Corinne is on the 7th Grade Girls' Volleyball team and Kim will be in the High School play in November (Anne of Green Gables). They're also quite busy with church activities (GEMS for Corinne, high school youth group for Kim). My wife is adjusting to life with both girls in school and is busy with ladies' Bible study at church and getting a new house in order. We're also excited about all the new places to discover around here. While we've yet to get to Yosemite, we've been to San Francisco, Monterey, and Santa Cruz. I've also attended a SF Giants game with some of the men of the church. I'm very much excited to be around so many Giants fan, having been a LA Dodgers-despiser my entire life. Following are just a few pictures from our first 8 weeks here...

My messy office as I unpack 60 boxes of books

Church picnic (complete with water slide)

Ripon Christian Knights 7th Grade Girls' Volleyball game

No explanation needed

Ch-ch-ch-changes

As the sun sets on our ministry here in Bellingham, this will probably be my last post as the pastor of the Bellingham URC. I just realized something the other day: Before I got back into the ministry, I worked in the furniture business for a period of 7 years and 10 months. I have now been the pastor of the Bellingham URC for...you guessed it...7 years and 10 months. Somewhat strange. I wonder what we'll be up to in July 2018?

It's been a very enjoyable and blessed 8 years serving here. From lots and lots of babies being baptized...to professions of faith...to people coming to grasp Reformed theology for the first time...to a great council and consistory to work with...to faithful members...to everything in between, it's been a blessing. Sure, there have been trials and disappointments, but that's going to be true no matter where you go. In many respects, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a better group of people to work with.

But now, we move on. And while we're sad to leave our church family behind, we're excited to learn a new area of the country. We're looking forward to having a solid Christian school (K-12) in our town. And we're looking forward to getting to know a new church family. That doesn't mean, however, that we'll ever forget our church family up here. I'm sure it's true for all pastors, that you never forget your first church.

This Sunday, I preach my final sermons at BURC. It's going to be a strange day. It's going to be a hard day. But the Lord is good. And He will continue to build His church here and throughout the world.

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness." Psalm 115:1

A Day at the Beach

Dr. J. Mark Beach is Professor of Ministerial and Doctrinal Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. He has recently written a helpful 2-part response to a paper produced by the Consistory of the United Reformed Church of Nampa, Idaho that interact with the "Report of the Synodical Study Committee on the Federal Vision and Justification." I would highly encourage you to take some time and read Dr. Beach's response. I was privileged to serve on this study committee and am hopeful that our Synod (which meets in 2 weeks) will take a strong stance for the truth of the gospel of grace.

Dr. Beach, part 1

Dr. Beach, part 2

Not Much Going On Here

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last number of weeks. Life and ministry are quite busy. I hope to have some new stuff on here in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, if there's a subject you'd like me to touch on, feel free to leave a comment.

Children's Church

Scott Clark has an excellent post here on the subject of children's church. Many years ago, I remember attending a church and being looked at as if I was calling on people to worship Satan because we weren't going to put our child in children's church that morning. Now one thing that we have to keep in mind is that it's important that we train our children how to sit in worship. Nothing wrong with a little noise, but constantly noisy children should be taken out of worship so as not to distract everyone else. In fact, I'd be curious to hear any advice that some of you parents have for training and teaching our covenant children to sit through worship.

Whatever Happened to the Second Service?

One of the things that is interesting about the ecclesiastical landscape today is the almost universal absence of a Sunday evening service. Whenever we are on vacation, or out of town for some reason, it is virtually impossible to find a church that has a second service. Now certainly, there are many reasons for this. If you don't see Sunday as the Lord's Day, a day of rest and worship, then you might as well get worship out of the way in the morning (or even Saturday night) so that you can have the rest of the day free to do what you want. But why is it that among so-called "Reformed" churches that the second service has disappeared. Or, if there is a second service, why is attendance so poor? I am thankful that we get anywhere from 75-85% of our people back for the evening service, but in talking with fellow ministers, I've discovered that most Reformed churches (even of the confessional stripe) typically get 20-30% of their people back for the evening service. Some get 40%, but very, very few get more than 50%. Here's the question: Is there a biblical warrant for a second service? Or is that just simply a tradition that has no biblical foundation? I hope to use a post or two to look at this issue, so that we will understand both "why" we have a second service and the importance of the second service.