Charles Town Presbyterian Church

Dear Church Family,

Last week I experienced one of the most profound and unexpectedly joyful experiences I have ever had in ministry. In February, Shenandoah Presbytery elected me to serve as commissioner to the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic for the next two years. Our first meeting was last Thursday-Saturday, and as I said, it was very different from what I expected.

I’m embarrassed to tell you that I had expected a boring couple of days full of rubber-stamp meetings. I encountered something far different. The meeting began with each commissioner serving on one of five committees. Committees considered their business Thursday afternoon and evening. On Friday morning, we met in plenary to vote on considerations before the Synod.

Friday afternoon and evening was spent hearing nine separate presentations; three sets of three TED-style talks on racism and reconciliation, immigrant ministry, and young adult ministry.

Shenandoah Presbytery and her churches are fairly insulated from many of these concerns. In fact, as we started, I thought maybe the only topic I need to focus on was young adult ministry. I was wrong. Our synod includes the cities of Baltimore, DC, and Charlotte. In these places, there has been violence, protest and unrest over the issues we talked about, but we often don’t have to deal with in a significant manner. This was eye-opening and even refreshing!

I know many of us don’t like dealing with issues that make us uncomfortable, but the world we live in is changing, and the Church must respond if the Church is to have a future.

I am proud to be part of a Synod willing to have the hard conversations, that we would learn to live into the discomfort of these issues and what they mean for the Church!

Blessings,

Pastor John

Last week I led one of my most interesting confirmation classes. We began the class by heading outside, where my son Alex demonstrated how to shoot and arrow. Then we quickly escaped the cold and went back into the church.

The lesson for last Sunday’s class was sin. In the New Testament, the word for sin comes from the word used by Greek archers when they missed the mark, and it is quite appropriate, for whether we sin “big” or little,” sin is sin. We miss the mark or we hit the target – there is no in-between.

We have great kids in our confirmation class. They all understood this very important truth: sin is a problem for every single person, and no one is exempt.

This is an important truth for all of us, because when we accept that we have a problem, we are more eager to embrace the solution. That solution, of course, is Jesus Christ. As I explained to the kids, when you make chocolate milk or lemonade, you can’t change your mind and go back to plain milk or just water. Sin changes us forever before God, and so the solution comes outside ourselves through Jesus Christ.

As we make our way through this season of Lent, I hope and pray that each of us understand the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus more deeply and more clearly.

Warmly in Christ,

Pastor John

We have reached the end of reviewing the core values of Charles Town Presbyterian Church. Our sixth core value is Reformed Heritage: Embracing our identity and history as Presbyterians.

There is a very important reason this core value is last – before we are ever Presbyterians, we are Christians first. By placing this value at the “bottom of the order,” as it were, we communicate that the five core values that precede this one are more  important. It is important to remember our identity, to know who we are. Every church and every denomination have history, whether that spans years or centuries. Regardless of the time span, it is important to realize that we are shaped by the history.

Every denomination or theological classification comes down to two basic points:

1. How we understand God’s plan of salvation, and
2. how we make decisions.

For example, Congregationalist traditions make most decisions through congregational meetings, whereas most Reformed churches have some kind of hierarchy that includes committees. And things like baptism and the Lord’s Supper are understood very differently by Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists.

Perhaps the most distinctly Reformed theology is understanding the four “solas”:

• Sola Scriptura is that idea that our first, best place to turn for information about God.
• Sola Fide means that we are justified to God by faith alone;
• Sola Christus reflects the object of that faith – that we are saved by Christ alone, for there are no other Gods except for him.
• And finally, sola gratiaby grace alone. It is God’s grace that saves us, and nothing we do on our own or for ourselves that can bring us to life eternal.

The four solas are a summation of some basic, important doctrinal distinctives we embrace as Presbyterians. Our Reformed Heritage is often minimized, but I believe it is one of the most helpful tools for understanding our Christian faith.

I hope reviewing our core values has been as source of blessing for you!

Warmly,

Pastor John

In this fifth installment of a review of the core values that guide Charles Town Presbyterian Church, we are reviewing Outreach: Serving others by using our gifts and resources to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Lately, there has been a great deal of talk about outreach at CTPC. For a long while, we seemed to languish and do very little to show or talk about God’s love. That seemed to change last summer, when not one, but TWO groups went from our church to parts of West Virginia hit hard by the floods last spring. We saw a need, and we responded.

Outreach is the key work of the Body of Christ. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissions his disciples for the work to which he has called them (and us!). He tells them, “Go into all the world and make disciples…” Jesus calls His Church to go into the world and tell people about what he has done for them. “Telling” people about Jesus happens in many ways. We feed the hungry, encourage the disheartened, and we help the helpless. The reason we help people in such ways is simple: People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care. By demonstrating the love of God, we sometimes get to have a conversation about the gospel of God!

Outreach can seem very threatening, because some people don’t want to hear about God or deal with what it means to believe in him. Some people are scared to interact with people from different walks of life. The reality we need to be careful of is this: If we don’t go, we don’t grow.

Since the summer, several other outreach opportunities have emerged. Our Presbyterian Women’s Group is hosting a one-day women’s retreat featuring Kelley Latta on March 25, and they are trying to reach women from all over the panhandle (and ladies, please be sure to order your tickets!). Our Christian educator, Molly Rogers, is starting a bi-monthly small group for moms. Last week, I began my six-week study called the “No BS Bible Class (BS is short for Bible Study). The No BS BC attempts to give an overview of the Bible to unchurched and de-churched people. Last year, when some key people decided to take a break from feeding the homeless on the first Saturday of the month, some other people stepped up and filled that gap, and the outreach continued.

These outreach activities are in addition to what we normally do, and the response has been exciting! The Lord has given us opportunities to reach people with his good news. It is great to see CTPC re-discover this core value.

I pray the energy and desire to reach out continues for a long time to come!

Blessings,

Pastor John

Our journey through our core values continues this week with a review of the following core value: Godly Relationships:  devoting ourselves to one another in our homes, in our church family, and in the community. 

This core value speaks to one of the greatest resources at Charles Town Presbyterian Church: the people! Whenever I lead a new member’s class, I ask those in attendance what drew them to the church. I always get answers like, “The worship and,” or “The Sunday School and,” or “The preaching and,” And guess what always follows the “and” in that answer? The people!

The reason this core value was adopted by the session in 2005 is because we recognized how important relationships are to a church. That led to a discussion about which relationships we were talking about. Well, honestly, all of them. One does not stop being a Christian outside the church or inside the walls of one’s home. When one is a Christian, one has the duty to pursue godliness in every relationship.

One of the most important ways Christians spread the gospel is through relationships. When Jesus was challenged as to what commandment was most important, he told those asking, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.’ But then, without being asked, he said this, “The second is just as important, to love your neighbor the same way you love yourself.”

One of the clear tests of our love for God is how we treat others. If we understand how much God loves us, we are willing to share that love with others by going the extra mile, and treating them in a way that pleases God. I am proud of the way this congregation continually demonstrates this core value. In fact, if you look at the newsletter closely, you’ll find a perfect example of what this core value is all about.

Brothers and Sisters, keep up the good work!

Blessings,

Pastor John