The Dead Church

Charles Kingsley (1819—1875) was an English priest known for such novels as Westward Ho!, for his political essays, his poetry, and his collections of sermons.

Check out this excerpt from one of his poems called "The Dead Church."

Wild wild wind, wilt thou never cease thy sighing?
Dark dark night, wilt thou never wear away?
Cold cold church, in thy death sleep lying,
The Lent is past, thy Passion here, but not thine Easter-day.

Peace, faint heart, though the night be dark and sighing;
Rest, fair corpse, where thy Lord himself hath lain.
Weep, dear Lord, above thy bride low lying;
Thy tears shall wake her frozen limbs to life and health again

I love it! The life-giving power of Easter is here! The power of God is pounding like the surf on the beach, and nothing can hold it back. Let's wake up and live to honor Christ! "Come awake, from sleep arise! You were dead, become alive!"

Racial Reconciliation in Apex: So What? (Part 4)

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

In the last blog we discussed the concept of holy folly (going against the grain of popular culture) and some general responses to the Gospel in regards to racial reconciliation including the need to form multiracial, multiethnic congregations as well as living our loud as believers in a theater of reconciliation.

I'd like to share in this final part a few practical suggestions (not exhaustive by any means!) for how racial reconciliation could look and be lived out in our local church. This is the So What? aspect of the challenge to grow in ethnic diversity and Christ-honoring love:

• Craft a mission statement that reflects the need for racial reconciliation in our community.
• Let our music in worship services reflect a variety of ethnic expressions, sounds, and genres.
• Preach and teach on the issue of racial diversity and harmony on Martin Luther King weekend.
• Support and become actively involved in Christ-exalting urban ministries.
• Hold panel discussions with different ethnicities represented to explore in front of our fellowship the experiences people have at Apex Baptist and how we might be more welcoming.
• Hold celebrations with other ethnic churches to worship together throughout the year.
• Help fund transracial adoptions in our congregation.
• Be strategic about where we live. Be incarnational and live where needs are, not where we are the most comfortable.

Let me conclude, as Piper does, with a quote from Shelby Steele:

What both black and white Americans fear are the sacrifices and risks that true racial harmony demands. This fear is the measure of our racial chasm. And though fear always seeks a thousand justifications, none is ever good enough, and the problems we run from only remain to haunt us. It would be right to suggest courage as an antidote to fear, but the glory of the word might only intimidate us into more fear. I prefer the word effort--relentless effort, moral effort. What I like most about this word are its connotations of everydayness, earnestness, and practical sacrifice.

Racial Reconciliation in Apex: Holy Folly (Part 3)

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

In the previous post, we introduced the concept of the local church as a "theater of reconciliation,"and asked the question, "How do we perform our understanding of Christ's cross?" specifically regarding racial reconciliation in Apex, NC. Because Christ, through his death on the cross, has brought near those who were once far off by His blood. How do we live all this out in our daily lives and local church?

In our final post on this issue next week we'll look at some practical suggestions for reconciliation, but here are a few general categories of response to get us thinking (taken from Vanhoozer's Drama of Doctrine):

1. One concrete way to address this issue is to establish multi-ethnic churches. Vanhoozer writes, "In a world torn by ethnic strife, there is perhaps no more dramatic display of peace won by Jesus Christ than the life of multiracial, multiethnic . . . congregations." The three dimensions of theology also come into play here:
2. Prosaic theology leads to lives of believers "engaging in everyday practices that exhibit and foster social, racial, and ethnic reconciliation, especially in the church."
3. Prophetic theology leads to believers making "financial and cultural sacrifices, not to mention moving out of one's comfort zones," as they live in a theater of reconciliation.
4. Phronetic theology leads to believers dismissing the pragmatism of men's wisdom and living as a community of "holy folly" where the formation of multiethnic communities might seem like nonsense and impractical to outside observers.

How about it? Are you up for being a community of holy folly? For making sacrifices for the sake of Jesus? Are you up for being a minister of reconciliation? In your heart of hearts, are you willing for ABC to be a multiracial, multiethnic local church?

Five Prayers to Pray

Here are the five prayers Dr. Heisler gave for our fellowship to pray concerning our next lead pastor. These come from 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12:

1. Pray for a Pastor who has pure motives.
2. Pray for a Pastor who has a God-centered ministry.
3. Pray for a Pastor who leads with integrity.
4. Pray for a Pastor who has a heart to be: gentle, incarnational, hard-working, above reproach, and edifying.
5. Pray for a Pastor who challenges you to walk worthy of God for the glory of God.

Check out the video of the sermon here if you didn't get a chance to listen yesterday!

Racial Reconciliation in Apex: The Performance (Part 2)

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

“What binds Christians together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together . . . because they have been saved by Jesus Christ. . . . They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’s sake.” D.A. Carson

In our last post we established from John Piper's Bloodlines that one of the results of Christ's work on the cross, one of the results of his atonement, was reconciling ethnicities. If that is true, and I believe it is, what does that mean for our local church, particularly here in Apex, North Carolina?

I recently had the opportunity to read Kevin Vanhoozer's work on The Drama of Doctrine and I wanted to share a few of his thoughts with you relating to the local church and racial reconciliation.

Vanhoozer writes that the three dimensions of theology (the study of God) are prosaic, prophetic and phronetic (a little more on these dimensions in the next blog post). In context, Vanhoozer refers to the local church as a "theater of reconciliation." We've all been to the theater, right? It's a place where a story is performed in some form. But what exactly does that mean for us, the body of Christ, living our lives in Apex, Cary, Holly Springs and other places. How can our church be a theater of reconciliation? More specifically, how can we demonstrate or perform (in the language of Vanhoozer) "our understanding of Christ's cross" and the doctrine of atonement? What does the performance look like?

One suggestion is that this demonstration in the local church can come in the form of racial reconciliation, "a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus' sake," as Carson writes above.

Emerson and Smith lament the fact that the church, which should be a theater of reconciliation, is actually a theater of "the most segregated hour in America," referring to the 11:00 AM worship service. Think about your local church. Is this an accurate description? While it is true sociologically that in general people tend to group in homogenous units, it is telling that this grouping is sub-Gospel. In other words, it is "less than the truth of the gospel, namely, that we have been made one people "in Christ."

If there is a problem in the local church, which should be a theater of reconciliation, how should we address the issue? We'll take a look at a few possible answers in the next post. Meanwhile, let us know your thoughts!