| “God’s guidance will require patience on our part. His leading is not usually a direct assurance, a revelation, but His sovereign controlling of the circumstances of our lives, with the Word of God as our rule. It is therefore, inevitable that the unfolding of His purposes will take time — sometimes a very long time.” —Sinclair Ferguson |
All, When we say that we are a church that prioritizes the “ordinary means of grace” we are simply saying that we are a church that wants to primarily see the preached word and the sacraments rightly administered as the primary means by which we spiritually grow as Christians. We come to this conclusion from Westminster Shorter Catechism #88 which says: Q: What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption? A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. The scripture proofs from this catechism question and answer are Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 2:42, 46-47. In these verses we see from Jesus and the apostles a primacy of that which Jesus taught as the basis for our belief and discipleship, as well as a primacy on fellowshipping together to hear this teaching, partake of a covenant meal (communion), and praying together. In particular, the account in Acts 2 shows that this is what the apostles and disciples were doing, and God continually added to their number. Ergo, we believe as a church that these same things are what we need to be primarily devoted to in order to grow. With that being said, an evening worship service is simply an additional opportunity to engage and imbibe these ordinary means of grace: preaching the Word, prayers, and visible representations of the Word (sacraments). But rest assured, an evening service would not simply be a carbon copy of the morning service. It will be shorter, there will be more communal, corporate prayers, and there will not be sacraments administered every time we gather. But there will be ample opportunity to fellowship with one another, to hear the word preached, and to continue trusting that God really does work through such simple and ordinary means for our spiritual growth. To be sure, this is not to say that spiritual growth cannot happen through other means. What we want to emphasize is that we believe that the ordinary means are the primary means rather than the only available means. And what better time to use the Lord’s appointed means than on the Lord’s appointed day for worship. I would encourage all to continue to prayerfully consider the spiritual benefit of an evening worship service as we draw nearer to a potential purchase of a building. In Christ, John D |
Announcements
| —Member Directory Please use this QR code to fill out some initial information as we prepare to create an online directory of members. There will also be a QR code on the welcome table at church.  —Communicants class interest Parents of non-communicant children, If you have a desire to have your child admitted to the Lord’s Supper please let me know so we can properly plan a communicants class. Typically this class will consist of working with your child through some age-appropriate biblical and doctrinal material at home, and then go through a few weeks of classes lead by elders from Mercy. We are considering a switch from the communicants material we have used in the past, so please let me know if you’re interested and we’ll roll out a replacement curriculum. —Songs for Sunday Here’s what we’re singing this Sunday if you’d like to familiarize yourself with tunes + lyrics! Across The Lands Hail To The Lord’s Anointed Psalm 31 (O Come, O Come Emmanuel)) All Glory Be To Christ Come Thou Long Expected Jesus |
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