UK Heritage Project: Restart

Wow! I had forgotten that the day of the first post for the launch of this site was the day that my son was diagnosed with High Risk T-Cell ALL Leukemia. He is doing well but still has a long road of treatment still ahead of him. We are nearing the end of the initial intensive phase of treatment and are  looking forward to the maintenance phase. Therefore, Lord willing we are hoping to get back to work on the UK Heritage Project.

We will begin with prayer request:

1) The Reformation Christianity Today Conference: This week Dec 12-13th at Sheffield Presbyterian Church @Hill Top Chapel.

2) East Hull Presbyterian Church: This church is one of the original EPCEW churches and they are seeking a new pastor. They will be hosting some candidates in the coming weeks.

3) Hexham Presbyterian Church and Josh and Gina Reiger: This church plant in the North of England is preparing for their first services in the coming months.

4) The Hill Top Chapel Building Fund Campaign: more information on this is a separate post coming soon.

5) The Reformation Bible Conference: Jan 9-10 Sheffield Presbyterian Church @Hill Top Chapel http://sheffieldpres.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=108

There are many other prayers to be lifted up for the work of Christ in the UK. May our hearts be warmed with fellowship and prayer as we labor together.

Perry

A First Hand Witness!

“The Challenges and Opportunities of Church Planting”

Kevin Bidwell

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38.

This passage that is recorded by Matthew, one of the Twelve, wonderfully answers many questions that we face in England and Wales. Our land is a mission field with multiplied millions, not just thousands who know very little of the content of the gospel, the unique claims of Jesus Christ as God’s Redeemer and the certainty of final judgement that is appointed for every human being. The knowledge of the fearful wrath of God that will be revealed at the Second Coming of Christ, combined with a God-given love for lost souls is sufficient motivation for us to be burdened about the spiritual condition of our nation. The title of this brief session is simply “the challenges and opportunities of church planting”. Let us first turn to my chosen text and the state of affairs in Judah in the time of the Lord Jesus before we then consider some applications.

1. Christ’s Compassion

We find in the text of Matthew 9:35 that Matthew the converted tax collector simply records what our Lord was constantly doing at this time in his earthly ministry around the area of the Sea of Galilee. He is teaching, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and as God’s promised messiah he is healing ever disease and affliction. There had never been anything like this in the history of Israel. I would like to draw our attention to the two activities that Christ engaged in which were teaching and proclaiming. Imagine what it must have been like to have listened to the Man who was the Second Person of the Trinity who had become flesh expound the truth concerning God in a way that was simple, lucid, clear and irresistibly compelling.  

To teach means to explain in way that what is being conveyed is understood. If the students do not understand something then a teacher needs to repeat the exercise until a topic is comprehended. However, to proclaim is something altogether different though it is connected to our  Lord’s ministry. To proclaim the gospel of the kingdom is a public announcement in the manner of a herald. A herald would deliver a message on behalf of another and this is what proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom is about. It is to herald the good news of the forgiveness of sins with the command to repent and believe this gospel. Failure to obey God’s command will lead to eternal punishment from God himself. As Kenneth MacRae once explained that there is “bright side to the gospel and that people love to hear this” But that there is another side to the gospel which is not so bright and that we must preach both: the Love of God but that God is also a judge. Christ was faithful as a merciful High Priest to deliver the whole will of God for our salvation. He did this throughout all the surrounding cities and villages in their synagogues.

There were crowds that followed him and we learn something of Christ that we must never forget. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them”. Christ was not mechanically performing his duties but his whole being including his emotions were bound up with his task. Our Lord had compassion, he felt sympathy, he was moved inwardly with the poor spiritual state of the people of God in Israel and Judah. This revelation of Christ’s compassion is central to the way he conducted his mission and likewise it is intended to be the way the disciples were to pray, preach and disciple us. 

1. Christ’s Vision

As was mainly the case, the Lord Jesus has a spiritual vision to discern what is really going in in a situation while the disciples were sometime oblivious. The compassion that our Lord had for the crowds was because he could see their desperate plight and spiritual neglect. Christ would preach the good news in the synagogues which would make the “common people” glad but once he left for the next town they would have to suffer under the teaching of the scribes and pharisees. These men were frankly false shepherds who cared little for the welfare of these people. Our Lord’s vision zeroes in on three things.

1. Harassed and Helpless

Firstly, these people were “harassed and helpless”. Both descriptions are to be seen with the imagery of a flock of sheep in our minds which are under the rule of a bad shepherd or a careless shepherd and to imagine what state of distress the sheep would become. However, the situation of these people is worse than that because our Lord describes them as having no shepherd. While walking in the Peak District I like to observe the behaviour of sheep in the fields and one thing for sure the only defence mechanism of a sheep is to run. Without the help of a farmer they would be defenceless against the winter weather, wolves, diseases and the search for food. God has created sheep to be dependent upon a human shepherd. Sheep are God’s image for the people of God.

The harsh treatment by the scribes and pharisees in the synagogue had left them “harassed” which means disturbed and bothered. They were left “helpless” which means a ‘rejected state or condition, as sheep would be if they were left to their own resources. Sheep are not designed to be self-feeders who need no help, direction, leadership or care. They were in a pitiful condition which Christ the great physician diagnosed.

1. Like Sheep without a Shepherd

Christ has diagnosed the sickness and now he points to the cause with penetrating insight. The helpless and harassed condition is because they have no shepherd to care, feed and nurture them spiritually. What a sad state it was in our Lord’s day! We sometimes get discouraged at the state of our land but look at things at the time of Christ’s coming to this world. This imagery is used in the OT in Numbers 27:17 and also in 1 Kings 22:17.

1. The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few

I have heard it said that the first step to solving a problem is to realise that there is a problem in the first place.This does not mean that the ingathering of the harvest will be easy, that it will not take hard work, or that everyone who is harassed and helpless will be brought into the Lord’s barn.

3. Christ’s Answer to the Problem

1. Labourers who are Shepherds

There was a spiritual problem in Christ’s day and so there is in ours and with the Great Commission always in view the task will continue until Christ returns. The answer to the problem is for men to be raised up, armed with the Apostles’ doctrine, men called by God himself, men who are called to feed and care for God’s sheep and God’s lambs. For us this forms the basis for what we believe is a biblical vision for the planting, establishing and strengthening of what we believe is a biblical and apostolic pattern; the presbyterian pattern. We do not view presbyterianism with “rose-tinted” spectacles but we do believe this is God’s plan for the expansion of his church. This means churches which have a regulative principle for worship, doctrine and church government. 

1. Pray Earnestly for these men to be Raised up and Thrust out

Once we become clear on this then it helps us to know how to pray! Here is the imperative which is to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. The harvest is God’s not ours, but we are to pray. We must pray and pray earnestly to this end while ever we have breath in our lungs. James teaches us that “you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly” James 4:3. We are confident when we pray earnestly for shepherds to be thrust out that we are praying according to God’s perfect will.

III. The Planting and Strengthening of Churches for the Harvest

“ I am not interested in planting churches but I am interested in planting the right kind of churches” Churches with caring pastors and elders where sound doctrine is upheld and preached. Churches where worship is regulated by the scriptures for the honour of our Lord. Churches which are governed by elders in a regional presbytery pattern to guard against the inadequate checks and balances that can arise through independency. A pattern ordained by Christ, practiced by the apostles and required to be established in every generation until Christ returns.

I have been given a map of England and Wales from a member of our church planting committee with our strategic vision to plant churches with a 50 kilometre grid. This means an evangelical and confessional presbyterian church where people do not have to travel more than 25-30 miles to get to a presbyterian church. Is this needed? Is this possible? Let us pray earnestly. The church planting map identifies the need for church planting from Berwick upon Tweed in the North to the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands in the South. from Ipswich in the East to Aberystwyth in the West. Not forgetting the cities in between. Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Oxford, Southampton, Exeter, Plymouth, Derby, Carlisle, Stoke or Wrexham. The need is huge but our God is infinite. Let us pray earnestly for men, people, resources and courage to move forwards by faith.

And what of London itself? We earnestly desire and pray for the planting of churches in London. we have a map of suggested locations for church planting in London from Watford to Orpington, from Woking to Romford. Millions of people. A city where the Westminster Standards were produced. We recognise that there are some presbyterian churches already in London with IPC, but we long for more, as God wills. 

Conclusion

Let us pray earnestly that the Lord would give us men in EPCEW who have been raised up by himself to pastor the sheep in England and Wales. Let us pray earnestly that the Lord of the harvest would help us to theologically train men for this task for church planting. Let us pray that the Lord of the Harvest would open a wide and effectual door for us to walk through to plant churches. May the grace of God, the help of the Holy Spirit, the courage of the saints, the wisdom given to our elders cause us to look back in 25 years time, if Christ tarries, and be amazed at what the Lord has done by 2037. May God be glorified and Christ exalted, Amen.

Why the UK Heritage Project?

Romans 15:25-27

We owe it to them! 

Our spiritual heritage in America is rooted in the land of the United Kingdom and formed by the English Reformation. Today, the UK has transitioned into a thoroughly secular society where the light of the gospel has grown very dim. In 1662, the Puritan Movement came to an end with the ejection of 2,000 ministers from the Church of England because they refused to sign the Oath of Conformity. The crowning achievement of this 100 year movement was the Westminster Confession of Faith. In 1643, the English Parliament called together ministerial leaders from the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches. The purpose of the meeting was to produce an agreement for the reformation of worship. The end result was the production of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Although the WCF has become one of the most influential confessions of faith in church history, the WCF was never accepted by the Church of England. Nonetheless, the WCF is the confessional standard for Presbyterian churches all over the world and continues to be the confessional standard for the PCA. Furthermore, the WCF became the formative confessional standard used by the Baptist to establish their historical confession in 1689 which would later become the Philadelphia Confession of Faith for the Baptist in America.  

In 1792, William Carey preached a message casting a vision for world missions. He challenged a group of Baptist  ministers to ‘Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God”! Thus, the modern missionary movement was born in Kettering, England. These two events are just two of the many great historical gospel moments of church history which occurred in the United Kingdom. We literally owe our American Christian heritage to those from English soil and the WCF. 

What Are We Doing?

         In 2013, Carolina, PCA began a missions partnership with Josh and Gina Reiger and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales for Church planting and revitalization of the Presbyterian Church in the United Kingdom. As a result of this partnership, The EPCEW and the Session of East Hull Presbyterian Church has invited Perry over to preach for E. Hull in view of a call as an interim pastor for a year. The pastor for E. Hull will retire this summer after 15 years of service. The Church and the presbytery have great concerns for the congregation because the last pastoral transition took 7 years before filling the pulpit.  Therefore, Perry and Robin will be traveling back to the UK June 23-July 8  of 2014 to explore this possibility. The budget for this summer 2014 trip is $4,500. Please prayerfully consider supporting us through the UK Heritage Project.