January 2021 Membership Meeting

Patton Shinall

Members Meeting • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Agenda

Hymn - 5 minutes

Membership Roll - 5 Minutes - Josh

Housekeeping - 10 Minutes - Josh

Little Metro Update - 5 Minutes - Rachel (Josh stays up and transitions us to Chad)

Financial Update/CP Giving - 5 Minutes - Chad

Addressing Covid/Need for Leadership - 5 Minutes - Cole

Reformation Baptist Announcement - 15 Minutes - Cole

Communion/Hymns 10 Minutes - Cole/Chad

COVID

I want to address something that honestly is difficult to navigate, and that’s COVID and how it affects how we function as a church.

We are ten months in and many of our members have not been to church that entire time. Many more have been inconsistent in gathering with us for worship.

Now this poses a problem because Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

God commands us to gather and it is a sin to forsake or neglect meeting together.

Now, this is where this gets complicated, and let me tell you some of the tension we as your pastors feel in this season.

On the one hand: We are your pastors, and God has made us responsible for you.

That means we cannot sit idly by while some of you wander off into sin.

On the other hand: These are unique times. And just because you are not coming to church right now, does not de facto mean you are sinning.

This is Real Virus and we don’t know all your circumstances

So your absence from church could be 100% legitimate and this is a season of God’s bitter providence.

And if that is you, you should know we miss you and we can’t wait for you to be back with us again.

But this is where the tension comes in, because some are using COVID as an excuse to neglect the gathering of the body and its impossible for us to know who is and who isn’t.

So on the one hand we want to love you and care for you and guard you from sin, but on the other hand we don’t want to be heavy handed, legalistic, or domineering over you.

So as pastors, what do we do?

And here’s our best answer. At least until the vaccine is readily available we are going to trust the Holy Spirit.

Here’s what we are asking you to do: If you are not coming to church right now, will you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to convict you whether or not you are neglecting the body.

You’ll remember from Hebrews, it was right after COVID started when we got to 10:24-25 and I said if you’re living life as normal, if you are going to the store, going to work, hanging out with friends I think you’re neglecting the body and you’re in sin.

But if you aren’t living life as normal, and you tell us that you aren’t neglecting the Body we are going to be good with that because we love you and we trust the Holy Spirit to work in your life.

This isn’t a guilt trip to try and make you come to church. All this is is a warning saying we don’t want you to be in sin, and right now, when everything is so grey and fuzzy we are going to trust the Holy Spirit to help you make that call.

Risk Concerns

If you’re not coming because of risk concerns, for example we don’t force people to where masks here, let me help you.

We are taking all the steps we believe we have the authority to take. We don’t believe we have the authority to impose on our church an issue of conscience.

But we do try to social distance, we changed how we do communion, and we installed the Halo Reme system in the HVAC that cleans the air.

And for many in our church you have a 99.99% chance to survive the virus if you get it, so we need to ask ourselves what is the acceptable risk to worship God? What is the endgame? What is the thing that is going to get you to come back to church if this doesn’t go away anytime soon?

I think those are questions you need to answer, and men you need to be the ones to lead your families in it. God has placed on you the responsibility to lead your wife and children in the Lord, and so every single one of our men need to ask, “Am I leading faithfully?”

And like I said, we are going to trust the Holy Spirit’s work in your life because COVID Does not have a black and white answer on this issue.

Speaking of Leadership, we need leaders in the church. Pray.

Reformation Baptist Church

Now for the Big Announcement. We are changing the name of our church.

Why change a church name?

Bad name in the community

Does not communicate who you are

Metro touches both

Name by association. If it communicated who we are, we wouldn’t change it.

Metro was chosen because we were in the heart of the metroplex of NWA.

Not centrally located

No one calls NWA a metro

We’ve been thinking about this for a while, and believe the Lord has confirmed this is a change we need to make. Since deciding this and working towards changing the name, we have heard from several people, including new members that the name Metro almost kept them from coming to our church.

What do you want in a church name?

One that communicates who you are. Where people hear it and they say, “Oh. I get it. I have an idea who that church is, what they believe, and what they are all about.

And that’s why we are renaming our church Reformation Baptist Church.

Why Reformation Baptist Church?

Why Baptist?

1. Regenerate believers

Baptist is not a denomination. Baptist is an ecclesiology. It is theological understanding of what a church is.

We are classically Baptist.

Baptists were called Baptists because they would only baptize believers.

At its core, that is what distinguishes Baptists from other branches of Christianity. We believe only regenerate believers are a part of the church, and therefore, only regenerate believers should be baptized.

Basically we don’t baptize babies because we believe the only people who should be baptized are those that profess and live out their faith in Christ.

2. Biblical Ecclesiology

But its also broader than that. Baptist are known as people of the Book. People who believe that the Bible is our highest authority.

That means we believe the Bible speaks to what a church is and how a church should worship and function.

So when we say we are a Baptist Church we are saying that we are founded on the Word of God and upheld by the four pillars of biblical ecclesiology:

Regenerate Church Membership

Biblical Administration of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

The practice of church discipline

Biblical leadership under the Elders and Deacons

That is what makes Baptists Baptists and that is who we are.

Why Reformation?

1. Our Gospel is The Gospel of the Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was the work of God that started in the 1500s and continues today that reclaimed the biblical gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And this is the very gospel we preach. So when people hear Reformation Baptist Church, it will give them some idea of what we believe and teach here.

That leads to the second reason why Reformation Baptist is such a fitting name for our church.

2. We are Sons and Daughters of the Reformation

We hold to Reformed theology at this church.

Now immediately some of you are saying, doesn’t that just mean we are Calvinists? Well yes, but it is actually so much more than that.

Reformed Theology definitely holds to what are traditionally called the five points of Calvinism or TULIP.

Total Depravity - Man is utterly and radically corrupted by sin and can do nothing to save themselves

Unconditional Election - God saves his elect on the basis of nothing other than his sovereign choice according to the good pleasure of his will

Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the sins of the elect securing salvation for all God had chosen

Irresistible Grace - Regeneration precedes faith. The Spirit gives us new life and changes our heart so that we respond to God in faith.

Perseverance of the saints - We are kept in Christ by God’s power, not our efforts.

But all of these communicate only one part of the foundation of Reformed theology, that being that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.

Reformed Theology is also built on other foundation stones.

Centered on God - all things are all about God and his glory

Sola Scriptura - The Word of God is the highest and final authority

Devoted to Christ - All of our worship focuses on him and his work for us as our Prophet, Priest, and King

And again, these are the foundations on which our church is built.

We preach salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

All of our worship is centered on God.

Scripture is our highest authority.

And all of our devotion is to Christ.

So when people hear the name Reformation Baptist, especially if they are looking for a church that holds Reformed theology, this new name gives a clue that that is who we are.

That is what it means to be sons and daughters of the Reformation and this is the tradition we are carrying and passing on to the to the next generation.

I mean literally, the reason I’m a pastor here is because of the Reformation.

My family came to America in around 1700 because they were fleeing persecution from the Catholic Church and Louis 14.

They were French Huguenots. Calvinist believers who suffered and died by the thousands for their faith and belief in the doctrines of the Reformation

And by God’s grace, our church has taken up that standard.

Our protestant forefathers suffered and died so we could have this faith, and now we are called to carry the torch.

And that leads us to the third reason Reformation Baptist Church is or new name because...

3. Reformation Fits our Mission and Vision and Gives us our Marching Orders as a Church

Our mission is to equip people to live lives changed by Jesus.

Our vision is to see lives changed through building healthy churches.

What is change other than Reformation?

When we say we are a part of Reformation Baptist Church we are saying God has called us to bring his gospel and his Word to a lost and dying world.

That we are working in this church to see lives and churches reformed by the grace of the gospel to worship God alone.

Our mission from the individual, to churches to culture at large is reformation. It is seeing the Word of God honored and God glorified.

Reformation Baptist Church

So that is why our name will be Reformation Baptist Church.

We preach the gospel of the Reformation that proclaims justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

We hold to Reformed theology and are passing down that tradition to the next generation of believers so they can worship God and hold his Word as their highest authority

And we exist to glorify God and bring reformation to lives and churches in desperate need of the gospel.

When will this officially change?

Soon. Working on Branding.

Telling you know so you can be prepared and excited.

Pray that we would continue to be faithful to God’s Word and that we would not lose sight of being a light for the gospel.

Especially in a time where churches are falling left and right pray that God will continue to grow our church so that more people can grow in Christ and worship him for all that he’s worth.

That’s what we are about to do.

Transition to Communion and Hymns

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