The time has come, ladies and gentlemen, to re-launch “The Wicket Gate.” I hope no one has been driven into any deep depression by the paucity of blogging around here lately. The fact is, all of us have been thinking long and hard about how to make this blog a useful addition to our church’s life. So this post–right here, right now–is the beginning of a new era.
What you’ll find here at The Gate is, we hope, an interesting and sometimes raucous conversation about a whole broad range of things–from theology to church life to culture to philosophy to apologetics to history. You might come one day to find us talking about whether Christians should pray to the Holy Spirit, and another day to find us wondering whether “In God We Trust” should be on our money, or whether the invitation system is a good thing or not. And what about politics? Should Christians engage in it? How about movies? Should Christians watch them? Is the regulative principle right? And how exactly is it supposed to work? And for that matter, what is it?
We’re not coming to these questions with answers already in mind. In most cases, we’ll probably not even have talked about them beforehand. So what you’ll be getting is just a bunch of Elders talking through theological and practical questions—the way we might if we were sitting around in someone’s living room. That means we’ll probably be challenging, questioning, and disagreeing with one another quite a bit. But that just makes it interesting. Odds are, some of us will probably say things you disagree with. Please email us about them. Not just so we’ll know what you’re thinking—we want to make it a point to post comments from you that help push the conversation along.
My guess is there will be plenty of times we won’t even come to a concrete, unanimous conclusion. But that’s fine. It’s a good thing for Christians to think about these things, and we hope The Gate will be a way for our church to talk back and forth—in an informal way—about interesting and important questions. This is going to be fun. Welcome to The Gate!
Since it pleased Almighty God, by His Holy Spirit, to call certain of His servants to unite here in 1894 under the name Third Avenue Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, for the worship of God and the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ . . .
Many of you will recognize this is how Third Avenue Baptist Church’s constitution begins, the constitution that we are now living under with the election of three elders at last night’s members’ meeting! The last thing I want to do is spend any great deal of time exegeting the text of a constitution since the Lord has given us the Scriptures! However, I will say I love the way this preamble begins, “Since it pleased Almighty God, by His Holy Spirit . . ..” We believe at Third Avenue that the church is a work of the Lord. From our inception in 1894 to the adding of new members last night, it is the Lord who is at work and He has been very gracious to us and very patient with us.
The past year at Third Avenue has been a difficult one. I’m not sure that churches ever have easy seasons. Fallen lives are too complicated for that. Still, our small church has gone through quite a bit. We’ve lost a pastor. We’ve lost quite a few members. We’ve gained quite a few more. We’ve had reasons to question, at times, whether Third should even continue–there are other, good churches in Louisville. However, again and again, committed to Old Louisville, with a heart for the university, with a vision for investing in the lives of future pastors, with a unique love for one another, it seems to have pleased almighty God for us to persevere and now we have set before us the end of one chapter and the beginning of another chapter.
What does this new chapter look like? It means a church with new faces. Every month, the Lord is adding new members. Do you know who they are? Be mindful of them, if you are a member of Third you are responsible for their spiritual health. We are still a small church, but not so small that people cannot get lost even in our midst. It means a church with new leadership. There is Jonathan, entering his Third week as our interim and already shepherding like he’s been here for months. There is Greg who Keith and I just chose to be the chairman of the elders. Please pray for Greg. He’ll be preparing our agendas and giving special thought to what we, as elders, need to be thinking through so you, Third Avenue, should pray especially for him. There are the other elders. We decided today that we would read together C.J. Mahaney’s book on humility both to help us grow devotionally together as brothers in Christ and to remind ourselves that leaders in the church ought not to mirror the leaders in the world (for insight on biblical leadership see Owen’s blog). There is the new deacon structure. Please pray for us as one of the first things we want to lead the church in thinking through is the task-oriented deacon model that we think is biblical and that we have spoken of often.
As someone who has been at Third since February of 2000, this new chapter is especially exciting for me and I’m ready to serve. Still, my guess is much of the work to be done in this new chapter is going to look a lot like the old chapter. The questions remain the same: are we preaching God’s Word faithfully and with passion on Sunday morning and Sunday evening? Are we exploring Scripture together with energy on Wednesday evening seeking to be transformed by what we find? Are we investing in one another’s lives throughout the week? Are we sharing the Gospel with our lost friends? Nothing new here — but I pray that in this new chapter and with a plurality of elders, our commitment to these biblical tasks only increases along with our fruitfulness.
Opening this new chapter means closing a chapter that included a group of deacons with whom I counted it an honor and privilege to serve. Brad T. and Bruce have signed off from the blog; Brad W., perhaps a bit skittish of cyber-space, more likely a bit too wise to commit time to posts this long, never signed on. All of them serve Third with affection, wisdom, and faithfulness — thank you.
Greg and Keith, do excuse the length of this post–it’s a special occasion.
Some of my earliest memories in life are being made to sit in front of a black and white television to watch the launch of an Apollo mission. They are somewhat of a blur to me, but they were events that stopped the country. All eyes would focus on Cape Kennedy. We would hear the T-minus counts, step by step accounts of the engines igniting, clearing the tower and then separation of each of the parts of the rocket. All of which were punctuated with intermittent beeps. The simplicity of the sounds and speech belied the power and complexity of the event. There is nothing to compare it to today.
Last night, at about 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time we had a successful lift-off. The constitution has been ratified and is now implemented with the recognition of three elders. Now I am also going to hand things over to mission control — with at least one Texan in control. We give thanks to God for a successful launch.
The lift-off looks good from down here. The booster is configured for orbit. Over and out.
I received an interesting piece of mail, a postcard from a new church that popped up in my area. They call themselves “Encounter Church” and they say that at their church you will find: community, authentic worship, spiritual challenge from the Bible, exciting children’s programs, professional nursery care, comfortable atmosphere, casual dress, and an opportunity to explore answers to spiritual questions.”
There really isn’t anything in this list that bothers me and praise God for their desire to help others in Louisville develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, as we think about being a church at Third Avenue, as we consider what we are all about, this list makes me ask the question, “Why do I come to Third?” Why do we come to Third? Why would we tell someone to come to Third? Certainly we have community. I hope our worship is “authentic” (as opposed to what, I wonder? Forced, showy, pretentious worship?). I trust that those who work with our kids try to keep them engaged by making the stories of the Bible come to life. We have set policies in place in our nursery that I trust one could describe as “professional.” Do we have a comfortable atmosphere? No comment. Casual dress . . . well, I for one have abandoned a tie with the thought that this is a small, non-biblical barrier to the unbeliever looking to fit in. But I may wear it again one day.
What I don’t see in this list is the fact that we are sinners who desperately need to hear the word of God preached to our parched souls if we are going to be sustained in this world until Christ comes. I don’t see in this list the fact that we are spiritually dead without the Holy Spirit invigorating us and opening our eyes to the truth of the Gospel, and this is the truth upon which we are nourished as the people of God. Of course, “You are dead so come to our church and receive the Word that brings life!” probably wouldn’t be considered by many to be a very good marketing slogan.
Brad asked for more background on Old Louisville. There is a good summary article at Wikipedia in addition to all that is available at the Oldlouisville.com website.
Briefly, Old Louisville was the new “suburban” residential neighborhood for the city from the 1880’s until the early 1900’s. Louisville had a devastating flood, ala Katrina style in 1937 that flooded all the way back to the church. We have photos of people rowing boats down the street in front of the church. After the flood, people and development moved to the Highlands for obvious reasons. Old Louisville began a decline that started to be reversed in the late 1960’s with the historic preservation movement.
More anon.
Along with the “Articles of Faith,” you can also view the new preaching schedule under “Sermons.” Be sure to check it out. BTW, the Internet Explorer dilemma hopefully will be resolved soon.
Bruce, thanks for that link. Will and I were talking about something identical to that over lunch this afternoon. How can we become more involved in Old Lville both individually and as church? Thank you, brother. Since we’re on the topic of Old Lville, I have a question. Old Lville is a diverse community. Many people, especially new members, don’t know where it ends and begins. Bruce, our dear viceroy, you have lived there for a number of years. Could you describe the community of Old Lville in a couple of paragraphs? This may help members better know what community we’re trying to reach.
For those in the hinterland who may be interested in becoming better informed about life here in Old Louisville, there is a monthly newsletter that is available online (and in paper) that summarizes relevant community information. The Old Louisville Journal is available at the Oldlouisville.com website.
In the March issue there are the usual offerings. An item of interest is the request for volunteers to serve as tour guides for Old Louisville. Read the announcement. Volunteering for service like this is a great way to meet people and to become known in the neighborhood . . .
To paraphrase Acts 16:9 — “Come over to Old Louisville and help us.”
