Covenant Children

As Jerry mentioned in the previous post, we are now members of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Our decision to join was not taken lightly or made on a whim. Many months of prayer, study, and discussion went into our decision. Up until this change, we have never really left a church where we were members/long-time regular attenders for any reason other than a cross country move. It was an emotionally hard process and not one I'd like to repeat! We were saddened by the fact we left friends we love dearly behind at our old church, but we just could not, in good conscience, worship there any longer.

There were many factors that led to our decision, but the one most discussed by Jerry and I was baptism. Who should be baptized? When? And by whom? If you're an evangelical Christian you might just say... believers... when the profess... by whoever. And lots of churches with a Baptist outlook (even if they don't call themselves "Baptist") would agree with you! But if you're a Presbyterian you would say... believers AND their children... when they profess, are born to believers, or join the church... only by an ordained pastor.

There are lots of reasons we came to agree with the Presbyterian point of view - the most important one is the Bible. The Bible is a long book and a lot of people can read the same verses and end up with different doctrine. Why is that? People define words differently. My definitions of "salvation" and "atonement" are much different than that of, say, my Mormon neighbors. This is why we have come to see the importance of creeds and confessions. Confessions, especially, sum up what the Bible says and help you find people who define words the way you do and believe same things. It is a joy to worship with people when you are all on the same doctrinal page! The confession we used to help us understand baptism and all the questions surrounding it was the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) and the Larger/Shorter Catechisms that go with it.

I wish I could say we just read it once and were convinced, but that was not the case. Like I said, it was a process. Discussion. Prayer. Study. While the WCF isn't that long, it backs up every statement it makes with verses from the Bible. Reading and studying those verses took time. Once convinced, we wanted to have the kids baptized; however, if we were going to do it, we wanted to do it right. 

The same confession that convinced us baptizing the kids was the right thing to do also convinced us that the baptisms couldn't be performed at the church we were currently attending. If you don't hold to the WCF, I understand you might feel differently. But I also hope you understand that if someone says they hold to the WCF (or any other confession/standard) then it is important to actually follow it, even if it is inconvenient or hard to do so. Anything less is hypocrisy.

We were convinced the WCF was the best summary of the Bible and we wanted to find a church that followed it. There are a few churches who use the WCF as their standard. We visited a couple, but in the end the OPC was just a better fit for our family. They take the Bible and doctrine very seriously and we LOVE that about them!

Sunday, November 4th we became members of the OPC and our first act, after our membership vows, was baptizing the children. Wesley, having made a profession of faith, was baptized and received as a communicant member. The rest of the children were baptized as our covenant children. Lord willing, at some point in the future, they will make their own professions of faith and become communicant members as well.

Here are a few photos from the day. Special thanks to one of the elder's wives for taking the photos for us!

Wesley

Eli

Justus

Hayden

JD

Annabeth

We were blessed to have my mom in town that weekend. Our dear friends, Pearl and Dan, were also able to come.

with Grandma Linda

with Pearl and Dan

with Pastor Joel

Wesley is studying Latin this year so I will end with this...

Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone be the glory!

Pearl took a video on her phone. It was taken with a cell phone so it's kind of hard to hear, but here is the video it you would like to see it:

Church

A note from Jerry:

A quick note on a change in our lives. After a lot of discussion, reading, praying we decided to change churches. We loved the folks at our last church, but we became convinced that some of the leadership practices simply were not biblical. Nothing sordid, just not in accordance with God's Word.

Our research lead us to the historic creeds and confessions of the Protestant Reformation. In particular, the Westminster Confession of Faith. We believe the Confession, along with the Catechisms, give the best summary of the doctrine found in scripture including who God is, who we are and how we are to live in light of this.

Because of this, we have decided to join the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC).

It initially seemed a little strange to be joining an old denomination in the age of mega churches and hipster pastors, but we're convinced it's the right thing to do.

As Presbyterians, we believe that our children are part of the covenant community and as such they are to receive a sign of inclusion in the visible church. This is what baptism is for. Since we didn't baptize any of the kids as infants, we did that when we became members. Wesley made a profession of faith to our pastor and the elders and he was baptized and become a communicant member of the church. The other children were baptized as our covenant children. (Shelly will be sharing a baptism post with photos soon!)

If you have any questions, we would be happy to talk to you about them.

Jerry

Here are some links in case you are interested:
Our Church
The OPC
The Westminster Confession of Faith