Constitution I, II, III

So, right now, we'll start with just that introduction. We have been led by the Spirit. So, I hope everyone, at least one family member, has something to take notes on. We're going to begin here. I'm just going to walk through. You can ask questions after each section. I don't want to take questions on other sections tonight. We'll walk through slowly. There'll be time for questions. There'll be a more specific time for bigger questions later on. And we're also recording this. So yeah, we can, for those who aren't able to be here. A few things. We wanted to be clear. where Scripture was clear. Scripture, as we're going to say here in the beginning, is our guide. It is the inerrant truth that guides us in what we believe and how we order ourselves. So, Scripture, we hope, has been the main emphasis as a source of how we put this together. But there's also prudence, there's also wisdom, there's also just how to be well-ordered where Scripture doesn't speak. So, we'll get into those parts, but for the most part we're wanting to think about what does Scripture say, and then how do we be prudent. But the first sections here are really just some identity marks. So, let me read the first section. We have been led by the Spirit of the One God Almighty to receive His Son, Jesus, as our personal Savior and Lord. We have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to secure and preserve our faith and liberties, and to conduct ourselves in an orderly manner consistent with God's will, We solemnly and joyfully unite in Christ our head as Jefferson Park Baptist Church of Charlottesville, Virginia, in accordance with the following articles. This is kind of the introduction. We're not changing the name of the church. We're still Jefferson Park Baptist Church. We're still in Charlottesville, Virginia. But the rest of this, it also describes who I think we already are. I hope we become especially. We are led by the Spirit of the One God. We have been led by God to unite together. And something that's extremely important is that we have received His Son, Jesus Christ. Something that's very important here, we're a Baptist church, is regenerate church membership. We think the only people who should be members of churches are people who have a clear confession of Christ as their Savior and clear fruit of that. And so that first statement really says a lot already. While you could easily read over it, it says that everyone here has been led by the Spirit to believe in Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. So already, we're already defining ourselves very clearly and precisely. We're Christians. And everyone who is entering into this Constitution and this covenant is a Christian. We have been baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Really nothing new there. Everyone who has been a member of a church at any point in the history of the church has been baptized. Now, we may disagree with some on what baptism is, but really that's a universal church declaration. You can't be unbaptized and be a member of a church. The next line is very important. Therefore, to secure and preserve our faith and liberties, and to conduct ourselves in an orderly manner, consistent with God's will, we solemnly and joyfully unite in Christ our Head. Well, this says a lot about who we're going to be. The head of the church is Jesus Christ. That was a main theme throughout the book of Colossians. Christ is the head. We are the body. It's very important. We're only united in Him. We're only united in Him. There's a lot of social clubs in Charlottesville that are not united in Christ. We're not a social club. We are a group of Christians committed to the Savior under His authority. And so that says a lot about us. That's why we're united. Because Christ has called us all to be His brothers and sisters in salvation. The Spirit has led us together. Solemnly and joyfully. This is a serious matter. When we gather together, it's to celebrate. Like the book of Hebrews tells us to, to celebrate the great triumph we have in Christ. We don't come to Mount Sinai with fear. We come to Mount Zion with joy. We come to celebrate. Because we're celebrating Christ and what He's done. We also realize this is solemnly done. This is a serious endeavor. We do this union to secure and preserve our faith and liberties. So, what we're wanting to do is make sure we are protecting ourselves to be able to accomplish what God calls us to. There are rules. There are rules here. 1 Corinthians 14 addresses chaos in the church and Paul says, God is not a God of disorder. Therefore, order yourselves. This is why we are setting forth rules and regulations on how we are to conduct ourselves in an orderly manner, consistent with God's will. Which, as we'll see underneath here in the Statement of Faith, the book tells us what God's will is. So we're seeking to secure and preserve our faith and liberties, making sure we are protecting what we believe and what we want to do, and setting forth rules and regulations so that we conduct ourselves in an orderly manner. Any questions about introduction? Like I said a couple of sermons ago, it's easy to read over introductions, but this introduction already says a lot about who we think we are and who we want to become. Any questions? Yes, Steve Belcher. Okay, let me, there's actually two ways we can look at the word faith here. Alright, let me also say this. I don't expect this is the Constitution we'll eventually vote on. There will be some fine-tuning. I hope that as we say this together, we'll actually make some changes. So to answer your question, this could be a helpful change. And what do we mean by faith? Is it Jude? In the sense that Jude used it, the faith once and for all handed down. So it's actually not the subject of faith that I have in Christ, but it's the faith in the sense that the things that we believe are true objectively. But I also think that it is important as... I think the passage I just read from Hebrews would imply. We want to hold firm our faith. And then, the author of Hebrews immediately goes into meeting together regularly. I think the best way to... so the Spirit is testifying internally, but I think using brothers and sisters around you as a way of securing your personal faith. So, I can answer that in two ways, but maybe we want to clarify as to what we mean. I'm thinking it's the more de-Jude, what we believe. Does that answer your question? I saw another hand in that area. Yes, Carol. I can answer the theological. Ron wrote that, so you can ask him. I was just trying to pass the buck there. You drove separately, so you can't find your way home at least. I honestly hadn't read it like that. Ron, underline that and contemplate it later. How about that? We'll discuss it afterwards. Yes, Paul. There we go. Yeah, there's plenty in here that's going to make it clear that it's your personal faith in Christ. But in the fact that we're uniting, we have been led by the Spirit of the Lord. I would say that would at least be a protector there. Other questions? Yes. To secure and preserve our faith and liberties. I want to be free to do what God calls us to do. That means for me as an individual and us for a body. You need a baseball diamond to play baseball. I hate baseball. I hate using it as a metaphor, but it's the best I can come up with right now. You need a baseball diamond to play baseball. So, we're a church. We're supposed to do the things that God has pointed us to as a church. This is outlining how we're to do those things. So, when the rules are set and the boundaries are set, you're then free to play. And so, the key there is to See, it's easy to know what I'm supposed to do when I also know what I'm not supposed to do. So when the rules are set, the faith is set forth, then you have liberty to play. Does that make sense? That's how I understand it. Yeah, as a Baptist constitution, you could ask that. We're about the liberty of freedom of religion. So that's how I understand it. I was going to say, say you're in China or somewhere where you don't have the freedom of religion, but within the confines of the church, when you meet at the church, you have those liberties to... Yeah, and that's why I don't think this is getting into the governmental liberties where historically Baptists are referring to that when we speak of liberty. This is actually speaking of the liberty for us to do what we need to do internally. So once we know how to play, we're free to play. I mean, I'm still using the baseball metaphor, so... I saw another hand somewhere. I don't know if I want Alex Jeck asking a question. Oh, yeah, go for it. Yeah, it's for freedom that Christ set us free. That would be a key text there. Once we know how to be free, and what we're supposed to do when we're free, then freedom's a good thing. Alright, other questions? I can repeat questions, hopefully. I haven't been, but I can. Alright, I'm going to move on. Awkward silence 1. Awkward silence 2. Alright, Statement of Faith. Foremost, we accept the canonized 66 books of the Holy Bible as authoritative, inerrant, and sufficient in matters of faith, word, and deed. So, this is already setting forth where we're going to get our rules, our regulations, our prescriptions. Any question about that? So, Mr. Jack has already spoken to me privately, which I always appreciate when someone wants to say something publicly, they come and say something privately. So, well done. He has suggested we change the wording from faith, word, and deed to faith, word, and practice. Historically, that would be the predominant wording. So, we're going to take that into consideration. As an official amendment from Alex Jack, as one of his last contributions, and maybe lasting and great contributions as a member of Jefferson Park Baptist Church, we are taking that into consideration. God has blessed us with you and we're thankful for you. So, the Bible is our regulator. I don't see anyone who's going to compete with our... to disagree with that. We are orthodox because we affirm the Nicene Creed. We are Protestant because we affirm the five soul laws of the Reformation. Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, glory to God alone. We are Baptists because we affirm the Baptist faith and message. Now, this is a way of us setting forth who we are in relationship to other Christians in many ways. So, we're Baptists, but we also want to make sure, I want us to make sure, in that we're saying we're Orthodox. We agree with all the saints at all times on the things that make Christians orthodox, and that is the Trinity. So there's councils that met in 325 and 381 that then became the Nicene Council. And those are what we agree on, on the Trinity. Heretics like the Arians and others, the Sibelians, all those great words, they were removed. So we're in many ways, I wanted to make sure we're demonstrating that we are relating to all true churches at all times by agreeing with them in who God is and the saving work of Jesus Christ. But we're going to be more precise because, well, the Catholic Church would agree with us on the doctrine of the Trinity. We disagree with the Catholic Church when it comes to the doctrines of grace and what Christ has accomplished for us, and more precisely, how he's accomplished for us. So there we're looking at 1517, the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. We're clearly aligning ourselves with the Protestant Reformation and opposed to Catholicism. So this is why we celebrate Reformation Day, why I have a sermon series every October 31st roundabouts, celebrating the great doctrines that sets us apart from the Catholic Church. Scripture alone means we don't follow a Pope. Scripture alone says this determines what we believe and everyone is subject to it. No one is Lord over it. Faith alone, the two primary ones here, means that it's not our works that make us appealing to God or it's not a way of earning it. It's by believing in Christ alone and it's His grace alone that saves us. Any questions about being Protestant or Orthodox? No. David Morris has asked why we don't put the Trinity first in the Bible. This is an important question. It's a very helpful question. The key thing there is we're saying we believe in these different confessions. and I intentionally always start our worship services off by reading Scripture because Scripture is primary. These confessions are only good in that they reflect what Scripture says. So, Scripture stands above these confessions and we agree with these confessions as much as they reflect true Christian teaching from the Bible. So, that's why we've ordered it this way. Now, we could disagree as to how one would order a systematic theology. But for the purpose of this, we're wanting to make sure Scripture is the only authority. And then these other confessions are just summaries of what Scripture is taught. Does that satisfy you, David? Okay, sort of. Anyone else? Yes, Jason? That's not on the page that I'm dealing with right now. I know, I know, Jason. There's lots of questions that have come from the Nicene Creed that we've chosen. One Holy Catholic and Apostolic. We're Protestants, so we interpret that uniquely. A Catholic church says we're all one because we're all under the Pope, whereas we would say we're one because we're united internally and we're one in the universal church sense that Christ is our head. Whoever is under Christ is a brother and sister, even if I'm not part of this particular body. Holy, we're set apart. Discuss that as a holy nation from Exodus. Catholic, lowercase c, Is it a lowercase c? I don't have that particular... Okay, good. Catholic in the sense that it's the universal again. So the one and the Catholic go together. We could put global or universal. I just don't think it's helpful because, well, Catholic is a term that's helpful and good and I don't want the Catholics to have an authoritative claim over it. We'll plunder the Egyptians to use some Exodus language. We're going to use the best word. And we're Catholic in the sense that that's why the Orthodox is so important. We believe with all Christians at all times on many doctrines. So we're not wanting to be kind of a different group. And then apostolic, instead of saying there's an apostolic line of popes, we believe we're apostolic because we believe the apostles have given us the truth. the faith once for all given to us and we uphold it. Those are the four traditional marks of the church. And I think they're helpful. We could put footnotes on our footnotes. I have no problem with that. I love footnotes. Yeah, I know a lot of folks, anytime the word Catholic comes up, I appreciate flags raising and concern. I don't think any Catholic would confuse us as Catholic, and I don't think any person would confuse us as Catholic. Alright, we are Baptist because we affirm the Baptist faith and message. 2000. The Baptist faith and message has gone through, I think, at least four major new additions. And each edition is usually addressing something specific in culture or some doctrine that needs to be addressed more specifically and helpfully. So, the Baptist Seeds of the Message, it is a denominational statement of faith. I actually wish our statement of faith said more and said it more robustly. It's not a It's not a statement of faith that seems to really be adaptable to a worship service in terms of repeating it out loud like we'll do the covenant later. But it is a good statement of faith that says whatever all it says is good and helpful. I just wish it said more. That's my opinion on the Baptist faith and message. But we have adhered to it because we are Southern Baptist and it is a denominational statement of faith. And being a Baptist church, we agree with what it says. This isn't changing anything. We've always agreed with the Baptist faith and message. But if anyone wants to ask a question about it, I might answer it. This isn't changing anything. We already believe this. The real difference here is that we're saying the Bible, we're Orthodox, we're Protestant, we're Baptist. We're getting more narrowed down in our identity. Yes, Alan. There is a pacifist statement put in there after World War I that I believe is still in there. What do you... Are we past this? Next question. Next question. We'll talk later, Alan. Alright, that went over well. Purpose. purpose. The chief purpose of Jefferson Park Baptist Church is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To this end, we will faithfully proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ both locally and beyond, making and living as His disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit." So just so you know, this may have been the most modified and changed part of the whole constitution quick that was the most debated part after the wording and and so Yeah, it's hard to say what is our particular purpose without going into great detail. So, we just went the easy route and took wording from the Westminster Catechism. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We just adopted that for ourselves as a church. If that's the chief end of man, we're God's children, that should be our chief purpose together as we're seeking to live together under Christ. So, we are unified for the purpose to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To this end, we faithfully proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, both locally and beyond, so we glorify God and enjoy Him by professing Him as we make and as we live out, being His disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit. Any questions about that? It's pretty clear to me. I don't know if you all have a clarifying question or comment. Alright. We modified it well, gentlemen. Good job. Alright. Now let's flip over to the back and This is the covenant. This is the covenant that we are hoping we're going to adopt as a church. There's scriptural references there for you to look up later. The first thing I like about this covenant is that it is recitable. It's not too wordy. It gets to the main points. So, this is an important part of the Constitution, because these are promises we're going to make to one another. We already have a covenant. There's lots of promises in there. This is really, I think, a more slimmed down, simpler version of it. The purpose being so we can recite it more easily together. So, I think it would actually be good for us all to stand up and recite this together. as a practice run. Alright. Can you keep up? So, you can keep up here. We should have one of those little balls that bounces on the words. Work on that. Alright. As baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, We gladly enter into this covenant as members of Jefferson Park Baptist Church. By God's grace, we therefore dedicate ourselves to live together as his disciples. We will regularly join in public worship, Bible study, and prayer as a church family. We will also observe baptism in the Lord's Supper, the ordinances of Christ. We will maintain private and family worship, Bible study and prayer. We will uphold godly homes and marriages where Christ is honored. We will be good stewards of our time and resources. We will fulfill our call to serve the body with our gifts. We will also be good stewards of our bodies, not abusing ourselves through addiction or excess. We will watch over each other in brotherly love. We will pray for each other. We will participate in each other's joys and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. We will humbly warn a brother who is in danger of falling into disobedience or error. We will speak the truth in love, be slow to take offense, and be eager to seek swift and laxing reconciliation. We will pray for our leaders and submit to them as they lead us to Christ through Scripture, teaching and correcting with gentleness. We will faithfully proclaim the gospel and evangelize the lost. We will cooperate with other believers to advance the cause of Christ, whatever we may do beneath us. If we leave this church, we will, in a timely manner, seek to join another similar purpose, doctrine, and covenant. All right. Initial thoughts on it. Anyone? How many churches have similar covenants? What counts as similar? I would actually say if you joined most, I can say this, if you join most Southern Baptist churches, they would have a similar covenant. It would just be lost in the paperwork at the bottom of a drawer somewhere. Covenants were replaced with purpose statements back in the 80s, 90s, kind of more simple. So they took this simplification of what Scripture prescribes and went more simple with that. Most churches have a covenant. They just Well, they're documents rather than living words that really unite people together. So, most churches have covenants. They're just not as actively reciting them and whatnot. Suppose that you join some new church that's starting up. Maybe you only have a covenant. It would seem like you would be bound by this covenant not to join that church. You should just come talk to us privately if there's a real way. The issue here is our covenant is very formal. Well, we're hoping this covenant will be very formal. But every church has a covenant. Every church has expectations and promises that you're making when you join a body. So... I'm sorry, say again? Yeah, if it's a situation in which you have to ask, then it would be a case by case basis as to if we would let you join that church. Yeah, what we're saying is the church is like-minded. We're not real strict in that we're going to really line up the covenants and say, oh, you're missing this one. You can't join. No, I mean, we're The main thing there is that we're wanting you, if you leave here, to join a church quickly that we assume isn't in a different direction. So if you went to California and joined a Unitarian church, there would be concern. Or if you joined a Greek Orthodox church, there would be concern. There we go. Nor would I. Yes, Roy? Yep. I'll get there. I'm going to spend a little time there. Roy wants to know about the submit. Good question. Yes, Michael. All right, so let me just walk through this. Some of them I'll spend less time than others. I wanted to spend some time on the one Roy brought up, and I want to make sure I get there. So, as baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we gladly enter into this covenant as members of Jefferson Bark Baptist Church. By God's grace, we therefore dedicate ourselves to live together as His disciples. Again, this is a bit of a... this really functions as a preamble to the covenant. This is setting forth who we are and what we're hoping to do and how we hope to do it. We're baptized believers. So again, we're getting to regenerate church membership. Regenerative membership means anyone who is a church member needs to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, needs to be born again. The church is made up of born again believers. We gladly enter this covenant as members. Maybe the most important three words, by God's grace, we dedicate ourselves to live together. That is, by God's grace, we can dedicate ourselves and live together. And by God's grace, only can we actually hope to accomplish these actual covenant promises. And it's important to recognize that we're living together as His disciples. Again, the Headship of Christ, the unity of the body. Those two things have to be related to one another. So, that's the preamble. Any questions or comments on that? Not that different from the introduction? We will regularly join in public worship, Bible study, and prayer as a church family. We will also observe baptism and the Lord's Supper, the ordinances of Christ. First, we could actually talk about what is a true church. What makes a church a true church? A true church does all the things that God prescribes a church to do. So, we could talk about what are the ordinances. The Lord's Supper and baptism. If we're not observing the ordinances according to Christ, we're not True. Now, there's a sliding scale of purity within truth. So, if a church isn't baptizing believers, they're an untrue church. But then we could look at other churches and say there's a matter of purity or how we would view each other in terms of purity as to how they would observe the different ordinances. How they're administered. But Christ commanded us to observe the Lord's Supper and to baptize believers. So, we're going to say these are two essential ordinances that Christ has given us. We're going to join together in public worship. We're going to gather together. We're going to sing, pray, read his word, and hear the word preached together. Now that's what we do to gather corporately. That's what Christ has commanded us. So we regularly join together and there we can see we already read that Hebrews passage that says do not forsake the assembling there's a the key teaching there let me just encourage you in this way really a lot of this is getting the very first part of this we will regularly join in public worship there's a ministry of presence if you can't be here then it's hard for us to keep the promises We have to be together. We have to be coming together regularly or else we can't keep these promises to one another. And so that's why regular attendance, regularly joining together in public worship is so important. When you're gone, you're missed. So that's all the notes I really have on that particular point. Any questions about that? No? Alright. We will maintain private and family worship, Bible study and prayer. We will uphold godly homes and marriages where Christ is honored. As I actually mentioned in this past sermon, it's interesting how much focus is always drawn to unique or individual families. The family unit is essential to godly living. The family unit is essential to God's plan and that The church is built up by healthy families. Now that doesn't mean single people aren't a family unit. But if you, however your, whatever your family unit looks like, it should be ordered according to God's instruction. We need to be focused on private and family worship. Family Bible study and private Bible study and prayer. So we come together corporately like this. We study God's Word. Corporately. We pray corporately. We're going to pray here in a little while corporately. But I hope that's not the only time you're praying. I hope we're praying in our homes, in small groups, and individually. God calls us to do each of these. Yeah, any question to that? Again, I think this is all fairly... I would say both. There's kind of the closet prayer, the family prayer, and then the corporate prayer. That would be the three categories I would hope we're all seeking to fulfill. Yes, Jimbo? By God's grace is supposed to be the controlling three words for everything we talk about here. Alright. We can put that in bold. By God's grace is really supposed to be the controlling three words for all of this. Lines 29 through 31. We'll be good stewards of our time and resources. We'll fulfill our call to serve the body with our gifts. We'll also be good stewards of our bodies, not abusing ourselves through addiction or excess. One of the things that one of the studies would have done in the Trinity would be the gifting of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gifts each one with a unique gift, and the Spirit may not gift anybody else's body with that gift. And so that's why it's important to be here and to be active and involved, so that God can use you and your unique giftings to complete the work of the body. God also gives us with time and resources. This is obviously referring to time and serving and resources. At least at one level, we can speak of finances and giving one's tithe. Being good stewards of our bodies. This is protecting ourselves from sin. Not abusing ourselves through addiction or excess. This is keeping ourselves unstained by the world. And so we're being good stewards of our lives, of our time, our resources, and our gifts. Any questions about that? Much of the covenant is really stewardship altogether. So we had the preamble. We had the public worship. We have private and family worship. We have good stewardship of God's gifts to us. And now we really get into how we're going to be relating to one another. We will watch over each other in brotherly love. We will pray for each other. We will participate in each other's joys and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. It's a key command in Scripture to watch over one another. To take personal responsibility for another. That's what it means to be a Christian. You're not a Lone Ranger Christian. We're really worried about you and your relationship with God. When you're called to be a Christian, you're called to bless others. That's one of the most basic elements of God's covenant. And watching over others is seeking their good above your own. So, we're watching over each other in brotherly love. Now, there's a bad kind of watching over. What's a busybody? not a rhetorical question. What's a busybody? Somebody that what? Somebody who's always in other people's business. Now, okay, with no need to be there. So there's a negative way of watching people and that you're watching for your own personal entertainment. You're in other people's lives so that they can entertain you and so you can gossip about them which is entertaining you. You can Think about them wrongly and all the mistakes they're making. That's not what we're talking about. Because you're doing it in brotherly love. You're watching others for their benefit. Now, we've all experienced being watched over for entertainment. We're called to be different from the world. We're called to watch over each other in brotherly love. That means we're committed to one another. We're committed to love the other. And that means each of us. One of the best ways to watch over each other is to pray for each other. I like that that's the first sentence following watchfulness because it is showing that most people's problems are out of our strength. When we're watching people, we see what's wrong and we need to make sure we are praying for that brother or sister. This last line, this is actually one I stole from my previous church covenant because it was my favorite and most intimidating line. We will participate in each other's joys and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. My life without you all would be very boring. I get to celebrate with you. When children are born, when spiritual victories happen, I get to enjoy your life. Being watchful with you, and watching you be watchful with one another, it's a joy. My life would be very boring if it was not for the other Christians in my life. So I get to participate in your joy, so thank you. And you should be participating in each other's joys and thanking one another. So this part is my favorite, but also the most intimidating because I get to participate in your joys and your sorrows. Endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows. I'm always taken back to a couple opportunities when I was an elder at my previous church where a young couple had a miscarriage. They lost their parents. I celebrated them when their children was born, and I now have to care for them while they've lost a child. It's overwhelming and intimidating. But then I remember that it's the gospel. I am going to endure in sorrow and trial with my brothers and sisters, with you all, because of the gospel, because we're united with Christ. And I have confidence that if I can proclaim the gospel to you, that's how I can comfort you. That's why it's so important that we're united under Christ. I can't comfort you with my own words. I have to comfort you with the words of the gospel. So this is intimidating because it means we're responsible for another. Whenever we are hurting, we have to let other people into that hurt. And the hard part is for the person that gets invited into that hurt to be bold and caring and loving with the gospel. Any questions on that one? It's overwhelming. Alright, well, if you want to imagine one thing from the covenant, that is the high calling, and I mean high in the sense that it's a heavy one and a glorious one that we're called to do as Christians. 36. We will humbly warn a brother who is in danger of falling into disobedience or error, We will speak the truth in love, be slow to take offense, and be eager to seek swift and lasting reconciliation." So here is an acknowledgment that being watchful, part of it is warning one another. We will see sin in each other's lives. And when we see that, we are called to the difficult task of warning. We are to admonish one another. Now, one of the key things is that If all you're ever doing is admonishing people, you're not being helpful. So, if you want to be an admonisher, you first need to be an encourager. So, build relationships where you're constantly encouraging each other in the gospel. That way, whenever you have to warn someone, it's been seasoned already. So, that's my pastoral advice for you in warning. We will speak the truth in love. We'll be slow to take offense and be eager to seek swift and lasting reconciliation." This is really what I spoke of a lot when I first got here, and that we have to be quick with grace. If someone asks for forgiveness, be quick with grace. If someone sins against you, be quick with grace and forgiveness. Any questions worth this point? Now to Roy's question. Roy's section he had a question about. We will pray for our leaders and submit to them as they lead us to Christ through Scripture, teaching and correcting with gentleness. The first one is really, I think it may have been a quote from Scripture itself. We will pray for our leaders. Those who are given the responsibility of teaching, leading, and guiding, you are to pray for them, because we need your prayers. I think the more central concern would be, what does it mean to submit to them? Christ is the head of the church. I aspire to be nothing but an under-shepherd, and any elder or pastor of this church will only aspire to that as well. entrusted with your souls with your lives and you are called to submit to the leadership but it's a it's it's a qualified submission this is important part it's a qualified submission you're not you're not called to submit to my opinions so if I think you should wear a tie you can't find that in scripture I can't say you need to wear a tie really because that's That's not me leading you to Christ. That's not me leading you according to Scripture. Say again? Oh, yeah, well. Sorry, I just thought I wouldn't wear that tie. It was the best illustration I had. I realized it was an edgy one. So, the key there is, you're submitted to them as they lead you to Christ. The under-shepherds, the only thing we do is this. So, if I remember doing anything other than what John the Baptist did, Well, really, I'm pointing back now, and then I'm pointing forward. Then I'm not doing my job. I'm not fulfilling my calling. So, the key there is that you submit to them as they lead you to Christ through Scripture. And so, as I admonish, warn, encourage you, then it has to align with what Scripture says, which is the authority by which I say anything authoritatively, I hope, and it is the end goal of which. There's a protection there with the as. Does that make sense? Well, the key there is, I was going to spend time on it because I knew, submit to them as they lead you to Christ. Christ has set shepherds and pastors over the church and it's important for them to care for you. There's much, you know, 1 Peter 5 especially speaks to how I'm supposed to care for you in leading you to Christ. The key thing there is the as, and I assume that was the big concern. Yes? One of the scripture references that we have, Hebrews 13, 13-17, it says, Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, and watch out for your soul as those who want to get count. Thank you. Yeah, I have those printed out but I can't find them. Yeah, what he was reading there was the Hebrews 13, 7 passage. Ron was reading the Hebrews 13, 7 passage. 13, 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account. So this is a command taken from Scripture. And the account there is why there's an as We are going to I'll be held accountable for how I lead and I don't Yeah, the submission is only as much as I'm leading you according to Christ prescription The other questions on that. Yeah, Paul. It's intended to be a two-way street in the flesh that we pray for you At the same time, you are pledging to lead us and teach a correct teaching. Is it intended to be a... Yeah, as we'll get into the meat of the covenant after the Constitution, the role of the congregation and the role of the pastor, there is a mutual relationship. We're not a hierarchical model church in the sense that the congregation and the pastor have a mutual relationship of authority What I see is more as a responsibility given to them by the church and the recognition as elders. One of the key things here is you will call your own leaders. So, that's part of that mutual part. You're calling the people that you recognize who have the authority to lead you. So, I mean, not all of you, most of you, some of you weren't here, but you called me to be your pastor. You trust to be at some level to teach you, at least on Sunday morning, and to lead you pastorally. So, we're a congregational church in the sense that you will call your leaders. And so, I trust you'll be calling men you trust to submit to. And we will remove men who are not leading according to Christ. Does that make sense? So, there is a qualify, but there's also the fact that you'll be calling your leaders. Yeah, Carol? The leaders. As they lead, teaching and correcting with gentleness. As they lead, teaching and correcting with gentleness. So there is a qualifier for how we will be leading. Yes, Ron? Even though I agree that's the way it reads, we should also do the same thing with our leaders also if we see that there's something in there. So I mean, yeah, I mean, there's a sense that that is what we're competing to do with our leaders too if we see them. Because scripture does say that elders are subject to the same kind of steps, procedural steps as anyone else if they're not doing what's proper. And so we should be, even with our leaders, be there. I think it's even more important to be with gentleness and grace, but for that, if we see our leaders, then we should be there. Other questions? Yeah. I mean, as a, I'm a member, I'm first a member of Jefferson Park. That's, that's the first, responsibility. And then I'm called to pastor and teach. Any other questions? We will faithfully proclaim the gospel and evangelize the lost. We will cooperate with other believers to advance the cause of Christ in whatever ways God leads us. So, we want to make sure we're well ordered inside, but that is not ultimately the final calling of the church. We are to be an evangelistic witness to Christ internally and externally. So we'll be faithful in claiming Christ, proclaiming the gospel both within our services and as we go out into the world. And yeah, this is the Great Commission. We are promising to one another and to God that we will fulfill the Great Commission. Then we will cooperate with other believers to advance the cause of Christ in whatever ways God leads us. We are a Baptist church, which means we are an autonomous church. What does it mean that we're an autonomous church? We do what we want. We create our own covenant and constitution and so forth. But what it means to be autonomous is that we're a Southern Baptist Church, but the president of the Southern Baptist Convention can't tell us what to do. We agree with him in doctrine, so we've cooperated with him, but we determine who we are and what we do and how we do it. And I hope we're determining it by scripture. So we're not autonomous in the sense that we're coming up with our own rules and laws, We believe that we as a body are gifted and able to determine what scripture says to gather in and to obey it. So we're autonomous. There's no other human power as an authority over the church. But we also don't want to be an isolated church. We don't want to be an autonomous isolated church. We want to be an autonomous cooperating church. That's why I pray for other pastors and churches every Sunday. To remind us there's other churches out there just right down the street. and all over the world. So we're evangelizing ourselves, but we're also cooperating and encouraging other churches in their evangelism as well. One of the ways we're doing this is the church there in Mercado with Pastor G. We're working with him in a very committed way now for his evangelism to children and folks that we can never dream of reaching the way he is. So we're helping support him. Any other questions on that? These two kind of got stuck together, pinched together at the bottom. Finally, if we leave this church, we will, in a timely manner, seek to join another with similar purpose, doctrine, and covenant. So, if they do not have a covenant just like ours, you can't join, which means you should just stay here. No, the idea here is that we're wanting to make sure that when someone goes away, they'll be what we will care for. And in a timely manner, the covenant actually, I'm sorry, the constitution, we'll get to that part on membership, but line 90, any member having moved out of the local area who has not already transferred membership to another church shall be removed from membership in this church after six months. The idea there is that there's no way we can pretend to be responsible according to this covenant for you after you've left for six months. But what we want to do is encourage you to join quickly in a timely manner so that, well, we don't have to worry about removing you. All right. Well, that's it. Any general questions, observations, amendments? You can talk to Brian Davis since he's not here. Yes, Alicia. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if being at the bottom necessarily means it's not important. I definitely want that to be the forefront of what we do and why we're doing Well, the way I've planned out the vision I cast for the very first church retreat was really saying we want to make sure what we're doing is healthy and right. And whenever we're actually following Christ, submitted to Him under His headship, we will be evangelizing. And so I think evangelizing is really the fruit of us doing these other things well. If we're not watching over one another and we're not worshiping Him privately and publicly, We're not evangelizing. So I kind of want to say it's not unimportant. I think it's the proper fruit of obeying all the other commands of the scripture. So when somebody comes into our worship service and I think they see the warmth and the love and the family we have and hear the teaching and hear us singing with praise, that's evangelism. But I also don't want to say that going out like Ben's doing now with Southwood. Here's a plug. Friday nights, Ben's playing soccer with the Southwood kids. with the hope of continuing the momentum from VBS, and VBS was an outreach. Yeah, we don't want to... I don't think it minimizes, I think it shows it as the proper fruit of obeying Christ. Ron? Yeah, well, I could see how Alicia could see that. However, I would say, under Purpose, lines 17 and 18, we see, like, highlights of glorify God and women and women. to emphasize the glorifying of God is to faithfully proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, there it's very strong and it's in our purpose statement. Yeah. Yeah. When it's making disciples, we're discipling. And then we're hoping to make, you know, as we go, we hope to, God will make more through us. It's a great word. I hope that doesn't make it on the peripheral. I want it to be in the front of what we do and while we're doing what we do. Alright. Well, let's close with prayer. And let's do this. My plan was to pray from the covenant. So, we've talked about these different... These are promises we're making to one another and to God that we're going to keep. Um, sorry, maybe I should have said this at the beginning. This will be fun. How is a church covenant like and unlike a marriage covenant? How is a church covenant similar and dissimilar, like and unlike, a marriage covenant and a church covenant? Mr. Proppy? Like a marriage covenant is a promise before wishes. Okay. Okay, it is not death to your part. It is not like a marriage covenant in that it's not death to you apart. So it's not like a marriage covenant. You can leave here. You just have to go somewhere like us. Okay? Alan? You and your spouse, are you both sinners? Was that sin more evident once you entered into that covenant? Well, that's kind of the main thing here. Okay. Jim wins. That was great. Okay, your own sin is more evident. But when you were making those promises, you and her, or you and him, were both sinners. Not really knowing what you're getting into. And now we're just a big group of sinners. committing to one another for a greater purpose. And so that needs to really be the forefront. That's why the by the grace that Jim was pointing out earlier, by God's grace, the fact that we're all sinners trying to fulfill the promises of God as sinners to sinners is why by God's grace is central. So let's keep that in mind as we think about the covenant.