From Your Pastor
To the congregation of First Presbyterian Church at Norristown,
Before we begin Advent next month, and with Halloween and Thanksgiving arriving before that, I've pondered the nature of our culture and its impact on our worship. This message will also include more external links than usual but I hope in the service of further information and reflection these external articles and videos can also benefit you as they have me.
Halloween has a long and convoluted history, especially for Christians, though it should be noted that part of the tradition is actually related to November 1 All-Saints Day. As we will celebrate it then, it remembers ALL the saints, including folks who have recently left us like Marion Jones and George Mullen. I personally see Halloween as a good opportunity for community togetherness, nothing more. For the Protestant church today, October 31 ended up with a unique significance of its own. That day Martin Luther first published his 95 Theses and we should continue to celebrate this spirit of reforming God's church and always being reformed by Him. We will observe that this Sunday (October 18 and the early date for it discussed shortly).
Thanksgiving is an excellent example of reserving time for the spirit of thankfulness in God's provision (the holiday itself is rooted in a time when harvest and collection loomed larger in American society.) I hope we can capture some of these themes for November 15 worship. We are observing both this and Reformation Day early because November 1 and 22 are liturgical dates in our calendar with significance of their own. November 1 discussed above but November 22 is Christ the King Sunday, definitely our priority as subjects of the Lord Jesus. I hope this can illustrate the balance between letting secular holidays inform us but still prioritizing liturgical dates. A balance that I, this church, and all of us, need to keep working on. More on that shortly.
I've already shared some of my own personal preferences here on both worship and secular matters. I've already asked for your feedback on worship preferences like my use of PowerPoint this last summer. I'm sure you all also have opinions on secular dates like Halloween. So in the spirit of challenging resources on those subjects and in the same stroke introduce you to some recent – and young! – thinkers in our denomination, let me highlight some PC(USA) advocacy groups that I've found helpful. I am indebted to our newer members for introducing me to Presbyterians for the Kingdom and one of their thinkers, known as "Redeemed Zoomer." I also had a chance to meet him and others in person through another entity in our denomination The Fellowship Community. I hope to talk to all of you more about this in the near future but several of our members will be working with these entities and Fuller Seminary on a "Growing Younger" initiative. If you look at the links for both PftK and TFC you will see they are very much steeped in the same evangelical Bible-believing tradition as this congregation. Furthermore, their promotion of our congregation has brought us several visitors in the last 6 months, including two Westminster Seminary Students recently.
I definitely recommend checking out the resources shared above but on the subject of worship vs. secular I'll link to this specific video. In it Richard Ackerman aka "Redeemed Zoomer" and a pastor from another Presbyterian denomination discuss a wide range of topics: e.g. "worship entertainment," the show The Chosen, etc. I share this not because I agree with everything here – I don't, especially their criticisms of stained-glass windows and PowerPoint – but rather to show that some young people in our denomination are giving serious thought to worship and culture. To use some common terms, while we should worry about the impact of "liberalism" in our denomination . . . Christian culture, even the "conservatives," have also seen secular culture creep in. Look no further than the next generation and the young people of the PC(USA) for those who are thinking about this and speaking to it. For those familiar with YouTube videos, consider checking out Redeemed Zoomer’s channel and related linked channels. You may be surprised, as I was, how many young Christians are engaging with our denomination, the church as a whole, and secular culture.
In 6 weeks, we'll start our cherished tradition of Advent, and I will have a more traditional column for you about that. Before then, I'm looking forward to sharing with you more about this "Growing Younger" initiative and observing Reformation and All-Saints days. Until then, I hope and pray this reflection and these links are helpful to all of us as we navigate our secular culture as disciples of Christ.
2nd Timothy 1:7-9
~Pastor Peter Martin
