Brothers and Sisters, after three weeks of meeting together on Sunday evenings, I want to reflect on our teaching time. First and foremost, thank you to everyone who has been participating! I have truly enjoyed the time and hope you have enjoyed it too. Even after just a few short weeks, I am altogether confident and hopeful about God’s work in and among us.

Paul’s prayer for the Colossian Church is my prayer for you…

[I] have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ~ Col. 1:9b-12

Here are the goals I have for us on Sunday evenings:

• To know, love, and serve God more fully as we study and discuss his Church
• To turn back to God’s word again and again as we re-examine what we already know and have our eyes opened to what we do not know
• To embrace by faith the present spiritual reality of our unity in Christ (Gal. 3:23-29; Phil. 2:1-11)
• To know, understand, and love others despite (or, even better, because of) their unique perspectives
• To respond to the Spirit’s work in our individual lives by “stirring up” spiritual graces in others (WCF XVI.3; WLC 75)
• To define with greater knowledge, clarity, and wisdom both what the Church is and what the Church does
• To grasp more completely and to appreciate more fully the system of Reformed doctrine and how its pieces fit together

For our next teaching / learning time, we will continue the discussion about worship. I will update the teaching outline so we can pick up where we left off last Sunday. For further preparation, I commend the following articles (in this order):

What I Want from a Church

The Regulative Principle of Worship

On the Worship Issue in the PCA

May God’s abundant blessings in Christ rest upon all of you this week as you seek to love, honor, and serve him above all else!