The Royal Privilege of Church Planting
One of the bedrock convictions and principles of the URCNA is that the church is called to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth so that sinners everywhere would be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:18-21), reaped into his everlasting kingdom, and added to his local church.[1] This is part of the Great Commission of the church given to us by the King of the Church himself, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mat 28:18-20). Here within Classis Southwest US, as local manifestations of the King’s true church here on earth, we have the royal privilege of making disciples through planting churches!
Canons of Dort 1:3 aptly summarizes the sending of Gospel heralds out into the world (such as the church planters within our classis!), through whom God proclaims the jubilant message of Jesus Christ according to his sovereign good pleasure:
In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For “how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless they have been sent?” (Romans 10:14-15).
May God be pleased to send more proclaimers of the Good News into our region of the United States so that more churches would be planted and so that more disciples of Jesus Christ would be made!
This website and blog are brought to you by the Church Planting Advisory Committee (CPAC) of Classis Southwest. The mandate given to us as a committee is, “To proactively and reactively advise, encourage, assist, and support the councils and consistories of classis in planting URCNA churches within its geographical bounds.” To that end, it is our desire to produce this newsletter regularly as a way to keep you updated on the church planting efforts going on within our region of the United States.
Here is a helpful prayer to pray, which comes from our Federation’s Liturgical Forms and Prayers book:
O God the Father, whose Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the desire of all nations, and who came down from heaven to seek and to save the lost; grant Your blessing upon Your missionary servants who are carrying the light of Your gospel into the darkness. We pray particularly for Revs. Harms, Kern, and Wang. Preserve them from every danger to which they may be exposed: from perils by land, sea, and air, from persecution and pestilence, from discouragement in their labors, and from the devices of the adversary. May they see Your work prospering through their words and deeds. Hasten the fullness of Your kingdom, pour out Your Spirit upon all flesh, cause multitudes of those who neglect Your salvation to seek after You and find You, and so gather multitudes into Your church. Hasten the day when those in every land shall be converted to You. Lord Jesus, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, we give You all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.[2]
Soli Deo Gloria!
Rev. Brad Lenzner
Chairman of CPAC
[1] Foundational principle #11 of “The Foundational Principles of Reformed Church Government” in the Church Order of the United Reformed Churches in North America Eighth Edition, AD 2018.
[2] Adapted from the “Prayer for Missions:” United Reformed Churches in North America (Canada), Liturgical Forms and Prayers of the United Reformed Churches in North America: Together with the Doctrinal Standards of the URCNA (Wellandport, Ontario, Canada: The United Reformed Churches in North America, 2018), 118.