Why I Love My Church...

As I mentioned yesterday, my wife and I joined Third Avenue last August and have been exceedingly blessed. When I share the reasons why we joined 3ABC it is not to say that other churches don’t have these qualities. I know there are and I pray that there will be more...I am merely giving thanks to God publicly for his grace in our lives in hopes that it will be for your edification. One of the main reasons that we joined Third has to do with the fact that they are bloggers. This may sound strange, but it is a blogging church because it is a progressive church. Now it is not progressive in the traditional sense (yes, the contrast and play on ideas is intended). In fact, if you attend any Sunday morning you will think that it is anything but progressive...That is until you hear the preacher; until you talk with people afterwards; until you check out the website. One of the main problems with congregations now is the denigration or abandonment of a robust theology for the sake of “reaching” the lost. I venture to say that the lost do not need to be entertained as much as they want to hear rock-solid Truth. Justification by faith, propitiation, expiation, sanctification, etc have been left in the annals of archaism and fluffy faith has taken their place. Community is not something that can be taught, it must be the overflow of the theology that is affirmed (more on this later). At Third my faith is nurtured by friends like Jeremy Yong, Kevin Cuthbertson, Joshua Morrell, Joshua Vincent, Greg Gilbert, Aaron Menikoff, Keith Goad, Jonathan Leeman, et al. Now that I have posted this and have affiliated myself with Third, I feel an extra burden to represent my family well. I am thinking of future posts I have and feel the weight of being honest, open, and Christ-like. Not that I wasn’t aiming at doing this before, but when people know that you go to a certain church, what you say and do reflects not only upon yourself but on your church.