In the book of Ephesians (4:3), Paul tells us that we should endeavor to the keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He tells us to endeavor to do this because if we don’t, unity is not the kind of thing that can be put on auto-pilot. Unity unattended is disunity in about fifteen minutes.
As you know, about four and a half years ago, we planted our sister church, Trinity Reformed Church. We knew at that time that we had some differences of opinion on certain liturgical matters, and so we asked the new church to keep their liturgy identical to ours for the first year, which Trinity readily agreed to. We did this so that no one could say that those differences were the reason for our separation. We were endeavoring to do exactly what Paul requires of us here. Too often church plants are nothing more than a controlled crash—a cross between a plant and a split, a church splant. That was the kind of thing we wanted no part of.
Since that time, things have gone very smoothly. We have maintained a pattern of joint services three or four times a year, we have developed a shared liturgy for those joint services, we share Christmas Eve and Good Friday services, and once every month the sessions of our two churches meet together to address areas of common concern. We are very grateful to God for our tight sense of unity.
But our different practices are still there, and they have become increasingly apparent over time. And so here is a renewed word of exhortation—whether to NSA students, to Greyfriars, or to anyone else who is engaged in studying and debating many of these issues. We don’t want you to ignore these matters. We do want you to engage with one another, discuss and debate. But we want you to be careful to do it in a charitable way that honors Christ and endeavors to preserve our Spirit-given unity.
In recent discussions, some students at Trinity may have felt that their desire to observe Lent in a particular way was dismissed by some of their friends at Christ Church as “works-righteousness.” And coming from the other direction, some of you have been made to feel like the liturgy we have settled on is not really with the program, is not really grown up yet—but you like it fine. In a context like this, my sermon on Palm Sunday about penitential seasons was taken by some as a critique of specific practices at Trinity instead of what it was intended to be—a simple statement of the reasons why we observe seasons like Advent or Lent the way we do. So as you discuss these things, make sure you make a clear distinction between what you believe the negative tendencies of a certain practice might be over time, and a specific sin you assert that your sinful or foolish friend is committing right this minute.
Pastor Leithart and I have discussed and debated many issues over the years, and have done so in the context of good fellowship and friendship, as pastors of two closely-related sister churches. The men of our respective sessions are good friends as well. This is an area where we can honestly and gratefully ask you to imitate us, and if you do that it won’t be by remaining silent. Discuss all these things with an open heart and open Bible, and make sure you do it in all charity.