Wednesday, October 14, 2009

DC Peeps and CHBC

I have two dear friends who graduated from Penn State last December and moved to DC to begin their careers. They were also our prime reason for visiting DC two weekends ago. (No offense Jefferson, your library was cool, but fellowship with dear brothers and sisters around Jesus is way better)

But the trip was pretty sweet as it reminded me how, while it is hard to keep up relationships after college, for those in Christ it's easy and incredibly sweet to pick up where we last left off and see how the Lord has been working in our lives. (Unfortunately I have no pictures yet to upload of our escapades though!)

Also this is serving as a shout out to Capitol Hill Baptist Church. My friends both are members there and I've benefited from their podcasts many a afternoon underneath our fume hood. But for all of the good things about CHBC's efforts with IX Marks Ministries, I have to say that it was particularly encouraging to be there on Sunday. The reason it was encouraging was because I was seeing their vision played out. Yeah their church has some influence through their pastors like Dr. Dever, but in the church it was just a regular ol' local church. Dr. Lawrence preached the Gospel, their was uplifting worship and fellowship afterwords. (I mean what local church would be complete without the standby watery coffee and cookies afterwords?) Nothing flashy, nothing fancy. Simply the Gospel in a local church. (I'm sure CHBC has more than enough warts and foibles to go around, but it is clear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the center of their church)

It's one thing to hear men preach on a podcast or at conferences about being a part of a local church and hearing the exhortations to be a Gospel preaching, Christ-centered local church, but to live it out is another. So thank you pastors and elders at CHBC for giving the rest of us in local churches around America and the world an example to follow as you follow Christ! And that you especially Christ for being the one who raises and establishes churches and men in your time and by your grace.

No comments: