Reformation Roundtable

During this Fellowship Night we discussed Chapter 4 of the book Standing on the Promises: Covenant Continuity.

Covenant Continuity is a topic that Evangelical Christians need to wrestle with. Covenant Continuity embraces the idea that there is one tree from which God's people grow. That tree is Israel and Romans 11 says God's people are either natural branches (Jews) or grafted branches (Gentiles) but the tree is the same and there is but one tree.

This has MAJOR implications for child rearing as we explore during this fellowship night.

Here is our Order of Service.

During this roundtable discussion, we explore some minor and major issues and/or concerns we have with our draft form of bylaws. We also discuss the Order of Service or liturgy we will follow upon commencement of this church. We finish the conversation with a discussion of biblical eldership.

Welcome to another episode of Reformation Roundtable. My name is Joe Stout. This podcast is dedicated to the vision of planting a distinctly reformed, unapologetically biblical, and historically trinitarian local church. As we pursue this goal together, we created this podcast as a way for others in our community to engage with and join this shared vision to see Christ’s kingdom expand in Lewis County WA. The following recording contains the audio from our latest fellowship night that happened on Feb. 28th, 2021 here in Centralia. Now we aren’t just doing our own thing. We are currently under the care and authority of Trinity Church in Bothel WA which is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches aka the CREC. We would like to have 10 founding member families before we go “live” as a mission church. While we wait on the Providence of God, we are meeting on Sunday evenings for what we are calling “Fellowship Nights.” During these fellowship nights, we have been practicing the liturgy we will use when we come an official mission church. I will have the “Order of Service” in the show notes so that you can follow along if you wish. We will continue to meet every Sunday evening for fellowship nights as well as on Thursday nights for discussions of reformed theology. If you would like to join us for these discussions or for our times of fellowship please visit lewiscounty.church. On that site you can look at a calendar of events, see past discussions and fellowship nights, as well as contact us directly with any questions or comments you might have. Okay that is enough from me, I hope you enjoy this time of fellowship.

The following is a Thursday night discussion that took place on Feb. 25th, 2021. We discussed the booklet form of Biblical Eldership and worked through a proposed liturgy for our fellowship nights as was practice in anticipation for Lord’s Day worship. At the end of the discussion there is a shorter but lively discussion on baptism and the Lord’s Supper that you won’t want to miss.

We want to plant a distinctly biblical and unashamedly Christ-centered reformed church in Lewis County. Lewis county has many churches but none that profess or practice the historic reformed faith. We would like to see this change and therefore we have been plowing in faith that we would accomplish the Lord’s will. For the better part of a year and a half, we have been meeting and seeking unity as families. Our stated goal is 10 founding member households prior to launch and our hope is to launch in March of 2021. God is going to accomplish His will in His sovereign mercy and we are excited to see how we can be used by Him in this way.

Reformation Roundtable meets on Thursday nights for discussion and Sunday nights for fellowship.  If you would like to join us please visit lewiscounty.church and you will find all of our previous discussions as well as an events tab which will show you what is coming up that you can be a part of. Also if you have questions or comments you can fill out the contact form and I will respond to your email personally. Well that is enough from me, I hope you enjoy the discussion and I hope you join us to plant a reformed church in Lewis County Washington.

Welcome to another episode of Reformation Roundtable. My name is Joe Stout and I am pleased to bring you the recording of our fellowship night that took place on Sunday evening Feb. 21st, 2021. Reformation Roundtable seeks to plant a biblically reformed church in Lewis County WA. We are moving closer every week to becoming a mission church and are currently seeking 10 founding member families to join our ranks before we go “live.” In the mean time we are practicing our liturgy in anticipation of that glorious day when we will launch. During this fellowship night we have a time of exhortation and encouragement, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, a time of corporate confession of sin, prayers of thanksgiving and prayers of petition, and a discussion of covenantal child rearing. We then finished the evening with food and laughter. If you would like to join us in this kingdom work, know that you will be answering the prayers we are praying. We want more and more households to join us in the ripe harvest in Lewis County. Please join us. Head on over to lewiscounty.church and you will a tab titled “events” which will list our meetings and fellowship nights. Also you will find a “contact us” tab and filling out the form on that page will put you in touch directly with me and I can answer any questions you might have. The bottom line is that we really hope you will come along side us in our work. Well that is enough from me, I hope you enjoy listening in on our evening and are blessed by the time of worship

 

From prior to the meeting:

We will be fellowshipping together and studying Chapter 1 of the book "Standing on the Promises.

Here is a .pdf of chapter 1.

We will be learning a new song called "What Wondrous Love is This?" . This is an American folk hymn written in 1811. The link will take you to YouTube where you can learn the tune.

Here is the song packet and liturgy for our time together!

We're reviving the Thursday night discussion format! We have loved moving to a "Fellowship Night" format over the past several weeks where whole families can come together to practice worshiping God, studying His Word, and fellowshipping together. However, one of the limitations of this format is deeper shared discussions.

The smaller format of our Thursday night discussions fosters better in-depth discussion of key topics that our Fellowship nights aren’t quite able to provide. While Fellowship Nights on Sunday evenings include all family members and are a wonderful time for us to practice worship liturgy in it's various forms of praise, prayer, confession, etc., Thursday night RRT meetings are geared more toward adults and older children and are filled with more interactive discussions.

We'll plan to pursue these meetings (alongside our fellowship nights) to encourage theological unity and understanding as we get closer to our official start date.

Which families are ready to be founding members

After having a quick phone call with Pastor Hatcher today, his advice was that our goal should be to seek at least 10 families who are willing to become founding members before our inaugural Lord’s Day worship. His reasoning stems from seeing church plants "launch" with too few members and struggle to mature beyond those members. His counsel is that a 10 family minimum seems to give the "critical mass" needed for growth and protects against stagnation.

Right now there are 7 families that have confirmed they are ready to become members. There are another 3 or 4 who are considering it but are still seeking the Lord’s direction.

If I haven’t talked with you about this one-on-one yet, it’s only because I haven’t had the opportunity. Please let me know if you would like to be included in the list of confirmed founding members and I will joyfully add you to the growing numbers.

Please be praying about this decision as a family as we walk by faith and not by sight. We all desire the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts and inform our orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

Read the DRAFT form of Trinity Church Bylaws (attached)

NOTE: This form was modified by Pastor Hatcher for our Lewis County church plant and has not been voted on or approved yet by the Trinity Church session (elders).

Discuss any issues or questions that might come up, after having read it.

I particularly like this part of the bylaws “… In submission to Scripture, we confess the purpose of our church is to glorify God through reverent worship, building up our members through preaching the whole counsel of God, observing Christ’s sacraments, and proclaiming Christ to the world.”

Discuss Memorials E & F from the Book of Memorials (attached)

These two memorials surround Terrorism and Homosexuality. We tabled this discussion from our Fellowship night format as it seemed more appropriate to have the discussion during a Thursday night.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

This discussion will be surrounding the definition of who in the church are “communicant members.” The definition as defined by the bylaws (attached) can be found under Article II, Section A.4.

This is a tremendously exciting time as we seek after the glory of God by doing the good works He has set out for us to do.

To get to be a part of the story He is telling as it unfolds brings unspeakable joy.

As we face a world hostile to Christ and His followers, and we seek to plant a church amidst this hostility, I am reminded of the first question and answer in the Heidelberg Catechism for Lord's Day 1:

Q.

On February 5th and 6th, a group of six men traveled to Moscow ID to attend the annual Missions Conference. The topic of this year's conference was the call of the Church to return to God’s instructions for caring for the poor. We looked to God’s Word for our marching orders for bringing true charity and extending true mercy to the poor among us.

On January 31st, around 40 souls from Lewis County, traveled north to experience Covenant Renewal worship with Trinity Church in Bothel WA. Because it was about a 2 hour drive, we did not have a fellowship night in the evening. This episode is the entirety of the Lord's Day service at Trinity.