From Pastor Caleb's Study

MARCH 22, 2024

Don't forget about the retirement celebration for Carl and Jeanie this Sunday evening! I encourage everyone to come out to evening worship at 6:00 and then to the Gym at 7:00 to honor the Kalberkamps for their long service among us. It is a rare privilege to have a pastor stay so long.

• Think about it: not only has POPC not had to form a senior pastor search committee since 1994 (thirty years and counting!), but Carl has poured himself into multiple generations of families over these years. The impact of that sort of generational ministry is ultimately known only by the Lord and those families, but we all benefit from the fruit of faithfulness.

I'm so thankful that Carl and Jeanie will still be among us even after he retires. Pray for them as they transition into a new stage of life and service to the Lord!

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Our officer nomination period will begin this Sunday and run through April 14. I know it feels like we just did this, since our ordination service is in late January and we do nominations in April of each year. But because we want to know who will be in the training before the Summer holidays roll around, the calendar works out this way.

• We see the pattern of God's people nominating men to serve as officers in Deuteronomy 1:13, Acts 1:23 and 6:3. Officers are not selected by existing officers, or by the senior pastor, but by the whole congregation. Nominating and electing its officers is the primary way members of a congregation exercise the power that Jesus has given to them.

• Please be praying about whom you might nominate to the office of elder or deacon. Meditate on I Timothy 3, Titus 1, and Acts 6:1-7 to see the sort of men the Lord wants to lead His church. Be looking for men who are already exhibiting the gifts of shepherding and teaching (for potential elders), or serving and administration (for potential deacons). Most importantly, you want to nominate men who are growing day by day in the fruit of the Spirit and are involved in the life, worship, and ministry of the church.

After informational meetings in late April/early May, the nominees will begin reading for the officer training classes, which run from August through November. That month, the Session will approve a slate of men to stand before you for election in January. God has been faithful to give us godly men to serve our congregation over the past 46 years, so let's be praying for the Lord to continue His mercies to us.

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This coming Sunday morning we have the privilege of witnessing the sacrament of baptism. Presbyterians believe that all who profess faith in Jesus Christ ought to be baptized, as well as their children. Why the latter? Because they are members of the covenant community by birth to believing parents and therefore have a right to the sign of the covenant (Romans 4:11).

• When God entered into a covenant with Abraham, He commanded Abraham to circumcise himself and his sons after him (Genesis 17:9-14). Circumcision was a picture of cleansing and being set apart as God’s special possession.

• In the New Covenant initiated by Jesus Christ, baptism has fulfilled circumcision as the covenant sign; believers are said to have been circumcised in Christ “with a circumcision made without hands…having been buried with Him in baptism” (Colossians 2:11-12). Like circumcision, baptism points to our cleansing from the guilt and the power of sin, by the shed blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who indwells us (Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5). It is a better sign than circumcision, though, for it is unbloody, and it is for both males and females. Just as Abraham circumcised his infant sons, so we baptize our infant children.

But just like our forefathers in the faith, we do not believe that our children are automatically guaranteed salvation or are magically born again by the external sign – not all who are baptized are given the new birth according to God’s sovereign grace; “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Rom. 9:6).

• But as members of the church, the children of believers possess privileges and responsibilities that set them apart from the children of the world (Paul calls them “holy,” i.e., set apart, in I Corinthians 7:14). Indeed, their greater privileges will result in a greater judgment if they refuse to embrace the Lord Jesus as He is offered in the gospel.

So let us be praying that the gospel realities signified by the waters of baptism would accompany the sign in due time, and let us exhort our children to embrace the Savior, who alone can save them from the judgment their sin deserves.

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Our Good Friday service is next Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. Join us as we meditate upon our Savior's suffering and death. Through Scripture and song our hearts will be inundated with the gospel of Christ crucified, as we anticipate the joy of resurrection!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

March 8, 2024

This week I have been in Greenville, South Carolina, attending and speaking at the Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Spring Theology Conference. The topic of the conference this year was Modern Missions in the Reformed World, and I spoke on the life and ministry of John Leighton Wilson (1809-1885). 

• Wilson, a South Carolinian, graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, SC, and served as a pioneer missionary in Liberia and the Gabon from 1834-1852; as Assistant Secretary/Coordinator of the Presbyterian Church's Board of Foreign Missions (the MTW of that day) from 1853-1861; and as the Secretary/Coordinator of the Southern Presbyterian Church's Committee of Foreign Missions from 1861-1884. Leighton and his wife Jane lived a remarkable life, and his ministry gives us some important lessons for how the church today thinks about and does missions.

I'd love for all of you to get to know this father of the faith and of Presbyterian missions, so watch the video of my presentation when you have a chance (fast forward to the 5:17:06 mark of this video).

Another 19th century Presbyterian forefather, Dr. John Holt Rice (first professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia), reminds us that the church is at its essence a missionary society:

• He exhorts elders to tell new members of their churches that "if they join the church, they join a community, the object of which is the conversion of the heathen world, and to impress on their minds a deep sense of their obligation as redeemed sinners, to co-operate in the accomplishment of the great object of Christ's mission to the world."

Do you think of our church's purpose and goal in this expansive way? If we only think of "pursuing transformation by truth and grace together for the glory of Christ" as something we do in our lives in the Jackson metro area, we are missing the point - for there are men and women, boys and girls, in every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, who need their lives transformed by the glorious gospel of Jesus.

One of the speakers at the conference was a pastor named Chad Vegas, who founded Radius International. This organization trains believers to be missionaries to unreached peoples/language groups. Chad's first talk (31:33 of this video) was a wonderful unpacking of some of the errors of modern evangelical and Reformed missions - it was challenging and convicting.

• The President of Radius International, Brooks Buser, brought the gospel to the Yembi Yembi tribe of Papau New Guinea with his wife Nina and two other couples - their story is riveting, and I encourage you to watch it with your family as soon as you're able.

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As we continue to grieve with Samantha Richardson and her children at the death of our brother Adam, I pray that our hearts will be filled with the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not only does this historical fact ensure our justification (Romans 4:25), and ensure that Jesus's priestly intercession for us is the intercession of a fellow human (I Timothy 2:5; Romans 8:34) - it also ensures that one day, though we die, we shall be raised bodily to endless physical life, without any suffering of any kind.

• Job's words are an early expression of this great hope: "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another" (Job 19:25-27). No matter what we suffer, we can rest in the truth that on the last day Jesus "will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself" (Philippians 3:21).

The video of Adam's funeral is available online if you were not able to be present, or if you would like to share it with a friend.

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Don't forget that at the end of this month Pastor Carl is retiring from service at POPC and will become Pastor Emeritus.

• His last sermon as a Pastor on staff will be Sunday, March 17.

• A reception for Carl and Jeanie will be held the following Sunday evening, March 24, after evening worship.

Please plan to be present with us to communicate your love and gratitude to the Kalberkamps for their faithful service among us these past 30 years! 

From Pastor Caleb's Study

February 16, 2024

I love missions. What a privilege it is to be able to bring, or send, or pray for the spread of, the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations! Some have never heard the words of life, and some have heard and never believed them to be beautiful and true. And we have those words of life in the proclamation of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every year our Missions Festival rolls around, I am thankful for how our missionaries and ministry partners encourage and spur me on to be more faithful in my praying, in my giving, in my own reaching the lost for Christ privately and publicly, and in having a worldwide vision for the work of God.

From my childhood and through my youth, missions has been a part of my experience as a disciple of Jesus. My parents were host families through our church for international students at LSU - we got to know believers from countries where it was difficult to be a Christian, like China and Pakistan. My church in high school and college (First Presbyterian Baton Rouge) took us on mission trips to Reynosa, Mexico, Mandeville, Jamaica, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Groups from that congregation went regularly to Russia. I thank God that everywhere I have had the privilege of serving after graduating from LSU, the people of God were already missions-minded, committed to supporting missionaries in every corner of the globe, and desirous to bring the gospel to the lost and to encourage the missionaries and the believers in the churches. I thank Him that as Pastor Carl shared with us last Sunday, missions has been in the DNA of POPC from its birth. What a privilege! What a responsibility!

Why do we engage in the work of missions?
 

• Because God has promised that in Abraham's seed all the families of the earth, all the nations, shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18).

• Because Jesus has commissioned us to make disciples of all the nations, having gone out into the world baptizing and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

• Because God commands all people everywhere to repent - for a day has been fixed on which He will judge the world in righteousness by His Son, the man Christ Jesus (Acts 17:30-31).

• Because apart from Christ all people everywhere are dead in sin, full of hopeless despair and the fear of death, unreconciled to God and slaves of sin, and desperately need the forgiviness, peace, hope, power, and life the gospel brings.

• Because the Spirit has revealed that in the age to come, a great multitude from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages will be declaring that salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).

These motivations and more should move us to have a missionary spirit that longs to hear more of how God is working around the world, to give more generously and systematically, and to respond more faithfully to Jesus' call to serve in whatever way He might open up for us. I pray that our Missions Festival will bear much fruit in all of our lives, and I encourage you to consider prayerfully what sort of commitment you will make to missions in 2024. Obviously you can give or pray or go without filling out a commitment card or the online commitment form  - but the act of making a commitment helps you to fix it more firmly in your heart and life.

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Please spread the word to any visitor you know who would like more information about Christianity or our church or who knows they want to join POPC -- we will begin a New Members Class on the first Sunday in March in Room 127. The class will run through the Spring quarter (March-May). May the Lord continue to be pleased to add to our number those who are being saved, and who desire to grow in their knowledge and service of Him!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

February 9, 2024

Back in 1831, Dr. John Holt Rice, the first professor of theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (one of the main Presbyterian seminaries in the South in the 19th century), submitted a resolution to the Presbyterian General Assembly that contained his words: "that it be earnestly recommended to all Church Sessions, in hereafter admitting new members to the Churches, distinctly to state to candidates for admission, that if they join the church, they join a community, the object of which is the conversion of the heathen world, and to impress on their minds a deep sense of their obligation as redeemed sinners, to cooperate in the accomplishment of the great object of Christ's mission to the world." Rice's words did not end up being approved by that particular General Assembly, but his recommendation was full of glorious truth.

The church of Jesus Christ has as one of its chief purposes to bring the gospel to the lost, both near and far, so that God's elect might be brought into the fold. And every disciple of Jesus Christ, every member of His body the church, every sinner who has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus, has an obligation to participate in this objective. I love the fact that Dr. Rice calls this goal "Christ's mission to the world." For indeed, we are merely His agents, His representatives, His ambassadors, going forth in His name and in the power of His Spirit to call the nations to repent of their idolatry and believe in the only one who can save them from the coming wrath of God.

So I hope that during our upcoming Missions Festival week, you hear that participating in the work of missions is not something merely for those who want to go overseas, or for those with lots of disposable income, or for those with lots of time. It's for each and every member of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church. As the Father has sent His Son, so the Son has sent us into the world that we might shine the light of the gospel of Jesus in all we say and do. Jesus spoke those words in John 20:21 to His apostles, and they apply in a very specific way to those official ambassadors and agents of revelation. Yet they apply more broadly to every believer. For those same words in Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17:18 are followed closely by Jesus' affirmation that He's not just praying for the apostles, but for those who believe in Him through their words - which includes all who come after them. If Jesus promises His presence to the end of the age in Matthew 28:20, then the call to make the disciples, the call to go into the world, is a call that does not disappear with the apostles.

We have a wonderful lineup of preachers and missionaries reporting the next two Sundays and the Wednesday between them, and I trust you will be encouraged by their stories of God's greatness and faithfulness to His promises to give a people to His Son from all the nations. Don't miss out!

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I also encourage you not to miss our Sunday Night Fellowship on February 25. One of Christ's workers whom we support is our own John Perritt, who serves with Reformed Youth Ministries. He spends much time thinking about youth culture, and helping youth directors think through how to minister to students in our current cultural moment. He will be sharing some of the fruit of his study in a talk entitled, "New Trauma for a New Generation: Giving Hope to Students Dealing with the Evils of Their Age." If you have (or hope to have) children or grandchildren, or if you want to learn how to pray for those with children or grandchildren, I encourage you to join us.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

February 2, 2024

Don't forget that we are having a joint worship service this Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the Gym (with Sunday School beforehand at 9:30 a.m.). The reason for this schedule change is that we're going to be ordaining and installing our newly elected elders and deacons.

• Andy Rowan has already been ordained as an elder in a previous PCA church, and Steve Tackitt has already been ordained as a deacon here at POPC - so these two men will only be installed as officers of POPC. John Neiswinger will be ordained and installed as an elder here, and Garrett McMullin will be ordained and installed as a deacon here.

Our Book of Church Order helpfully defines ordination as "the authoritative admission of one duly called to an office in the Church of God, accompanied with prayer and the laying on of hands, to which it is proper to add the giving of the right hand of fellowship." We see ordinations in both the Old and New Testaments (e. g., Leviticus 8; Acts 6:6 and 13:2-3).

• It is not some magical hocus-pocus, by which grace is mysteriously passed from current officers to new officers - rather, it is an act of government by the elders jointly, formally recognizing "that a particular man has the gifts and graces requisite for that office" and authoritatively admitting him to the full functions of his office (for more on ordination, see this article by Dr. Guy Waters).

At the service I will briefly explain the warrant, the nature, the character, and the duties of the offices of ruling elder and deacon. "Character" and "duties" are common words - how should an officer conduct himself, and what is he to do as an officer. But the words "warrant" and "nature" are perhaps a little more obscure.

• We're familiar with a "warrant for someone's arrest" - a warrant is authorization, justification, sanction. As we'll see, the offices of elder and deacon are not human, man-made offices, but are divinely instituted.

• The "nature" of something is its inherent, essential features - what is the thing? An elder is an official shepherd, an overseer, a steward, a teacher. A deacon is an official servant, who tangibly shows the mercy of Christ to those in need.

Jesus has given both offices to the church to reflect His two-fold ministry of word and deed. Both are necessary for the well-being of the people of God. Both are to exemplify the humble and holy nature of our Savior. And both are weighty responsibilities that are not to be taken up lightly. So be in prayer for these men, and for their wives and children!

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We're finishing up our mini-series on stewardship this Sunday, appropriately focusing upon our stewardship of the spiritual gifts that God has given each one of His children. The next two Sundays are our Missions Festival, and then we will jump back into the book of Romans one last time, working out way through Romans 12-16. I'm looking forward to getting to the practical application of all the rich doctrine that Paul has set forth for us in the first eleven chapters!

• Be in prayer for me that I would preach sound doctrine diligently, plainly, faithfully, wisely, zealously, and sincerely - and that you would "attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what you hear by the Scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in your lives" (Westminster Larger Catechism 159-160).

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Because of the ordination/installation service on Sunday morning, we're moving the Lord's Supper to the evening service. The Lord’s Supper is often called “Communion,” because as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we commune with our Savior spiritually, by faith (see I Cor. 10:16-17). We are strengthened as we feed upon Him and recall all the spiritual blessings we have in Him (Eph. 1:3ff.). We also commune with one another, for our union with Jesus unites us with all believers in Jesus Christ. So “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25). May our tasting and seeing that God is good and kind and merciful enable us to be good and kind and merciful to one another!

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Men, don't forget to join us down at FPC this evening for the Mid-South Men's Rally! Bring your children and either come at 5:15 for dinner, or 6:00ish to get a seat for the first session. Dr. Sandy Wilson (formerly Senior Pastor of 2nd Pres in Memphis and currently the President of The Gospel Coalition) will be our speaker, so you won't want to miss it.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 26, 2024

This Sunday's congregational meeting is a significant moment in the life of our church, and I encourage you to read over the material that we've mailed out the last several weeks (if you've thrown away or misplaced your letters, you can read them here and here!). I know we've been sending you a lot of information recently, with the congregational meeting and Missions Festival happening in quick succession, but we want to make sure you're informed of all that is happening.

• We'll meet at 10:00 in the Sanctuary to elect new officers, vote on three motions, and receive a budget presentation from Bill Alvis (our Treasurer) and Tom Young (our World Missions Committee chairman).
   

• The officer candidates approved by the Session as eligible for election are John Neiswinger and Andy Rowan (for Elder) and Garrett McMullen and Steve Tackitt (for Deacon). For each man, you will be able to vote YES or NO or abstain from voting. Our Book of Church Order states, "a majority of all the votes cast (excluding blanks and abstentions) shall be required to elect."
   

• We will vote on the two recommendations regarding Pastor Carl's retirement:
  
  1. To accept the resignation of Carl Kalberkamp as Associate Pastor of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church with great sorrow and with great joy for his thirty years of ministry among us, and to concur with his request that the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley dissolve the pastoral relation between him and the church.
  
  2. To elect Carl Kalberkamp as Pastor Emeritus of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church, effective April 1, 2024, pending his being designated as honorably retired by the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley in February.
   

• We will vote on the recommendation regarding 419 Northpark Drive: To approve the purchase of 419 Northpark Drive for a staff office building.
   

• More information about these motions and the 2024 budgets can be found in the links above.

Next Sunday (February 4), we will have a joint worship service in the Gym at 10:30 a.m., so that we might all be present for the ordination and installation of our new officers. The Lord has been faithful and merciful to give us elders and deacons to shepherd and serve His flock. He has also been kind to give every believer in Jesus gifts to use for His glory and the good of the body, and the sermon next Sunday on the stewardship of those gifts will be the last in our stewardship series. Make every effort to be with us the next two Lord's Days!

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As you'll see below, on February 11-18, we will hold our annual Missions Festival. Our preachers will be our own Pastor Carl Kalberkamp on the morning of February 11, Pastor Jeff Jordan (RUF Campus Minister at Mississippi College) on the evening of February 11, Pastor Esaie Etienne (a missionary in Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on Wednesday evening, and Dr. Michael Allen (Systematic Theology professor at RTS-Orlando) on both morning and evening of February 18. And of course, we'll have various missionaries with us in worship services and in Sunday School classes on February 18. Other activities are planned, so please review the brochure you'll be receiving in the mail or visit our website. Please be praying for the Lord to continue stirring our hearts to labor to fulfill His great commission from Matthew 28, so that all the nations might follow Him and be glad in Him!

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I recently came across the first issue of Notes From the Orchard, an online journal of sorts that we published at POPC from 2016-2018. (You can see all the issues here.) In that first issue I wrote about John Newton's wonderful reflections on the benefits of affliction -- a topic that is always relevant, but particularly it seems during this season in which so many have been walking through cancer treatments, deaths of family members, and other losses, griefs, and heartaches. I encourage you to read that article (as well as John Kwasny's article on marriage!). Our Lord promises never to leave us or forsake us, and to cause all our suffering to work together for good - as we sing together in the hymn How Firm a Foundation, "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine." May the Lord comfort and strengthen you as you meditate upon His word in the midst of the fiery trials He has ordained for your growth in grace!
 

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 19, 2023

It's not often we Mississippians get to see white falling from the sky or covering our roads and yards. "Ski Mississippi" shirts show winter athletes in a downhill tuck over the tops of cotton fields, not down mountains. I didn't see snow in Baton Rouge until sixth grade, and my youngest (Ezra) has often lamented our moving away from Cookeville, TN, when he was one year old, preventing him from living where it snowed fairly regularly. So in spite of the frigid cold and ominous threats of frozen pipes (as well as empty break and milk shelves at Kroger and southern drivers who aren't used to driving on icy roads), I always love when we get winter storms. So this week, as unsettling and abnormal as it's been, has been enjoyable to me as well.

The Bible is not silent about snow. While I haven't studied deeply the winter precipitation levels in ancient Israel, it's clear that the Biblical authors knew about and had seen snow. And they use it to drive home all sorts of spiritual realities.

• Snow shows the sovereign power of God:

  • "God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend. For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong'" (Job 37:5-6).

  • "He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow" (Psalm 147:15-18).

• Snow shows the royal majesty and purity of God:

  • “I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire" (Daniel 7:9).

  • ". . . and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man . . . His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:13-14).

• Snow shows us the grace of God in the forgiveness of our sins.

  • "'Come now, and let us reason together,' says the LORD, 'Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool'" (Isaiah 1:18).

  • "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7).

Jesus models for us in His teaching how we ought to use nature to meditate upon God and the grace of the gospel. So keep these verses handy, and the next time the Lord sends snow or ice, think of them again, and rejoice in your God of power, holiness, and mercy to sinners like yourself.

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Speaking of pictures of cleansing from sin, we celebrate the sacrament of initiation into the covenant community this Lord's Day: baptism. Baptism is a outward sign of an internal reality. By the washing of water, the cleansing blood of Jesus and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit are depicted for us. Of course, the sign itself is not the reality, does not in and of itself accomplish the reality, and does not always accompany the reality. It's possible to have the internal reality without having the external sign, and it's possible to have the external sign without having the internal reality - either at the moment of administration, or ever.

• The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it succinctly and in a helpfully balanced manner, "Although it be a great sin to contemn [i.e., "heap contempt upon"] or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, without it; or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated" (WCF chapter 28).

As you witness the covenant sign and seal of baptism this coming Sunday, meditate upon how God the Father has cleansed you by grace through the blood of His Son and washing of His Spirit. We are all filthy sinners in desperate need of salvation; as the preacher in Moby Dick puts it, "Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending." Yet there is cleansing for the worst of sinners in the gospel of Jesus Christ. "O precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow! No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!"

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 12, 2024

If you've already received your letter in the mail about the congregational meeting on January 28, I hope you've had a chance to read it. Here it is in digital form if it's more convenient for you to read it online. There are some big things about to happen, and potentially about to happen depending on your vote, so I encourage you to be present during the Sunday School hour in two weeks.

As you'll see below, the Lord was faithful to provide generously through you His people for our ministry in 2023. I thank Him for your sacrificial giving to His work, and for our deacons and elders who work hard every year on the budget - and especially have done so this past budget cycle. Please be praying for the elders as we meet next week to finalize the 2024 budget.

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This Sunday we begin a four part topical sermon series on stewardship. When you hear that word, you probably think of money and financial resources. But God has entrusted much more to us than merely wealth. He has also given us time, relationships, and gifts - all of which we are called to use for His glory and the good of those around us. "It is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (I Corinthians 4:2). So for the next four weeks we will be thinking about what faithfulness looks like in each of these four areas. After that we'll have our Missions Festival (which I incorrectly wrote last week was February 4-11; it's actually February 11-18!), and then we will jump back into the book of Romans and finish it out to the end!

We confessed Westminster Larger Catechism #155 last Sunday night, and I was struck once more about how important and efficacious preaching is by the Spirit's power: "The  Spirit  of  God  makes  the  reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means

• of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners;

• of driving  them  out  of  themselves,  and  drawing  them  unto Christ;

• of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to  his  will; 

• of  strengthening  them  against  temptations  and corruptions;

• of building them up in grace,

• and establishing their  hearts  in  holiness  and  comfort  through  faith  unto salvation."

Please be praying for God to bear this fruit in our lives through the preaching of His word!

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Today is my 48th birthday, and it's also the memorial service for Mike Neiswinger. Elizabeth and I are driving to Dadeville, AL, this afternoon for my aunt's funeral service tomorrow, returning tomorrow evening. It is a sobering and good thing to be reminded of death as you remember your birth, for each birthday is one year closer to one's deathday. "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that [i.e., death] is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Wisdom consists in large part in numbering your days (Psalm 90:12), realizing that life is short (Psalm 39:4-5), that none of us are guaranteed another year (or day) of life, that one day we will die and stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Hebrews 9:27; II Corinthians 5:10). We have the strong comfort that "in God's book were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them" (Psalm 139:16). So we can live and serve with confident faith in His providence, celebrating His faithfulness year by year, knowing that we are here until He desires to take us home. As until He takes us home, we hear His encouragement to us: "There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?" (Ecclesiastes 2:2-25).

Be praying for the Neiswinger family, and for all the families in our congregation who have lost loved ones recently. Let us bear one another's burdens, weep with those who weep, and comfort one another with the comfort we have received from God.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

January 5, 2024

I pray that the Lord richly blessed your Christmas and New Year's holidays - whether that looked like a restful time around a fireplace in the comfort of your own home or a less-than-restful time traveling to see family, I pray the peace of God and the joy of the Lord has been your strength day by day the past weeks. For many, the holidays can be painful reminders of the (better) way things used to be, or of the loneliness brought about by death, divorce, or other relational fracture. Even when moments of discouragement and despair roll over us like a wave, when God feels far away, we can say to our souls with the sons of Korah in Psalm 42, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." The Lord is with us, even/especially at our lowest moments, for He has promised never to leave us nor abandon us (Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5).

That promise of the presence of the Lord is much needed by our brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones recently. Please keep praying for the comfort of the Joey Smith family (in the death of his father) and Cindy Neiswinger and her family (in the death of her husband Mike), as well as Peggy Buras (in the death of her brother) and Marie Johnson and Joshua Richardson (in the death of Marie's sister). The turning over of the calendar is already a reminder of the brevity of our lives - "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away" (Psalm 90:10) - and the death of a loved one drives home that reality all the more. How we need to keep the hope of the resurrection fresh on our heart!

Our final sermon in the life of Elisha this Lord's day will keep both death and resurrection before us, so please be praying that the Lord would use His word to meet us where we are (or one day will be) and bring us the life-giving hope of the gospel. For the rest of January and the first week of February, leading up to our annual Missions Festival February 4-11, we are going to think about the theme of stewardship: of our time, our relationships, our financial resources, and our gifts. That last sermon will coincide with a joint service in the gym for the ordination and installation of our new officers, so that together we might celebrate the Lord's gifts to us both individually and corporately. I look forward to meditating with you upon what it means to be wise and faithful recipients and conduits of the abundant provisions the Lord has graciously chosen to provide to us!

Speaking of new officers, we've announced in the bulletin the past two Sundays that our annual congregational meeting is set for January 28 during the Sunday School hour. Please make every effort to be present. Not only will we be electing new ruling elders and deacons and presenting the 2024 church budgets, but we will have two other important recommendations from the Session to consider. Be on the lookout for more information about these in the mail next week.

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If anyone is interested in attending, I'm leading a community book discussion at the RTS Bookstore (4268 I-55 North) on Friday, January 26, from 5:30-6:30. The book is Impeccable, by William Swan Plumer, a short volume (less than 100 pages) that considers the question of whether Jesus was able to sin or not. Spoiler alert: Plumer's answer is that Jesus was not only sinless, but He was not able to sin. Come and hear more about how that is possible and why it matters. You can pick up a copy of the book at the RTS Bookstore, or just show up if you'd like to listen in on the discussion.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

December 15, 2023

The incarnation of our Savior has elicited poetry and praise from the very time of His conception in Mary's womb, as we see in the gospel accounts and in all the hymns written about the birth of Jesus. The fact of the eternal Son of God becoming a man without ceasing to be God—becoming a human without spot or stain of sin—coming as the fulfillment of all the prophecies of old—has powerfully moved the heart and mind of men and women. Not all the poetry about Jesus' birth was written to be sung, however.

John Milton's 17th century "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" is one great example. It's a longer poem, and the first two stanzas are beautiful:

This is the month, and this the happy morn,
      Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
      Our great redemption from above did bring;
      For so the holy sages once did sing,
            That he our deadly forfeit should release,
            And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
      And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table,
      To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
      He laid aside, and here with us to be,
            Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
            And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Another example is Robert Southwall's 16th century "The Nativity of Christ," which highlights the paradoxes of the incarnation:

Behold: the father is his daughter’s son,
The bird that built the nest, is hatched therein,
The old of years, an hour hath not outrun,
Eternal life, to live doth now begin,
The Word is dumb, the mirth of heaven doth weep,
Might feeble is, and force doth faintly creep.
 
O dying souls, behold your living Spring!
O dazzled eyes, behold your Son of Grace!
Dull ears, attend what word this Word doth bring!
Up, heavy hearts: with joy your joy embrace!
From death, from dark, from deafness, from despairs,
This life, this light, this Word, this joy repairs.
 
Gift better than Himself, God doth not know,
Gift better than his God, no man can see;
This gift doth here the giver Given bestow,
Gift to this gift let each receiver be:
God is my gift, Himself he freely gave me,
God’s gift am I, and none but God shall have me.
 
Man altered was by sin from man to beast;
Beasts’ food is hay, hay is all mortal flesh;
Now God is flesh, and lies in Manger pressed,
As hay, the brutest sinner to refresh:
O happy field wherein this fodder grew,
Whose taste doth us from beasts to men renew!

May the Lord bless your meditations on the good news of Jesus Christ, who partook of the same flesh and blood that we have in order that "through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Hebrews 2:14-15).

From Pastor Caleb's Study

December 8, 2023

One of the things for which I'm most grateful here at POPC is our gifted, godly, and diligent staff. As 2023 comes to an end, POPC is about to go through several staff transitions that I want to make sure you know about.

• Heatherly Edgar, our Financial Administrator, has taken a job with Ergon, and today is her last day with us. Patsy Holeman will be stepping in on an interim basis while we look for Heatherly's replacement. (If you know of someone with a background in accounting who is looking for part time job, please contact us!)

• Bobby Epps, our new Youth Ministry Director, moves his family to town this coming Wednesday, and will be starting in his new call at the beginning of 2024.

• Sam Thoman, who has been serving as Interim Youth Director, will move back into his Youth Intern role. Marcus Smith, who served as Youth Intern while Sam was Interim Youth Director, will no longer be on the youth ministry staff, but his wife Seija will still be a Youth Intern, so Marcus hopes to continue to volunteer with our young men as he is able.

As you see these saints in the coming weeks, please be sure to thank them for their commitment in ministry to our congregation. And pray for all our staff as they lead and serve in various capacities!

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This past Monday, December 4th, the PCA celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first General Assembly, held in Birmingham, Alabama. This timeline with primary sources is a helpful resource if you're new to the PCA or unfamiliar with how we came to exist in the first place. God has been faithful to preserve, grow, and use us over these past fifty years, so let us continue to pray for Him to do the same the next fifty years!

Speaking of fifty years, if anyone would be interested in helping to plan our celebration of Pear Orchard's fiftieth anniversary in 2027, please let me know. I know that's four years from now, but I don't want it to sneak up on us, and I want to make sure we gather the stories we need to hear from those who were there at the beginning and are still with us. None of us can be certain that we will be here (or even alive) in 2027, but it's vital to remember how God has worked in the past as we pursue transformation by truth and grace together for the glory of Christ in the present. So I'm looking forward, Lord willing, to celebrating His ever-new mercies past, present, and future.

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Please note the opportunities for worship and for service this month. As we celebrate the good news of our Savior's incarnation, I encourage you to be present at our Cherub Choir Pageant this Sunday evening, our Lessons and Carols service next Sunday morning, and our Christmas Eve services Sunday morning and afternoon. Serve your neighbors by delivering gifts to special needs families, or by caroling in neighborhoods across our area, or by giving coats to children at Mission First. Be intentional to redeem your time this month for the glory of God, the good of your soul, and the good of those around you!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

December 1, 2023

I'm looking forward to being in the pulpit again this coming Lord's Day! Because of the way the calendar falls in 2023, I won't be taking any Sundays off around the Christmas or New Year's holidays, so we took both Sundays off around Thanksgiving. It was a joy to go down to my hometown of Baton Rouge the weekend before Thanksgiving and worship at South Baton Rouge Presbyterian (a church that was planted right when after I graduated from LSU in 1998), and then this past Sunday to worship with the saints at Brandon Presbyterian in the morning and Steen's Creek Presbyterian in the evening ("Steen's Creek" is the new name of the Florence church plant - Florence was called "Steen's Creek" before it was called Florence!). God is at work among His people across our state and region, not to mention our country and world. Let's keep praying for the progress of the gospel in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls - which reminds me, we're gathering this Sunday evening at 5:00, before evening worship, for our missions prayer meeting, and we'd love to have you join us!

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For the next four Sundays, we will be thinking about how God intends us to use the truth of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. When I was beginning to study God's word in earnest in high school and college, I often had to deal with friends and family members who thought that doctrine was useless for anything but to cause conflict, that theology only puffed up and divided. But the more I studied, the more I realized that doctrine is for life! And the doctrine of Jesus' coming into this world, taking a human body and soul, to live a fully human life without ceasing to be fully God, has all sort of applications and implications for you and me as we live in this present evil age. We'll be thinking about ministry, about relationships, about money, and about trials and temptations. The fact that Jesus became (and still is!) a man is not a dry and dusty piece of trivia to remember in December only, but a transforming truth for us every day of our lives. I pray you will see marvelous things from God's word in the coming weeks!

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As we come to the Lord's table this Sunday, we remember that Jesus became a man in order to suffer and die. One of my favorite 19th century Southern Presbyterian authors, William Swan Plumer, wrote a book about the gospel of Jesus entitled The Grace of Christ. In chapter 21 he meditates upon the work of Jesus and its benefits for us. As you prepare to come to the table, read these sentences slowly and reflect on your Savior's great love for you!
 
“Our Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate, was made under the law, lived, acted, obeyed, suffered died and rose again for his people.
     He came down to earth that they might go up to heaven.
     He suffered that they might reign.
     He became a servant that they might become kings and priests unto God.
     He died that they might live.
     He bore the cross that their enmity might be slain, and their sins expiated.
     He loved them that they might love God.
     He was rich and became poor that they, who were poor, might be made rich.
     He descended into the lower parts of the earth that they might sit in heavenly places.
     He emptied himself that they might be filled with all the fullness of God.
     He took upon him human nature that they might be partakers of the divine nature.
     He made flesh his dwelling place that they might be a habitation of God through the Spirit.
     He made himself of no reputation, that they might wear his new name, and be counted an eternal excellency.
     He became a worm, and no man, that they, who were sinful worms, might be made equal to the angels.
     He bore the curse of a broken covenant that they might partake of all the blessings of the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
     Though heir of all things, he was willingly despised of the people, that they, who were justly condemned, might obtain an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
     His death was a satisfaction to divine justice, a ransom for many, a propitiation for sin, a sweet smelling savor to God, that we, who were an offense to God, might become his sons and daughters.
     He was made sin for his people that they might be made the righteousness of God in him.
     Though Lord of all He took the form of a servant, that they, who were the servants of sin, might prevail like princes with God.
     He, who had made swaddling-clothes bands for the sea, was wrapped in swaddling-clothes that they, who were cast out in their blood, might be clothed in linen white and clean, which is the righteousness of the saints.
     He had not where to lay His head that they who otherwise must have laid down in eternal sorrow, might read the mansions in His Father’s house.
     He was beset with lions and bulls of Bashan, that his chosen might be compassed about with an innumerable company of angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect.
     He drank the cup of God’s indignation that they might for ever drink of the river of His pleasures.
     He hungered that they might eat the bread of life.
     He thirsted that they might drink the water of life.
     He was numbered with the transgressors that they might stand among the justified, and be counted among the jewels.
     He made His grave with the wicked that they might sleep in Jesus.
     Though He was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, yet He became a helpless infant, that creatures of yesterday, sentenced to death, might live for ever.
     He wore a crown of thorns that all, who love His appearing, might wear a crown of life.
     He wept tears of anguish that His elect might weep tears of repentance not to be repented of.
     He bore the yoke of obedience unto death that they might find His yoke easy and His burden light.
     He poured out His soul unto death, lay three days in the heart of the earth, then burst the bars of death, and arose to God, that they, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, might obtain the victory over the grave and become partakers of His resurrection.
     He exhausted the penalty of the law that His redeemed might have access to the inexhaustible treasures of mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, truth and grace promised by the Lord.
     He passed from humiliation to humiliation, till He reached the sepulcher of Joseph, that His people might be changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
     He was matchless in grace that they might be matchless in gratitude.
     Though a Son, He became a voluntary exile, that they, who had wickedly wandered afar off, might be brought nigh by His blood.
     He was compassed about with all their innocent infirmities that He might perfect His strength in their weakness.
     His visage was so marred more than any man, that His ransomed might be presented before God without spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
     For a time He was forsaken of His Father that they, whom He bought with His blood, might behold the light of God’s countenance forever.
     He came and dwelt with them that they might be forever with the Lord.
     He was hung up naked before His insulting foes that all, who believe on His name, might wear a glorious wedding garment, a spotless righteousness.
     Though He was dead, He is the firstborn among many brethren.
     Through His sorrow His people obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away.
     Though He endured the worst things, they do and shall forever enjoy the best things
Wonderful mystery! God was manifested in the flesh! Here is no absurdity, no contradiction, no fiction, and yet a mystery that baffles all attempts to solve it, and dazzles all human and angelic vision. Blessed is he, who is not offended in Jesus. Blessed is he, who loves the incarnate mystery, and rests upon it. It is a mystery of love, of power, of salvation. It is the mystery of Godliness. It is the great study of the inhabitants of heaven, and shall be while immortality endures.”

A guest post by Dr. John Kwasny, Executive Ministry Director

November 17, 2024

New Sunday School Classes are Starting in December!
A guest post by Dr. John Kwasny, Executive Ministry Director

"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.”  (Matthew 28:19-20)
 
On Sunday, December 3rd, we begin our Winter Adult Sunday School quarter. It has been affectionately dubbed, “Winter Wildcard” due to the makeup of the choices. It is the one quarter each year that we offer an “all the above” slate: Old Testament studies, New Testament studies, and Theological studies. Our Adult Discipleship Ministry Team (Newell Simrall, chair, Mike Atkinson, Jason Branning, Mary Jo Wicke, and Mary Katherine Biggs) has been working diligently on recruiting teachers and choosing the best courses of study (here is the link to register for our upcoming classes). We long to see more and more of our adults participate in this essential aspect of our overall discipleship ministry at POPC!
 
Since we have had so many new members over the last few years, I want to take this opportunity to review our ministry philosophy and practice of Adult Sunday School:

• Sound adult educational philosophy informs us that adult learners are “self-directed.” This means adults tend to choose what they want (need) to learn, from whom they want to learn, and whom they want to learn alongside of.

• Based on this principle, our Adult Sunday School model is an elective one, with several (typically, four) non-age-segregated adult classes to choose from. All adults are free to choose their class each quarter, with no age or stage separation. They can choose based on any number of variables.

• In a church our size, this model also encourages us to meet/know more people in the congregation, since we have new classes starting every quarter. It also allows us to learn inter-generationally. We are not “siloed” off into closed age groups in Sunday School.

• Adult Sunday School is primarily about discipleship and the authoritative teaching of the Word, more than fellowship or targeting the needs of a particular demographic. We believe there are better contexts for those other important goals, including (but not limited to) community groups, small group Bible studies, midweek educational electives, etc.

• Teachers are encouraged to use various methods, depending on class size and subject matter. Lecture, discussion, application, question and answer, etc., are all to encourage understanding and wisdom in our adults. Lecture is often primary because of the size of our classes—but that does not mean the learner just sits silently with no interaction with the content.

• We make sure that Old Testament (fall) and New Testament (spring) studies happen every year, so every Bible book can be taught over a certain year period. Theological studies are also offered in summer and winter.

• Adult Sunday School is only 45 minutes long, so it cannot serve every purpose. We desire to prioritize the teaching of the Word when the most adults are on campus.

This winter, the Adult Discipleship Ministry Team has added an elective targeted for young adults/young families, with opportunities for questions and discussion. John Wiggins, Mark Brown, Glen Ulrich, Jared Moffett, and Jesse McCallister will teach/lead the class. In keeping with our philosophy of ministry, the class is open to all adults who would be interested in this subject.
 
If you ever have questions or concerns about Adult Sunday School, or any facet of our adult discipleship ministry, feel free to talk with any member of the Adult Discipleship Ministry Team!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

November 10, 2023

Thank you for your prayers for me while on my study week! This week serves several purposes, and the primary one is to prepare the preaching calendar for 2024. Having gathered information from the staff about important ministry dates and their personal vacation dates, I plan out who will be preaching when, and what they will be preaching. When I was a solo pastor in my previous calls, I was the only one preaching, so I didn't have to prepare a formal calendar. But with multiple preachers, it's important that we know when and what we'll be preaching so that we can study ahead and coordinate other ministry activities around our preaching responsibilities. It's also important for Margaret Sprow and Madison Taylor as they plan and select songs for us to sing in corporate worship. So while it's not the easiest task, it's vital for efficient and smooth ministry in the coming year.

So here's a sneak peak of what we'll be preaching in morning and evening worship:

• A brief series on our stewardship of the time, relationships, financial resources, and gifts that God has given us.

• Finishing the book of Romans

• Finishing the book of James

• Some great passages from Isaiah

• Selected Psalms

• A brief series on what it means to pursue transformation by truth and grace TOGETHER

• Continuing our study of Luke's gospel

• Beginning a study through I John

• "Seed theology" - Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament as the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the prophet greater than Moses, the priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and the seed of David

I can't wait to dig into all the riches that God's word holds for us in 2024!

The other part of my study week is spending time studying! Some years it's studying for upcoming sermon series, and other years it's reading a variety of books on various topics for personal spiritual growth and theological/pastoral development. This year was more of the latter. In addition to reading Romans, I read several books on pastoral ministry and leadership:

• The Pastor and the Modern World by William Edgar, Kent Hughes, and Alfred Poirier (three lectures about secularization, preaching, and the pastoral theology of Gregory of Naziansus, a 4th century church father);

• the pastoral theology work by Gregory of Naziansus that was the basis of Poirier's lecture;

• Open Secrets by Richard Lischer (the reflections of a Lutheran pastor in rural Missouri in the 70s);

• The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis and Michael Graham (about why people are leaving the church and how we can encourage them to come back);

• and my favorite of the week and most impactful of all, The Heart of a Servant Leader by Jack Miller (a collection of his letters to pastors, missionaries, and other Christian leaders).

The Lord blessed my study, not only to my own soul, but I pray also to your growth in grace as the roots that grew from my time with Him bear fruit in my ministry here. It is an unspeakable privilege to be a pastor at Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church. I'm thankful to the Session for encouraging me, as they encouraged Carl before me, to spend time alone with the Lord, strengthening my soul in Him and His truth and grace. Please keep praying for me, and for all who step into our pulpit to proclaim the inerrant word of God! Pray that the Lord would grant us increasing humility, faith, wisdom, and courage, and that we would make clear the gospel of grace as we ought.

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This coming Lord's Day we will celebrate the sacrament of baptism. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper have been appointed by Christ Jesus to be a visible word, a tangible representation of invisible grace, of Christ and His benefits; a sign and seal (a picture and confirmation) of God's gospel promises to all who believe; a means of grace to believers, strengthening weak faith; and an expression of our allegiance to God.

One question that frequently comes up is why Presbyterians don't immerse those they baptize - particularly since Romans 6:3 says that we were "buried with Christ by baptism into His death." Baptists say that this passage teaches that in order to be baptized, one must go under the water and come up out of the water. Presbyterians disagree, for several reasons.

• 1st, because Paul is not talking about the mode of baptism in Romans 6, but the meaning of baptism.

• 2nd, because it’s arbitrary to choose “buried with” as the verb that gets to determine the mode of baptism, when you have several other verbs that are used here and elsewhere. Why would we not find a reference to the mode in verse 5, “united with,” which can also be translated, “grown together with Christ”? Or in verse 6, “crucified with Christ”? Or in Colossians 2, “circumcised with Christ”? Or in Galatians 3, “clothed with Christ”?

• 3rd, even if burial did determine mode, burial in Biblical times was not typically by putting a body under the ground and covering it with dirt like we do it today, but by hewing out a tomb from a rock, and putting the body in the tomb, and covering the opening with a rock – sideways, rather than straight down. So the idea of burial = immersion is imposing a modern view of burial on the text; even if we were to find a mode in the reference to burial, it wouldn’t be immersion.

• 4th, baptism in the Bible is far more often connected to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit or the sprinkling with the blood of Christ (for example, Acts 2:33; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 10:22; 12:24; I Peter 1:2), and pouring/sprinkling best fits the historical circumstances of baptisms in the early church, the Bible’s usage of the word "baptize," and even the connection that Paul is making in Romans 6 about the meaning of baptism – through the cleansing waters of baptism being placed upon the repentant sinner and his household, God beautifully signifies and seals His promise to every believer in Jesus that they are incorporated into and identified with Christ and His work, being cleansed not only from the guilt of sin, but also the power of sin, by Jesus’ blood and the Holy Spirit’s regenerating and renewing power. Just as Jesus’ death was confirmed decisively by His burial, so Paul says in Romans 6 that believers were buried with Him by baptism into death – the old has gone and the new has come – our old man/self was crucified with Jesus, and we have died to sin and been set free from sin’s enslaving power through our union with Jesus in His death and resurrection. For just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s power, so we too have been raised up with Christ to walk in newness of life.

Of course, whether by immersion, or pouring/sprinkling, baptism is not some magic ritual, in which every infant or every adult who gets wet is necessarily saved. Salvation comes only through faith – but every baptism is a sign of that reality, even if the person being baptized (whether a professing believer or a covenant child of a professing believer) only receives the sign and never receives the reality, or even if the person receives the reality at some point after he or she receives the sign (as is often the case in both professing believers and covenant children!). So let us be praying that the covenant children baptized this coming Lord's Day will be brought by grace to saving faith and repentance!

Leaves for Healing

Do you know about our Leaves for Healing Ministry Team?

Pastor Caleb is on his study week, so we have a guest post from Kathryn Wiggins:

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. Miscarriage is not uncommon—with 1 in 4 women experiencing it—yet it is often a private grief as couples feel alone while processing their loss. Pregnancy loss opens up an unknown world of grief where the primary emotions can be shame, despair, confusion, and disappointment. Couples do have each other, but they tend to process it differently. Moms struggle with understanding why their bodies didn’t “work” right, and can blame themselves, while dads try to sort through the grief while also caring for their recovering wives and other young children. Both together grieve this child they never got to know, while not sharing this profound loss with very many people. It is clear that a unique support system is needed for this unique type of loss.
 
Last year, three couples in our church (Madison and Liz Taylor, Seth and Claire Winchester, and John and Kathryn Wiggins) came together to ask the Session to create a POPC ministry team designated for the purpose of walking with couples through the grief of pregnancy loss. The ministry team is called “Leaves for Healing,” a name chosen from Ezekiel 47:12: “And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” All the couples on the ministry team have experienced losses, and our faith has been strengthened through that grief by God’s tenderness to grow us in those trials. We aim to see that our “leaves” of growth now tenderly help others walk through their grief at losing their children in the womb. We are here to listen to you, grieve with you, pray for you, bring you meals, and remind you God is good and He loves you even though this suffering is painful.
 
If you would like to contribute to this ministry, the team is collecting $30 restaurant gift cards to give to the families being ministered to. If you would like to contact the team, you can contact Kathryn Wiggins at 601-218-7684 or kathrynhwiggins@gmail.com or John Wiggins at 662-736-3424 or johntwiggins@gmail.com.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

October 21, 2023

As you'll see below, this coming Lord's Day evening the churches of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley are gathering for a Reformation Day service at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson. Dr. Bruce Baugus, the former RTS professor and interim pastor at Trinity Presbyterian, is going to be preaching God's word, and members of our choir will be joining the FPC choir to lead us in singing. There will be a special children's Reformation program for four year olds to 3rd graders. It's always a rich joy to sing and hear God's word together with all the saints of our Presbytery, so make plans to end your Sabbath day with us!

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The Reformation was a foundational period in church (and world) history, not only recovering the light of the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but also restoring the purity of worship to the church. If you want to know what changes the Reformers were striving to accomplish, John Calvin's book On the Necessity of Reforming the Church is a great place to start. He writes, "If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity: that is, a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained."

• We tend to forget about the reformation of worship that took place in the 16th century. Romanism was filled with superstition, ceremonies, idolatry, additions and subtractions from biblical worship, and the Reformers (particularly Calvin and his followers) sought to restore the Bible to its rightful place, both in terms of establishing the how of worship - what elements are allowable in corporate worship (answer: only those that God has commanded in His Word) - and in terms of the priority of preaching in worship. If the gospel preached is God's primary ordained means of saving sinners and growing them up in Christ-likeness, then worship must be filled with the word of God.

But the retrieval of a pure gospel was the most transformative result of the Reformation. God changed and then used His servants to bring back to light the truths of sin, sovereign election, justification by faith alone, assurance of salvation, and the necessity of holiness as the fruit of repentance. The recognition that sinners are not justified by the sacraments, by buying indulgences, or by works of any kind, but only by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, credited to our accounts through faith alone, freed men and women and boys and girls to serve God in Christ with joy and confidence. The Westminster Confession of Faith (written in the 1640s, approximately 100 years after Luther's death and 80 years after Calvin's death) beautifully summarizes how the Christian should understand good works:

• "We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the hand of God, by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come; and the infinite distance that is between us and God, whom, by them, we can neither profit, nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins, but when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty, and are unprofitable servants: and because as they are good, they proceed from his Spirit; and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled, and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, that they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment. Notwithstanding, the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblamable and unreprovable in God's sight; but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections" (WCF 16.5-6).

Let us give thanks to God for His providence in restoring the true gospel to the church, and let us pray that we will continue to protest and push back against any and all deviations from the gospel of free grace, standing up for the truth in a crooked and perverse culture.

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Please be in prayer for me next week, as I'll be away from the office on my study week. This is the time when I plan the preaching calendar for the following year, as well as do some early preparation work on sermon series, read for personal growth in skill, knowledge, and grace, and spend time in prayer. Pray that it will be a profitable week spiritually and logistically, and that the Lord would bear much fruit from my time in the lives of you His people!
 

From Pastor Caleb's Study

September 1, 2023

Thank you for your prayers for my dad the last few weeks. My brother in Hot Springs has moved him into an assisted living facility there, and I'm heading up this morning to see him and to help clear out his old apartment. Please pray for safe travels, for a joyful time with my dad and brother, and for ongoing discernment as we handle my dad's affairs.

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Every Labor Day weekend, my thoughts go to what God in His word says about work:

• Work is not a result of the fall, for God ordained it in Eden as a good gift (Genesis 1-2).

• Because of the fall, work is hard (Genesis 3).

• Despite the fall, God tells us that we ought to work if we are able (II Thessalonians 3:6-15).

• In light of the fall, God tells us to work six days, with all our might, for Jesus (Exodus 20; Colossians 3:23; Colossians 3:24)

There is always a dual temptation to be lazy and resist God's call to work, or to make a god out of work. Yet as Christians, we remind ourselves that there is only one God who can satisfy us, who can give us a permanent identity, and who can rightfully demand us to obey. And we remind ourselves that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus for good works - and work (our vocation) is one of those good works that He has ordained beforehand for us to walk in. As we do what He has gifted and called us to do - whether for remuneration or in retirement or disability - we honor Him.

Thank God this weekend for the gift of work. Pray for those who are looking for jobs. Encourage those who are in jobs they wish they could leave. Serve your employer/your employees, and thus serve the Lord Christ with all your might!

From Pastor Caleb's Study

August 25, 2023

One of the things for which I'm so thankful here at POPC is the heart for missions that the Lord has given us as a congregation. There is generous and sacrificial giving to support our many missionaries and ministry partners, and faithful praying for these brothers and sisters. We also have the yearning to be senders and go-ers ourselves, and mission trips are a regular staple of our corporate ministry. It's always good to hear reports from those whom we send out—and we sent out many this summer! I hope you'll be able to make it to our Sunday Night Fellowship this coming Lord's Day to hear about God's work through and in our several missions teams that went down to Peru this summer. SNF is also a wonderful time to get to know your brothers and sisters better and love one another in face to face ways, so I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities to grow in grace!

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This past Sunday night we began a new sermon series on the book of James, and I hope you'll make it a point this fall to hear the preaching of God's word as you close out the Lord's Day. James' letter is chock full of wisdom for living as God's exiled and scattered people among the world. The opening exhortation is so important for us, and if you weren't there this past Sunday I want to summarize it for you. Like all the Biblical authors, James is a realist. It's not "if" trials will come, it's "when." As those who are not of the world but are in the world, who have been chosen out of the world and sent into the world to be salt and light and witnesses for Jesus, we must not be surprised when we fall into all sorts of trials and affliction. We will suffer because we live in a fallen world, and because we are God's people living among those who hate Him. "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

But similar to when you have a fever and can feel hot and cold at the same time, so as we grieve and sorrow during our trials we can respond with joy. And we must respond with joy! "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." That word "count" means to mentally consider and regard our trials as opportunities to rejoice in the Lord. We are to think differently about our trials than we will naturally be inclined to do. Again, it's like a fever: we can think negatively about it, as something only bad—or we can remember that a fever is our body's way of fighting off germs. In the same way, God wants us to regard our trials as spiritual good.

But how can trials be a spiritual good, and why count them as joy? Because through them our Father is working in us the fruit of His Spirit in every way."For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." God has ordained trials to test our faith, so that we might grow in endurance - and as endurance completes its work within us, we are made more and more into the image of our Savior in every way. None of us will be perfect in this life, but we hold firmly to the hope that "He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). And He is using tribulation to complete that work in the here and now.

This is how James begins his great letter about genuine faith, and it only gets better from there. So join us these next few months to mature together as the body of Christ, sitting under the preaching of the word that is able to grow us up unto salvation.

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This Sunday morning we sing "Christ is Mine Forevermore," a CityAlight song that beautifully and Christo-centrically expresses the truth James teaches. Here's the second verse: "Mine are tears in times of sorrow, darkness not yet understood; through the valley I must travel where I see no earthly good. But mine is peace that flows from heaven and the strength in times of need. I know my pain will not be wasted; Christ completes His work in me." Come ready to sing to our Beloved Bridegroom this Lord's Day.

From Pastor Caleb's Study

August 18, 2023

It's been such an encouragement to see all the students back on our campus again this week! From what I can tell, the Lord has been gracious to give a wonderful start to the new school year at CCS.

• It's been great to see all the new faces, and to see the 9th and 10th grade students in the new Upper School building! If you haven't seen the new building yet, make a point to do so.

• As you'll see just below, our Head of School Cathy Haynie was recently awarded the Joe Shepherd Memorial Service Award as the MAIS outstanding administrator of the year. It's a great honor and well-deserved. If you see Cathy, congratulate her!

Thank you for praying for the administrators, teachers, and students. As you pray, thank God for using this ministry to our covenant children and to our community!

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Please pray for our Officer Training class that will begin this coming Wednesday. We have five men going through the class: John Neiswinger and Andy Rowan were nominated for elder, and Nathanael Baugus, Max Smith, and Steve Tackitt were nominated for deacon. Pray that the Lord would help me as I teach, and would lead these men and our Session to discern whether the Lord is calling them to serve as officers of POPC.

• The class will run through early November, and then these men will meet with our Session's Officer Candidates Committee, which will make its recommendation to the Session. The Session will approve those men who are eligible to stand for election by the congregation, and you will have an opportunity to cast your vote the second Sunday in January for those men you believe God is calling to be elders and deacons here.

There are few things as important in the life of a church as nominating and electing godly and qualified men to the offices of elder and deacon. So be in earnest prayer for the Lord's call to be made evident!

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I'd also ask your prayers for my brothers and me. Though he is only 71 years old, my father's dementia has increasingly gotten worse over the past several years, and the past two months it has taken a significant downward turn. It appears that we are going to need to move him into an assisted living or memory care facility next week, and we need wisdom to know whether we should find a place in Hot Springs (where he currently lives near one of my brothers) or here in the Jackson metro area, and wisdom to navigate the Medicare/Medicaid universe while juggling our responsibilities as husbands, fathers, and workers. So many of you have walked the road we're about to walk, so I know that we won't be walking it alone. It's hard to watch the man who raised me and poured so much into me decline into this condition. But we trust that the Lord is sovereign even over this form of suffering, and we want to be faithful as sons to honor him in the autumn and winter of his life. Please pray for us.

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Don't forget that we're celebrating the Lord's Supper this coming Sunday! These words from J. I. Packer's book Concise Theology helpfully remind us some basic truths about the sacrament of communion: "The Lord’s Supper is an act of worship taking the form of a ceremonial meal, in which Christ’s servants share bread and wine in memory of their crucified Lord and in celebration of the new covenant relationship with God through Christ’s death. At the time of the Reformation, questions about the nature of Christ’s presence in the Supper and the relation of the rite to his atoning death were centers of stormy controversy.

• "On the first question, the Roman Catholic church affirmed (as it still affirms) transubstantiation, defined by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Transubstantiation means that the substance of the bread and wine are miraculously transformed into the substance of Christ’s body and blood so that they are no longer bread and wine, though they appear to be. Luther modified this, affirming what was later called “consubstantiation” (a term that Luther did not favor), namely, that Christ’s body and blood come to be present in, with, and under the form of the bread and wine, which thus becomes more than bread and wine though not less. The Eastern Orthodox churches and some Anglicans say much the same. Zwingli denied that the glorified Christ, now in heaven, is present in any way that the words bodily, physically, or locally would fit. Calvin held that though the bread and wine remained unchanged (he agreed with Zwingli that the is of “this is My body…My blood” means “represents,” not “constitutes”), Christ through the Spirit grants worshippers true enjoyment of his personal presence, drawing them into fellowship with himself in heaven (Heb. 12:22-24) in a way that is glorious and very real, though indescribable.

• "On the second question, all the Reformers insisted that at the table we give thanks to Christ for his finished and accepted work of atonement, rather than repeat, renew, reoffer, re-present, or reactivate it, as the Roman Catholic doctrine of the mass affirms. The prescribed ritual of the Supper has three levels of meaning for participants. First, it has a past reference to Christ’s death which we remember. Second, it has a present reference to our corporate feeding on him by faith, with implications for how we treat our fellow believers (I Cor. 11:20-22). Third, it has a future reference as we look ahead to Christ’s return and are encouraged by the thought of it. Preliminary self-examination, to make sure one’s frame of mind is as it should be, is advised (I Cor. 11:28), and the wisdom of the advice is obvious.”

From Pastor Caleb's Study

August 4, 2023

Summer is over and the school year has arrived! Summers definitely seem to fly by more quickly than they used to - not sure if that's because they are in fact shorter, or if one's perception of time changes as you age. All I know is, buckle up, kiddos, because back to school week is going to be a doozy, since you're still staying up too late to get the last dregs of summer before it's gone.

It's going to be a joy to see all the 9th-10th grade activity at the new Christ Covenant Upper School building this fall. It's an amazing space, and I hope you'll come check it out as you have opportunity. So much prayer and labor has gone into getting things ready for this moment, and it's going to be a lot of fun watching all the effort finally come to fruition. I'll be over there a couple days a week teaching Biblical Greek to a handful of students, and I'm really excited about this privilege. CCS is one of our largest ministries, so even if you don't have children there please keep it in your prayers.
Continue to pray for all the last minute details that need to be attended to by administrators and teachers and support staff at every level of CCS. And pray for all the new students and families who will be making their way onto campus for the first time next week. God is at work, and as we seek to pursue transformation by truth and grace together for the glory of Christ, CCS is a huge part of that mission.

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Thanks for your prayers for our vacation. It was a restful time in some ways, but in others not so much. It was definitely nice to leave 100 degree temps for 80 degree temps in the mountains (at least on a couple days), and I enjoyed getting to do some woodcarving again (if you or anyone you know want to join a monthly woodcarving group, let me know!). I also got to play pickleball for the first time! I might be looking to learn from some of you avid pickleballers soon...

It was fun to be with my brothers and their wives and children for a week. As I mentioned before we left, we grew up coming to this camp as children, so it was fun to watch our children get to enjoy some of the same things we experienced when we were their age. It brought back a lot of good memories of time with my family as a child and youth.

Speaking of my family, please pray for my father - he has had increasing dementia for a little while now, and this week things took a turn for the worse. My brother had to take him to the hospital in Hot Springs, AR, and he is currently in a psychological ward getting a formal evaluation and new medicines. This has been difficult on several levels, as many of you know firsthand. Pray for wisdom and unity among my brothers and me as we address the near and long term future, and for us to have grace to honor and love my dad through these circumstances.

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I was recently asked why we wear black robes in our morning worship services. You may have wondered this yourself at some point. There are a variety of answers to this question.

• First, just as judges and doctors and police officers wear distinctive clothing to help people recognize their calling and role in society, so the plain, black academic robe in the pulpit helps to emphasize the primary calling and office of the pastor as teacher and preacher of the word of God. Ironically, though on first glance it may appear to make us less accessible, it actually makes us more accessible to the people of God as pastors, for the people of God are visibly reminded each Lord’s Day that this man has been set apart to the ministry by calling and preparation to shepherd and feed them the word of God. When we get up in the pulpit, we are there by the authority of God and His church, speaking God's word and not our own.

• Second, the simple robe draws your attention away from the minister himself (what kind of outfit he is wearing, whether his clothes match, if he's a stylish or hip or casual dresser, etc.) and to the worship of the living God. We will wear something, and a robe helps to keeps us from being a distraction to the main reason we have gathered.

• Finally, the robe affirms and contributes to the seriousness, dignity, and reverence to the worship service. No one thinks it strange if a minister wears a robe at a wedding, just as we don't think it strange if a judge wears a robe in the courtroom – is not Lord’s Day worship, our gathering into the throneroom of the Holy One of Israel, a much more glorious and serious event? We do not believe a robe is essential – indeed, we do not wear it in the evening service (in part because of the more intimate family worship feel of evening worship) and we are always to be reverent in worship first and foremost because of Whom we worship – but since our society is so casual and flippant in its approach to God, a pastor’s robe is a helpful reminder that worship is serious business.

There are other reasons we might give, but hopefully these give you a little insight into why we continue this historic practice of the Protestant church.