The Gospel Coalition

World magazine has a good article entitled Passing the Baton: How Mega-Ministries Grapple with a Founder’s Departure. The merger between Coral Ridge and New City is the focus of the article.

The odds are against us. But if God is for us, who cares about the odds! May this “succession” be a demonstration to the whole world that with God all things are possible and that this is Christ’s church and “the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.” 

By the way, I’d like to give a “shout-out” to my good friend and Coral Ridge ruling elder, Skip Sigh, who get’s rightful credit for the picture. Skip, I’ll pay you later!  

I genuinely hope this doesn’t come across as self-centered or self-serving, but I’m providing here a link to my sermon from last Sunday (March 22) on Psalm 30 which was the first sermon I preached at New City after Coral Ridge voted to support the merger. 

The reason I’m passing this sermon on (and I really hope you don’t take this the wrong way) is because I was changed by it in a most God-centered way. Not changed by my preaching, but by God’s truth and the way it shook me this past Sunday. Since this process began over two months ago I have battled mourning and sadness. But through this rich Psalm and the remarkable circumstances of Sunday March 15, God enabled me to get over the hump and as I was preaching this past Sunday I sensed his gladness overpowering my sadness. My desperate mourning turned into a dance of deliverance. 

It is clearly a testimony to God doing the preaching when you can listen past the human voice and hear God’s above and beyond it–even in spite of it! I’ve always said that it is glorious good news that sermons are much bigger than preachers when God is doing the preaching.

Preaching is, as John Calvin put it, a “glorious mystery of God’s sweet condecension, consecrating the mouths of fallible and frail men, in order to communicate his infallible truth.” As strange as it sounds for me to say this as the human messenger, I hope God uses the truth of Psalm 30 to rock you the way he used it to rock me–turning my mourning into dancing! 

All week long I’ve had to remind myself that when God makes big moves we should expect big opposition. Sadly, I have had to spent a portion of my week (which was partly spent in Dallas) trying to put out fires that have started as a result of misinformation and God-defaming rumors. I guess I shouldn’t have been taken by surprise, but in my naivete, I was. So, I thought it might be a good idea to remind everybody of something I wrote in my forthcoming book Unfashionable, about the very nature and necessity of Christian unity.

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God intends his people to be a visual model of the gospel. He wants us to live our lives together in such a way that we demonstrate the good news of reconciliation before the watching world.

When new members join New City Church, they promise “to promote the unity, purity, and peace of the Church.” One of the quickest ways to break this vow is to gossip—to “chatter idly about others.” This seemingly innocent activity can cause a world of hurt. The corrective is found in the Ninth Commandment, as the Heidelberg Catechism explains:

God’s will is that I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one’s words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause. Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind; these are devices the devil himself uses, and they would call down on me God’s intense anger. I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it. And I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor’s good name.

I’m convinced that most divisions in the church would never happen if we kept this one commandment. When we sin against our brother or sister, what we fail to realize is that, in Christ, we are united. A sin (such as slander) against any one of us is a sin against all of us. When we sin against a brother or sister, we sin against ourselves. It’s like shooting ourselves in the foot, only much worse.

We need to maintain the unity we have in Christ by ridding ourselves of “all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord.” Lacking love for the body (and for any individuals in the body) shows a lack of love for the Head of the body. If we love Christ, we will love one another. This is what inspired these lines of John Newton:

May we abide in union with each other and the Lord,
and possess in sweet communion joys which earth cannot afford.

In Chuck Colson’s book The Faith, he writes, “Reconciliation within the church requires a surrender of pride and a willingness to put God’s interests over our own interests. Peacemaking within the congregation should be a high priority.”

Francis Schaeffer once noted that bitter divisions among Christians give the world the justification they’re looking for to disbelieve the gospel. But when reconciliation, peacemaking, and unity are on display inside the church, that becomes a powerful witness to this fractured world. “Just as I have loved you,” Jesus commanded, “you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

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Brothers and sisters, please do what you can do put divisive rumors out and kindly rebuke those who are continuing to perpetuate them. As members we took a vow to guard “the unity, peace, and purity of the church.” Those who are being divisive and undiscerning are breaking their vows. And that is serious because it hurts the Body of Christ as a whole.

The world needs Churches that demonstrate wisdom, discernment, unity, and sacrifice. Let’s give them that kind of witness!

In going back through this blog and reading old posts, I came across the one I wrote on the day Dr. D. James Kennedy died. Given the way recent circumstances have unfolded, I thought it was really fascinating to read what I wrote on September 5, 2007:

I was sad to find out just a few minutes ago that Dr. D. James Kennedy, founding pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church right here in Ft. Lauderdale, passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning. It was only 10 days ago that he officially retired from his post as pastor at the age of 76. Last December he had a cardiac arrest and has been experiencing complications ever since. Today those complications ended. 

Growing up in South Florida, we knew the Kennedy’s for many years and I can say with absolute certainty that because of his evangelistic ministry there are more Christians in this area now than there were 25 years ago. He was an amazing man. When I moved down here to start New City he met with me on a few occasions to encourage me and to tell me how happy he was that I had “come home” to preach. I liked having him around. Knowing that I could go to him with questions and counsel was a comfort to me. I’m going to miss him. I’ll see you on the other side Jim.

Dear Friends,

It’s now been three full days since I preached at Coral Ridge and 91% of their members voted to support my call and the coming together of New City and Coral Ridge. It was a morning to remember for all who experienced it. We were all witnesses to God’s clear direction and fierce protection. His presence was thick and unmistakable. He was speaking and making his will known–and that proved to be the Divine medicine my doubting soul needed.

Now that he has spoken, the work begins. We now go forward with great expectations believing that God is on the move in a big way and we have been chosen by him to go along for the ride. The world will never be the same (at least mine won’t)!

As I mentioned a few days ago, in order to make this transition smooth, the Gospel needs to be embraced and applied by all from both churches. All of us need to be willing and desirous to lay our lives down for one another because Christ laid his life down for us (1 John 3:16). That’s what the Gospel-centered life is. And that’s the life that God has called us to live. No one from either church is going to get everything they want (that’s self-protection). But everyone from both churches will have everything we need to do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way (that’s self-sacrifice). We’re all going to have to give. We’re all going to have to stretch and be taken out of our comfort zone. If you don’t understand this then you don’t understand the Gospel–and you’re going to miss God altogether.

There’s a radical difference between tribal and missionary mindsets. The highest value of the tribal-minded is self-protection. Since these people feel safest around those just like them, they ask, “How can I protect myself from those who are different?” They intentionally surround themselves with those who think the way they think, like the things they like, and despise the things they despise.

We all seek out sameness, as John Seel notes: “We cope by settling into our safe intellectual cliques—our favorite blog, cable channel, or e-zine—where our own views are reinforced and applauded. Without really trying, we can easily lose sight of the wider horizon and fail to listen to those who do not think as we do.”

As a result, tribally minded people live with a sense of superiority, looking down on those who are unlike them. This is the “fashionable” posture of our culture.

In contrast, the highest aim of mission-minded people is not self-protection but self-sacrifice. Mission-minded people exist not primarily for themselves but for others. They’re willing to set aside personal preferences in service to those with different preferences. They’re willing to be inconvenienced, discomforted, and spent for the well-being of others.

This difference between mission-mindedness and tribal-mindedness is illustrated well in a note I received recently from my good friend Mike about a recent conversation he had with his wife, Nicole:

Nicole and I were in downtown Fort Lauderdale today. As we were leaving, we passed a park. It was a really nice park, but there was a whole group of homeless people hanging out there. I commented to Nicole that, as nice as the park was, I wouldn’t be able to just walk the kids through the park if we lived down there. Her response to me stung. She said, “Yes you would. You’d just have to go into the park for a different reason. You could go in and pass out bag lunches.” Then she said, “Christians need to remember that, given God’s mission, they exist for the city; the city doesn’t exist for them.” Ouch!

Nicole understands rightly the gospel’s demand for this unfashionable mindset, because the gospel is the story of God sacrificing himself for others.

So, as I’ve mentioned before, to all of those who are willing to change and serve and grow and be stretched and lose it all for the sake of Christ, I applaud you–more importantly, God applauds you. To those who, like their Savior, are ready to take up their cross and “go outside the camp”–who understand that it’s better to give than to receive, to be self-sacrificial rather than self-serving, to look out for the interests of others before your own interests, to live life going to the back instead of getting to the front–we need you!

God is clearly up to something big. Don’t miss out. Don’t let fear of the unknown prevent you from this great adventure. To those who move forward with us, we will move ahead together–side by side, back to back!

Pressing on and straining forward for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom,

Tullian

Dear Friends,

Below is the official press release regarding the merger. Jane Rohman and Associates (who have been hired by my publisher to do PR for my forthcoming book) was kind enough to draft this statement. To those who may have questions, point them here. This statement is both official and authorized.

Tullian

Monday, March 16, 2009, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida─After an exhaustive due diligence process and with the overwhelming support of church members and governing boards, Tullian Tchividjian, 36, has accepted the call to serve as senior pastor at South Florida’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. In doing so, the church of 650 people which Tchividjian founded 5 ½ years ago just outside of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida will merge with the 2,200-member Coral Ridge church founded in 1960. Tchividjian is only the second pastor in Coral Ridge’s history. Its founder Rev. D. James Kennedy pastored for 47 years and died in September of 2007 at the age of 76.

Yesterday Tchividjian preached to a full house at a combined worship service at Coral Ridge. Following the worship service, the members of Coral Ridge gathered for a congregational meeting and voted with 91% of the congregants accepting their Pulpit Nominating Committee’s invitation for Tchividjian to serve.
 
“I am honored and deeply humbled by the support and prayers we have received from all over the world as well as this vote and the unanimous vote of over 30 elders from both churches last week. I look forward to our future together,” says Tchividjian. He adds, “I consider it a great and high honor to follow such a giant in the faith. As different as some may think Dr. Kennedy and I are, our theological commitments are the same and our hearts beat with the same driving passion. Indeed, what he came to do in the 1950s—reach the people of south Florida with the Gospel and transform the world—is exactly what I have been seeking to do ever since I moved back home to start New City in 2003.”

For Tchividjian, it’s “a moment filled with irony and God’s unmistakable hand.” Growing up in South Florida and attending Coral Ridge with his family, Tchividjian was just under two years old when his grandfather Billy Graham preached the dedication sermon for the church sanctuary in 1974. He also attended and dropped out of the church’s school, Westminster Academy, at age 16, leaving school and home for the pleasure saturated streets of South Florida. After God saved him at age 21, Tchividjian graduated from college and seminary with honors. After a short two-year stint at a large Presbyterian church in Tennessee, Tchividjian moved back home to launch New City Presbyterian Church, only 12 miles away. Over the years, however, he has maintained a good relationship with Coral Ridge, hosting a weekly show on the church’s radio station, WAFG-FM 90.3, and speaking at both the church from time to time and his former alma mater, Westminster Academy.

And what does his grandfather think about the news? “He’s always been a huge supporter of whatever I’ve done, but this was especially exciting to him given the relationship he had with Dr. Kennedy over the years and his firm belief that Coral Ridge remains a beacon of light for the Gospel in South Florida and beyond. He couldn’t be more excited.” 

In the coming months, Tchividjian’s focus will be on getting to know new people and working on making the transition as smooth as possible for everyone. “As we continue to move in this direction, I am exhorting members of both churches to ask God even now to be preparing you for one another. As elders, we all talked about the coming together of these two churches as being a marriage. One is not acquiring the other. And one of the elders from Coral Ridge said (and it was very well received) that the unity candle in a marriage ceremony is a great picture of what God seems to be doing here. No more us and them; them and us. Rather, two becoming one.”

The merged churches will operate under Coral Ridge’s existing name and in its current church facility at 5555 N. Federal Hwy, Ft. Lauderdale. “We’re planning for Easter Sunday to be the first Sunday that the one new church is worshipping together,” says Tchividjian. For now, details will be posted on both the Coral Ridge and New City websites. (www.newcityfl.org and www.crpc.org).

The merger will also result in a change of denomination. New City Church, which was a part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), will now become part of Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). “The denominations are both theologically conservative and have maintained a good working relationship over the years,” according to Tchividjian.

Tchividjian has degrees in philosophy from Columbia International University in South Carolina, and in divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.

He has written two books published by Multnomah Books in Colorado Springs, a division of Random House: Do I Know God? Finding Certainty in Life’s Most Important Relationship, and Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different, due out April 21.

He and his wife, Kim, have three children—Gabe, Nate, and Genna.

Jane Rohman, 413-848-1407, jr@janerohman.com

PS- Here’s a well written story on the whole thing.

What a morning. I’ll post more later about just how momentous and historic this morning was for both Coral Ridge and New City with me preaching at Coral Ridge and the congregational meeting afterward. But we prayed that God would move mightily among us and make himself known in thick ways, and he did. Our prayers were answered.

91% of the congregation voted to support the call. That is a much higher percentage than I anticipated given the fact that this call involved a merger of two congregations. God made his will known with an exclamation point this morning!

Soli Deo Gloria!

For more info, please visit my friend Justin Taylor’s blog here.

And one more thing: who knows what the media is going to write. I know they’re going to try really hard to make it sound like Dr. Kennedy and I have radically different convictions, which is not true. So I wouldn’t pay much attention to it. 

More to come…

Tomorrow is a big day. It’s big for New City, it’s big for Coral Ridge, and it’s big for my family and me.

Tomorrow I will preach at Coral Ridge and then after the service is over, the members of Coral Ridge will reconvene in the sanctuary and vote on whether or not to support the pulpit nominating committee’s invitation to me to become the next senior minister and the marriage between New City and Coral Ridge. 

I have never prayed so hard. I have never felt more desperately dependent on God. I sincerely and genuinely want whatever God wants. It’s in His hands. I am not my own. I belong to him. Therefore, I will do what He tells me to do and go where He tells me to go. Period.

I have been overwhelmed by the amount of notes from all over the world telling me that we are all being prayed for. Come tomorrow morning at 10:15 (est) thousands and thousands will be praying from all over that God’s will be done. What a great comfort. What an undeserved joy.

I received this admonition from a friend just a few minutes ago and it so summed up my desire that I wanted to share it with you. He wrote:

Die to self and lift Christ up that He might be praised and draw all present to Himself.  Pray that The Shepherd’s voice might be heard; His sheep know it and will follow when He calls. Preach in power and demonstration of the Spirit; preach as in the presence of God and do not fear man.  His Word is all-powerful; we do not know what the day will bring forth but we are assured of the triumphal advance of His Kingdom and ingathering of His blood-bought saints. 

Amen! 

Thank-you all for your prayers. I told my wife this morning that I hope we all leave tomorrow knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that “God was surely in that place.” May God come down with great power and take our breath away!  

Dear Friends, 

As many of you know, the second to the last step in this process regarding the merger of New City and Coral Ridge was to meet with the elders of New City (which happened on Monday night) and the elders of Coral Ridge (which happened last night) to go over all of the work that the merger team has been doing over the last 7 weeks. A letter of agreement (LOA) which was drafted by our attorney, alongwith the ammended by-laws and articles of incorporation, were discussed in detail. Questions were asked. Answers were provided. I was thoroughly impressed with both elder boards in how serious they took this and how meticulously they went through the documents (which were provided to them last week). And I am happy to report this morning that both elder boards voted unanimously and enthusisatically to support and approve the merger. Praise God!

It is no small thing when over 30 elected officers representing both churches vote unanimously on anything. Well it happened. And the only explanation is that God is on the move and he is doing things that are above and beyond anything that we could ask or imagine. I have watched God move me, move the men on the merger team, move the elders from both churches, and move many in both congregations from fear to faith.

Now, as I mentioned a few days ago, the next step is for me to preach at Coral Ridge this Sunday morning March 15 (New City will conduct services as usual on that Sunday with Jim Dietz filling the pulpit for me). Following the Coral Ridge worship service, the members of Coral Ridge (since they are the ones needing a pastor–not the New City side) would then be called together for a congregational meeting where they would vote on whether or not to approve the Pulpit Nominating Commitee’s invitation to me to become their next Senior Pastor and to merge with New City.

If the vote is unanimous or nearly so, we move forward. If it’s not, we stop. This is the final step in the process.

Now, if the vote is supportive then we have tentatively been shooting for Easter Sunday to be the first Sunday that the two churches are worshipping together.

As we continue to move in this direction I am exhorting members of both churches to ask God even now to be preparing you for one another. As elders, we all talked about the coming together of these two churches as being a marriage. One is not aquiring the other. And one of the elders from Coral Ridge said last night (and it was very well received) that the unity candle in a marriage ceremony is a great picture of what God seems to be doing here. No more us and them; them and us. Rather, two becoming one.

If the Gospel is not embraced and applied by all from both churches, it will not work. We need to be willing and desirous to lay our lives down for one another because Christ laid his life down for us (1 John 3:16). That’s what the Gospel-centered life is. And that’s the life that God has called us to live. No one from either church is going to get everything they want (that’s self-protection). But everyone from both churches will have everything we need to do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way (that’s self-sacrifice).

So, as I’ve mentioned before, to all of those who are willing to change and serve and grow and be stretched and lose it all for the sake of Christ, I applaud you–more importantly, God applauds you. To those who, like their Savior, are ready to take up their cross and “go outside the camp”–who understand that it’s better to give than to receive, to be self-sacrificial rather than self-serving, to look out for the interests of others before your own interests, to live life going to the back instead getting to the front–I thank you for fueling my weak faith. To those who understand that you are owners of nothing and stewards of everything–that God is God and you are not–we need you!

God is clearly up to something big. Don’t miss out. Don’t let fear of the unknown prevent you from this great adventure. And please, continue to pray for both churches. Continue to pray for God’s clear direction and fierce protection. If this moves forward, I will consider it a high and holy privilege to serve and love and teach and lay my life down for those who move ahead with us. We will move ahead together–side by side, back to back!

Amazed by Grace,

Tullian   

To be a faithful preacher, one needs to be tri-perspectival in their exegesis. That is, they need to be committed to the exegesis of the Bible, the exegesis of our culture, and the exegesis of the human heart. Some preachers claim that if you exegete the Bible properly, you don’t need to bother yourself with the exegesis of our culture or the human heart. The problem with this view, however, is that the Bible itself exhorts us to apply Biblical norms to both our lives and to our world.

As a preacher myself, I benefit greatly from listening to a wide variety of preachers. In some cases I learn what to do, and in other cases I learn what not to do. But in every case, I learn something. Some preachers teach me how to be a better exegete of the Bible. Others teach me how to be a better exegete of our culture. And still others teach me how to be a better exegete of the human heart (the Puritans were the best at this). But every preacher should be striving to do all three in the context of every sermon. 

Preachers must learn how to unveil and unpack the truth of the Gospel from every Biblical text they preach in such a way that it results in the exposure of both the idols of our culture and the idols of our hearts. The faithful exposition of our true Savior from every passage in the Bible painfully reveals all of the pseudo-saviors that we trust in culturally and personally. Every sermon ought to disclose the subtle ways in which we as individuals and we as a culture depend on lesser things than Jesus to provide the security, acceptance, protection, affection, meaning, and satisfaction that only Christ can supply. In this way, good preachers must constantly show just how relevant and necessary Jesus is; they must work hard to show that we are great sinners but Christ is a great Savior.