The Gospel Coalition

Just to refresh your memory on this proposed merger between New City and Coral Ridge, here is the official statement that the New City elder board put out on Monday January 19:

As was announced January 18, 2009, at both New City Church and Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Coral Ridge has issued a call to our senior pastor Tullian Tchividjian to become senior pastor at Coral Ridge. But because of Pastor Tullian’s unwavering commitment to remain as Pastor here at New City, both churches have agreed to consider a merger. In response to Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church’s call of Tullian, the elder board of New City Church at a called meeting on January 13, 2009, carried a motion to begin the process of evaluating the possibility of making the two church’s one. The elder board of New City Church unanimously agrees that the intricacies of putting this merger together are going to require a time of due diligence where representatives from both sides will sit down and work out the terms of a merger for approval by both sessions. Legal matters, financial matters, ministerial matters, structural matters, and philosophical matters, will be among the list of things needing to be discussed and hammered out. Only if agreeable terms on all of these fronts can be reached and those terms approved by both church sessions would Tullian formally accept the call and the two become one.

Together, we planned our work and together we have been working our plan. So here’s the latest.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, the merger team met on Tuesday night to go over the  seven page LOA (letter of agreement) that our attorney drafted which reflects the decisions that we have made together over the last 6 weeks. Besides needing to change some of the wording, the merger team as a whole was satisfied with it. It accurately reflects the work that we have done and how we will move forward.

The next step, then, is for both elder boards (sessions) to go over the LOA along with the changes that were made to the By-Laws and the Articles of Incorporation. They will receive copies of these documents today (I believe) so that they can be fully informed, prepared to ask questions, and seek clarification when we meet together on Tuesday night March 10th. The New City ruling elders will meet together with me earlier in the day on Tuesday and then the merger team will meet with the Coral Ridge ruling elders later on Tuesday night. Please be praying for those meetings.

If, after carefully explaining all that the merger team has done and why we have done it, both elder boards unanimously vote to support the changes, we will move forward. 

What does moving forward look like? Some of those things have been decided, some haven’t. But what we have decided is that if both elder boards vote on Tuesday night to support the LOA and the ammended By-Laws and AOI, I will preach at Coral Ridge on 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.

Those are the facts.

There’s still much to do and just like God did with Abraham right before he was about to sacrifice Isaac, he is free and able to say “stop.” And if he does, we stop. Furthermore, it will not be ambiguous. It will be clear. So we continue to beg for God’s clear direction and fierce protection. And we continue to believe that if this merger is God’s will–that if God has purposed and planned this from before the foundation of the world–than it will happen and it will be glorious. Historically, God brings heaven to earth through those who walk by faith and not by fear and we are praying that if this is God’s purpose and plan that he would use it to usher in another Great Awakening. Why would we be hoping for anything less?

Keep praying friends. Don’t stop. Trust God. If you’re like me, you still have a thousand unanswered questions. If you’re like me, you still have some doubts, some fears, some concerns. But in the end, if this is God’s will, all of our doubts, fears, and concerns will go away. As the great Puritan Thomas Watson once said, “Faith is trusting God even when you cannot trace him.” Amen!   

Mike Pohlman at Christianity.com is reviewing a draft of my forthcoming book Unfashionable: Making a Difference by Being Different. You can read Mike’s first review here.

As many of you know, my newest book Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different comes out next month (you can read more about it here as well as watch a short video and read the blurbs). Below are my acknowledgments. There were so many people whom God used to help get this book started and finished. Thank-you all!

I wrote this book because I had to. I don’t mean that I was contractually obligated; I mean that it has been brewing in me for over fourteen years and if I didn’t get it out I was going to explode. So, I’d like to say “thank-you” to many who have not only helped to get this book “out of me”, but to get this book “in me”, as well.

First of all, I’d like to thank all of my intellectual mentors. There are far too many to name them all. But fifteen thinkers, in particular, have shaped my thinking over the past 14 years when it comes to understanding the relationship between Christianity and culture: Os Guinness, John Seel, James Davison Hunter, Peter Berger, John Frame, David Wells, Stanley Hauerwas, Francis Schaeffer, Abraham Kuyper, William Willimon, Michael Horton, Tim Keller, Chuck Colson, Cornelius Plantinga, and most recently, Andy Crouch. I am extremely grateful to God for these men and the way they have challenged me to become a man of “double-listening.”   

To all of my friends at Multnomah for your interest in, and support of, this project from beginning to end.

To my editors Thomas Womack and David Kopp. The two of you helped me get this book started and you helped me finish it. I thank God for your gifts. It’s a great blessing to have editors who not only understand what you’re trying to say, but they agree with you. 

To my friends Brian Schutt and Justin Taylor. The two of you provided some great editorial help along the way. Your suggestions have made this a much stronger book.

To my New City Church family. It is a gift beyond measure that I get to be your pastor. In just five short years you have helped to establish an unfashionable community that is making a difference because it is different. Thank-you. Thank God.

To Tim Keller for writing the foreword. I know how busy you are and how many demands you have and yet you’ve always found time to talk with me, advise me, meet with me, and in a thousand other ways, help me sort things out. So Tim, thanks for all you do and for who you are. Preach on brother—we’re all listening!

To my children, Gabe, Nate, and Genna. I love you all so much. It is a pure joy to be your dad. Seriously! I can’t wait to see how God is going to use all of you as you set your hearts and minds to living against the world for the world.

To my wife, Kim. This book is dedicated to you. You’re willingness to follow my unfashionable lead and to be unfashionable with me keeps me pressing on and straining forward. Til death do us part!    

And to my unfashionable Trailblazer, Jesus Christ.  You have made me rich by becoming poor. Thank-you for saving me, loving me, and promising me that the best is yet to come. Soli Deo Gloria!

Once again, I want to thank all of you who are continuing to pray for God’s clear direction and fierce protection regarding this merger between Coral Ridge and New City. Both sides have been hard at work now for exactly 42 days (not counting today) seeking hard after God as we work through all of the meticulous details that accompany making two churches one (legal, financial, structural). As I mentioned this past Sunday at New City, obstacles that we originally thought might be too big to overcome have evaporated before our eyes. To a man, all of us agree that God is doing something big and great. For me, it has been a deep privilege to work with these men. Both sides love their respective churches and are working hard as diligent elders “to protect the unity, peace, and purity of the church.”

Tonight, we have our final merger team meeting. We will be going over the LOA (letter of agreement) that our attorney drafted. This seven page document reflects all of the decisions the merger team has made. Please pray that tonight’s meeting will go well. 

And then next Tuesday night (March 10th) the merger team will meet with the elder boards (sessions) of both Coral Ridge and New City to carefully go over, explain, and answer questions about the LOA. Both elder boards will be getting a copy of the LOA (along with the amended By-Laws and Articles of Incorporation) ahead of time so that they will be properly and thoroughly informed prior to our meeting. Both elder boards will then vote on whether or not to approve the LOA. If they do, we move forward. If they don’t, we stop.

Moving forward would then mean that I would go to Coral Ridge one Sunday morning and preach. Following the 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.

So that’s the latest.

To those at Coral Ridge who have not yet had the opportunity to visit New City, please do so this upcoming Sunday. You can also download all of my sermons for free here. Ever since my name was announced back in January, New City has had the privilege of hosting many, many Coral Ridge members and officers at our worship services. I have also had the delight of meeting and talking with many from Coral Ridge over the last month and a half. It has been wonderful to watch God begin to build relationships and make the two churches one. 

If any person from either church has any questions that have not already been answered regarding the merger (its process or its details) please contact someone on the merger team from your church. As I have mentioned before, the CRPC elders on the merger team are Clark Cochran, Ron Kovack, and Dan Westphal. Those from New City are Mark Kriesel, John Laudadio, and Scott Spell. These men will be more than happy to help you in any way that they can. 

Don’t speculate. Don’t gossip. Instead, humbly ask questions to those who can provide you with informed answers. There are no secrets.  

Please don’t stop praying. Keep fasting. Continue begging God to work and protect and even shut this down at the last minute if this is not what he wants. Since both churches belong to God he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Our repsonsibility is to faithfully follow his lead.

I’ll let you know how things go tonight.

I don’t know much about A.B. Simpson (1843-1919) except that he was the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I’ve never read anything he’s written. I did discover today, however, that he was raised in the Calvinistic, Scottish Presbyterian and Puritan tradition and that he was converted under the ministry of Henry Guinness (the great-grandfather of Os Guinness) who was a visiting evangelist from Ireland during the revival of 1859.

Anyway, the reason I bring up A.B. Simpson is because after hearing my sermon yesterday on how God has historically ushered in revival through unfashionable people who are desperate for God, a friend sent me these words from Simpson which God has used this morning to embolden me and strengthen my faith as we move closer to the finish line regarding this merger between New City and Coral Ridge. I myself even used the illustration of God delivering his people at the Red Sea, pressed from every side, without ever having read Simpson’s words. Amazing! He wrote: 

How did God bring about the miracle of the Red Sea? By shutting His people in on every side so that there was no way out but the divine way. The Egyptians were behind them, the sea was in front of them, the mountains were on both sides of them. There was no escape but from above. Someone has said that the devil can wall us in, but he cannot roof us over. We can always get out at the top. Our difficulties are but God’s challenges, and many times He makes them so hard that we must get above them or go under. In the Providence of God, such an hour furnishes us with the highest possibilities for faith. We are pushed by the very emergency into God’s best. Beloved, this is God’s hour.