Congratulations Jim Elsmore & SHBC

Dear brothers and sisters at Sunset Hills Baptist Church,

It is with great excitement that I write to you to lend my voice to the unanimous chorus of support for Jim Elsmore’s ordination. I am excited for Jim as he embarks on this next stage of God’s calling in his ministry life. I am also incredibly excited for you. What an excellent man of God the Lord has brought to minister to your congregation. The marks of Jim’s character and integrity where evident to all the members of the ordination council. Treasure this brother. It has become all too rare to find a man whose talents and abilities are matched by the depth of his biblical convictions. In Jim, this appears to be exactly whom God has brought to minister to your congregation.

Your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at Franconia are praying regularly for God’s work at Sunset Hills Baptist Church. We rejoice in this apparent answer to prayer.

Yours in Christ,
Aaron

Exciting Changes at Franconia

Dear friends,

I wanted to make you aware of several exciting developments that have occurred at Franconia over the last few months.

First of all the culmination of a year's worth of work came in the form of a new constitution for our church. The process of drafting this important document was far more important than I realized at the outset. I came to realize that a church constitution is much more than some sort perfunctory legal document. It is the place where we, the members of Franconia Baptist Church, put down in writing how we interpret the Bible regarding the purpose of our church, the way that we choose to govern ourselves, and what what we believe the foundational doctrines for our church are.

Good Christians disagree regarding some of these conclusions. So it is very important to put down in writing what we believe the Bible says about these important matters. If you would like to find out more you can read our new constitution at www.franconiabaptist.org/constitution.

The other major change was the election of a group of men to serve as fellow elders (pastors) at Franconia. Some of these men will be on the staff at the church and others will do this ministry while working for other companies and organizations. We praise God that He has been so kind to deliver such a group of godly men, qualified according to the Scriptures (1 Tim. 3; Titus 1) who desire to serve the Lord by serving Franconia. You can read more about them at www.franconiabaptist.org/elders.

Many of you have been praying for our church as we underwent these changes. I want to personally thank you for your support. May God continue the good work that He has engaged in at our church.

In Christ,
Aaron

Does God use natural disasters to get our attention?

If you're not in the Washington DC area then you might not perceive the timeliness of this question. In the last two weeks our area has been hit with an earthquake and a hurricane. Thankfully neither were as devastating as they could have been, although many did lose property and even some sadly lost their lives.

All of this caused me to reflect on the power of God in a Facebook post last week. "An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week, could God be trying to get our attention?" When I posted the question I didn't think that it would be particularly controversial, but I was wrong.

So then, does God use natural disasters to get our attention? I think the simple answer is that He certainly can.

In Job chapter 1 we read about the way that God allows Satan to test the faith of Job by taking away just about everything that he loved in this world. To do so Satan used a wind to knock over one of his children's houses killing all of his children (Job 1:18-19). He also used an incredible lightning storm (fire from sky) to kill Job's livestock (Job 1:16). The text makes it absolutely clear that these were not freak occurrences, but that they were done with God's permission.

Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed by fire and brimstone (Gen 19:24) which while supernatural would have appeared to the people as a natural disaster. The death of Jesus is punctuated with an earthquake which captured the attention of the centurion who proclaimed "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Matt 27:54). Another earthquake occurred when the stone was rolled away at the moment of Jesus' resurrection (Matt 28:2). And the earth will quake and the lightning will flash when the wrath of God is poured out on the wickedness of this world (Rev 8:5).

Should every natural disaster be interpreted as a direct attempt of God to get our attention? Not in the way that some people assume a connection between specific natural disasters with specific sinful peoples. That requires a special knowledge of the mind of God that we do not possess.

However every natural disaster is at the very least a reminder that the world that we live in is broken and longing for restoration. Romans 8:19-21 "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

So yes, God does use natural disasters to get our attention. Sometimes He does so very specifically and other times more generally, but they should always remind us of the brokenness of this world and our need for ultimate restoration.

- Aaron

Service Cancelled

Dear friends,

The national weather service alert regarding flooding in our area is scheduled to continue until 8AM. Officials are still asking people to stay off the roads at this point. So at this point we will go ahead and cancel our service as well.

I ask for your prayers for the many people who are without prayer and for those families who have already suffered loss due to the storm. If you need anything please let me know so that someone from the church can help.

In Christ,
Aaron

Sunday Worsip Services

Dear brothers and sisters,

We are actively watching the details of Hurricane Irene as it passes through our area. At this point we are planning to have our regularly scheduled 11:00AM worship service tomorrow morning. The evangelism training scheduled for 9:45AM will be rescheduled for Sunday, Sept 4th. There will be no 9:45AM discipleship classes.

If it begins to look like the storm will still be highly active at 11:00AM we will cancel service as well.

If we do have services and you feel uncomfortable leaving your house, please stay home and pray for those who have already and will continue to be affected by this storm.

In Christ,
Aaron

A busy summer and it's not even over...

I wanted to take a couple of minutes this morning to tell you about the million+ things that have happened at Franconia these past four weeks. This will be the the abbreviated version.

- Mexico 2011 - "Partnering for the Gospel" This year was the first short-term missions trip since I started here in 2008. Little by little the missions ministry has been growing and I thank God for the passionate people that now make up our missions team. The Mexico trip was a join effort between Franconia and Franconia Korean Baptist churches. Over the course of a week we played soccer and shared the Gospel with a bunch of boys at the Hogar Francisco orphanage, moved the Puebla Bible Seminary (PBS) library to a new location, built PBS a basketball/soccer court, made many new friends with a couple of churches in Puebla, and deepened our friendship with Kevin and Andrea Bult (CAM Missionaries to Mexico)

- VBS 2011 - "Big Apple Adventure" There was no time breath. As soon as we got home from Mexico it was time to start Vacation Bible School. This year we tried an evening version which allowed more of our church members to participate. By God's grace we saw double the kids from last year and connected with a couple of families who are now regulars at Franconia. Please pray that the seeds of the Gospel that were planted among all the great songs and crafts will grow in the hearts of these precious children.

- Summer Projects -
The folks at Franconia are excited about investing in the building and grounds that God has given us for His ministry in Alexandria. This summer we have cleaned out a number of the preschool rooms that accumulated a lot of "stuff" over the years. Several of those rooms have been repainted and three have been re-purposed for the ever growing Childrens Minsitry at Franconia. The big project was moving our playground so that it now sits on the church side of the parking lot, making it much safer to get to. At the same time I think we did a good job of freshening it up.

There's a lot more to say, but that's probably enough for now. If you'd like to see more pictures of these things check out the Franconia Baptist Church - Facebook Group

- Aaron

Reflections on Phoenix

First of all let me say thank you to the members of Franconia Baptist who allowed me to take the better part of a week to represent our church along with Bruce, Andrea, Kevin, and Shantell at this year's SBC convention in Phoenix, AZ.

This was my second SBC convention and the second time that Franconia was represented in recent memory. Going to a convention has its high points and low points. Every family has at least one crazy uncle and we're no exception, but on balance I came away for the second year in a row encouraged by many of the developing trends.

This year the theme of both the annual meeting and the pastors' conference was most definitely missions, which was highly appropriate considering the weight of last year's Great Commission Resurgence efforts.

Rather than give you a blow by blow I'll just share a few highlights that stuck out to me. First of all, Bryant Wright proved to be completely deserving of his current and future role as president of the convention. Pastor Wright lead the convention with dignity, sincerity, and a deep sense of spiritual seriousness.

The pastors' conference was blessed to have a number of talented preachers, but the most significant sermon was delivered by Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church who focused on the first imperative of the Lord's prayer "hallowed be thy name". In doing so Piper made a passionate appeal that we must be about the business of "hallowing God's name". In other words are whole lives must be completed devoted to the glory of God.

Both the International Missions Board (IMB) and the North American Missions Board (NAMB) were represented by their new presidents. Both gave compelling reports about the needed changes within these venerable organizations. Our prayers will go up for Drs. Eliff and Ezell as they seek to guide and direct these critical components of the denomination into the future. The FBC Missions Committee is prayerfully considering how we can take an even stronger role in partnering with both the IMB and NAMB.

Going to the SBC convention takes a week out of the busy schedule of those who attend and it costs a bit of money as well, but given its role in setting the course of the denomination it is time and money well spent. I'll be looking forward to seeing how the themes discussed in Phoenix are playing out by the time we all meet next year in New Orleans.

Restoration Church DC - For the sake of the Gospel

As always we want to invite you to join us at Franconia tomorrow morning to worship our sovereign Lord. Tomorrow we will have the special blessing of hearing Nathan Knight from Restoration Church DC preach to us from Nehemiah 10:28 - 13.

We're looking forward to having Nathan join us not only to hear him faithfully preach the Word, but also because this will be the formal beginning of our new relationship with Restoration Church DC (http://www.restorationchurchdc.org). In the Spring of 2009 God brought Nathan Knight and Joey Craft to northwest DC to plant a church preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teaching of God's Word.

This will be Franconia's first opportunity to support a church plant in recent memory. We're looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with our friends at Restoration Church.

- Aaron

Communion celebrates our community!

Last night was an amazing joint Good Friday service among Grace Church of Alexandria, Franconia Korean Baptist Church and Franconia Baptist Church!

There were many powerful moments from the blessing of FKBC's choral celebration of Jesus' death and resurrection to the inspired reading of the crucifixion story by Pastors Garrett and Jonathan (GCA).

One of the most special moments for me was when Pastor Jonathan reminded the congregation that we celebrate communion not only as a reminder of Christ's death but also as a celebration of our community as the body of Christ.

Last night something special happened. It was somber and joyful at the same time.

Praise God!

There is no Easter without the Cross

In light of Easter I took some time to study one of the most important and thorough texts on the resurrection this week, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. In the first four verses the apostle Paul establishes the Gospel by which the believers in Corinth have been saved.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

So what does Paul say about Christ’s death? Two things: first that Jesus died for our sins and second that He did so in accordance with the promises that were made hundreds and thousands of years before that first Easter morning.

The fact that Jesus died for our sins on the cross is of critical importance to Christianity, but has lately taken a lot of abuse. Theologians call Jesus’ death the substitionary atonement because He substituted himself for believers when it came time to pay the penalty that must be paid.

I read a story once that helped me have a better picture of what this looks like. There was a woman who appeared before a judge because she broke the law. When it came time for her to speak she got up and admitted that she had broken the law but pleaded with the judge to let her go because she didn’t have enough money to feed her children let alone pay the fine. If he sent her to jail for failure to pay then the state would surely take away her children. The woman’s story moved the judge’s heart but he couldn’t ignore the law that she had broken. If he overlooked her actions he would be an unjust judge. Instead the judge stood up, took off his robe, walked to the clerk’s table, took out his wallet, and paid her fine. He then returned to the bench, put his robe back on, and told her that she was free to go. Her fine had been paid.

That’s what God did in sending His Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. God is a just judge so He cannot just look the other way concerning our sins. That might be gracious but it wouldn’t be just and of course God must be perfect in His whole nature.

Why is it so important that we spend time properly understanding exactly what happened on the cross? Isn’t enough to simply tell people that Jesus loves them? No. It’s not, because that doesn’t convey the full Gospel. There are a lot of people who say that Jesus loves you without faithfully telling you about your sin and your need for a Savior.

Emblazoned on the cover of time magazine this week (April 25th 2011) was the provocative question “What if there’s no HELL?” If you saw the issue then you know that the occasion was the publishing of Rob Bell’s recent book “Love Wins” which has gotten the Evangelical community rightfully in an uproar over what appears to be another pastor leaning dangerously over the pit of universalism (all roads lead to heaven).

I would argue however that Bell’s primary problem is just a liberal interpretation of the idea of love. Instead Bell seems to reject the church’s historical position of substitionary atonement as the principle work of Christ’s earthly ministry.

In 2009 Bell wrote another book called Drops like Stars. Along with the book came a lecture series. A friend invited me to come and hear Bell when he came down to Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. The point of the talk was to ask a different set of questions about the topic of suffering. Instead of asking why is there suffering, Bell wanted to focus on the question what can suffering do for us. Not a bad question. The problem was when Bell later asserted that the point of the incarnation was the shared experience of suffering for Christ to us and us to Christ. I kept waiting for him to say “along with paying the penalty for our sins of course”, but that statement never came. It was later when I saw a DVD of his “The God’s Aren’t Angry” that I realized that Bell has a problem with the idea that Jesus Christ had to die to pay the penalty for our sins.

Bell seems to share this idea with Brian McLaren another leader within the so-called emerging church movement. They’re not alone though. Less harmful but still disturbing views of the atonement are also percolating in our churches.

Why does all this matter? If the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross is not central to Scripture than McLaren is right and we get what he calls A New Kind of Christianity. The problem with McLaren’s new kind of Christianity is that in my estimation it is not Christianity at all. It’s nothing more than another egocentric philosophy that fits into a postmodern ideal that God is a bully if He demands a punishment for sins. This teaching is not only false teaching, it is worse than false religions because it deceives sinners into thinking that they have placed their faith in the Gospel when in fact they have not.

So then, what is the Gospel? The Gospel does not take very long to explain and it’s not particularly complicated but it does include all of the following. God is holy and requires a just punishment for unjust sinful behavior. Man is not holy. We are corrupted by sin from the moment that we were born. We could never be saved apart from the grace and mercy of God because we were tainted by the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God, however, is gracious and merciful and made a way for us to receive punishment for our sins, which would otherwise be eternal separation from God in hell. Instead of paying for our own sins in hell we are allowed to let Jesus receive our punishment instead. When Christ died on the cross He paid the penalty that is required to make atonement for our sins, furthermore when He rose from the dead He made that sacrifice permanent by conquering the power of sin and death. Sinners are called to cry out to God by repenting for their sins, asking God for forgiveness, and then turning their lives to Jesus Christ as Lord.

If you have done this then you understand the absolute necessity of the cross and are a born-again fully-forgiven child of God.

Joint Good Friday Service, April 22nd 7PM

Join us for our Joint Good Friday Service, Friday evening, April 22nd, 7 pm, as we remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This special Easter event will be held at Franconia Baptist Church along with Grace Church of Alexandria, and the Franconia Korean Baptist Church to reflect on the cross and on how Christ has added us all to His family.

Along with the Good Friday sermon, we will sing songs of the cross, hear Scripture readings, and celebrate Communion together. Childcare is provided. After the service we will have a time of fellowship with one another.

(thanks to Jonathan Matias who wrote this for his blog)

Do you have a very great Savior?

Earlier this week I got a copy of Bob Kauflin's book Worship Matters. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a deeper understanding of true biblical worship, whether you're a worship leader or not.

In the opening chapter Kauflin speaks openly about his own life and struggles which boiled down to this quote. "I knew Jesus died on the cross to save sinners from God's wrath, enduring in our place the punishment we deserved. I understood that I couldn't save myself. I just didn't think of myself as a very great sinner. Which meant I didn't need a very great Savior."

Wow. That made me really stop and think. Have I marginalized the work of Christ on the cross because I deny the depths of my own sinful heart? Am I tempted to think that I'm more or less better than other sinners and even though I need a Savior maybe a little less than the guy standing next to me.

First of all this is a tragic characterization of our guilt before God. Romans makes it clear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (3:23). It doesn't say that some have fallen 1% short while others have missed the mark by 99%. Secondly, as Kauflin points out, this harmful attitude can cause us to minimize the importance of the work of our Savior in our lives.

Our love for Jesus Christ is made all the greater when we deeply appreciate just how much we need His grace. I pray that you have a very great Savior!

What's on your bucket list that's dedicated to Christ?

I saw an add on Facebook today for a Washington DC bucket list. It was a clever way of promoting DC area events and restaurants.

It got me thinking, what am I going to do for Jesus before He returns or calls me home? Who do I need to share the Gospel with? Where do I want to invest the time and talents that God has given me?

Your list could include things that seem big or relatively small. What matters is that you are investing in the Kingdom of God.

Feel free to share a few if you like!

There are some questions in life to which I don't get an answer.

That thought drives me nuts. I'm the kind of guy who will spend hours combing the internet, searching the library, or asking my friends if they know the answer to some question. I love to do that.

So when I'm reminded from time to time that faith actually requires faith, it stings.

We've been raised in a post-enlightenment world that teaches us to question everything. It's part of the scholastic model that teachers use to educate us. Is that a bad thing? No. As long as it doesn't get in the way of remembering that God is control whether we understand how/why things are the way they are.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

When I get stuck in one of those "why God" spin cycles the Holy Spirit regularly brings this verse to my heart. We need to get comfortable with this idea because there are some questions in life to which we don't get an answer.

Journeying Together

If anyone could have heard what I was listening to at the gym this morning they would have given me some strange looks. For years I have wanted to go back and re-read Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, but I haven't been able to find the time. So I finally downloaded it to my Blackberry figuring that I might as well make the most out of my time on the treadmill.

For those of you who have never read the book, it's written like a dream where the main character Christian (his name) is on a journey from this world to the next. Along the way he meets all kinds of different people, both godly and ungodly.

During my workout this morning Christian ran into a man called Faithful. For a while they journeyed together, then Christian decided that he would rather run ahead. It didn't take long before Christian stumbled and fell. Eventually Faithful caught up to Christian and they continued their journey together.

As I was about to pass out on the treadmill I remembered all the days in seminary when my friend was there running right next to me encouraging me to keep going.

Listening to the story of Christian and Faithful and remembering the many Faithful(s) that God has put into my life, I was reminded that we were not meant to make this journey alone.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 "9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up."

New Series: Genesis - "Beginnings"

This past Sunday we began a new expository sermon series in the book of Genesis.

Since I came to Franconia over two and a half years ago we have worked our way through the books of Ruth, Mark, Philippians, and most recently Romans. After studying three New Testament books in a row, it seems right to get back into the Old Testament.

The title of this series is "Beginnings". Most likely you think of "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" when you hear the name Genesis, but it is full of many other beginnings as well. We see not only the creation of the world, but also the creation of mankind, the advent of sin, the initial call of Abraham, and the establishment of God's promises that will carry believers to the end of the world as we know it today.

There is so much foundational material in Genesis, making it a must read and more importantly a must understand for all Christians!