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.