Predestination

Expository Preaching

At FPC, we like our pastors and elders.  We think that they’re nice, well-intentioned, called people.  But the key word there is people.  They are sinners as much as the rest of us, with no more of a pipeline to God than the rest of us.  Therefore we don’t think that they, out of their own wisdom, have any ability to stand before us and wax on about politics, morals, our marriages, our bank accounts, or anything!  Therefore, we are committed to expository preaching.

What in the world is that?  It just means that we seek to take out (exposit) of a particular passage of the Bible what it says, rather than trying to put into (deposit) a passage our own ideas or themes.  Our practice is to go through books of the Bible, since this helps us to keep passages in context and protects us from making them mean what we want them to mean, rather than what they actually mean.

We don’t think that this style is inherently better than every other style, but we do think that it reflects well our core conviction - God is faithful and powerful to speak by His Spirt through His Word in a way that will be far more valuable and powerful than anything our preachers could ever dream of doing.

For more on our take on preaching, check this out: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1792_What_I_Mean_by_Preaching/.

Reformed Theology

The Reformed tradition, which did not begin with John Calvin but traces its roots through him, affirms the sovereignty of God over all things (including you and me and our salvation).  At FPC, we believe that the Reformed tradition is the most faithful, consistent and God-glorifying understanding of the Christian faith.   We believe that it protects us from confusing the American dream (with hard work you can be what you want to be) or the Auburn Creed (I can only count on what I earn) with the gospel:  since we have been justified (or, declared ‘not guilty’) through faith, we have peace with God.  We think that there is a reason that Paul did not link our peace with God to our obedience or to our morning quiet time - because our standing before God on a day to day basis does not depend on anything we do but on what God has done for us in Christ! And we think that there is a wonderful result of that - freedom.

At FPC, we go "all in" on this conviction:

God works with power by His Spirit through His Word for His glory to give, renew and sustain the life of His people.

That explains why corporate worship - where God gathers His people to speak to them through His Word proclaimed - is the heart of our life together at First Pres.  Sundays 10:45 AM.

What is our worship like?

The LORD gathers His people to renew them through His Word for His glory.  That sentence provides the structure for our worship together, which includes prayers, songs, corporate confession of the Faith, private and corporate confession of sin, offerings to God and the Word proclaimed in the sermon.

But is it contemporary or traditional?

"Yes."  You'll find elements of both.  Our conviction is that worship is not about personal preferences and styles.  Neither is it about songs that match what you have on your ipod or the pre-set dials of your car radio (since, after all, worship is not about you or me, but about God and His glory).  We seek to have music that, whatever the style, is both God-centered in content and excellent in quality so that it gives glory to God.  Some weeks you'll hear a choir and an organ, other weeks a college student and a guitar, and still others both. The common thread, we hope and pray, is that whether or not each and every song is our personal favorite, we all will say, "That gives glory to God and so, it aids in worship."

We celebrate the Lord's Supper on the 1st Sunday of every month.