Question 1

What must I do should I want to join your church?

Accepted Answer

You can join our church by publicly affirming your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for the first time, or by publicly reaffirming your faith in Jesus Christ. This happens in a service of worship by answering affirmatively the membership questions of our church. Prior to doing that, you will meet with the elders on session to share your faith journey with them and they will receive you into the membership of the church.  We also would encourage you to attend our four-week new member class so that you can learn more about our church, so that you can discern whether or not our family of faith is a good fit for you and your family.

Question 2

What kind of Presbyterian Church are you?

Accepted Answer

Our church is a member of ECO, a Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. We are a Christ-centered denomination that is graciously Reformed and centrist/conservative. We fall between the more liberal stream of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA} and more conservative streams of the Presbyterian Church in America {PCA), the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP), which are two other conservative Presbyterian denominations that are prevalent in our area. We have a high view of Holy Scripture, believing it to be the Word of God fully and completely, and believe that Jesus is Lord, and that there is no salvation for any human being apart from the person and work of Jesus Christ. It was by his sinless life, his sacrificial sin atoning death, and his victorious bodily resurrection, that our salvation and reconciliation unto God is accomplished, as received by faith in Christ alone. We are also an evangelical congregation in the Biblical sense of the word, not political, in that we believe that our mission as a church is to obey the Great Commission to preach and teach the gospel to everyone and call all people to saving faith and repentance in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and life with God.

Question 3

What does the word Presbyterian mean?

Accepted Answer

The English word Presbyterian is the translation of the Greek Biblical word presbuteros, which means elder. That is to say that we are a church that is governed by elders, as opposed to a hierarchical form of government where the bishop is calling the shots, or church that is a full-blown democracy, governed by the whole congregation. Our form of government is a middle of the road approach that is a representational form of government, where the congregation elects leaders (elders) to serve on their behalf. As Presbyterians we believe too much power vested in the hands of a few people is dangerous because absolute power corrupts, and we also believe that too much power given to the masses of people is potentially dangerous, because there can be ignorance amongst the masses, or “too many cooks in the kitchen,” so to speak.

Question 4

I heard that Presbyterians believe in predestination, is that really true?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Presbyterians believe in predestination, but that does not make us particularly unique because all Christians, whether they know it or not, if they take their Bibles seriously, believe in predestination in some sense of the word because the Bible talks about predestination in a myriad of ways. The differences lie on the question of on what grounds is one predestined for salvation? That’s a whole another can of worms of which we in our local church try to be gracious on, while at the same time affirming that God is sovereign over everything, even matters pertaining to salvation and damnation.

Question 5

Why do Presbyterians baptize babies?

Accepted Answer

We Presbyterians, along with most of the Christian faith, baptize babies because baptism is the outward sign that one belongs to the body of Christ, the church, and the promises of the gospel of are for the children of believing parents. They are a part of the family of God too! Furthermore, in the Old Testament circumcision was the outward sign that was administered that signified that you belonged to the people of Abraham (the church); therefore, his infant children were circumcised because the promises of God were both for him and his kids. (Females weren’t circumcised because it was damaging to their bodies) In the New Testament, the outward sign that you were in the family of God changed from that of circumcision to baptism, but what did not change, we believe, was who was included in the family of God, i.e. the children of believing parents. And so, since infants were circumcised in the Old Testament we believe also that we should baptize the children of believing parents, since they too are included in the family of God. In doing this, we believe that one day God will bring into fruition the saving promises of the gospel that were made at the child’s baptism. Do it, Lord!

Question 6

How shall I dress for Sunday worship?

Accepted Answer

Dress in whatever way you are most comfortable. Some people in our congregation dress formally and others informally, with everything in between. Come as you are as you come to worship the Lord Jesus Christ with us!

Question 7

What is your style of worship like?

Accepted Answer

Our style of worship is neither high church liturgical nor low church contemporary. Our style is a mix of both elements, with a leaning toward a more traditional style of worship. Our service is participatory in that we share in corporate calls to worship, a corporate prayer of confession, and the corporate affirming of our faith using the historic creeds of the church or passages from the Bible. We believe our worship is Christ centered, Spirit led, and glorifying to God. We have special pieces of music in  each worship service, as performed by the choir and/or individuals, and we typically sing 2-3 hymns each service. All sermons are Bible based and stay rooted in the text of Scripture that is being preached on. Our worship services are not haphazard, but well thought out with the goal of supporting the scripture text that will be preached on in the service. It is a very Word centered order of worship.

Question 8

What are your views on women in ministry?

Accepted Answer

Our church and denomination supports women in all facets of ministry, including the office of elder and pastor. We do so not because of secular feminism, or DEI dogma, but because we believe that the Bible affirms women serving in all areas of the life of the church, and that the two New Testament prohibitions against it are limited to that time and place due to the cultural problems with first century women and their relationship to Gnosticism, female cultic prostitution, and the perverted versions of the creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 by gnostic teachers. Furthermore, we believe that some of the things that people think about these two texts (I Corinthians 14:34-35 and I Timothy 2:11-15) have failed to be properly understood in light of other Scripture and the above-cited cultural realities of that time. It is even possible that we may have poorly translated the Greek word authentein (authority) in our English translations of in I Timothy 2:11-15. Standing on God’s Word, we believe that because God made male and female fully in His image to rule reign together over creation before the fall, it has always been God’s will for both men and women to fully lead the church as His image bearers. Finally, at a practical level, there is nothing innately immoral about either being male or female, which is very different than questions concerning how we live out our human sexuality. Even so, this does not mean that there are no people in our church who see things differently concerning these matters, as there are. If you hold to a different view than our church you are still welcome in the life and membership of our church, but you just need to know that our denomination supports women’s ordination and that our local church calls women to serve along with men in the leadership of the church.

Question 9

What are your views on human sexuality, marriage, and gender identity issues?

Accepted Answer

In our denomination and church we believe that God made us male and female and that is not something that we have the capacity to undo or change. This reality is grounded both in science and in the teachings of Holy Scripture in the creation accounts of Genesis 1-2. We also believe that marriage is between one man and woman and that their coming together as husband and wife to become “one flesh” is grounded in the creation stories of Genesis. Furthermore, Jesus and the apostles, in a myriad of ways, upheld this Old Testament teaching in the New Testament; therefore, it is still God’s gold standard for the church. This is to say that we affirm marriage to be between one man and woman and we also affirm that marriage is the only appropriate context for sexual intimacy to take place between a man and a woman.  Lastly, it is important to realize that all of us are sexually broken and that our church seeks to be a place of refuge and healing, where we seek to give great mercy to all who have fallen short in these areas of their lives, while at the same time calling all people to bring matters of their human sexuality and gender identity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

FOREST PARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

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