This was the heading of our service that was held this Lord’s Day. This was the purpose of this gathering of pastors and elders from all over NY and CT. It has been a year-long journey, but we are now officially (more official than before, since we got sworn in and everything in front of all the elders and pastors who came) a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and Pastor Sam is now (officially) an Evangelist.

It didn’t strike me as much at the time, but as I took my weekly drive back to my school, I tried to remember the sermons that Rev. Shishko and Rev. Holst gave to the congregation today. As much as today’s sermons and exhortations were to encourage Pastor Sam in his ministry, It was to me, a glimpse of what may happen to me in the (hopefully) near future. Rev. Shishko went on to say that a minister has a wonderfully difficult responsibility: to preach the Word of God. Not only does he preach it, but he must do it with the authority of the Holy Spirit, with power, and with conviction. This hit a mark with me with a sermon I heard a few weeks ago; When we truly accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, our lives will change. Some people might say that the “life-changing” aspect is subjective, but when you enter into Christ’s service, there is a kind of a tug in your heart to do what is pleasing to God, and not to yourself, and therefore you actually “live” the Gospel. How do we “live” the Gospel? We gotta listen to it first, through preaching. We have Pastor Sam, who preaches to me and the congregation with conviction and authority, not really caring about what people would say or think, but speaking only Biblical truth and praying for them, that the true Gospel will take a hold of their lives. So not only is it a change of heart, a renewed Christian life is a physical change as well, and as I was driving, I started to really see the grandness and importance that all preachers and elders of a church have. Already I feel the pressure, but I think I can comprehend it now.

Rev. Holst then gave an exhortation to us, beginning with the fact that a Christian life, and even more so a minister’s life is a constant spiritual battle. It has been going on since the first Man, and it continues still. The word ‘enmity’ was thrown around, and when we see this word, we simply pass over it without thinking of the full meaning. If ‘enmity’ was on a scale from 1 to 10, it would be an 11 in terms of serious hostility, and that’s the sort of battle we have with Satan. We gotta really be able to visualize what a war is and how it is fought. It’s not the prettiest picture, and it’s not as cool as movies would portray it to be. It’s gritty, real, and most of all, it’s constant danger. In this case, the only thing that gives us hope about this war is that we have already won. God said so. From today’s passage in Genesis we know that Jesus is the one that overcame such things, even death, and He will come to eventually literally crush Satan. I know this declaration of a battle between Man and the Evil One is a terribly long-standing one, since it has been since the beginning of time. However, we look forward to the day when Christ comes back in all glory, by that time, all of those who believe in Jesus will be saved and united under Him. Wonderful news, no?

Well, now that we belong to a presbytery, we have all this support from it. Our own elders, in addition to those who know our burdens and struggles (church planting is seriously tough!) are constantly praying for our church and strength for Pastor Sam. As we enter our third year of this church planting ministry, this is a drastically new chapter from the past two years. I really believe that God is working through this church. Only time will tell, but until then, we fight the good fight. And I fight Summer Hebrew.