Pittsburgh New Church

Blessed are…

…the poor in spirit

Humble—“Do I acknowledge my need for the Lord’s help? Do I recognize I’m not better than other people?”

…those who mourn

Repentant—“Do I admit mistakes I have made? Am I willing to learn from my mistakes?“

…the meek

Submissive—“Am I willing to ask for help? Do I trust in the Lord’s help? “

…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Virtuous—“Do I try to behave in ways that are fair, just, and true? Am I seeking these things for the sake of good things in my life and the lives of others?”

…the merciful

Compassionate—“Am I willing to put myself in other people’s shoes? Do I consider how I effect other people?

…the pure in heart

Faithful—“Do I recognize the need to work on cleaning up my life? Am I willing to use the Lord’s truth to change for the sake of others?”

…the peacemakers

Respectful—“Am I willing to listen and seek to understand people? Do I look for common ground with people who are different from me?”

…those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake

Courageous—“Am I willing to make difficult changes? Am I patient with others when they are making difficult changes in their own lives?

I am indebted to Rev. Peter Buss (Glenview New Church) for assistance in developing these questions useful for self-examiniation.

In the stories of the Word, worship can seem almost magical. When the Israelites bow before Moses’ bronze serpent, they are healed. Blind men who believe that the Lord can heal them are given their sight with a simple touch. We have a liturgy that defines every single piece of our worship—allowing us to simply read through the right words and actions.
Is that worship? The New Revelation teaches that true worship is living the life of religion—charity and service. So why do our forms of worship seems so important—important enough for the Lord to dictate a prayer to us? External forms of worship are important, but not the essential part of worship. It is words and actions that people use to remind themselves of and support themselves in the life of religion—true worship. Forms of worship can be different while the internal worship remains constant.

After the Children of Israel conquered Canaan, they and the Philistines were almost constantly at war—alternately subjugating but never conquering. Because the Philistines correspond to evil spirits who know truths but to not apply them to life, we do read stories of people sojourning with the Philistines to represent the learning of truth. But there is always grave danger of succumbing to their separation of faith and life. Thus, the Lord did not lead the newly freed Israelites into Philistia even though it was the shortest route to Cannan but led them through the harsh wilderness. The spiritual Philistines attack when we begin to learn new truths. We get excited about them and want to learn more. It is tempting to spend our time learning instead of living. The wilderness represents a life without good or truth, but where spiritual struggles allow the Lord to give us truth that will bond with good in our lives, and thus ultimately lead successfully to the Promised Land.

The Rephaim are a nation of giants. Their height corresponds to how great they think of themselves. Their size and strength correspond to their power over the minds of others. Related to Nephilim—the giants living before the representational “flood” who are now prevented from influencing anyone—the Rephaim are dangerous evil spirits who have the ability to convince us that evil is good and falsity is truth. The result of this persuasion is the selfish desire to posses the authority and power of God, that is, to become a spiritual giant yourself.
When reduced to such confusion, however, we sort of revert back to the innocence of ignorance—the state of childhood. In such a state, we are unable to do anything that is genuinely good, but we are able to do what is apparently good—represented by Chedorlaomer. We can behave like good children, being obedient to the literal teachings of the Lord in His Word—the appearances of truth. In this way, children practice being good adults and confused adults maintain their position on the path to heaven. When the child grows up or the angels drive the Rephaim away, the adult is able to understand what is genuinely good and begin moving forward on the path to heaven.

The evil spirits that correspond to the Assyrians are those who would use our rational minds to pervert the doctrines drawn from the Word into false ideas. Unlike the Moabite-like spirits, who attempt to lead into falsity from our experiences in the world through our senses, The Assyrian-like spirits attempt to look like pious and learned scholars of the Word, shunning worldly interests. But inwardly they are using the literal sense of the Lord’s Word to justify falsity and evil.
Our defense lies with the internal sense of the Word. The king of Israel orders his soldiers not to answer the blaspheming words of Sennacherib, King of Assyria. Likewise, the Lord would have us not use our rational minds to justify or argue for or against the higher teachings of the Word. Instead, we are called to first listen to the voice of the Lord in His Word as it really is, and then to use our rational minds to confirm those teachings from the literal sense of the Word.

On Sunday, October 5th, from 2-4pm, the doors of the church will stand open, welcoming neighbors to stop in and see our beautiful building. Please join us for this chance to get to know our neighbors! Come as you are, and kids are welcome.

The Youth Group will be starting the year with a campaign small group. Edwin Uber has agreed to lead this group with assistance from other young adults. Know someone in grades 7 through 12 who might be interested? Contact Amos Glenn.

At our regular September meeting, the Executive Committed enacted several pieces of business. After opening the meeting with a reading from the Word and a prayer, the minutes from the July 2008 meeting was approved and the meeting’s agenda was finalized. We then spent the majority of our time hearing a report from Bob Glenn as Chairman of the Building Committee on the progress that committee has made recently and what the next steps are.

By the end of September, we should have an estimated cost for the basic scope of the work. In the Executive Committee’s regular October meeting, there will be a “Go/No Go” vote—the final decision to be made before a contract is approved. During this time, the Building Committee will be meeting to start making recommendations for refinements and finishes for the new construction. Architect David Freeman will finish construction drawings, get city permits, and collect bids from contractors. If all goes well, we should be able to accept one of the bids in November.

In other business, the committee authorized Bob Glenn as Head of Buildings and Grounds to spend up to $5,000 on various repairs needed on the roof. We also placed items on the agenda for our November meeting: a report from the Investments Subcommittee on changes in the church’s investment policy, and a proposal for a new fund raising policy.

The Pastor’s Council spent the majority of our September meeting on three topics: the Church Open House, the progress of preparations for the building addition, and possible changes to the Sunday worship booklets. Caroline talked to the council about her idea for hosting a simple open house at the church and the idea was well received. We discussed many possibilities for dates, time, refreshments, and other factors, but in the end decided that simpler was better. The council was more cautiously positive about making adjustments to the worship service to make the beginning of the service more child-friendly. We spent some time talking about the pros and cons of keeping and removing various pieces. The council will also review the new orders of service before they are used Sunday morning.

I’ve enjoyed delivering the recent series of sermons on our spiritual enemies represented by the enemies of the Children of Israel in the Old Testament. I heard a lot of good comments during and after the series and I appreciate all of them. We may get back to that series again sometime, but we’ve got a full calendar for a little while. Starting October 5, I’ll be delivering a series of sermons on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount as part of our fall campaign. That will end on November 16, after which we’ll start a holiday season series.

New Worship Services

In synch with the campaign, I will be using a new set of worship booklets. Part of the reason is the decaying state of our current booklets, but they will also feature a somewhat different order of service. The forms and atmospheres of the service will remain the same; this is not a contemporization of our service. But I believe that we can serve one important group of regular attendees better: our children.

Parents regularly comment on their children’s ability to stay focused through the fifteen or twenty minutes it takes to get from the beginning of the service through the children’s talk and the second hymn. My observations from the chancel confirm this. To address this, we’ll be shortening the opening sections of the regular worship service and rewriting other parts to be more child-friendly. I don’t think we’ll be leaving out any major portions of the service; some of you may not have even noticed that the service was changed. As always, I will appreciate any and all comments on how our community worship can best serve you.

Building Healthy Relationships Campaign

Our General Church-wide spiritual growth campaign is almost underway. The theme this year is “Building Healthy Relationships.” We’ll be reading portions of the New Testament surrounding the Sermon on the Mount and learning how the Lord blesses us, and how we can become blessings to the people around us. As always, we are forming several groups to get together in homes around the community and talk about what we can learn from this part of the Lord’s Word.

Building Plans

On another front, the Executive Committee is moving into the final stages of preparations for the construction of an addition to the building. The agenda for the October meeting includes a presentation from the Building Committee. We’re planning to have all the information we need to make a final decision about going forward with the project. If the vote is in favor, we hope to be able to sign a contract in early November. With our Middle School classroom bursting at the seams, we are hoping to occupy the new room in July 2009.

Before the October 8 Executive Committee meeting, the Building Committee will be displaying drawings and other information in the front hall of the church. We’ll be keeping that information station updated throughout the process from that point on. Please take a look to find out more about what’s happening.

Lawson Smith’s Visit

Our regional pastor, Lawson Smith (pastor of the Kempton New Church) will be visiting Pittsburgh over the weekend of October 18-19 for my annual evaluation. Anyone who would like to meet with Lawson should contact him directly. The Pastor’s Council and the Executive Committee will be meeting with Lawson on Saturday afternoon. I will be preaching on Sunday, October 19 since that is one of the fall campaign weekends and so Lawson can hear one of my sermons.