There’s no future in the past!
LESLIE HOLMES Moderator
sure your people are prepared and protected. Having taught classes in church security, I am happy to come to your church and meet with leaders about putting a plan in place. Healthy churches will not be caught off guard!
T
he recent spate of church- related shootings forces me, as your Moderator to ask this question: Does your church have a plan in place now against the possibility that an evil or disturbed shooter might show up when you the people of every church that has shooter invading their worship ser- vice—you hope it just will not hap- pen at your church. I do, too, but in times like ours it is not wise to assume that “it can’t happen here.” So, I want to encourage each of our congregations to engage with their local law enforcement authori- ties, as some have already done, to devise a plan that will help make
Don’t Linger It’s the only hope of our ARP
Church: To Build Healthy Church- es and Birth Healthy Christians, but we cannot do that if we’re al- ways looking back. Looking back is not always a bad thing. It is good for all of us to occasionally look over our shoulder to see just how far God has brought us. “Look back but don’t linger” is a good rule of faith. No one ever made progress focusing on the past. In June, God willing, a group of us plan to go on a Holy Land teaching tour. At one point, we will see the traditional salt pillar that reminds us of Lot’s wife! One common view of Lot’s wife turning to salt was as punish- ment for her lingering look back at
the evil cities of Sodom and Gomor- rah. She betrayed her secret long- ing for the way of life they once of- fered her. Deemed unworthy to be saved, she was turned into a pillar of salt.
How far better the word of St. Paul: “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining for- ward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Paul gives this advice, having just reflected on how far God had brought him: (I was), he writes, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Is- rael, of the tribe of Benjamin, a He- brew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness un- der the law, blameless. But what- ever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of know- ing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philip- pians 3:5-9). Look back. Consider the spiritual inheritance God has granted you and your church but then remember Paul’s “one thing I do!”
Great History To be sure, we ARPs have a great
history. I have just returned from Ireland where I was reminded once again how our spiritual forebearers were chased from Scotland, then squeezed out of Ireland, and then mounted boats, many of them as entire congregations, to cross the Atlantic and find spiritual free- dom. Professor William Marshall in his Ulster Sails West covers the reasons for that bold move of
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The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Moderator’s Challenge
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