On March 1, 1999, the elders of Reformation Presbyterian Church approved a mission statement for the church. Our mission is:
"To worship and glorify God in the light of His Word, for the conversion of sinners and the edification of the saints, until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea."
Notice that we begin with worship. The worship and adoration of God is the very beating heart of the Church, its central passion and main ministry. It is one utterly unique and distinctive function of the Church on earth, and it will be our eternal purpose in heaven. As we train ourselves for that heavenly work, the last thing we need is "worship" services which are centered in human emotionalism or human well-being, or social progress, or salesmanship, or entertainment. We seek worship on earth that is like that of heaven: God-centered, corporate, magisterial, intelligent, and passionate. In the words of Hebrews 12:28, we want to "worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." We know this quality of worship will result in more God-glorying, victorious lives.
The goal is to worship and glorify God "in the light of his Word." To be a reformed Christian is to be committed to being continually `re-formed" by the Word of God. The very birth of Reformation Presbyterian Church in the fall of 1998 came out of a defense ofthe authority and reliability of the holy scriptures. The abiding miracle of biblical literature as the means of God's continuing self-disclosure is truly close to the very core of our religion. Through the Word of God written in the Old and New Testaments, the Living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, makes Himself known. May we never sacrifice the foundational and binding authority of the Word of God! Never!
Even now there are many in Hendersonville who live in darkness and are hurtling headlong towards damnation. Our church exists not only for God but, secondarily, for them, that they might, by faith, exchange Christ-less lives for Christ-filled ones. The love of Jesus is finally triumphant in the lives of all His chosen ones, and we want to be the instruments in God's saving hand. So we continually seek "the conversion of sinners."
We also insist, as the Apostle Paul does in the letter to the Ephesians (4:13,17), that all believers mature in the faith and "grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ" (15). Nothing is more needed in the church today. Much of the teaching aril preaching ministry at RPC is geared toward just this "edification of the saints."
The final phrase of our mission statement is taken from the great Messianic prophecy found in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. Let us not underestimate the fullness of God's triumph, even in the face of the present weakness of much American Christianity. By the grace of God, and in God's time, the Church of Jesus Christ will have dominion on earth, until "the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea." And then, when the great Day of the Lord comes, and Christ returns in unspeakable glory, may Reformation Presbyterian Church be found true and faithful to its mission statement, and to the Lord who inspired it.
