Scott's Thoughts

2006 Pastor's Report

It's a little long, but for those interested, here is my pastor's report for Grace Presbyterian's annual congregational meeting this Sunday:

Pastor's Report
Pastor Scott Johnson
Grace Presbyterian Church
Norman, Oklahoma
January 2007

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58)

In downtown Oklahoma City, next to the Bricktown Canal, there is a statue of a man who is pushing a large boulder up a hill. The man’s name is Sisyphus, and according to Greek mythology, he was forced to spend his eternity pushing the rock up to the top of a mountain. As soon as it reached the top, the boulder would roll right back down to the bottom and poor Sisyphus would have to start all over again. And this was to go on forever. What an awful but perfect illustration of what it means to work in vain! Sisyphus’ hard work was ultimately futile and meaningless, and it was this pointless labor that was his curse.

How completely different is it for the Christian! The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that their work for the sake of Jesus Christ is most assuredly not in vain. Paul had just spent an entire chapter discussing the glory of the resurrection of Christ and the subsequent hope of the Christian’s victory over death and the grave. In light of these truths, Paul reasons, no work in the Lord can ever be in vain. Christ is risen, He is building His Kingdom, and He is working through His Church by His Word and Spirit. Labor in the Lord, then, is never in vain. It will bear fruit, sooner or later.

This is a promise we must hold onto as we labor for the sake of Christ’s Kingdom at Grace Presbyterian Church. Growth is slow and visible fruit is not as abundant as we would like. Discouragement follows, and then the temptation to wonder, “Is it all in vain?” The answer, of course, is no, our labor has not been in vain. Christ’s Kingdom has been advanced, but in ways that may be hidden now and only revealed later at the coming again of Jesus.

I hope these thoughts are an encouragement to you as I reflect with you on the year 2006 at Grace Presbyterian Church. As you know, there have been discouragements – visitors have not always returned, people have moved away, and the finances of the church have suffered. We must remember that, at the end of the day, this promise still stands: my word…shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11). Inasmuch as we, by the grace of God, have been faithful to minister God’s Word to one another and to others, that Word will accomplish God’s purposes.

With these thoughts in mind, here is a recap of the year 2006 at Grace Presbyterian:

At the heart of who we are as God’s people, and all that we do as Christ’s disciples, is worship. By the grace of God, we met each Lord’s Day for public and corporate worship. Much of my preaching was from the book of Genesis. During the summer months, I preached a series of sermons on the parables of Jesus. On Sunday evenings, we were fed in a variety of ways, including two series of messages on videotape, one on Reformed Theology and one on biblical child rearing, and two series of messages that I delivered, one on “The Basics of the Gospel,” and another based on the book, “Learning to Love Like Jesus.”

We were blessed to have guest preachers from time to time, including OPC missionaries Rev. Murray and Tsuruko Uomoto, who shared with us the advance of the gospel in Japan. Also, on four Sunday evenings throughout the year, we joined with other area believers for a joint hymn sing. Grace hosted these hymn sings twice, once in January and once in December.

For adult Sunday School, I led a study of the doctrine of the church, focusing on how we can be faithful as members of Christ’s body to minister to one another. And coinciding with the release of the movie, “The Da Vinci Code,” I taught a short series of classes on the errors of the book by the same name. Elder John Mantooth then began a study of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, using G.I. Williamson’s commentary as a guide. John also, with Robin, shared with us about their short-term missionary trip to Nigeria with Rafiki.

The children were taught Sunday School by Marilyn Doerfel and Faithann Basore. They have used the materials provided by Great Commission Publications. I appreciate very much their faithfulness in instructing our covenant youth Sunday by Sunday.

Again in 2006, we helped organize the Oklahoma City Conference on Reformed Theology, which took place in October. Our speaker, Dr. Michael Horton of Westminster Seminary in CA, happens to be the uncle of one of our members, Faithanne Basore. His messages were excellent and brought back again and again to the cross of Christ.

The people of Grace continued to meet during the week for regular times of fellowship and prayer. The Wednesday night prayer meeting met at our home. The women met regularly to study the Scriptures together and encourage one another. For a time, they were also meeting for more informal times of fellowship. The men met once a month for a prayer breakfast at the church. Also, the church had two social gatherings during the summer: an ice-cream social and a trip to an OKC Redhawks baseball game.

Some of our people also participated in the presbytery gatherings of the Young People’s Camp in July, and the Fall Retreat in October.

In 2006, we engaged in various methods of outreach to the larger community. I “pounded the pavement” a couple of times this summer, distributing about 250 door hangers to different Norman neighborhoods. Approximately 1,500 letters of introduction were sent to those who had recently moved to (or within) Norman. Also, I and a friend of the church, Bill Shaw, manned a table at a new-student fair on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. We were able to hand out about 300 bookmarks with church information, in addition to many good booklets on Reformed theology and Christian living. We also advertised in the OU newspaper. And this summer, in conjunction with Knox OPC in Oklahoma City, and with our presbytery’s Home Missions Committee, we began a regular radio advertisement on a local Christian radio station. It airs following R.C. Sproul’s program, “Renewing Your Mind.” Finally, I wrote two or three devotional articles printed in the Norman Transcript.

Grace continued to help sponsor Eric Pyle as a Wycliffe Missionary. Eric works at the Dallas campus developing software for use by Wycliffe missionaries on the field.

Some highlights from the year include John Mantooth’s ordination as a ruling elder in April, elder Dave Guild’s (bilingual!) wedding to Mai Nguyen in May, and the privilege of being the temporary church home for Dutch exchange student Anne-Marije Staat, who spent the semester in Norman studying at OU. Some challenges we faced included many hospital admissions for various reasons, and several men who found themselves looking for employment in 2006.

Last year was busy for me personally. In addition to my regular activities as a pastor, such as sermon and lesson preparation, visiting members and friends of the church, calling on visitors, etc., I met once a week with one to three men to discuss John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. This has been a very rewarding experience for me, and I’ve very much enjoyed the fellowship and learning it has afforded. I also continued to serve as the chairman of the presbytery’s Diaconal Committee. For the first time, I served as a commissioner to the General Assembly of the OPC in June.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of my wife, our family hosted many different people last year for meals. We also have enjoyed having singles and others come to our home for dinner on Wednesday nights before the prayer meeting.

Though this is largely a record of what we have “done”, we acknowledge that any faithfulness or service on our part at Grace Presbyterian is a solely due to the gracious work of the Spirit of Christ in us, who works out His purposes in and through us according to His good pleasure. May all that takes place in the life of Grace be to the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ!

In Christ,
Scott Johnson