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I was rather sick this morning, so I didn't make it out of bed until close to noon. Thus, as I had missed church in the morning, I decided that I should head down south to the other PCA in the city for their evening service. I wound up arriving just before the listed time to spot an empty parking lot, and a bulletin board that no longer listed an evening service (even though the website still does). This lead me to thinking about the the need both for continuity in the church as well as expansion.

I don't believe that a greater number of services per day indicates a healthier church, but at the same time I find that if a church does hold two services members should be committed to attending both. I was at one of this church's evening services a few weeks back, and the attendance as compared to that of the morning was quite disappointing in my opinion. I think that the CanRC can be accused with some legitimacy of being an ethnic enclave with little emphasis on evangelism to the outside world, but at the same time I wonder if the PCA as a denomination overemphasizes external evangelism at the cost of discipling the members of the church. Just how deep are the roots that have been put down.?

I went 8.5 months without owning a TV, but last evening I finally went and picked one up. It's nothing fancy - just a basic 20" model - but should at least show a picture of some sort. The cable guy should be by on Wednesday evening (assuming that said individual shows up at the specified time) to setup things. Yay for student discounts!

(I had been debating taking a trip to Medicine Hat this weekend, but figured that for that amount of money I might as well opt for a TV/cable instead. Now, to debate whether or not to make it to Revelstoke Railway Days as they wind to a close next weekend.)

Bob Kauflin is a worship leader inside Sovereign Grace Ministries and also runs a fairly popular blog by the name of Worship Matters. Since we've been talking a bit about this denomination a bit lately, I thought that this would also be worthwhile sharing on here.

Worship Matters was at one time available in audio format, and I've extracted a few blurbs from a couple of those audio clips, regarding the expression of emotion in worship.

The first is a quote from John Piper: True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God, rooted in truth, are the bone and marrow of Biblical worship.

A second quote is taken from Bob Kauflin himself: We bring no honour to God when we suppress our gratitude and joy while meditating on the mercy and kindness he has shown us.

How should joy be reflected in our worship?

A while back I was asked the question "aren't reformed and charismatic contradictory?" Here's roughly how I would define the words reformed and charismatic when used to describe a church:

reformed: likes flowers, particularly T.U.L.I.P.s

charismatic: does not believe that the spiritual gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12 were applicable only to the times of the apostles.

When defined in this way, reformed and charismatic can fit together. A recent post by Tim Challies describes his experience at a conference run by the Sovereign Grace family of churches - a denomination I've often heard described as "reformed charismatic". I've been in several churches that might be described as somewhat charismatic and I've not yet found one that fits the stereotype of such churches that exist in certain circles.