From the Pastor's Desk: part 1

I was recently forwarded an email that had gone to several fellow church members of FBC, St. Francis and asked for my thoughts. Apparently, a sermon was recently preached by the pastor of the Community Church in St. Francis, David Butler, who obviously sees Calvinism as a potential problem to having true fellowship among believers. As it turns out, the sermon notes in the e-mail are published on the internet (read here).

Since this pastor has decided to go public with his views in both a publicly preached sermon and via e-mail and a website, then I think a public review of his message from a Reformed Baptist viewpoint is justified and hopefully helpful in reducing some of the misunderstandings that many, including this pastor, have about Reformed Theology.

It is my hope that this would lead to a time of personal public discussion/s in front of our churches and the people of God. I think between myself and my pastor and other leaders of our churches, we could easily have fruitful interactions with Pastor Butler that would benefit our churches. In this manner, we could at the same time affirm our differences while working together for the proclamation of the Good News of Christ. This would equip the people of our respective churches to come to an understanding of both sides of an issue and remove ignorance that often causes stumbling blocks to true fellowship.

So again, if Pastor Butler truly desires fellowship between our churches, I think this may be one avenue that would secure such a desire.