The Upper Room

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Nathaniel

12:02 AM

Gotta run now though

1 hour later…

Nathaniel

1:17 AM

@Mr.Bultitude What are the differences you see between your current PCA church and your old EPC church?

El'endia Starman

1:41 AM

...would you look at that! A bear talking with a mountain!

...says the hedgehog...

Mr. Bultitude

@Nathaniel This PCA church is much smaller, and I think that helps people notice newcomers, so people have been very warmly welcoming each Sunday I've been there, whereas I think at my old church you could easily go unnoticed for many months.

But the biggest difference I notice is the worship. And I don't mean the PCA church adheres more closely to the regulative principle (though that may be true). There's no choir at this one, and everybody sings. I don't know why exactly, but I adore that here, and I know I'll miss it a lot if I return to my old stomping grounds. It may also have to do with the acoustics at the two places; my old church's architecture may not be conducive to letting us be heard?

I don't know. But that's seriously the biggest difference I see between the two places. My old church had four pastors on staff (though the senior pastor moved at the same time I did, to a PCA church near Duke U); two of them were very heady and theologically heavy, the others much simpler and more pragmatic in presentation.

Here there are three pastors, and only two seem to ever preach, but their styles are very similar to each other and somewhat between the two styles of my pastors at my old church. I really admire the preaching of all of them, but I think I most prefer that of my current church.

I assume this PCA church is more strictly confessional. Well, I know it is, because that's the nature of the two denominations. But I haven't noticed any differences that would spring from that. My old church was more reformed than most EPC churches though.

@El'endiaStarman The bear talked to the mountain / to see what he could see

Nathaniel

2:04 AM

@Mr.Bultitude Finding good churches is such a blessing; it's great you've had that experience. The differences (with respect to the confession) between PCA and a conservative EPC probably won't really appear unless you get involved in leadership (i.e., get on the session and start interacting with other EPC churches in your area)

Mr. Bultitude

@Nathaniel I was really really worried about it when I moved, but this was the first church I checked out. I visited a couple others, but I could sense just about immediately that this was where I wanted to stay. It helped that when I first went, they were in the middle of a series on Jude, and the sermon that day was really meaty.

And I was really blessed to be reared in such a solid church as well. Got my 'rents to thank for that.

Nathaniel

@Mr.Bultitude That's great. If your parents still go there, that's also a worthwhile consideration -- there are a lot of multi-generation families in my church, which is really cool (from my perspective as a transplant... some of them might disagree!)

Like I said, it may end up being a moot point anyway -- you may find that the PCA church in SE MI may not fit you quite as well as the one in west MI

Mr. Bultitude

@Nathaniel Agreed. I don't really have any reason to consider not going there. Solid preaching, God-centered worship, great friends, great outreach, good Sunday school for all ages... The only thing is I know I'll miss this church, especially how the congregation's voices fill the sanctuary. I'm guessing I'll visit the PCA church once or twice then realize my real home is the one I've always known.

Though my best friend does play guitar at that church, as I learned when I visited their website.

Nathaniel

@Mr.Bultitude Nice. Well, that at least tells you something... there are plenty of PCA churches that are still piano/organ only!

Mr. Bultitude

@Nathaniel Are there any a capella and/or exclusive Psalmody PCA churches?

Nathaniel

2:17 AM

@Mr.Bultitude Not to my knowledge. Many will sing out of a psalter occasionally, but with accompaniment. In my area, anyone committed to exclusive psalmody goes to an RPCNA church instead

Which, if you've ever experienced, can be pretty incredible too. Those RPCNA folks can sing.

Mr. Bultitude

@Nathaniel I visited an RPCNA church earlier this year. A delightful experience. Though it was very small and I don't particularly remember the singing itself. Personally, I wouldn't be that opposed to only singing Psalms for the rest of my life; it sure beats many of the alternatives. But I don't think I could ever insist on it dogmatically. The exegetical reasons just don't seem to hold up. Plus I appreciate a lot of hymns and praise songs.

Nathaniel

@Mr.Bultitude I agree; add to that that I play piano and you know why I moved through, and didn't stay in, the RPCNA

Mr. Bultitude

2:34 AM

It was great talking with you, @Nathaniel. I think it's time for me to finish this episode of Law & Order and then catch some z's.

Nathaniel

@Mr.Bultitude You too. Have a good night.

fredsbend

3:18 AM

@Mr.Bultitude Law and Order? I really expected better than you.

[dun-dun]

2 hours later…

Does Elisha speak?

5:33 AM

Q: Tour description - Later Day Saints?

I was reading the tour, as I always do when I first visit a site, and I noticed the following error: If this is indeed referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I request that the tour description be updated to reflect that. Ideally, the full name of the Church should be u...

7 hours later…

Lee Woofenden

12:13 PM

@Mr.Bultitude FWIW, some Swedenborgians consider Swedenborg's theology to be panentheistic. But Swedenborg's theology is not Protestant, so it would be off-topic for your question. Swedenborg made a clear distinction between God and creation, saying that creation is from God but is not God. However, he also said that God is present in all creation, and continuously sustains every single part of it through continual creation of it from within moment-to-moment.

4 hours later…

fredsbend

4:24 PM

Okay, I'm going to have to start killing you people.

> he also said that God is present in all creation, and continuously sustains every single part of it through continual creation of it from within moment-to-moment.

I think this concept is more common than most realize. A simple joke phrase I hear is "the Universe is held together by Jesus glue".

2 hours later…

Does Elisha speak?

6:39 PM

Q: Should we try to give questions at least one reasonably popular tag?

I noticed recently that the illustrious AffableGeek (RIP) is missing a certain badge, one that seems to describe his work particularly well: Generalist. In fact, no one has it, despite several people apparently meeting the stated criteria. This is because the badge is not distributed to anyone ...

discussion

1 hour later…

Nathaniel

7:41 PM

@fredsbend You just have to tune your schedule to match that of the most prolific sub-2000 editor.

El'endia Starman

@Nathaniel ThaddeusB!

Nathaniel

@El'endiaStarman Precisely. @ThaddeusB, we appreciate those edits.

ThaddeusB

8:13 PM

ThaddeusB

8:50 PM

@Nathaniel Inspired by your post, I added some tags to a few posts already on the first page of recent active

It will be a very long time before 40 tags have 200 questions - we aren't even half way there (i.e. 40th most popular < 100 questions)

Nathaniel

9:07 PM

@ThaddeusB Yes, it could be awhile, but that's okay. If we make the tags more useful, by adding popular tags where appropriate and consolidating similar tags, we'll get there as a side effect.

ThaddeusB

9:30 PM

@Nathaniel yep yep. I knocked out several more that I was re-tagging anyone for "my" new chronology tag, so the process is underway! :)

1 hour later…