In early 2023, I was wrapping a few years of service to and in the church in RDU (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill). It was a great few years with a lot of good fruit. But towards the end, I grew profoundly concerned that I’d just spent the more recent two years working completely in vain.
So on some Saturday before leaving, I penned this letter and placed it on the front steps of every brick and mortar church in Chapel Hill (and a few in Durham). I re-read it for the first time almost a year later at dinner tonight and realized I still affirm and stand by every word I wrote. I think the words apply just as much to every church in America, so I’m posting the letter here.
Please understand that “it is a very small thing to me that I should be judged by you, or by any human court.” I very clearly understand who and what I am in the Lord. Please understand that I’m posting this so that you’d hear the living and active Word of God who will return in vengeance to deliver His people from this present ungodliness akin to the days of Noah.
I share these words so that you’d turn, and then choose to pursue faithfulness.
More Theses
To the churches of Chapel Hill and the surrounding area:
Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied to you through God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I found it good to write more theses necessary for the edification, maturation, and functional liberty of the people of God. As a reminder, there is no other gospel than the one once for all delivered to the saints by the twelve and the subsequent apostles, that God, through the life, death, and resurrection of His only begotten Son Jesus of Nazareth, has once and for all justified the ungodly, made propitiation for our sins, and reconciled us, who were once His enemies, to Himself forever through Christ. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And we have ceased from our own dead works – having entered that promised rest through faith, a gift from God lavished on us by His grace.
In light of such undeserved kindness, please see the below points toward maturity:
- The command to “not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:20) was not a suggestion – it was a command. Just as a man cannot live without bread, so he cannot live without water. Why have you forsaken the fountain of living waters?
- It is the desire of Jesus Christ that His people be made “perfectly one.” Why then do you continue living carnally like mere men, as if blind to the first letter to the Corinthians, still saying, “I follow Summit;” “I follow Grace;” “I follow First Baptist.” “Is Christ divided?”
- The tithe of the Old Covenant was meant to provide for those who could not provide for themselves. The generosity of the early church provided for those who could not provide for themselves. Why then do you allocate millions of dollars to building operating costs like mere businesses? Do you not know that you are the body of Christ?
- God made His New Covenant people a Kingdom of Priests through Christ. By doing so, He called each of us to minister to Him, offering up spiritual sacrifices and spiritual gifts in His spiritual temple – the Church. Why then do you refuse to train the saints to operate according to their spiritual gifting? Why is dependence on God seen as optional?
- Why have we permitted the normalization of the “peddling of the Word of God” (2 Cor. 2:17)?
- Two thousand years ago, the Son of God told us that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him “in Spirit and in Truth” – neither on that mountain nor in Jerusalem. Why then do you continue to promote the idea that worship is confined to a geographic space once or twice a week? Why do you refuse to train and empower the saints to worship in Spirit and in Truth always?
- Why are the requirements to be an elder treated like suggestions? Are you wiser or more loving or more protective than God?
- During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus purged the temple of money changers and extortioners who turned the house of God into a house of merchandise. He said, “Do not turn my Father’s house into a house of merchandise.” Why then is it a small thing to you to levy such absurd financial burdens on the saints to obtain things like teachings, resources, and music – all of which already belong to the Church through Christ?
- Jesus Christ made us members of His Church through the New Covenant in His blood. He gave His very life so that we would have a place to belong in Him through faith. Why then do you pointlessly try to add to that work by claiming with such unabashed absurdity that one needs to sign a covenant or contract and pay a tithe – the tithe having been a requirement of the Law and having been fulfilled in Christ – in order to be a member of the local church? Do you tempt God by implying a false gospel through teachings based nowhere in the New Testament Scriptures?
- The apostle James assured us that the prayer of faith, the anointing with oil, and the laying on of the hands of the elders would restore the sick. Why is that a small thing to you? Where is your confidence? In whom is your trust?
- The saints were called to simplicity in Christ – to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to prayer, and to breaking bread. Why has relational intimacy and submitted discipleship turned into emotional pep rallies and handshakes? How long will you continue turning our glory into shame?
- God gave His Spirit that His gospel would be testified to and His Kingdom would operate “not in word, but in power.” Who has bewitched you to think that fleshly strength, titles, and degrees will accomplish the work of God and not the Power of God which operates through faith? Who is our sufficiency from?
- Until the leaders of the church realize that they are called to be servants who build up and edify the church, guiding them in the way they should go, rather than rulers domineering, controlling, and neglecting the spiritual, soul, and physical needs of the saints, the people of God will continue to be handicapped and oppressed.
- It is utterly absurd to think that one in one hundred men are qualified to be elders. Effective stewardship, care, and teaching leads to more effective leaders. The Spirit of God does not leave His people lacking.
- The church will never operate as intended until all members – not just a select, “elite” few – are doing their part. Each has a calling, each has a gifting, each has an important role to play. The saints are to be equipped for the work of ministry – not ruled over as laity by the ministers.
- It is the Spirit and Anointing of God that leads us into all truth – not ourselves and our own abilities. The faithfulness of men is testified to by the Spirit of God.
- It is the kindness and faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ that leads men to change through faith – not external control.
Our sins are forgiven once and for all through Jesus Christ – so why continue nullifying the Word of God through man-made traditions? Let’s pursue the blessing of God together through faith in Jesus, hearing and doing His Word. Let us not deceive ourselves by claiming to love God and then neglecting the parts of His Word that we don’t agree with. Let’s press on to maturity together, for He is good and merciful and has “pleasures forevermore” at His right hand.
May Jesus receive the reward of His suffering – a people made perfectly one. You are His crown of beauty and His joy. Please return to Him in truth.
In Him,
Jordan – no one special, but assuredly one of His friends and brothers.
The Cave at Mizpah 