Formation is a series of posts about ideas and truths God is using to shape us at Pulpit Rock.
For 70 years, Pulpit Rock has led people out of the truth of God’s word. That is still the case today.
We believe the Bible is without error in all it affirms, and what the Bible says is true, is true.
Listen to how we got our Bible and how we can trust and treat it.
While we see that all of the Bible is true, not all of it is equally helpful as we journey.
When Jesus was asked to prioritize the commands of Scripture, he responded by prioritizing all scripture into two commands:
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
At Pulpit Rock we try to prioritize scripture like Jesus did in our seven most helpful truths centered around loving God and loving people.
And when Jesus was instructing his disciples the night before his death he further prioritized these two commands into one, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, John 13:34
The command Jesus gave is new in the same way that the covenant Jesus brought is new—it replaces the old and makes it obsolete. So, according to Jesus Christ, the primary call of following Christ is to love others in the way that Christ has loved us.
That is why at Pulpit Rock, we center the teaching of God’s word around Jesus Christ and his new command to love.
So what does this look like?
- It means we go wherever we see Jesus going, no matter how hard it is.
- It means we announce the kingdom of God in both word and deed, declaring and demonstrating the gospel.
- It means we strive to be a safe place for people to wrestle with their relational, theological and spiritual questions.
- It means we focus more on following Jesus than drawing boundaries, that what holds us together is greater than what separates us, and that we will strive to bless the space between us.
- It means we enter the tension between what we believe, and how we believe it.
- It means we light candles instead of cursing the darkness.
- It means we strive to be a place of true welcome, where people can belong before they believe or behave.
- It means we strive to show the tangible love of Christ to one another, to our neighbors, and to whomever we are sent.
- And it means that, as Jesus said in Matthew 5:9, that to reflect God, we must be people who make peace. So we willingly endure the discomfort that expanding the table may create for us for the sake of creating peace for others.
To sum it up, we remain committed to the word God spoke and we remain committed to the people God made.
Journey with us! There’s room at the table for you.
