July 2019 www.pcanet.org Volume XXIX Edition 7 Church Website: www.ellerbepca.com

The First Edition First Presbyterian Church, Ellerbe, NC

From the Pastor:

This edition of “From the Pastor” is the last in a series we might entitle “Why we worship the way we do.” And finally, we have come to perhaps the most controversial of all aspects of worship – song. What we sing is controversial because most of us have strong opinions about what we should and should not sing in church. If we are honest, we all have our prejudices and find objectivity a bit difficult. We will not attempt to sort out all our differences in this edition. We will instead consider what our doctrinal standards prescribe for us, what light church history sheds on the matter, and some biblical principles which might help us in the murkier and more controversial areas. Westminster Confession of Faith 21:5, entitled “Of Religious Worship and the Lord’s Day,” teaches us that (among other things) worship should include the “singing of psalms with grace in the heart.” The support-ing texts for this phrase are Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19, and James 5:13. There seems to be a consensus among modern scholarship that in the seventeenth century the word “psalms” had a broader reference than simply the canonical Psalms; hence, it is doubtful, the divines intended the confession to restrict singing in cor-porate worship exclusively to Psalm singing. That said, it is also indisputable that prior to the 1700’s the psalms were largely the diet of worship song and that the divines placed a high priority on Psalm singing. Nevertheless, it is also true that a wealth of beautiful hymnody flowed out of the Protestant Reformation and that the reformed churches, as well as the broader church, have deemed it wise to incorporate the best of those hymns. Many of those hymns are sung to this day.

What are we to say to these things? On the one hand, it has been to the church’s detriment that the Psalms have largely been dismissed from worship in recent history. We would do well to bring them back. At the same time, the Psalms only look forward to the Christ to come. So, it would appear that our hymnody is somewhat incomplete without the New Testament’s revelation of Christ. Furthermore, many scholars believe the hymn fragments in some New Testament passages (e.g. the “Christ hymn” in Philippians 2) are evidence that the early church had already begun composing hymns for use in worship. So, the consensus of the Re-formed church has been inclusive of both scriptural hymns and canonical psalms. So, what are the marks of a good song or hymn? Aside from the fact that the Psalms do not give us the “whole Christ” (and as noted that is no small something), they are probably still our best guide. In the psalms we have varied genre including laments, hymns of praise, songs of thanksgiving, etc. In other words, the Psalms address us when we are hurting as well as when we are happy and everything in between. Though we do not have the tunes to which the Psalms were originally sung, it seems obvious that some would have been in major key and some in minor. The tune would have fit the Psalm. So, it should be with our hymns. The psalms are also God-centered. That does not mean the psalmist does not sometimes tell us about his sins, sor-rows, or enemies; it does mean his eyes are on the Lord and the Lord is on his lips. We also find a gospel-focus in the psalms, even if is anticipatory of the Christ to come. Finally, and this may be most important of all, the psalms are catholic in the best sense of that word. That is to say, all believers all throughout history have found themselves able to sing them together and add their “amen.” The best of Christian hymnody has always met that test. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about what we sing is that our chief aim (with no close second) is to please God. It is not that we are to please ourselves; nor is it even that we are to strive to make others happy (though unity is certainly a concern). Our goal should be to sing the kind of songs which God approves and then pursue our pleasure in singing what he approves. That is to say that our hymnody should be God-centered, theologically-informed, and gospel-focused, following the pattern set in the psalms. If this is our aim, we may not all be equally happy with every single song, but God will be happy and that is what really matters. Grace & Peace, Pastor Layton

Circle 2 meetings are suspended for Summer break with the next regular meeting re-suming August 27th. Patricia McCormick, Secretary

Circle III met Tuesday, June 4 at 1:00 pm. Marion Covington had the devotion titled Citizenship is in Heaven. Jeanine Wall led the Bible study, A Hymn of Praise, from Psalm 19.

The project for June was to host the Youth Sunday covered dish luncheon. There will not be a meeting in July and the next meeting will be Tuesday, August 6 at 6:30 pm with the Stivers hosting a fish fry in the fel-lowship hall. This will be a business meeting and lessons will resume in September. Susan DeWitt, President

WIC Update

The quarterly WIC meeting will be held Tuesday, July 9 at 7:00 pm. Lori Clark, Chairman of Chris-tian Growth will have the program. Secretary Jan Stivers distributed copies of the draft WIC bylaws during the April meeting and any edits should be given to Jan, or brought to the July meeting. New bylaws will be finalized after the meeting. The new church membership directory was published in June and copies were placed in the vestibule. If there are any edits to the directory, please send these to Jan Stivers. This is a paper directory and can easily be updated. Thank you to Circle III for hosting Youth Sunday. Sandra Futrell, W IC President

Vacation Bible School Helpers and Teachers are Needed. Please contact Sandra Futrell if you can help.

From the Session

The Session met Wednesday evening, June 12, for the regular monthly stated meeting. Teaching El-der Mr. Layton gave his monthly pastor’s report including his visit with Mark and Carolyn Sellers and up-dates, information, and other activities pertaining to church matters. Ruling Elder Timm Dazey gave a report on the recent Central Carolina Presbytery meeting held during May 2019. Vacation Bible School has been finalized. A report on the Emergency Action Plan Committee was heard and the refurbishing project on our church pews has been approved with work to begin in the near fu-ture. The installation of a new roof on the original Fellowship Hall has been completed. Preliminary preparation has been discussed for the Central Carolina Presbytery Quarterly meeting to be held at our church August 24. Hosting a meeting such as this requires much planning and dedication in order to welcome delegates from visiting churches.

Ruling Elder Billy Carter

Church Transportation

The Session is desirous of providing transportation for anyone wanting to worship but needs transpor-tation. If you are willing to drive others to worship or know of anyone needing transportation to worship, please let a Session member know.

Special Fund

While working full-time, Timm Dazey continues to pursue seminary studies at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte. The Session has set up a fund to help defray Timm’s seminary costs. Persons wishing to contribute to this fund should so designate on their checks.

Circle News

WIC Officers

Sandra Futrell, President

Patricia McCormick, Vice-President

Jan Stivers, Secretary

Jane Carriker, Treasurer

Barbara Wagers, Historian

Effie Meacham/Beth Meacham, Mission to the World Chair

Jane Smith/Victoria Smith, Mission to North America Chair

Lori Clark. Christian Growth Chair

Ruling Elders

Austin Bryant

Bill Carter

Tim Clark

Timm Dazey

Rickie DeWitt

Robert Mabe

Richard Smith

Jimmy Wagers Tony Yates

Deacons

Chris Meacham (class of 2019)

Tommy White (class of 2019)

Church Officers:

Prayer List: Armed Forces and Families, Our President and national leaders, the Persecuted Church and Christians worldwide, Peace and Unity in our country, Judy Bennett, Tonia Bennett, Jack Berry, Bill Bostick, Lori Boyer, Jerry Britt, Austin Bryant, Kevin Conner, A.T. Covington, Evon Craven, Lisa Dawkins,

Sharon DeWitt, Ellerbe First Responders, Paul Fowler, Mark Futrell, Becky Henderson, Barbara Hill, Doris Hill, Molly King, Tommy Kinney, Gayle Mabe, Meredith McBride, Dan McInnis, Shannon McNeill, Effie Meacham, Peyton Monroe, Mary Murdock, PCA General Assembly, Jewell Paul, Sami Poore, Sophia Potterfield, Faye Raines, Hazel Rhyne, Cozette Rush, Will Sawyer, Carolyn Sellers, Mark Sellers, Jane Smith, Dawn Snead, Herman and Naomi Stutts, Peggy Townsend, Colton Williams, Katie White, Jack Yates, Unspoken Requests.

Greeters 7 M/M Ted Futrell & Family 15 M/M Jimmy Wagers & Clay 21 M/M Tom (Marion) Covington 28 Victoria Smith

Happy Birthday

July 3 Emma Russell 4 Mary Murdock 5 Mary Monroe 8 Buck Smith 9 Barbara Fulp 11 Gage Stewart 12 Macie Ward 13 Kevin Parsons 14 Dana Bowman 14 Richard Smith 17 Cathy Simpson 17 Jordan DeWitt 17 Janet Monroe 24 Julian Smith 28 Naomi Stutts 31 Jason Carter

Anniversaries 4M/M Garrett Yates 18M/M Ron Wall 26M/M Tripp Potterfield

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

July 1 2 3 6:30 pm Bible Study

4

5 6

7 6:00 pm Fellow-ship with study & prayer

8 9 7:00 PM WIC Quarterly Meet-ing

10 6:30 pm Bible Study

11 12 13

14

15 16 17 6:30 pm Bible Study 7:00 pm Joint Dea-con/Session Meet-ing followed by stat-ed Session & Diaco-nate meetings

18 19 20 9:00 am—1:00 pm Vacation Bible School

21 6:00 pm Fellow-ship with study & prayer

22 23 24 6:30 pm Bible Study

25 26 27

28 6:00 pm Fellow-ship with study & prayer

29 30 31 6:30 pm Bible Study6:30 pm Bible Study

Every Sunday: 9:15 –9:45 am—Prayer season, conference room. 10:00 am—Sunday School opening in sanc-tuary followed by classrooms. 11:00 am—Worship service

Join us for Vacation Bible School

Saturday, July 20 Registration 9:00 am, Closing at 1:00 pm

In addition to the classes, we will enjoy lunch at 12:00 pm, music ,crafts, and games.

First Presbyterian Church, PCA 133 Ballard St., Ellerbe

Jonah and the Whale

David and Goliath Noah and the Ark

Classes are for Grades: K—2; 3-5; 6-

8; and Adults