See and Share the Pilgrim Vision
Engagement—Establishing Relationship in Christ
by Phillip A. Ross, 2008
First Edition, 106 pages.
Introduction
It is to my embarrassment that this manuscript has sat unpublished for more than ten years. I have edited the material twice but each time I have gotten distracted by other concerns and simply forgotten it. Yet, the most recent edit has been helpful, both to me as I have reviewed this material and to the material because I have been able to see it with more mature eyes this time around. This is only to say that it has been waiting in God's providence for these final touches
The material here is not my usual fare, but was an attempt to put my best understanding of Scripture and salvation in Christ into a succinct format for a church that did not know me. The first chapter was presented as my candidating sermon, which then became this series following my call and installation, which explains the gap in time between the first chapter (sermon) and the next. It is not an expositional book study, but is more of a topical study intended to speak to the needs of contemporary people by uncovering various biblical truths and at the same time revealing various contemporary misunderstandings about the Bible and salvation.
After fifteen years of ministry in the apostate United Church of Christ (UCC), I changed denominations and entered the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC), the only confessional branch of Congregationalism extant at the time. That change brought me to Marietta, Ohio, to serve Putnam Congregational Church, my first CCCC church. This series was preached during my first months there as a way of self-introduction and was aimed at providing grist for church renewal and growth, as the pulpit committee that called me said they wanted.
As you will come to understand, it created quite a stir among those who heard it. But it did not generate church renewal or revival, at least not in the way that anyone would notice, not in what are considered to be the contemporary measures of renewal and revival. Rather, many hearers found it quite disturbing, and I then found myself in defensive mode as it seems to have raised more questions than it answered, which was the idea. I danced in that mode for several years before the church and I mutually decided that I was not a "fit" for Putnam, though the impetus for that decision came from the board. I was hoping to weather the storm rather than to retreat in divorce from the church. God had other plans.
I did not give them what they wanted nor what they expected, but I did my best to give them what God has given me by way of understanding Scripture. What else could I do? This is not to suggest that my understanding is unique, unusual or special in any sense. I don't think it is any of these things, and I pray that it isn't.
Rather, what you will see here is a synopsis of the historic, Protestant, Reformed position. If it seems unusual it is because this theological position has been all but abandoned by the vast majority of contemporary Christians and their churches over the past 20, 50 or 100 years, depending on where you live and what circles you fellowship in. To my surprise, Putnam Congregational Church did not want to be Congregational, at least not in the original, historic meaning of Congregationalism.
I have endeavored to remove references to Congregationalism from the content of these pages and to craft my best understanding of basic Christianity at that time, and have made a few editorial changes in this last editing process. The purpose is to explain Christianity from a biblical and historic perspective, not to convert anyone to idiosyncrasies of Congregationalism. And yet I cannot be other than who I am, and my Christian upbringing and training have been mostly Congregational.
My prayer is that God's Holy Spirit will provide a generic understanding of God's Word and God's Way as you engage these pages. You will find them challenging, not because of anything I have added, but because God's Word challenges our humanistic understandings at every turn. I pray for your conviction as you engage these pages, that God will break the hard nut of resistance to His Word if He has not yet done so in your life.
Phillip A. Ross
April 2008
Marietta, Ohio
