I have been to many outreach events; I have yet to see one this productive. Many people seemed truly moved by the conversations they had with those with whom they shared the Good News.  If it weren’t for a scheduled meeting at GA, we are convinced these witnesses would have been out there for another hour or more.

There were some curious glances, smirks and even comments made as passersby witnessed a group of Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) ruling and teaching elders and some of their family members taking the Apostle Paul’s example to heart and placarding the gospel before others, not fearing to be seen as “fools for Christ.”
TE Jonas Brock of Golden Isles Pres., St. Simons, GA spearheaded the face-to-face evangelism outreach, but did not have to work too hard, as brothers and sisters eagerly engaged in sharing their faith naturally as they hit the streets with fervor.  Up and down the Beale Street in Memphis one could see REs Travis Peacock and Mark Board, TEs Geoff Gleason, Evan Gear, David Bradsher, Jonathan Rowe, Rick Holbert and his wife and daughter, Scott Moreland and his wife, and Jonas Brock engaging in deep gospel conversations with people who’d come out to party on the Beale.  TE Shaw brought out an amplifier to preach a gospel message to those in hearing range and TEs Holbert and Bradsher followed suit.

I have been to many outreach events; I have yet to see one this productive. Many people seemed truly moved by the conversations they had with those with whom they shared the Good News.  If it weren’t for a scheduled meeting at GA, we are convinced these witnesses would have been out there for another hour or more.
We did learn some lessons that will help us prepare the logistics for times, places, transportation and such when GA meets next year in Richmond. Plan on joining us. In the meantime, you may want to practice by planning your own witness opportunities in your community.
A Facebook page called “PCA Fools for Christ” has been opened as a place to encourage us, keep us abreast of local opportunities between GAs and to equip and encourage one another in this ministry.  It also has pictures of the event.  Check it out and plan on joining us next year for 2nd Annual GA Evangelistic Outreach.
Jim Shaw is Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian (PCA), in Brunswick, GA.
Related Posts:

Navigating the tension of vocation in exile involves a loving sensitivity and some amount of nuance but must always remain anchored in God’s vision for human flourishing, unswayed by cultural tides. Embodying and expressing this vision requires courageous, loving resistance. And part of resisting is remaining rather than retreating. This has been God’s plan for his people in exile since the earliest days.

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jer. 29:7)
During most of my college years, I worked part-time at a bank. I started as a teller before eventually becoming an assistant branch manager. The job paid well, especially for a young college kid, and was straightforward. It was the sort of work that was easy to leave behind when the workday ended. But as many do in their early 20s, I became increasingly discontent. The job was fine, but it wasn’t meaningful. It didn’t satisfy my growing need for purpose and significance.
A job is necessary, but what most people are seeking is vocation—their voice (from which the word is derived) into the world, their unique contribution to the ongoing conversation of human history. The ability to potentially “disrupt the industry” always begins with the angst of “What should I do with my life?”—an expression of vocational longing.
But the question is somewhat misleading. Tim Keller writes, “A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself.” Vocational calling isn’t found within; we receive it from another. Vocation is a gift given, not a treasure hidden.
In her essay titled “Why Work?,” Dorothy Sayers quotes the French philosopher Jacques Maritain and writes, “If you want to produce Christian work, be a Christian, and try to make a work of beauty into which you have put your heart; do not adopt a Christian pose.” Vocation is the calling to serve others by creating a heartfelt work of beauty. An artist’s painting, an engineer’s code, a teacher’s lesson, a baker’s cake, a stay-at-home parent’s myriad of responsibilities—these and so much more are vocation, the gift of invitation to offer our best effort, to God’s glory and for the good of others, in the various places and spaces we occupy.
While we live in exile on this side of eternity, the gift of vocation, when received gratefully and stewarded responsibly, offers immense hope and opportunity for followers of Jesus. Vocation offers us a chance to truly disrupt things—not just industries but culture itself. Vocation as exiles calls Christians to disrupt a culture of self-interest with sacrificial, self-giving love by leveraging skills and resources in partnership with others, for God’s glory and the good of all.
Setting Up Shop in Exile
In Acts 18, the apostle Paul makes his way from Athens to Corinth and meets a married couple there, Aquila and Priscilla. Aquila was a Jew from the Roman province of Pontus (in modern Turkey), but many scholars believe Priscilla was from a wealthy, aristocratic Roman family. 
Luke tells us the couple had recently relocated from Italy because Emperor Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome (vv. 1–2). Since she was married to a Jewish man, Priscilla was expelled from her homeland along with her husband. Together they land in Corinth, where they meet Paul. The three of them, brought together by their shared experience as exiles in a land not their own, work together.
Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila were “tentmakers by trade” (v. 3). Because of the itinerant nature of Paul’s work, it’s unlikely he carried the necessary materials to set up shop and launch an operable tentmaking business of his own in the various places his travels took him. It’s far more likely he carried a few smaller tools with which he could execute minor repairs. But in Corinth, he partnered with Priscilla and Aquila, who’d established a viable tentmaking business there.
These three exiled followers of Jesus shared their skills and resources, set up shop in a frenetic foreign city, and presumably went about the work of crafting tents for a wide variety of clientele. And in a competitive marketplace like Corinth, it’s safe to assume they held their work to a high quality standard. They wouldn’t have been in business long otherwise. Finally, as we learn from the broader story of Paul’s missionary journeys and Priscilla and Aquila’s significant influence on a number of churches throughout the region, tentmaking was simply the exterior of a much deeper, much more meaningful vocational engagement in exile.
For the Good of All
At the risk of stating the obvious, Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila didn’t make “Christian” tents. They were Christians who made tents for all. Evidence indicates they would’ve made leather tents. At the time, leather tents were purchased in bulk by the Roman military to house their soldiers during long treks to battle, making them a likely client. This is a fascinating tension for Christians. Does vocation in exile require an ethical compromise?
What does vocation in exile mean for the medical professional when it comes to the sanctity of life? What does it mean for the business owner when it comes to serving customers who uphold values distinctly counter to Scripture? What about for the parent when it comes to juggling her child’s schedule between academics, sports, and church?
I recently talked with a friend about the tension she’s experiencing as a public school teacher. Faced with mounting pressure to affirm and teach modern cultural mores around sexuality and gender, she’s navigating the complex intersection between personal faithfulness and public witness. Her courageous conclusion was that the two are one and the same. The most loving thing she could offer her students, their families, and her fellow faculty was a loving, resilient, and kind but firm commitment to what she believed to be true, while also leaving enough room for meaningful dialogue with those who disagree with her position.
Vocation in exile necessitates clarity and conviction coupled with empathy and compassion. Ultimately, there’s no vocation, no human endeavor, that works toward God’s glory and the true common good while also directly violating God’s plan for his glory and our good. This would be an untenable incongruity. Navigating the tension of vocation in exile involves a loving sensitivity and some amount of nuance but must always remain anchored in God’s vision for human flourishing, unswayed by cultural tides. Embodying and expressing this vision requires courageous, loving resistance. And part of resisting is remaining rather than retreating. This has been God’s plan for his people in exile since the earliest days.
Read More
Related Posts:

As both truly man and truly God, Christ alone was worthy to work our salvation, to purchase the forgiveness of our sins. This is why we confess the forgiveness of sins as a doctrine within the Apostles’ Creed. It is a truth to be believed, not a work to be accomplished. Christ has already accomplished the work; all that now stands is for us to believe in its truth.

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:15-28 ESV

Yahweh’s relationship to Israel at Sinai was always one of great tension. On one hand, He called Israel his firstborn son and even slew every firstborn in Egypt whenever Pharaoh refused to let them go. On the other hand, they were a people just as sinful as the Egyptians and the other pagan nations. Thus, while God beckoned them to come to Him, He also had to warn them to stay away at the same time. We find a profound scene of this tension in action in Exodus 24:1-8, which describes the inauguration of the Mosaic Covenant. For context, Exodus 20-23 is the list of commandments that Yahweh gave to be Israel’s guide into keeping fellowship with Him, and those chapters conclude with God’s promise to give them their promised inheritance of Canaan as the children of Abraham. We then read:
Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
As this text shows and our passage in Hebrews as well, it is bloody affair for the holy God to covenant Himself with a sinful and unholy people.
A Death has Occurred // Verses 15-17
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. As is so often the case in Hebrews, this is a transitional verse. Therefore links it, of course, to our previous text, but it also serves as a kind of thesis statement for the following passage. Again, we find the author of Hebrews linking Jesus’ ministry as our great high priest to His mediation of the new covenant, for they both go hand-in-hand. Therefore, since Jesus entered the true and heavenly tabernacle as our high priest, He has also become the mediator of the new covenant. Through His priestly mediation, He has ensured that, by his redeeming death, all whom God has called to Himself will receive their promised eternal inheritance.
For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. If you have a bit of whiplash from wondering where these verses are coming from, you are not alone. Charles Hodge began his comments on these two verses by admitting, “These are difficult verses.” And he concludes by saying again, “The whole passage is very difficult.”[1] The principal difficulty surrounds the word will, which in Greek is the same word that the author has been using for covenant. Thus, two broad interpretive choices lie before us as readers: should the word be translated as will or as covenant?
Sticking with covenant would seem to be more consistent with the author’s usage and emphasis upon God’s covenants with His people; however, a difficulty comes in attempting to understand why this covenant only took effect after the death of the one who made. Although ancient covenants were inaugurated with sacrifice and blood, that was often used as a visible picture of the curses that were invoked upon either party that might break the covenant. We see this in Genesis 15, where God Himself passed through the split sacrifices.
Viewing these verses as describing a last will and testament, Hodge says, makes “the two verses make good sense in themselves but have no connection with the previous as they should have as indicated by ‘gar’ [for].”[2] With the utmost respect, I disagree with Hodge.
I believe the ESV’s translation is likely the best for a couple of reasons. First, the idea of a last will and testament does indeed link to verse 15 through the word inheritance, that is, clarifying inheritances is typically the main concern of a will. Second, I think we should read these verses as a kind of parenthetical statement, which the author is no stranger to. After all, 5:11-6:20 was essentially one gigantic parenthetical exhortation. Finally, the idea of inheritance and adopted sonship has already been established and will be brought up again. In Hebrews 1:14, we were called “those who are to inherit salvation,” and in 2:10-17 we were told that Christ made us into His brothers. This theme will come up again in 12:5-11, where the author reminds us that discipline is a marker of sonship. Thus, the topic of inheritances and wills is not coming out of thin air.

Just as a person’s death makes their will go into effect and whatever they have left as an inheritance is then distributed to their heirs, so too did Jesus’ death initiate the distribution of our inheritance, which as 1:14 said is our salvation. Our inheritance is being restored to communion with God and having that communion now be a familial bond: God is now our Father and we are now His sons and daughters. This is partly what our baptism symbolizes. In being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we essentially experience our adoption ceremony with the triune name of the Holy One becoming our family name.
Without the Shedding of Blood There is No Forgiveness // Verses 18-26
Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.”
Read More
Related Posts: