A comprehensive interview with Tullian Tchividjian about his family life (with inevitable reference to his famous grandfather) and Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church which he leads as pastor and which endured considerable pressures over issues arising from the succession to Tchividjian’s ministry from that of CRPC’s founding pastor D. James Kennedy.
It’s an encouraging read.
Here he answers a question about the ongoing need for the Gospel which is part of the Christian life:
I think it’s super important for the church itself to rediscover the gospel. I think for far too long the Church has concluded that Christians don’t need the gospel, it’s simple what non-Christian people need in order to be saved. But then once God saves us, He moves us onto something else, something bigger, better or deeper. And the fact is that once God saves us He doesn’t move us beyond the gospel, but He moves us more deeply into the gospel. The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life but it keeps Christians growing and growing everyday. There’s no reason to move beyond the gospel. There’s only movement more into it.
I think that’s really important. I think the story of Jonah shows that really well. It not only shows God going after non-Christians, the pagans, the Ninevites, but it shows God going after the good guy, the inside-the-church-guy, the religious guys, the prophet, the moral guy. That Jonah was running from God via his rule keeping just like pagans, the Ninevites, were running from God via their rule writing. God’s grace goes after both types of runners.
Where is the flavor of Jonah in the church today? I think, for the most part, there are a still lot of people in today’s church who can easily identify the idolatry outside the church and are pretty proud of the fact that they are not like them. And yet, we are far too slow to recognize the idolatry inside the church and more painfully, the idolatry inside our hearts.
And here he describes what CRPC are currently practising as their expression of ‘blended worship’:
Some people were like, “What is this going to mean?” It wasn’t like they were opposed to going to one service but they were like what is this going to look like. But now that they’ve seen what it looks like for the last seven months, they love it! I mean, it’s sophisticatedly blended. That’s the best way I can describe it. And by blended I don’t mean we sing a hymn on the organ and then we sing a Chris Tomlin. I’m talking about we sing old songs and new songs with a remarkable mixture contemporary and classical instrumentation in every song. So it’s amazing to have the band in lead in the all the songs but get this 50-person choir in the back and this huge 6,000-pipe organ playing along with the band, along with the bass, guitar, drums and all that stuff. I’m kind of biased.
We would open with anything with the hymn “Praise to the Lord” and then seamlessly go into “Our God,” the new Chris Tomlin song, which would then seamlessly go into “In Christ Alone,” which would then seamlessly go into “How Great Thou Art.” All vocalists, all instruments, all choir equally present in all our songs. The music director Mark is leading in the front with a guitar. He’s has so sophisticatedly orchestrated all the parts. Everything is very remarkably fresh.
Read the whole article at christianpost.com
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