From the Pastor

September 2011 Pastoral Letter

Dear Members and Friends of First Church,

We watched last weekend as Hurricane Irene, the first big storm to hit the U.S. in several years, went up the eastern seaboard. We in Florida felt no effects whatsoever, but our concerns and prayers go to those from North Carolina to New England who had flooding or wind damage or lost power. Some of our seasonal church members and attenders spend their summers in those areas, so naturally my thoughts are with them. Did any of you have significant impact from Irene? As I write, another storm is brewing in the Atlantic, but it looks like another shift towards the north will be coming. How unpredictable life is! We here in southwest Florida try to be vigilant, but we know that the science of forecasting is still imprecise.

I’d like to share with you a brief update, since I last wrote to you the final week of July. My wife and I recently had the privilege of attending a 10-day conference in Oxford and Cambridge, England, called the “C.S. Lewis Summer Institute.” This event is held every three years and brings together leading Christian scholars, writers and leaders from around the world. It is held in the ancient university cities, and is inspired by the life and work of C. S. Lewis, who lived and taught there more than a half century ago. His ministry, which continues to inspire today, was focused on applying the historic Christian faith to the critical issues of his time. That is what we believe God calls us to do today. Lewis effectively debated and combated the growing attitude and belief system of his time that can be best labeled as “secular materialism.” It is the view that there is no God, that our morality is simply a matter of personal choice or majority preference, and that money and power and pleasure (“material” things as opposed to the “spiritual” qualities lifted up in the Bible) are all that really matter. This false concept of life is still very much an enemy of the Christian faith in Europe and America today.

Unfortunately, the attraction of the modern world to a “secular” thinking has also crept into the Protestant churches. Some of our denomination’s leaders, church pastors and seminary professors have openly replaced the timeless teachings of scripture for the politically-correct and intellectually-trendy views of our times. And this growing separation between “Biblical Christianity” and “Progressive Christianity” is what prompted the meeting of the newly-forming Presbyterian Fellowship in Minnesota last week. Pastor Dan Oedy and I, along with elders Dave Nichols, Trudy Woods, Kathy McMichael and Lee Gery, attended the two-day conference.

I expect that the next step to follow, in response to the Presbyterian church’s abandonment of its historic ethical requirements for church officers, will be the formal establishing of this Fellowship to serve as an alternative for churches of like mind to our own. The next meeting will be January 12-14 in Orlando (very convenient for us in Southwest Florida), and I hope a number of our own church members and staff will attend. Some of you who are long-time Presbyterians may be interested in doing so. At that time a new statement of faith and code of ethics, consistent with the Bible and the historic and reformed faith, will be adopted. Our own elders, deacons and pastors will be studying that and deciding if we will pledge ourselves to it. We are also working in harmony with the other biblically-centered churches in our own region to find ways to support each other and make needed changes. There will be some “open forum” meetings here at First Church in late October, at which I and the other pastors and elders will discuss the background and issues with all from our congregation who are interested.

On a personal level: Jeanne and I celebrated our 36th anniversary in August. We have had a good summer, and the school year has resumed for her (she is a Speech Therapist at an elementary school in Naples). We are experiencing the typical extended-family issues, as both her sister and my sister have had some personal struggles lately, and as both of our remaining parents (my father who lives in California and Jeanne’s mother who lives in Ohio) have health concerns and other issues. Our favorite hobby is golf, and we play together at least twice a week in the summer. I have occasionally inched close to breaking 80 this summer, but then my golf game goes backward. Inconsistency is the problem—not unlike my prayer life and my feelings of closeness to God. This seems to be not only my issue, but the core reality of human nature: we are inconsistent and “streaky.” If perfection were required to enjoy the game of golf, or to be a Christian, I would have to quit in failure! Thankfully, we live by grace.

I trust that you are well and enjoying the remaining weeks of your summer wherever you are spending them. I would love to hear from you if you have special news, prayer concerns or anything else to share with me. And I look forward to seeing you again soon on your return to our beautiful home in Southwest Florida.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Doug Pratt