Heading to the Puritans on the Potomac
On May 2nd, 2016, Dr. Timothy George wrote an article for First Things entitled Puritans on the Potomac. He tells the story of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. Established in 1878 from a regular prayer meeting, the church progressed and reached record growth in the 1950s. It declined due erratic leadership up until the 1990s when attendance averaged about 100 people each Sunday. The famous evangelical theologian Carl F.H. Henry was a member there in the nineties and suggested that Mark Dever be the next pastor. Dr. George, who taught him at Southern Seminary described him as “a somewhat brash but brilliant American student just then completing his Ph.D. at Cambridge University.”
George writes that Dever “put in place a strategy that most church growth gurus would have deplored.”
For example, he began to preach sermons that lasted upwards of one hour. Next, the church excised from its rolls hundreds of inactive members — some so inactive that they had long been dead! The practice of church discipline was begun. Members were also required to subscribe to a confession of faith and to say “an oath” — this is how a secular journalist described the church covenant — at the monthly communion. Entertainment- based worship was replaced by congregational singing, including many long-forgotten classic hymns from the past.
What was the outcome of such a poor church growth strategy? George adds:
Instead of driving people away, however, over time this approach to church life — to the surprise of many — attracted droves of new believers, many of them millennials and young professionals. Today, the average age of members at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (as Metropolitan is now known) is thirty-one, and the place is bursting at the seams, with standing room only on Sunday mornings.
George poses a good question. He asks, “…could it also be that the rising generation has developed a hunger for a more substantial spirituality than that on offer in bland, postmodern construals of religion?”
I think the answer is yes. It seems every week I find Christians around my age who say they need more substance at church rather than more lightshows, louder subs, and more clichés from pastors’ sermons. They’re searching for churches where shepherds are among the sheep rather than on a screen. They’re searching for churches that don’t do weird stuff. They’re searching for churches that practice the ordinary means of grace, the preaching of the gospel and the sacraments.
This is why I could not be more eager to be at Capitol Hill Baptist Church from August to December studying ecclesiology and observing a church that has helped me think biblically about what a church is. JonEllen and I have known since last summer and we figured we’d share when the time was close. Pray for us as we make the move on the first week of August. The plan is to come back to finish my M.Div at Beeson and continue serving the saints at ICC. JonEllen has graciously been offered to work remote in her same position at work. God has answered many prayers for all of this to happen. Upon reflecting on God’s providence, it’s been a worshipful experience reflecting how I ended up here.
God’s Providence through the People Around You
The first time I ever heard of the CHBC pastoral internship was in 2017 when we spent 4 weeks with a Seattle church planter, Stuart Bell. His son in law did the internship. I heard Stuart discuss church polity as a church planter and wondered why it was important as a 19-year-old. That curiosity sparked the beginning of much reading and discussion about ecclesiology.
In Spring of 2018, a group from my church went to CHBC and heard a talk on nature of the church from Jonathan Leeman. I’ll never forget being amazed at his lecture and discussion with nothing but a Bible. My then pastor, Allen Tate and I discussed that talk for days. Allen discipled and pastored me through my internal and external call to full-time ministry. Without him I wouldn’t have met Stuart in 2017 or heard Leeman’s talk in 2018.
I went on to meet another former intern, Sean DeMars in 2019. I got to translate a sermon for him to my dad’s immigrant church. We became friends and have stayed in touch. It’s been amazing seeing God bring new life into 6th Ave. Community Church in Decatur, AL. Most former interns I’ve met are doing great work in their churches.
I’ve benefited from attending several 9Marks events and reading their books and journals. During my time leading music one a month at dad’s church, I implemented simple things into the liturgy: more prayers, more scripture readings, I got my dad to preach through books of the Bible in his same style, and we wrote up a church covenant, and held the same amount of prayer meetings with a bit more order. I saw the church revere and obey God’s word more, all because we centered everything we did on Sundays around God’s word. Sure, it’s still a struggling church numerically, but it has grown in maturity. Dever always says, “The church is not so much a growing number of people, but a number of people growing.”
Fast-forward to 2022. I got accepted into Beeson Divinity School whose founding Dean was Dr. Timothy George. He taught Church History at Southern Seminary in the 80s. Dever happened to be one of his students. Dever has shared that he chose Southern Seminary for his Th.M largely because of George’s historical scholarship. Taking Patristic History and Doctrine from Dr. George the Fall of 2022 was surreal. To learn from the father of Baptist Catholicity is one of the greatest honors of my life. Little did I know that Dr. George was one of few mentors that encouraged Dever to take the job at CHBC in 1994 rather than a position in academe. George preached his installation sermon.
I have found myself in a circle of people I want to emulate, and it makes my smile widen with gratitude. I get to work with Isaac Adams, pastor of Iron City Church. He was shaped as a pastor at CHBC. I’ve already learned much about church health and pastoral ministry from him and my beloved church family. I get to study with Dr. George which Dever also studied under. And I get a 5-month internship with Dever and CHBC studying and observing healthy ecclesiology. I couldn’t think of a better way to prepare for full-time ministry than in an incarnational seminary and healthy churches.
“A lot of young ministers never take time to sharpen their axe.” — Pastor John Brock
Before starting seminary, another mentor of mine, Pastor John Brock spoke a powerful reminder to me. He said, “Sal, take time to sharpen your axe. A lot of young ministers never take time to sharpen their axe.” If you aspire to pastor or minister in any capacity, take time to prepare. Not everyone gets the opportunity to train in incarnational models like Beeson and the CHBC pastoral internship, but you can find a healthy church to be equipped. Seminaries serve the local church and local churches make pastors and ministers. If you get the opportunity to go to a seminary in person, do it. But your membership in a healthy local church is not optional. Plus, being a member of a healthy local church will form you for ministry more than waiting to be handed a title.
You never know how God is using the people in your life right now to get you where you need to be. God’s providence is better than your 5-year plan. He might even put you in a place where you realize: we’re all just a product of God’s grace working through other people.
We’re all just a product of God’s grace working through other people.
