Focused by Designed

1 1/2 Weeks Until Ohio Valley Mission

This is another one of those meandering "brain dumps." You've been warned...

We're only about a week and a half out from the very first meeting of Ohio Valley Mission, and I'm getting pretty excited.

What is Ohio Valley Mission? It’s a fellowship of churches dedicated to planting and revitalizing confessional churches throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. While we're not trying to do anything truly unique, one of the potential differences between us and other networks is that we're strictly focused on a single region made up of those three states and allow churches to subscribe to either the Westminster Standards or the Second London Baptist Confession.

I am a big believer in having a narrower regional focus for all sorts of reasons. Namely, you actually have a shot at building real relationships with the men in the fellowship. Also, it seems to me that it's very difficult to keep large-scale national denominations from drifting into compromise and becoming ineffective. The larger these denominations grow, the more resources they get, but the more management and administrative structure grows with them.

Progressives are, by their very nature, parasitical, and they hunger for authority and money they can never produce themselves. So they are more attracted to bureaucracy than the doers, who always want as little administrative structure and red tape as possible. Lean, focused, and relational is the way to be.

Some presbyteries are able to produce that within their geographical bounds. But I have observed that many men tend to identify primarily with the largest body they belong to. You can hear this in the disgust that a lot of these men have toward what they call “micro-denoms” and the deep pride they take in not being part of one. To them, size validates and affirms them. But there is a tradeoff.

The bigger the thing they're part of, the greater the tendency to be consumed with national issues as opposed to the more local and regional issues their people are dealing with. Obviously, they overlap, but national issues aren't distributed equally across the nation. I'm fine with small or large if it remains effective at its stated mission. And small does not, by default, mean effective. But anyone who's built something large knows that operating effectively at scale is very difficult.

This first meeting will probably have four or five churches there at most. I'm very much in favor of that sort of start.

Speaking of effectiveness, I know a lot of people are going to say that it's impossible to have two sets of doctrinal standards. It is complicated, no doubt. But what we've essentially done is found the two that agree the most.

Let's not kid ourselves. The vast majority of associations, denominations, fellowships, whatever, have one set of standards and still find ways to divide and go to war with one another. If you've lived through any of that, you know that it's rarely about the doctrine itself and mostly about moral issues having to do with pride, ego, territorialism, and various other sins that we all agree must be dealt with.

So I think allowing for some generosity, while remaining very much within the pale of the various forms of Reformed Protestantism, is fine—and possible if you get the right people involved. There are men who have the right sort of temperament to work through difficult issues together without dividing. And then there are men who are extremely proud, often passive-aggressive and conflict-avoidant, who hide behind technicalities and weaponize bureaucracy.

Then there are people who are simply more particular and exact, who tend to think function follows form. Those are good brothers you can encourage, but from a little more of a distance. I tell a lot of men that one of the best ways to ruin a good friendship is to go into business or plant a church together. Some friendships are good as they are and would be ruined by being bound together institutionally.

All that to say, we are definitely looking for people who have a similar mindset, not just identical doctrinal commitments all the way down to the finer points. People hate when I talk about chemistry. Too bad. It's a real thing, and you're looking for people who have that same sort of philosophy and approach to ministry. When you find them, you're able to overcome all sorts of differences for the glory of God and the good of our neighbors.

Also, if Ohio Valley Mission should grow and develop a significant concentration of churches subscribing to one of the two standards, we would be fine with it multiplying and becoming two different missions with established fraternal relationships. But we're pretty far from that.

I actually think there are a lot of people who long for a church that brings the riches of Reformed Christianity to everyday believers, especially the blue-collar ones; is willing to engage the issues of the day without being defined by them; and is willing to live in tension with some minor differences toward the end of seeing their friends, family, and community members hear the gospel and get discipled.

Anyhow, that's what we've been doing in Batavia. That's what BJ Newman's been doing in Xenia, and Zach Hill in Mount Sterling. And I'm sure a ton of other people I've yet to meet are doing the same, some of whom will join arms with us in this effort. Very exciting.

https://www.ohiovalleymission.org/

Painting: Keiko Tanabe