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“How can a land that is so beautiful physically (gorgeous really), be such a spiritual desert?” That’s the thought that constantly went through my mind while I was in Australia and was informed that only 6% of the 22 million or so Australians are “churched.” The Presbyterian Church Of Australia, which graciously and warmly hosted our World Reformed Fellowship  (www.wrfnet.org) board meeting two weeks ago, has only around 30,000 members. That’s smaller than just our own Grace Presbytery. Sydney is absolutely the most beautiful city I have ever been in, and I have been in cities all over the world. But as I was driven around to see the various city sights, I rarely saw a church. And when I did, it was small. I mean tiny. The largest Presbyterian church in Australia is 1000 members, and it is Chinese.  

“What a field ripe for the harvest!” I thought. Why is Australia not a prime target for church planters? Maybe it is, and I just don’t know about it. Maybe it isn’t. Since HPPC is back into the church planting business, what if we cooperated with the Presbyterian Church Of Australia and started planting churches there? I’ve started praying that someone does—whether HPPC or another organization/church, and I’ve started praying for the evangelization of that most beautiful land. I hope you’ll join me in praying for that endeavor. “Down under” needs the Gospel…the Gospel of grace…as do we all.  

Stay Strong in the Lord,
Ron

And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ… - Ephesians 4: 11-12

Dear HPPC Family,

I want to share with the whole HPPC family what I shared with the Session Monday night, as I move toward a time in my life when I sense a transition needs to take place.

Anne and I are so thankful to the Lord for the privilege we have had of His call upon our lives to have served alongside you to build up the Body of Christ here at HPPC for the past 12 years. We love this congregation, and we love you—some of the greatest and most gracious friends we have made in our three decades of pastoral ministry.

My plan—Lord willing—when I came to HPPC, was to serve HPPC up until my 65th birthday. My sense is that at that point, HPPC would need a younger Senior Pastor who could take her to the next level in her calling as a globalized, Biblically orthodox, missions-driven, renaissance congregation.  At age 65—Lord willing—I planned to seek another call for my last 5 years of active ministry…”retiring” at age 70.

My 65th birthday is exactly 3 years from today, so I am asking the Session to begin thinking and praying about formulating a leadership transition plan over the next 36 months in order to bring a new Senior Pastor on board by May 1, 2015.

I believe the Lord’s plan is for HPPC to play a strategic role in the 21st century global Church. Over the past dozen years, we have watched Him create and bless a number of diverse worship venues on Sunday mornings, raise up a multi-ethnic pastoral staff, expand our local and global mission involvement, steer us into the arena of church planting, institute faith-based budgeting (where we have shot over our budget goals most years), draw hundreds of Africans and Asians into our fold (Revelation 7:9 is actually happening in our midst), deepen relationships with other Park Cities churches—particularly our daughter congregation PCPC, strengthen ties with the world church through the Lausanne Movement and the World Reformed Fellowship, significantly upgrade our facilities…and watch as disciples are being made through all of the above.

I firmly believe that HPPC’s best days lie ahead of her. And so I look forward to working with you to formulate a transition plan over the next few years that will position HPPC to robustly live into her calling as an ever-more-intentional disciple–making congregation for a lost and needy 21st century world. This is her calling…to the glory of God.

With great love and affection, hope and faithfulness, I make this request.

In Christ,

Dr. Ronald W. Scates

Greetings from Down Under! As you read this, I am in Sydney, Australia, at a board meeting of The World Reformed Fellowship (check out the WRF website), where our Board is being hospitably hosted by The Presbyterian Church of Australia. One of the sheer privileges I will have while being here in this great city will be to preach in St. Giles Presbyterian Church in the Hurstville area of Sydney. St. Giles Presbyterian is a congregation very much like HPPC in that it is globalized and multi-cultural, Biblically orthodox, and missions-driven group. (www.hurstvillepresbyterian.org). 

In a day and age when many theological trumpets are muted, the WRF is one of those fresh streams of Biblical vitality and vibrancy that—like The Lausanne Movement—are bringing health, buoyancy, and unity into the life of HPPC as the Lord calls us to play a significant role in His globalizing Church during a very chaotic time in world history.

 I’ve never preached “upside down” before, so please pray for me this Sunday as I'm Down Under in Australia. Please pray that I will exposit God’s Word “right-side-up” for the people of St. Giles, and know that I will be praying for all of you as you gather to glorify God at all of our services this Sunday as the Easter season journey continues. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! 

And with that I’ll say, “G’day, Saints!!” 

Ron

Ask me what is the most healthy, unifying thing going on in Christianity worldwide today, and I will tell you that it’s The Lausanne Movement. Launched by Billy Graham and John Stott in 1974, The Lausanne Movement is clearly the cutting edge of world missions in today’s 21st century culture. In the last 30 years, the Movement has convened three Congress meetings on World Evangelization. The latest gathering was in 2010 Capetown, South Africa, which many are calling the largest gathering ever of the world Church. More than 5,000 people from just about every tribe, tongue, nation, and denomination came together for 12 days to strategize about how the global Church can collaborate together to bring people to Christ, to launch mission initiatives, and to plant churches across the globe. But it’s a movement, not a series of events. Between Congress meetings, task groups meet to produce “working papers” on a variety of issues before the world Church. Partnerships are continually being forged to increase the faithfulness and effectiveness of how the global Church is carrying out The Great Commission.

 Now once again, HPPC has yet another privilege of having what I consider a “world-class Christian leader” in our pulpit. This coming Sunday, April 22, Doug Birdsall, the International Chairman of The Lausanne Movement will be with us preaching at our 8:15,9:30, and 11 a.m. services. A live simulcast of his sermon will be delivered in our 1105 and All Nations worship services. Doug will be preaching on Luke 24:36-49 and speaking with us about The Resurrection and World Missions. The Lausanne Movement is very much a part of HPPC’s historic DNA. Both Clayton Bell and I have had the honor of being a part of the U.S. delegation to two of the three Congress gatherings on World Evangelization. The way we think about missions and outreach here at HPPC is directly influenced  by The Lausanne Movement. Lausanne is part of who we are.  

Doug is a great preacher, but even more important, he is a gracious servant of Christ that the Lord is using on the world stage in a significant way. He continues to extend Christ’s Kingdom globally. You’re in for a real treat in worship this Sunday!

See you there!

 
Ron

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Dear HPPC~

Sometimes you hear well-meaning folks say, “Youth and children are the future of the church.” No they’re not. They ARE the church NOW. When I was in youth ministry, the standard adage was, “If someone doesn’t come to Christ by age 18, chances are, they never will.” Everything I read now says that in 2012 that age has dropped to around 8. The importance of introducing young children and youth to the living Christ, discipling them, and making them into disciple-makers, has never been higher and more urgent.  That’s why your Associate Pastor Nominating Committee searched high and wide for the very best. They looked for someone with a passion for Jesus, a deep love for children, youth, and families, who is a team player, a self-starter, a visionary and who has a tremendous track record of disciple-making in the Body of Christ.That led them to a “Metho-bapti-terian” named Jim Gribnitz. He started this past Tuesday. Drop him a note and welcome him to HPPC. Pray for him and his ministry. Get to know him and his wife Nikki. Take them out to dinner or to a Rangers game (Jim’s a former catcher…yay!). You’ll find both of them to be peace-making and bridge-building people who are easy to talk with and have a great sense of humor. Jim loves Reformed theology and comes to us with oodles of creativity toward shoring-up our pipeline of disciple-making from womb through 12th grade. I’ve always believed that the key to being a good Sr. Pastor of a large church is to surround yourself with great Associate Pastors. That’s been HPPC’s legacy for decades. In Jim, the legacy continues. Thanks be to God!!

Stay strong,

Ron

Dear HPPC Family-

Today is Maundy Thursday, tomorrow is Good Friday and Easter is days away. You may find yourself asking the question, “So, now what?” Easter is only the beginning of living out the Resurrection every day in our personal lives, in our families, in our workplaces. It’s about living out Christ’s commands to love one another above ourselves and to love God with all our hearts, minds and strength. Easter is a joyous explosion – the very opposite of implosion, which is when something caves in upon itself. Good Friday was an implosion as Jesus’ disciples huddled up, circled the wagons and hid out to save their lives. Then came the wondrous explosion. On Easter, God the Father broke the unbreakable rule: that what is dead must stay dead. Instead, He played with dynamite, and powerfully blew eternity wide open (the Greek word for power is “dunamis” – the root of our word for dynamite). God the Father propelled the disciples out of their cowardly inward implosion and into a courageous command to everyone with whom they came in contact.

It is no different for us, as Jesus’ disciples in the 21st century. When the reality of Easter truly grips your lives and mine, there’s an explosion that propels us out of our comfort zones, conveniences and bounty and into the hurting/needy world that God so loves that He would rather die than live without its redemption. This is why you see HPPC disciples of all ages heading into West and South Dallas, into prisons and to places like Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Kenya, Cuba, Romania, China and many other places domestic and abroad. Go to Outreach to learn more. That’s why worshiping on Easter can be like playing with dynamite. The Holy Spirit just might set off a blast that creates a centrifugal force that could propel you and me who knows where? Dare we take a chance and celebrate the bodily resurrection of Jesus at 6:30, 8, 9:30, and three simultaneous times at 11 a.m. this Sunday? Take a chance. Play it risky. BOOM!

Keep the Faith,
Ron

Dear HPPC Family –

In a day when many congregations are sounding a muted theological trumpet, the Lord is calling HPPC to humbly embrace a robust Biblical orthodoxy. What might that mean? Well, if the Christian faith were a meal, would it be more like dinner in someone’s home or dinner in a cafeteria? A few nights ago, Anne and I had the privilege of dining in someone’s home. We did not choose the menu. It was delicious, and we gladly and gratefully received what we were offered. But even if we had not liked what was set before us, we would not have said, “Can we look through your refrigerator to see if there’s something we like better?”, or “Good thing we brought our own bag dinners,” because what you’ve offered us is not palatable.”

The word “heresy” comes from the Greek word “hairesis” meaning “choice”. Good theology/good faith—the Christian faith—is something that you and I receive rather than choose. "Faithfulness is about being gracious and grateful recipients of a corpus of Biblical faith that has been handed down to us by previous generations of faithful men and women: the faith - once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3). A disciple is not one who discovers or devises variations of faith, particularly variations that contend with, rather than attend to, what Scripture reveals about matters of belief and lifestyle. The disciple is one who understands that faith is a gift. And to refuse, alter, or return the gift, well, imagine how the Giver would feel.

This Sunday—Palm Sunday—you and I have been invited to dine at the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion and then after we will gather for the All-Church Picnic. He will offer Himself to you and me in both Word and Sacrament. Leave your brown bag at home. Trust me, the fare will be better than anything you will find at Luby’s, Highland Park Cafeteria, Boston Market or any other local restaurant combined…….and with a palm branch thrown in for good measure.

Keep the Faith,
Ron

Dear HPPC Family-
Has Pentecost come to HPPC? That’s the question that jumped into my mind—unexpectedly—in the middle of our Lent In The Living Room small group last Sunday afternoon. We were discussing the Pentecost Day miracle of 3,000 souls coming to Christ in the wake of the Apostle Peter’s street-corner sermon in Acts 2:41. When my eye drifted across the page to Acts 2:9-11, it reminded me of the makeup of that crowd in Jerusalem: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and folks from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia. But that’s not all. Others in that crowd of 3,000 were from Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and Libya. Romans and Arabians were also part of the mix. My goodness! God birthed the Church of Jesus Christ as a globalized Church from day one! From the very beginning His desire for His Church was not homogeneity, but a Church with a complexion of complexity—yet absolutely united in one thing: the life-transforming Lordship of the bodily risen Jesus.
Could it be that the Lord has graciously gifted HPPC with our own miracle of Pentecost? Could it be that the recent influx of Asians, Africans, Hispanics and others into our family is a sign that the Lord has His hand on this congregation in a mighty way? Could He actually be positioning HPPC to play a key role in an ever-increasingly globalized Dallas and an ever-increasingly globalized world -- taking us back to Jerusalem through a new Pentecost that will shape us to be a truly servant church to people from every tribe, tongue, and nation for the evangelization of the world to His glory? Hmmm…Something to pray and think about as we head for Easter and Pentecost 2012.
Stay Strong in the Lord,
Ron

Dear HPPC Family- This may sound strange: I’ve never cared much for the word “religion," but I’m starting to now. Most of my Christian life, I’ve viewed “religion” (characterized—or caricaturized—by trappings and distractions of human ritualism/institutionalism/formalism) as something to be avoided -- a disappointing substitute for really knowing and following Jesus. Christianity is sometimes confused with a word I've created "Churchianity." I’ve even gone so far as to put “none” in those blanks marked “Religion” when filling out certain forms and applications. Instead I have simply written follower of Jesus Christ to prove my point. However, our Better Together Lenten sermon series has me re-thinking things. While not affirming the misconceptions and preconceived notions some have about "religion," I want us to re-claim the real meaning of the word. The root meaning of religion/religious is connected. In other words, true religion is all about connected-ness. Which goes over and against the current cool post-modern cultural mantra, “I’m spiritual, but not religious" that you hear so many people saying these days. So many people think that they can make up their own faith system and do not need the church. Ahh - good ol’ St. Starbucks with a pew for one. Now you and I certainly can be spiritual by ourselves and need quiet time alone with the Lord each day. But you simply can’t be a Christian and not be religious--connected--to other disciples. Scripture has no concept of the isolated/private/independent/”Lone Ranger”/just me and Jesus person working out their spirituality apart from other Christians--apart from the corporate Body Of Christ. Our triune God, in his very essence is religious: Father connected to Son connected to Holy Spirit connected to Father. So, the obvious is obvious: God made you and me in his image that we might be better connected to Him and to each other--religiously better, better together.

Keep the faith,

Ron