CPC and the Wider Church
August 22, 2023
Dear CPC Family,
One word we sometimes use to describe our church as a Presbyterian church is "connectional." Through our union with Christ, we are connected to other believers, to other local churches, and whole denominations in a communion that spans the globe. This is a very exciting reality!
But how can we concretely understand our connection to other churches—especially when we see so many varieties of churches and so many examples of division in the body of Christ? In this letter, I want to help as we think through that question.
The Basics
First things first, if you belong to Jesus by faith, you are connected to everyone else who also belongs to Jesus by faith. “There is one body,” Ephesians 4:4-6 puts it so beautifully, “and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Have you ever met someone for the first time and, after a few minutes of talking, you just know that they are a brother or sister in Christ? I can’t remember a time when I’ve had an experience like this and been wrong about that hunch! There is a family resemblance among the children of God. We should always rejoice when we meet fellow believers—even if they are believers with whom we would disagree on some theological points.
In a similar way, Corona Presbyterian Church celebrates our connection to all faithful, gospel preaching churches. We can give thanks for Northpoint, Olive Branch, and Calvary Chapel Corona (to name just a few near us). These are churches that hold to the authority of the Bible, worship our triune God, and preach the gospel of grace.
More Concrete Unity
For many local churches, it stops with that basic unity. As a Presbyterian church, however, our connections get even more concrete. This happens at a few different levels:
Regional: CPC is a congregation of the Presbytery of Southern California. The bounds of our presbytery reach as far south as Chula Vista, as far north as Santa Maria, as far east as the Arizona/New Mexico border, and as far west as Hawaii. As a pastor, my church membership is actually in this regional church. CPC’s session is accountable to our presbytery and we participate in the life of the presbytery—especially at our three stated meetings of each year. If you’d like to see the Presbytery of Southern California in action, let me invite you to the fall stated meeting down at Bayview OPC in Chula Vista on October 20.
Denominational: CPC and the Presbytery of Southern California are part of our denomination, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The OPC holds a General Assembly every summer where commissioners from all of the presbyteries (there are 17) do the work of the whole church. Because we’re part of a larger church, when you ask for recommendations for where to go to church on vacation, I will pretty much always suggest another OPC congregation.
Continental: There is concrete unity even beyond the bounds of our own denomination! The OPC is a member of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC). All of the churches in NAPARC hold unswervingly to the authority of the Bible and to the Presbyterian and Reformed Confessions (the Westminster Standards or the Three Forms of Unity). Through NAPARC we are connected closely with sister churches like the PCA, the URC, and the ARP. We celebrate and benefit from this connection when we do things like our joint Good Friday service with Grace PCA in Yorba Linda.
International: Our connectionalism even extends around the globe! The OPC is a member of the International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC). Through ICRC, we are connected with the Free Church of Scotland, the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, the Evangelical Reformed Church in India, and the United Reformed Church in Congo. One reason I love going to General Assembly is that brothers from many of these churches travel far to bring fraternal greetings to the GA. Some face intense persecution, some are from very small churches, but we should often think of these brothers and sisters as we gather for worship on Sunday mornings—they are doing the same in their own time zones and their own countries!
Even as we long for the day when the church will truly and visibly be one, as Jesus prayed (John 17:23), we can rejoice in the visible unity that Corona Presbyterian Church shares with so many churches, near and far.
In the Father’s Love,
Pastor Andrew