May 12, 2025 • 17 mins
We love to read Christian biographies. You can learn a lot! One thing we’ve never thought about is diving into a “church biography." Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. is just blocks away from the center of American power. It has an interesting history. It’s a great example of how God works through local churches. Faithful, gospel-centered church ministry is vitally important!
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Kurt and Kate mornings. Not just on the radio.
S2 (00:03):
It's a podcast too.
S1 (00:06):
No big secret around here. We love to read Christian biographies.
You can learn a lot from men and women who've
been following Jesus. But one thing that we've never thought
about until this very moment is why don't we read
a biography about not a person, but a church? Answer. Why?
(00:29):
Maybe we've never done this before is probably because there
are not a lot of books that do this.
S2 (00:35):
Yes, that's true. I don't recall seeing another one. But also,
you know, what I love about it is it's not
about this extraordinary happening. It's about the miraculous every day
of faithfulness.
S1 (00:48):
Yeah. We're taking a look at a church planted in Washington, DC. Location, location, location.
You know, it's it's on Capitol Hill, but it really
is a story of a church faithful to the gospel
through the ups and downs, and there have been many
ups and downs through the life of this church. It's
a Capitol Hill Baptist Church, is what we're talking about.
The name of the book is A light on the Hill,
(01:11):
the surprising story of how a local church in the
nation's capital influenced evangelicalism. Caleb Morrell is an assistant pastor there,
and he has put together this book. And some people
might say, oh no, that sounds like a real snoozer.
Sounds boring. It is anything but. Capitol Hill Baptist church,
(01:31):
how did you end up there?
S3 (01:34):
Yeah, I moved here as a college student, and I
got plugged in at the church early on through a
college ministry, and I was baptized here and joined. And
I've been on staff at the church now for six years. Wow.
S1 (01:48):
Wow. So Mark Dever is the, uh, he's the senior.
Is he? He's still the senior pastor there, right?
S3 (01:53):
Yep. Still going strong. 30 years and counting.
S1 (01:55):
Even though, uh, I was talking about celebrity pastors and
Capitol Hill has not really had celebrity pastors, you know,
in certain circles, Mark is very well known, but he's
not like the celebrity pastor that some people think about.
He's not really a flashy guy, is he?
S3 (02:12):
He's most fundamentally a local church pastor. So he's here preaching,
leading the service, leading the staff, shepherding the congregation. Yeah,
just one of the pastors.
S1 (02:22):
What does it look like to remain faithful to the
gospel as a local church over the years? Now, there's
no such thing we know as a perfect church, because
we're all sinners in need of a Savior. So when
you look at the history of any church, you're going
to see ups and you're going to see downs. The
(02:42):
the fact that your church has is positioned on Capitol
Hill does make it notable. But there are so many
wonderful stories about average, ordinary, everyday believers, even from the
very beginning of this church, that could be instructive and
inspiring for the rest of us. So the founding of
(03:04):
the church. Let's start there.
S3 (03:08):
Yeah. The church grew out of a prayer meeting that
a young couple started in their home back in 1867.
So this is right after the Civil War. Abraham Faris
was the husband. He had served for the Union in
the Civil War, and they had just married and moved
to Capitol Hill. And they started praying with their friends
for a Baptist church to be started on Capitol Hill.
(03:30):
There was no church of any kind in the area.
The really this part of the city, the eastern part,
hadn't really grown. And so they living in their home
just one block from the US Capitol building to today.
They started praying. And out of that prayer meeting, so
much good has come.
S4 (03:46):
Well, wow.
S1 (03:47):
This is great. You know, do not despise the day
of small things, small beginnings. That's part of the story
as well. Agnes Shankle, a Sunday school teacher. Sure. Let's
talk about Agnes for just a moment.
S3 (04:02):
Sure. So Agnes Schenkel was a long time Sunday school
teacher in the 20th century. She was very faithful and
knew the Bible, taught it faithfully. And at one critical
juncture in the church's history. That came when our pastor
of 41 years was set to retire and the church
was looking for a successor. This was in 1944. And,
(04:23):
of course, after a long pastorate, finding a successor is
always a difficult task. And when the pulpit committee came
back with their recommendation at the members meeting, Mrs. Agnes
Schenkel raised her hand and expressed concern that the the
candidate the Pulpit Committee put forward was compromising in matters
relating to the Fundamentalist-modernist controversy. Meaning he didn't stand on
(04:45):
the authoritative Word of God. He was compromising. And another
member spoke up and said the same thing. But you
just imagine the drama in the room as as everyone
was looking on and thinking, oh, what's going to happen?
And the pulpit committee withdrew their nomination, and then the
congregation voted to call Connie as the successor instead, who
would go on to be a leader in the Southern
(05:06):
Baptist Convention. He would go on to to be an
early leader in the conservative resurgence, kind of focusing on
the authority of the Word of God. He was the
first to preach expositionally from our pulpit. He sought to
revise the church's membership practices and just saw extraordinary fruit.
But all of that came from a faithful Sunday School
teacher speaking up and speaking up for the truth at
(05:28):
a critical time in the church's history. And so I
love looking at this, at this church, at any church,
but at this church in particular that I've studied so closely,
and seeing that the hand of the Lord has clearly
been upon this place to do good, to preserve the gospel,
to protect people, and to stand for the truth.
S1 (05:43):
But not known as the church of the presidents. It's again,
it's not a even though the the light has been
burning there and, uh, you know, it's God has blessed
the work at the church. Um, it's still not as
well known, maybe as some other churches in our nation's capital.
(06:05):
That's just true, isn't it?
S3 (06:07):
Yeah, yeah. So we I mean, we wouldn't have the
same prestige in D.C. historically as, like, a New York
Avenue Presbyterian Church where Abraham Lincoln attended, uh, or even
Saint John's. You know, there's other churches that are maybe
more prominent or more well known in the District of Columbia.
And yet, from the perspective of eternity, this is a
church that has held onto the gospel, when sadly, so
(06:31):
many other churches in this city have moved on from
the gospel. And so as I looked at the religious
landscape of Washington, it seemed to me that either most
churches moved to a different location, say, out to the suburbs,
they didn't stay in the city, they didn't stay rooted
in their community, or they moved on from the gospel.
And so this book really tells the story of how
(06:51):
a church can can stay rooted in its community, stay
faithful where the Lord planted us, uh, and stay faithful
to God's Word. That's what we've sought to do. That's
what we're still trying to do.
S5 (07:01):
Thank you for taking some time to listen to this
episode of the Curtin Cape Morning Podcast. We always welcome
a review with your thoughts and comments, and please feel
free to subscribe and follow us as well.
S1 (07:13):
Hey Caleb, I wanted to ask you. I mean, there's
so many things we could talk about in the history
of this church, and they're all God's stories. What about
the Spanish flu in 1918? You kind of dive into
that in the book. Tell us more.
S3 (07:30):
Yeah, that's how this project originally got started in many
ways when Covid 19 hit. Our senior pastor, Mark Devers,
sent me down to our archives to see what did
we do in the Spanish flu hit over 100 years ago.
And sure enough, I looked and found that we didn't
meet for three weeks. Uh, as we followed the request
of the D.C. Health commissioner. But after three weeks, the
(07:53):
churches were were getting a little frustrated. They thought, uh,
you know, it's what we do on Sundays really matters,
and prayer really matters. And we have a contribution to
make to and that, you know, with sufficient precautions taken,
we should be able to gather again. And so that
was back in back in 1918. Lots of lessons to
(08:13):
learn from that. And of course, getting into the details
of that really reminds us of what Covid 19 was like. Yeah,
but I wrote that up as as two articles back
in 2020 when everything hit, and that helped us see that. Wow.
There's actually something really instructive here about studying the past.
And we see that we're not the first Christians to
face these challenges. The Lord preserved this church through the
(08:35):
Spanish flu when we lost several members. I mean, some
churches in DC lost 40 or 50 of their members,
most of them young. And yet the Lord continued to
preserve his church and and strengthen the witness of the
church despite those hard times.
S1 (08:50):
Well, see, there's nothing new under the sun. I mean,
we tend to think, okay, well, this is, uh, has
never happened before. Well, it probably has, that's for sure.
The ups and downs in a local congregation, though, we
just need to be honest. The church went through some
really difficult times and by that I mean you had
some leadership issues at some point over the years. Uh,
(09:14):
what about folks who wanted to split the church, all
of these unfortunate things that can happen in any local congregation? Uh,
in fact, we may have some folks listening here this
morning and they're like, that's one of the reasons why
maybe I'm not attending a local church is because of
all of the the stuff that goes on there and
what have you. But as you chronicle all of this,
(09:37):
how God works in the midst of, uh, you know,
even sinful situations as, as believers or attempting to follow
Christ and in the local church setting. And, uh, that's
why I think this is so instructive, because it's kind
of pulling out, zooming out, Taking a look at how
(09:58):
God was with one local congregation through all of these
ups and downs. Could you share with us maybe some
of the the ups and downs that resonated for you
as you were putting this together that would illustrate that
point for us?
S3 (10:13):
Yeah, there's at least three serious challenges that the church
goes through. Any local church is going to go through
challenges just like any family or any life will go
through challenges, ups and downs. But yeah, the first one
came just six years into the church's existence. Back in 1884,
there was a really serious conflict over church debt, how
much debt to take on whether it was advisable to
(10:36):
take on debt in order to build a second and
larger building. It went on for months and months and months,
just ugly members. Meetings. Division. Eventually, the pastor and treasurer
found themselves alienated from the congregation and, uh, eventually the
congregation asked the pastor to resign, and he did so,
(10:57):
but he took the treasure in 33 members, just about
half the congregation, and they started a rival church a
block and a half away. And for a young church
plant who was in debt without a building, now without
a pastor, now, with their numbers cut in half, they
felt really betrayed us. And instead of responding and retaliating
(11:20):
or responding in anger, they responded with a spirit of forgiveness.
They offered to return any money that had been contributed
toward the church building project when requested, and they did so,
and they adopted a resolution saying this. They said, well,
we may entertain different views. We recognize that we are
in the service of the same master and should not
(11:42):
entertain other than a forgiving spirit. And so they forgave.
And eventually we offered that new church use of our
baptistery if they needed it. We sent members to their
covenanting service when they formed as a church, and for
decades enjoyed, uh, cordial relations. And it just it goes
to show that even in really tough times when there's
(12:03):
disagreement not over primary doctrines, but over prudential questions like
how much debt to take on where to build a building.
Christians can disagree, and yet we can also forgive. And
that courage to forgive really marks the Christian life and
the Christian church. Choosing grace over bitterness.
S1 (12:23):
That's great. Okay, maybe a couple of other examples. That's wonderful.
S3 (12:28):
The hardest one of all, perhaps certainly to work on,
was that, um, really sadly, uh, and I have to
get into it in the book, Mark's predecessor here at
Capitol Hill disqualified himself morally in a particularly, um, damaging
way to the church, to its reputation publicly in the community, uh,
(12:49):
to its membership internally, really, when the church was in
a really beleaguered and tough, tough place. and, uh, yet
the the church, the church's deacons and members responded the
way they should when when something like that happens, we're
not told to cover it up and hide it and
pretend like nothing happened. Yeah. Um, but when when serious
(13:10):
disqualification happens, it's the responsibility of the church to to
know about it. And also for a process of restoration
to happen and healing. But that may mean that that
pastor shouldn't be in ministry again. And we're not just
going to hide it and be quiet about it and
let the problem go on to another church. But deal
with it biblically. And by God's grace, that's what this
(13:32):
church did. But doing so wasn't an easy decision. It
was a very gifted pastor. Uh, it was a very
well known and respected pastor. And letting him go in
acting so decisively really felt like the nail in the
coffin when the church membership was dwindling. Um, and yet,
in that darkest moment back in 1993, uh, the members
(13:55):
had no idea that the Lord was raising up marked
ever to come to this church. Really through unexpected circumstances.
And looking back, we see how the Lord's hand was
upon it when the church did the right thing, even
when it was hard.
S4 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah.
S1 (14:09):
Of course, Mark's ministry has been notable. And, you know,
the now famous nine marks of a healthy church, uh,
nine marks ministries and all of that. So that's been
a huge, huge part of this. And there, you know,
you point out that as we look at these challenges
that that rise up in the local church. Yes, we're
(14:31):
sinners and we're in need of a savior. Hello. But
also we need to remember that we have an enemy
of our soul who wants to take down us as
individual believers, as well as a corporate body, as the
body of Christ. And he does not like the work
that local churches are doing, faithful local churches are doing.
(14:51):
And when we take a look at, you know, churches
that are dying and you alluded to the fact that
after this crisis, I mean, there are seasons. Not every
church is remains in existence for X number of years.
There are seasons for churches. God is sovereign. But in
this particular case, he made sure that the life of
(15:14):
the church would continue on. That's his prerogative, isn't it,
to make these decisions?
S3 (15:22):
Yeah. We're not guaranteed that any local church will will
last until Christ's return. And yet, that's our prayer. Our
prayer is for for every local church to keep preaching
the gospel. And and really what what makes for faithfulness
over time isn't the latest tricks. It's not coming up
with the newest strategies. It's really doing the same things
(15:44):
that Jesus entrusted to us preaching God's Word, practicing faithful
church membership and discipline, shepherding and loving one another. Choosing
to forgive even when it's hard. And we're not guaranteed
that we'll see the immediate fruits of that in our lifetime.
And yet, generation after generation, the Lord is, is is
(16:06):
handing on the torch of the gospel. And who knows
what the Lord can do in your local church, even
if you don't see it in your lifetime. Keep that
light shining bright and watch what the Lord will do.
S4 (16:18):
That's great.
S1 (16:19):
The fact that you're in Washington, DC, though on Capitol Hill,
it is a strategic location and God has used that
big time, hasn't he?
S3 (16:27):
Yeah, I think there was foresight in the members who
started the church back in 1878 to see that this
area would be growing, and given the proximity to the
US Capitol building, this was a strategic place. I mean,
when Abe Lincoln first came here as a to work
in politics, he was staying, you know, just a few
blocks away. Frederick Douglass lived just blocks away. And so
(16:48):
it's not surprising that in our neighborhood, this is where
many senators were would live. This is where Barack Obama
first lived as a senator. And so there's a real
opportunity to witness to our neighbors to share the gospel,
but also to provide a home church for all the
members of Congress or their staff who are moving here
from all over the country, including Florida, to help work
in politics. So we want to be a faithful church
(17:10):
that will preach the gospel and disciple those young men
and women who are coming in and who are the
future of of our of our nation's political leadership. And
the Lord knows that, that we need it today. And
so politics isn't our mission. It's not our aim, but
it is a secondary effect of a faithful ministry as
we teach God's Word, as we disciple members, as we
(17:30):
strengthen marriages, as we strengthen families, uh, we we trust
that the Lord will do good work in our neighborhood
and throughout our nation.
S2 (17:39):
Thanks for listening to Kurt and Kate Mornings podcast. Please
take a minute to follow, subscribe and review us. And
no matter where in the world you are, you can
listen to us live from 6 to 9 a.m. weekdays
on the Moody Radio app.
Kurt and Kate mornings. Not just on the radio.
S2 (00:03):
It's a podcast too.
S1 (00:06):
No big secret around here. We love to read Christian biographies.
You can learn a lot from men and women who've
been following Jesus. But one thing that we've never thought
about until this very moment is why don't we read
a biography about not a person, but a church? Answer. Why?
(00:29):
Maybe we've never done this before is probably because there
are not a lot of books that do this.
S2 (00:35):
Yes, that's true. I don't recall seeing another one. But also,
you know, what I love about it is it's not
about this extraordinary happening. It's about the miraculous every day
of faithfulness.
S1 (00:48):
Yeah. We're taking a look at a church planted in Washington, DC. Location, location, location.
You know, it's it's on Capitol Hill, but it really
is a story of a church faithful to the gospel
through the ups and downs, and there have been many
ups and downs through the life of this church. It's
a Capitol Hill Baptist Church, is what we're talking about.
The name of the book is A light on the Hill,
(01:11):
the surprising story of how a local church in the
nation's capital influenced evangelicalism. Caleb Morrell is an assistant pastor there,
and he has put together this book. And some people
might say, oh no, that sounds like a real snoozer.
Sounds boring. It is anything but. Capitol Hill Baptist church,
(01:31):
how did you end up there?
S3 (01:34):
Yeah, I moved here as a college student, and I
got plugged in at the church early on through a
college ministry, and I was baptized here and joined. And
I've been on staff at the church now for six years. Wow.
S1 (01:48):
Wow. So Mark Dever is the, uh, he's the senior.
Is he? He's still the senior pastor there, right?
S3 (01:53):
Yep. Still going strong. 30 years and counting.
S1 (01:55):
Even though, uh, I was talking about celebrity pastors and
Capitol Hill has not really had celebrity pastors, you know,
in certain circles, Mark is very well known, but he's
not like the celebrity pastor that some people think about.
He's not really a flashy guy, is he?
S3 (02:12):
He's most fundamentally a local church pastor. So he's here preaching,
leading the service, leading the staff, shepherding the congregation. Yeah,
just one of the pastors.
S1 (02:22):
What does it look like to remain faithful to the
gospel as a local church over the years? Now, there's
no such thing we know as a perfect church, because
we're all sinners in need of a Savior. So when
you look at the history of any church, you're going
to see ups and you're going to see downs. The
(02:42):
the fact that your church has is positioned on Capitol
Hill does make it notable. But there are so many
wonderful stories about average, ordinary, everyday believers, even from the
very beginning of this church, that could be instructive and
inspiring for the rest of us. So the founding of
(03:04):
the church. Let's start there.
S3 (03:08):
Yeah. The church grew out of a prayer meeting that
a young couple started in their home back in 1867.
So this is right after the Civil War. Abraham Faris
was the husband. He had served for the Union in
the Civil War, and they had just married and moved
to Capitol Hill. And they started praying with their friends
for a Baptist church to be started on Capitol Hill.
(03:30):
There was no church of any kind in the area.
The really this part of the city, the eastern part,
hadn't really grown. And so they living in their home
just one block from the US Capitol building to today.
They started praying. And out of that prayer meeting, so
much good has come.
S4 (03:46):
Well, wow.
S1 (03:47):
This is great. You know, do not despise the day
of small things, small beginnings. That's part of the story
as well. Agnes Shankle, a Sunday school teacher. Sure. Let's
talk about Agnes for just a moment.
S3 (04:02):
Sure. So Agnes Schenkel was a long time Sunday school
teacher in the 20th century. She was very faithful and
knew the Bible, taught it faithfully. And at one critical
juncture in the church's history. That came when our pastor
of 41 years was set to retire and the church
was looking for a successor. This was in 1944. And,
(04:23):
of course, after a long pastorate, finding a successor is
always a difficult task. And when the pulpit committee came
back with their recommendation at the members meeting, Mrs. Agnes
Schenkel raised her hand and expressed concern that the the
candidate the Pulpit Committee put forward was compromising in matters
relating to the Fundamentalist-modernist controversy. Meaning he didn't stand on
(04:45):
the authoritative Word of God. He was compromising. And another
member spoke up and said the same thing. But you
just imagine the drama in the room as as everyone
was looking on and thinking, oh, what's going to happen?
And the pulpit committee withdrew their nomination, and then the
congregation voted to call Connie as the successor instead, who
would go on to be a leader in the Southern
(05:06):
Baptist Convention. He would go on to to be an
early leader in the conservative resurgence, kind of focusing on
the authority of the Word of God. He was the
first to preach expositionally from our pulpit. He sought to
revise the church's membership practices and just saw extraordinary fruit.
But all of that came from a faithful Sunday School
teacher speaking up and speaking up for the truth at
(05:28):
a critical time in the church's history. And so I
love looking at this, at this church, at any church,
but at this church in particular that I've studied so closely,
and seeing that the hand of the Lord has clearly
been upon this place to do good, to preserve the gospel,
to protect people, and to stand for the truth.
S1 (05:43):
But not known as the church of the presidents. It's again,
it's not a even though the the light has been
burning there and, uh, you know, it's God has blessed
the work at the church. Um, it's still not as
well known, maybe as some other churches in our nation's capital.
(06:05):
That's just true, isn't it?
S3 (06:07):
Yeah, yeah. So we I mean, we wouldn't have the
same prestige in D.C. historically as, like, a New York
Avenue Presbyterian Church where Abraham Lincoln attended, uh, or even
Saint John's. You know, there's other churches that are maybe
more prominent or more well known in the District of Columbia.
And yet, from the perspective of eternity, this is a
church that has held onto the gospel, when sadly, so
(06:31):
many other churches in this city have moved on from
the gospel. And so as I looked at the religious
landscape of Washington, it seemed to me that either most
churches moved to a different location, say, out to the suburbs,
they didn't stay in the city, they didn't stay rooted
in their community, or they moved on from the gospel.
And so this book really tells the story of how
(06:51):
a church can can stay rooted in its community, stay
faithful where the Lord planted us, uh, and stay faithful
to God's Word. That's what we've sought to do. That's
what we're still trying to do.
S5 (07:01):
Thank you for taking some time to listen to this
episode of the Curtin Cape Morning Podcast. We always welcome
a review with your thoughts and comments, and please feel
free to subscribe and follow us as well.
S1 (07:13):
Hey Caleb, I wanted to ask you. I mean, there's
so many things we could talk about in the history
of this church, and they're all God's stories. What about
the Spanish flu in 1918? You kind of dive into
that in the book. Tell us more.
S3 (07:30):
Yeah, that's how this project originally got started in many
ways when Covid 19 hit. Our senior pastor, Mark Devers,
sent me down to our archives to see what did
we do in the Spanish flu hit over 100 years ago.
And sure enough, I looked and found that we didn't
meet for three weeks. Uh, as we followed the request
of the D.C. Health commissioner. But after three weeks, the
(07:53):
churches were were getting a little frustrated. They thought, uh,
you know, it's what we do on Sundays really matters,
and prayer really matters. And we have a contribution to
make to and that, you know, with sufficient precautions taken,
we should be able to gather again. And so that
was back in back in 1918. Lots of lessons to
(08:13):
learn from that. And of course, getting into the details
of that really reminds us of what Covid 19 was like. Yeah,
but I wrote that up as as two articles back
in 2020 when everything hit, and that helped us see that. Wow.
There's actually something really instructive here about studying the past.
And we see that we're not the first Christians to
face these challenges. The Lord preserved this church through the
(08:35):
Spanish flu when we lost several members. I mean, some
churches in DC lost 40 or 50 of their members,
most of them young. And yet the Lord continued to
preserve his church and and strengthen the witness of the
church despite those hard times.
S1 (08:50):
Well, see, there's nothing new under the sun. I mean,
we tend to think, okay, well, this is, uh, has
never happened before. Well, it probably has, that's for sure.
The ups and downs in a local congregation, though, we
just need to be honest. The church went through some
really difficult times and by that I mean you had
some leadership issues at some point over the years. Uh,
(09:14):
what about folks who wanted to split the church, all
of these unfortunate things that can happen in any local congregation? Uh,
in fact, we may have some folks listening here this
morning and they're like, that's one of the reasons why
maybe I'm not attending a local church is because of
all of the the stuff that goes on there and
what have you. But as you chronicle all of this,
(09:37):
how God works in the midst of, uh, you know,
even sinful situations as, as believers or attempting to follow
Christ and in the local church setting. And, uh, that's
why I think this is so instructive, because it's kind
of pulling out, zooming out, Taking a look at how
(09:58):
God was with one local congregation through all of these
ups and downs. Could you share with us maybe some
of the the ups and downs that resonated for you
as you were putting this together that would illustrate that
point for us?
S3 (10:13):
Yeah, there's at least three serious challenges that the church
goes through. Any local church is going to go through
challenges just like any family or any life will go
through challenges, ups and downs. But yeah, the first one
came just six years into the church's existence. Back in 1884,
there was a really serious conflict over church debt, how
much debt to take on whether it was advisable to
(10:36):
take on debt in order to build a second and
larger building. It went on for months and months and months,
just ugly members. Meetings. Division. Eventually, the pastor and treasurer
found themselves alienated from the congregation and, uh, eventually the
congregation asked the pastor to resign, and he did so,
(10:57):
but he took the treasure in 33 members, just about
half the congregation, and they started a rival church a
block and a half away. And for a young church
plant who was in debt without a building, now without
a pastor, now, with their numbers cut in half, they
felt really betrayed us. And instead of responding and retaliating
(11:20):
or responding in anger, they responded with a spirit of forgiveness.
They offered to return any money that had been contributed
toward the church building project when requested, and they did so,
and they adopted a resolution saying this. They said, well,
we may entertain different views. We recognize that we are
in the service of the same master and should not
(11:42):
entertain other than a forgiving spirit. And so they forgave.
And eventually we offered that new church use of our
baptistery if they needed it. We sent members to their
covenanting service when they formed as a church, and for
decades enjoyed, uh, cordial relations. And it just it goes
to show that even in really tough times when there's
(12:03):
disagreement not over primary doctrines, but over prudential questions like
how much debt to take on where to build a building.
Christians can disagree, and yet we can also forgive. And
that courage to forgive really marks the Christian life and
the Christian church. Choosing grace over bitterness.
S1 (12:23):
That's great. Okay, maybe a couple of other examples. That's wonderful.
S3 (12:28):
The hardest one of all, perhaps certainly to work on,
was that, um, really sadly, uh, and I have to
get into it in the book, Mark's predecessor here at
Capitol Hill disqualified himself morally in a particularly, um, damaging
way to the church, to its reputation publicly in the community, uh,
(12:49):
to its membership internally, really, when the church was in
a really beleaguered and tough, tough place. and, uh, yet
the the church, the church's deacons and members responded the
way they should when when something like that happens, we're
not told to cover it up and hide it and
pretend like nothing happened. Yeah. Um, but when when serious
(13:10):
disqualification happens, it's the responsibility of the church to to
know about it. And also for a process of restoration
to happen and healing. But that may mean that that
pastor shouldn't be in ministry again. And we're not just
going to hide it and be quiet about it and
let the problem go on to another church. But deal
with it biblically. And by God's grace, that's what this
(13:32):
church did. But doing so wasn't an easy decision. It
was a very gifted pastor. Uh, it was a very
well known and respected pastor. And letting him go in
acting so decisively really felt like the nail in the
coffin when the church membership was dwindling. Um, and yet,
in that darkest moment back in 1993, uh, the members
(13:55):
had no idea that the Lord was raising up marked
ever to come to this church. Really through unexpected circumstances.
And looking back, we see how the Lord's hand was
upon it when the church did the right thing, even
when it was hard.
S4 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah.
S1 (14:09):
Of course, Mark's ministry has been notable. And, you know,
the now famous nine marks of a healthy church, uh,
nine marks ministries and all of that. So that's been
a huge, huge part of this. And there, you know,
you point out that as we look at these challenges
that that rise up in the local church. Yes, we're
(14:31):
sinners and we're in need of a savior. Hello. But
also we need to remember that we have an enemy
of our soul who wants to take down us as
individual believers, as well as a corporate body, as the
body of Christ. And he does not like the work
that local churches are doing, faithful local churches are doing.
(14:51):
And when we take a look at, you know, churches
that are dying and you alluded to the fact that
after this crisis, I mean, there are seasons. Not every
church is remains in existence for X number of years.
There are seasons for churches. God is sovereign. But in
this particular case, he made sure that the life of
(15:14):
the church would continue on. That's his prerogative, isn't it,
to make these decisions?
S3 (15:22):
Yeah. We're not guaranteed that any local church will will
last until Christ's return. And yet, that's our prayer. Our
prayer is for for every local church to keep preaching
the gospel. And and really what what makes for faithfulness
over time isn't the latest tricks. It's not coming up
with the newest strategies. It's really doing the same things
(15:44):
that Jesus entrusted to us preaching God's Word, practicing faithful
church membership and discipline, shepherding and loving one another. Choosing
to forgive even when it's hard. And we're not guaranteed
that we'll see the immediate fruits of that in our lifetime.
And yet, generation after generation, the Lord is, is is
(16:06):
handing on the torch of the gospel. And who knows
what the Lord can do in your local church, even
if you don't see it in your lifetime. Keep that
light shining bright and watch what the Lord will do.
S4 (16:18):
That's great.
S1 (16:19):
The fact that you're in Washington, DC, though on Capitol Hill,
it is a strategic location and God has used that
big time, hasn't he?
S3 (16:27):
Yeah, I think there was foresight in the members who
started the church back in 1878 to see that this
area would be growing, and given the proximity to the
US Capitol building, this was a strategic place. I mean,
when Abe Lincoln first came here as a to work
in politics, he was staying, you know, just a few
blocks away. Frederick Douglass lived just blocks away. And so
(16:48):
it's not surprising that in our neighborhood, this is where
many senators were would live. This is where Barack Obama
first lived as a senator. And so there's a real
opportunity to witness to our neighbors to share the gospel,
but also to provide a home church for all the
members of Congress or their staff who are moving here
from all over the country, including Florida, to help work
in politics. So we want to be a faithful church
(17:10):
that will preach the gospel and disciple those young men
and women who are coming in and who are the
future of of our of our nation's political leadership. And
the Lord knows that, that we need it today. And
so politics isn't our mission. It's not our aim, but
it is a secondary effect of a faithful ministry as
we teach God's Word, as we disciple members, as we
(17:30):
strengthen marriages, as we strengthen families, uh, we we trust
that the Lord will do good work in our neighborhood
and throughout our nation.
S2 (17:39):
Thanks for listening to Kurt and Kate Mornings podcast. Please
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no matter where in the world you are, you can
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