September 21, 2017 My dear Friends: I would appreciate your prayers for next week. On Thursday, I’ll be driving up to Covenant Seminary in St. Louis where I’ll be delivering the Francis Schaeffer Institute Lectures this year. The entire conference’s title is “Before the Watching World: Identity and Legacy after 500 Years of Reform”; so as you’d expect, we will be talking about the Reformation. But I appreciate what the seminary has done: they have two scholars from Roman Catholic backgrounds and two PCA scholars (yours truly and Dr. Dan Doriani, whom IPC hosted last year) in dialogue over the historical and practical ramifications of the Reformation. The conference will be Thursday through Saturday, September 28-30; I’ll be back in time to preach morning and evening at IPC on October 1, plus attend our Church Picnic and Fall Fest. My two lectures are entitled “Protestant Still: Why the Reformation Matters” and “The Cure of Wounded Souls: The Heart of the Reformation.” You’ll get to hear the first lecture if you come to our Reformation Day lunch event on October 31, 2017, at 11:45 a.m. Essentially, in that first lecture, I’ll be arguing that central to Protestantism’s legacy is its commitment to Scripture alone as the authority in the life of church. Even with apparent problematic aspects to sola scriptura—especially when it is coupled together with private interpretations that fail to listen to historical reflection or the need for trained ministers to preach and teach—still it is the case that biblical authority is the key legacy of the Reformation. Moreover, it is our only hope for a church that is always reforming itself—that church listens for the Holy Spirit speaking through Holy Scripture (as our Westminster Confession says in 1:10). My second talk is the one I’m looking forward to more: I argue that the heart of the Reformation was its pastoral focus. In other words, the reason why Scripture, faith, grace, and Christ alone were so important wasn’t simply because they were propositional ideas. Rather, these doctrines were important because they provided comfort, healing, and hope to wounded, terrified consciences that sought to placate God by following the law and failed. By maintaining our focus on the pastoral shape of our theology, we get closer to the entire purpose of doctrine to begin with—not to win arguments or to fill our heads with knowledge, but to comfort hearts and prepare them for heaven. It is a huge honor to be able to do this at Covenant, where I worked from 2004 until 2009. A piece of my heart is there and will probably always be; to be able to serve them in this way brings great joy. But knowing you are praying for me and I am representing you gives me a sense that I’m not doing my own errand, but ours. Grateful to serve with you in this way! In the grip of God’s grace,
Rev. Sean Michael Lucas, PhD Senior Pastor Independent Presbyterian Church Memphis, TN