By: Beard McAulay
Before I cover the Moderator’s Theme for the year, I want to speak about my experience this past week at the Bonclarken Music Conference. Although this is the September/October issue of the magazine, I am writing this on July 18 to meet the publishing deadline. My wife (Pam) and I and 11 others from our church attended the music conference July 12-17. I registered as a baritone and sang in the adult choir all week, which culminated in the large singing event last night in the YAB at Bonclarken. The Lord was glorified as six different choirs, age 5 to adult, sang songs they had practiced all week. Many thanks to the clinicians, accompanists, musicians, and counselors that made it happen. Special thanks to Chip Sherer and the Bonclarken staff, Trip McGill and Lynn Grimsley, conference directors, and Rev. Philip Bunch, who preached and taught on Psalm 23 all week. The morning worship services were a wonderful, daily highlight. But another most memorable highlight was when Pam and I decided to stay up late on Wednesday and Thursday night to attend the Nibble Nook singing and devotions that began at 9:45 PM, led by David Hooks, his son Andrew, and Eric Riley (all incredibly talented musicians!). Anne Logeman, a high school member of our choir, whispered in David Hooks’ ear, “Mr. Beard is here, and he’s the Moderator of Synod.” So, they proceeded to include me in a song about what they were thankful for! Of course, I was a little embarrassed but honored to be thought of by this next generation of ARPs. That brings me to my first point. They mentioned that it was my first time at Music Conference. But that is not the case. If I had the chance to speak to the group, here is what I would have said about that:
“I need to correct one thing that David said. This is not my first time at music conference. I was last here between 11th and 12th grade, in the year 1983. Yes, they had already invented music and camps and even the Nibble Nook by then. That was 43 years ago, but I guarantee we were right here singing songs about Jesus every night, just like you are. I am also certain that the songs, the clothes, the hairstyles were quite different. But there is one especially important thing that has not changed: Hebrews 13:8 says, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’ He is the same Lord and Savior that your grandparents and my grandparents worship, some of them still here with us, some of them in Heaven. So, my word to you is to live out these camp songs that you sing here at the top of your lungs. Be thankful for Jesus. Think about Jesus and what He has done for you “all day, all night” as I just heard you sing. When I see this group, I imagine I am looking at our future pastors, pastors’ wives, elders, deacons, music directors, VBS directors, and the list goes on and on. Start thinking about that now. The ARP theme for this year is ‘Knowing Jesus, Growing in Grace’ from 2 Peter 3:18. This theme is not just for the adults. It is for every ARP from infant to toddler to kids your age all the way up to old guys like me. Growing does not start once you are grown! Growing starts as soon as you can understand the word Jesus.”
Having covered what I wanted to say to the kids at the Nibble Nook that night, let us turn now to the broader message to all members of the ARP Church. The first part of 2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” backs our theme approved at General Synod for the year, July 2026 – June 2027, “Knowing Jesus, Growing in Grace.”
And just a quick aside here. Originally, I wanted the theme to be just one word: JESUS. But after seeking out much counsel on the matter, I decided I should pick a specific verse to back a more specific theme. However, you are going to see that, behind the official theme, the centrality of Jesus in everything will be lurking! Thus, the first point already made in the speech to the Nibble Nook audience: Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Now back to 2 Peter 3:18a. When we read this verse, we must ask why Peter starts it with “But.” What comes before it? We will start back at verse 13 to get the idea: “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.”
In these verses, we learn that our lives are to be characterized by patient waiting (v. 13), diligence in sanctification (v. 14), being at peace (v. 14), taking care not to be carried away (v. 17), and not losing our stability (v. 17). Then we see immediately in verse 18, “But grow”! So, growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus is OPPOSED to being carried away and losing our stability due to false, twisted teaching. To put it another way, staying centered on Christ and His Word is our protection against false teaching, error, and instability. We know that there have been many, from Peter’s time to our current time, who have twisted the scriptures into heresies and pitfalls. The answer to discerning, dismissing, and overcoming this is found in the means of grace and in our theme: Knowing Jesus, Growing in Grace.
Notice also that verse 18 does not instruct us as to when to STOP growing in grace and knowledge. If anything, the second half of the verse, which are Peter’s final words in the Bible, give us a hint as to how long we should follow this command: “To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” Not only does Jesus Christ receive the glory from now until the “day of eternity,” we, in that same exact timeframe are to be in Him, growing in that glorious grace and knowledge of Him. The apostle Paul states the same idea in Philippians 1:6: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” We should of course focus on the fact that God begins and completes the good work in us but note also how long it will take and when it will be complete! For the young people reading this especially, I want you to take from this that growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior is not a short-term goal or something to do until another more interesting pursuit comes along. We are in it for the long haul. I can say from years of experience none of us could ever live long enough to find the bottom of the “depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom. 11:33), not even Methuselah. But take heart, there is joy and fulfillment in the effort. Jesus never disappoints.
There are so many other passages that speak of the merits of knowing and growing in Christ. But I still have 4 more articles to write this year. I will leave you with just one of my favorites – Psalm 1. The very contrast between instability from falsehood and stability in Christ is laid out plainly. It is as if Peter was singing this psalm as he penned his final words:
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
To put the last part of 2 Peter 3 with Psalm 1, beware walking, standing, sitting in the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, the seat of scoffers and false, twisted teachers, but instead delight in Jesus and His Word. Grow in the knowledge of Him and in the grace that He has given and meditate on that day and night. You will be like a tree planted by the water all your days.