From a letter sent to parents, Sept. 26, 2011.

“For the kickoff of this Program Year, when all our children came back into the Sanctuary to celebrate communion, that prompted two questions.
1. Isn’t it the parent’s decision when a child should receive communion?
2. When is a child ready to receive communion?

To the first question, the answer is yes. It is the parent’s decision. It is a decision they made when they chose to have their child baptized, when, in that decision, they promised-with the help of the entire church community-to raise their child in the Christian faith.

That leads us to the second question. When is a child ready to receive communion? When is a child ready to accept the love of Jesus? When is a child ready to participate in the life of the church? When is a child ready to do that next thing in the faith? As parents, as a church, we have promised together to raise, teach, and model our faith to make them ready.

Perhaps the question needs to be rephrased, what should the child know before they take communion? What do they need to understand? They need to know that Communion, like Baptism, is important in the life of their family and important in the life of their church. They need to know that they are important enough to us to be part of it. And, like the rest of us, they will then take a lifelong journey into the Wonder and Mystery of Holy Communion, and, like the rest of us, never exhaust its full meaning.”

To create Our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God, we must build upon what will unite us. First and foremost, Worship is what unites us. Human beings were made to give praise to God. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the basic Reformation instructional text of the Presbyterian Church asks this question: “What is the chief end of humanity*?” The answer is that humanity’s* chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. (Purists will note that humanity has replaced the word ‘man’ to better designate women and men).

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ command to his disciples concerning communion is “Do this in remembrance of me.” That is where it starts. We take a cubed piece of white bread, we take a small cup of grape juice, and we eat and drink in remembrance of Jesus Christ. And when we bring our children into church, when we gather as families to eat of the bread and drink of the cup, that is the very first lesson that we are going to teach. We receive communion to remember Jesus Christ.

When the disciples received that meal for the first time, they didn’t know all the details of what Communion entailed. That came later. What they knew is that they must remember Jesus. The bread, the cup, the eating and drinking, those were physical reminders for them, and for us, and for our children.

Envisioning a Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God

Welcome to Pastor Peter's blog. It is a new means of communication for the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy. There is a lot going on and more coming. This is a year of exciting transition and growth in our church.

What was the best neighborhood you were ever a part of? It could be a place you lived, a place you visited, some place you read about, saw in the movies or on television, a place you can picture in your mind's eye that you would like to live in. In a world of sin and evil, where every line of 'safety' seems to get broken, what would it be to create this best neighborhood where all that is safe, loving, and gracious in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ could be practiced?

What if we took what Jesus said in Luke 17, that the Kingdom of God is among us, what if we took that seriously as the foundation for building our church? What if we scoped out the Kingdom of God and we chose to build a neighborhood in that Kingdom where we can pursue WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? What if we started a process now that will come to fulfillment at the Second Coming?

This blog is going to be a place where we can pursue that together. It is a place for feedback, a place where questions can be tackled, a place where Next Steps can be put into play.

If you have discovered us by accident, our website is www.fpcperthamboy.org. I invite you to come worship with us, 10am on Sunday morning.

Pastor peter