Welcome to Reformation Mobile, the blog. This blog is a public ministry of Christ Presbyterian Church to Mobile, Alabama. The address of Christ Presbyterian Church is 2131 Cody Road S Mobile, AL 36695.

We are a PCA church. PCA stands for "Presbyterian Church in America." The PCA is the largest and most theologically conservative Reformed and Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. today. You may recognize names like Kevin DeYoung, R.C. Sproul, D. James Kennedy, James Montgomery Boice, Francis Shaeffer, Ligon Duncan, and Tim Keller. All those men have all been, or are, prominent voices of our denomination.

Christ Presbyterian and the PCA hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Catechisms. The confession does not sit over Scripture, but guards the church like a guard rail on the road from the many false teachings we see today.

We are therefore a self-consciously Reformed and Presbyterian ministry. What does that mean? It means we will be characterized by particular biblical categories. First, we are committed to Expository Teaching and Preaching (2 Timothy 4:2 ). That means we will open up God's holy (Psalm 19:7-9), inerrant (John 17:17) Word, and make sure the lessons and sermons we present are indeed the main point of the text (Psalm 119:105).

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

Second, in our teaching and preaching, as we go through the text of Scripture, we are also dedicated to presenting Christ's life, death, and resurrection as the fulfillment of any text (Luke 24:27),

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

and how its applicable to you (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

This is an aspect of teaching and preaching many ministries entirely skip. And it oftentimes ends up in a legalistic message. Legalism is either that the message is basically works righteousness ("try harder", "do better"), or where the grace is so removed from God's command that it appears to teaching salvation, or the Christian life, is based on our works. Jesus warns repeatedly about legalism. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about your works for him, but about the good news of Jesus' works of righteousness for you before God. Third, we believe in what is called the Regulative Principle of Worship. That means we may worship the Triune God only in the ways he has determined for gathered worship, in his Word (1 Chronicles 13:5-15 & Numbers 3:1-4). Our Triune God has not left us to our sinful imaginations as to how to worship him. That means you will not find smoke machines, nor obstacle courses, nor Santa, in worship here. But you will find a call to worship (Psalm 149:1-2), confession of sin (Leviticus 5:5 and Romans 10:10), singing of tradition and new hymns and biblical songs (Colossians 3:16), sound preaching and instruction in the gospel, theology, and life, and the sacraments of baptism (Matthew 28:18-20) and the Lord's Supper (Acts 2:42). It should be unmistakably clear that we worship King Jesus, not a political party, a football team, or aspects of our culture. Fourth, we are elder-led. The pastor does not run "the show." In fact, there is no show. No gimmicks. The pastor and elders work together, submitting to God's Word and the agenda of Christ laid down in the Scriptures (as seen in Acts 15). We believe elders may be only biblically qualified, and grace-qualified, men. We will therefore not have tons and tons of staff and pastors. But regular, local men, who have been set part by God with graces and gifts, and trained, to disciple the Lord's sheep. This means we hold to the Doctrines of Grace. We believe that in and of ourselves (without God) we are sinners, deserving of his wrath, and thoroughly rebellious (Genesis 6:5), dead in our trespasses and sins, and cannot save ourselves by any works, let alone by our good works (Philippians 3:1-14). We believe Christ's redemptive work of living for our righteousness and dying for our sins is the alone grounds of our salvation (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). He also died only for his own people (John 10:27-28). We believe God's choosing of the sinner is what led the sinner to choosing God (Ephesians 1:4 & 1 John 4:19). And we believe that all those whom the Lord has saved will indeed be those saved when He returns in glory (Philippians 1:6). Lastly, you will be taught historic Protestant and Reformed doctrine clearly from the Word. We will not appeal to gurus, and popes. But we will strive to bring forth the clear teaching of the text of Scripture as we think it necessarily leads to Protestant and Reformation theology.

We are starting this blog so that we can make available good content for Mobile, Alabama. We want to help anyone navigate the intersection of the faith in the Bible, Theology, Culture, and Life in Mobile, Alabama. We will address things singles, parents, and grandparents need to hear. And we will strive to do it from a gracious, biblical worldview, that honors God in his holiness and in his mercy. We hope you are edified by this content. Come join us in worship every Sunday @ 10:15 (2131 Cody Road S. Mobile, AL 36695).

In Christ, and with you all,

to the Glory of God alone!

Pastor Josh Sparkman