Homecoming - Nick Napier


Behold, how good a thing it is,

And how becoming well,
Together such as brethren are
In unity to dwell.
In unity to dwell,
In unity to dwell,
Together such as brethren are,
In unity to dwell.

As Hermon's dew, the dew that doth
On Zion's hill descend;
For there the blessing God commands,
Life that shall never end.
Life that shall never end,
Life that shall never end,
For there the blessing God commands
Life that shall never end.

Those of you with any connection for any length of time to the ARPC likely know that the end of Presbytery meetings and Synod are ordinarily concluded by singing those words of Psalm 133. If you are not careful, you might allow such singing to become rote, not relishing those words. Not carefully and prayerfully and meditatively giving thanks for them. 

I served in the ARP for nearly 5 years before the Lord called me to take a call to a church in another denomination. I took that call (to assist a church that had just been through a major split) under the condition that if that denomination continued in what most consider a serious decline, that the elders there would consider leading that body into the ARPC. Even in my ecclesiastical departure from the ARPC, my heart never left her. My closest contacts were still ARPC ministers. My phone would buzz with texts or calls, my inbox would have new messages, my social media feed would give notifications--most often from ARP brothers and sisters. I kept up with Bonclarken, and ARP news. 

Through the Lord's gracious provision, I am again in the ARPC, and by that same gracious provision, I hope never to leave her arms again. I spend all of that time saying those things in order to set this before you. Psalm 133 is something that truly is beautiful in the life of the church. In my ecclesiastical wandering, I have seen what it is to see a denomination that doesn't view itself as a family, but rather as "sides;" where men speak of each other as enemies, rather than co-laborers in the gospel; where there is vitriol spewed from ministers and elders toward one another in private pages for ministers and elders of that denomination. (There are two pages, because there was a "split" between two groups who are at odds within that denomination.) 

In all that wandering, my heart kept returning to Psalm 133, and how my brothers at Presbytery and ARPC Synod truly are my family. How they may have differences and how they may even have large differences, but they keep the main things the main things in our great body.

For all that happens in the ARPC--I am thankful to be "home."

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