What do we mean when we say that at Christ Church “Worship Orchestrates Life?” Each word in this statement has important meaning to us, allow us to unpack this statement more fully.
“Where”
We believe that the church is central to the Christian life. We deny that Christianity can be reduced to an exclusively personal relationship to Jesus. The church is the new Jerusalem, the new covenant “city from above,” the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26). We agree with the ancient church father Cyprian who famously said, “No one can have God for his father, who has not the Church for his mother.” While the church cannot be reduced to one physical place on Earth, it does consist of distinct visible communities. Church membership therefore is essential to the Christian life.
“Worship”
Worship is not the singing part that precedes the sermon. Worship is the whole of our covenant renewal ceremony. It includes the call to worship, the confession of sin, consecration by the Word and prayer, communion, and commissioning. And while there is a true sense in which worship (our service) is to characterize the whole of our lives, there is something essential to our formal Lord’s Day service that is distinct, formative, transformative, and foundational to the Christian life.
“Orchestrates”
Lord’s Day Worship is a distinct time during our week, but it is also prototype and motif for all of life. Just as the old covenant temple was a model of the cosmos, and packed with symbolic elements that were formative for the nation of Israel, so our new and better covenant worship is a formative model for our whole lives. Worship orders all of life, and it does so with rich music and sacred songs—it unleashes a harmony of gifts of grace and Spirit filled service into the world. When we sing Psalms our souls are shaped, and ordered, and harmonized with Christ our Lord, renewed, cleansed, and set right so that we might live rightly before God all our days.
“Life”
Covenant renewal worship is central and essential, but when we conclude our service singing a threefold “Amen,” the effects of this sacred worship are just beginning. We are sent out from worship to disciple the nations, starting with our own families, our covenant children, and then out into the world as we engage in our various callings, ministries, and relationships.
If you’d like to learn more about our passion for worship and the shape and form of our covenant renewal services we highly recommend The Lord’s Service, by Jeff Meyers.
Our Pastor: Duane Garner
Duane and his wife Sarah have been married since 1997, and have two children. Duane has served in various forms of vocational ministry since 1994. He earned a Bachelor of Bible Languages from Oxford Baptist Institute, Oxford, MS and studied at the Bucer Institute for Biblical Studies, Monroe, LA for four years. He is an ACBC certified Biblical counselor (https://biblicalcounseling.com/). He has edited, written and contributed to a number of books, including “The Federal Vision”, “The Glory of Kings” and “Why the End is Not Near.” Duane loves baseball, college basketball, motor sports, doppelbocks, bluegrass, science fiction and long languid lunches.
Associate Pastor: Peter Jones
Elders
Nathaniel Talbott.
Born in Texas, Nathaniel moved with his family to North Carolina when he was six. He and his wife Katie were married in 2002, and have eight children. They both grew up in Christian homes, and were both homeschooled all the way through high school on opposite sides of the US – Nathaniel in NC, Katie in Oregon. The family has attended Christ Church since 2010, and Nathaniel was elected to the Session in 2021.
Scott Moonen.
Scott and his wife Lisa have been married since 2000 and have five children. They both grew up in Christian families and met at Messiah College. The Moonens have lived in the Triangle for over twenty years, and have been members of Christ Church since 2020. Scott is a software engineer; and enjoys playing games and running with his kids, reading, and feasting.
Tim McClelland, Elder Emeritus
Tim was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania. He attended Grove City College and graduated with a B.A. in Religion & Philosophy with an additional concentration in Economics. He then went to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, MA, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies in 1985.
After seminary, Tim and his wife, Anne, moved to Northern Virginia, where Tim was instrumental in starting two churches in the Presbyterian Church of America. In 1992, Tim & Anne moved to Raleigh, N.C., to pursue starting a classical Christian school Over the years, Tim served on the Board of Cary Christian School and on an interim basis also served as Principal.
In 2003, Tim and several other men, started Christ Church of N.C.
Deacons
Davis Chamblee.
Davis Chamblee and his wife, Leanne have been married for over 30 years and have two grown children. They have attended Christ Church since 2009. Davis attended NC State University (although he’s still an avid Duke fan), is an electrical engineer and owns an electrical contracting business. He enjoys baseball, cooking barbecue, making and listening to music, feasting with his family and a good cigar.
Matthew Adams.
Matthew Adams and his wife, Karen, married in 2003 and have been blessed with 5 children. They have been worshipping at Christ Church since moving to the area in 2010. Matthew attended the University of NC at Greensboro and earned a BS in Marketing. He has been in the pharmacitical industry in various roles for close to 20 years. Matthew enjoys family road trips, hiking, camping, reading and staying active so he can fully enjoy sweets!
Nathan Mlot.
Has been married to Samantha for nine years and lives in south Raleigh with their four children Evelyn, Adam, Luke, and Isaac. Nathan is a Raleigh native and has been a member of Christ Church since 2014. He is a Mechanical Engineer who used to study the cooperative behavior of fire ants, but now works for DPR Construction Management.
Patrick Halbrook.
Patrick Halbrook teaches history and rhetoric at Cary Christian School. He and his wife, Kaylie, have been married since 2004 and have four children.
Joshua McInnis.
Josh McInnis is a deacon at Christ Church, where he has been a member since 2003. He and his wife Elizabeth have been married since 2013 and make their home in Raleigh. He was blessed to grow up in a Christian family and despite moving around as a military kid, considers himself a North Carolina native. Josh attended New St. Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho and Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh before starting a career in IT. In his free time, Josh enjoys trail running, following professional baseball and college football, reading, and good food and drink.
David married his wife, Beth in 2003 and lives in southwest Raleigh with their 3 children. They met while attending East Carolina University and have been worshiping at Christ Church since 2007. David has worked in various roles within the technology solution and software industry since graduating college. He enjoys projects around the house, cheering on his boys at their soccer games, and walking trails with his family.
Ryan Hoffman.
Ryan and his wife, Lindsay, have been married since 2020 and live in Dunn with their daughter Genevieve. A Texas native who grew up in Washington State, Ryan attended Washington State University and graduated with a degree in Computer Science which he utilizes in his career as a Software Engineer. In his free time, he enjoys motorcycles, camping, hiking, and a good cigar.
Randy married his wife, Crystal, in 2008 and lives in Clayton with their four children. Randy is a software developer and enjoys flying a powered paraglider in rural North Carolina.
What is the CREC (Communion of Reformed and Evangelical Churches)?
The CREC is not strictly a denomination, but a federation of independent churches with their own constitutions. We are committed to working together to provide accountability to each other, to train and examine pastoral candidates, to promote the work of missions and church-planting, and for fellowship and encouragement within the broader body of Christ.
We stand within the stream of the Protestant Reformation, and subscribe to the great Reformed confessions and catechisms. We believe in the sovereignty of God over all things, that He works with man through the terms of His Eternal Covenant, and that we as people and churches must continually be Reformed according to the Word of God.
We believe that at root man’s deepest needs are not met with economic, political, or social solutions, but with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All men are sinners, justly deserving God’s wrath and are without hope apart from the saving mercy and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
The Church is the body and bride of Christ, and each congregation is a local representation of the authority and ministry of Christ. Jesus came to build His Church. As a husband loves his bride, so Jesus loves His Church and gave Himself for her. Loving Jesus means loving His bride, and serving Jesus requires serving as part of His body.
More About Christ Church
We openly acknowledge that Christ Church is fundamentally different from most evangelical churches that you might visit. But our differences are not lame attempts to be quirky, or to be different for the sake of being differing. We are deeply convicted that if the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to stand firm on the Rock in an age of disorder and confusion, there are many Biblical truths and practices that must be maintained in spite of their unpopularity or disuse among the broader Church.
Here are some features of Christ Church that lay close to the heart of our identity as a congregation:
The doctrine of the Trinity is not an odd, arcane bit of theological data to us. Our worship, theology, and communal life are Trinitarian to the core. Because God has existed eternally as a community of three co-equal, co-eternal persons, it is impossible for any person to have a purely individualized, entirely personal relationship with Jesus. Rather, the only kind of relationship that can be had is one that is found in the community of the Trinity which is realized in the community of the Church. The life of the Church is to be a reflection of the eternal dance of mutual adoration and glorification among the members of the Godhead.
The Bible is absolutely authoritative, and is the ultimate authority of our thinking. When we say “the Bible” we mean the whole Bible, both Old and New Testament. We seek to understand and submit to the entirety of Scripture, even the parts that secularists and liberals dismiss, including all the sweet parts and the ugly parts and confusing parts. We view the Bible’s language of symbol, poem, and story as God’s way of teaching us how to interpret the world. We maintain that a properly ordered society will have the Bible at its center.
According to Romans 1, all men are insane, living in fantasy worlds of their own imaginations. The Bible is given to bring us back to sanity and reality. All ideas have “shipping labels” on them and thus we must be constantly aware of our own prejudices and presuppositions when it comes to discerning truth. We desire to jettison all pagan and semi-Christian thought, tear down every idol, and ground every thought on Biblical principles.
We affirm the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of life. 2 Timothy says “all Scripture is profitable . . . for instruction” (2 Timothy 3:16), we believe that all the Scriptures, including the books of Moses, are given for instructing all areas of life, including national life. While we are sympathetic to the theonomists and value many of their works, we build on their foundation with a fuller and more robust view of the Church, her position in the world, and her own need for reformation in our day. We believe that before we can reform our local or national governments we must first reform church government. The theocratic reign of Jesus must first be realized and manifested in the church.
We hope in the slow, gradual, cumulative, yet pervasive growth of the Kingdom of God throughout all the world. From the time of Jesus to today, the Kingdom has not stopped expanding, in spite of trials and setbacks and persecutions, eventually all nations will belong to King Jesus. We affirm the Biblical promises of Christ’s victory on earth and in human history.
The Lord’s Day is the Day of the Lord, the time when God comes and renews His covenant with His people. Biblical worship is characterized by the wholehearted participation of the whole congregation in active and vigorous prayer and praise. We follow the five-fold covenant renewal pattern that is seen throughout the Bible from the liturgies of the tabernacle and temple, to the night of the Last Supper. We confess our sins, hear God’s word read and preached, and eat at the Lord’s table every week. If the Church is to be revived in our day, we must recover a Biblical vision of worship. Cultural renewal begins with the renewal of the culture of the Church.
The Psalms are the war songs of the God of Armies and they are our weapons in our battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Psalter is the Spirit-inspired hymnal that will never lead us astray or introduce weak theology to the Church, but always presents precisely what God wants to hear in worship. In the days when the churches were filled with God’s own hymns, the gospel went forth in power. We are committed to recovering a lively, dancelike, vigorous singing and even chanting of the Psalms which are essential to revival and reformation.
Christian children deserve a Christian education. The problem with secular education is not so much that our children receive bad information, but bad formation. We desire education for our children that rejects the formational liturgies of secular schools, which include nationalist liturgies, radical environmentalist liturgies, sexual revolution liturgies,which all warp and twist them into faithful disciples of the state. We pursue for our children an education that will provide for them Christian formation, so that they will be above all disciples of the Lord Jesus.