The 2009 Presbyterian Convention in Pakistan

Thank the Lord for a faithful Presbyterian and Reformed Church in Pakistan. This faithful testimony of the Gospel began in Lahore, Pakistan, in the late 1960s with the formation of the Bible-Believing Lahore Church Council, Lahore, Pakistan, (BBLCCL) working in partnership with Westminster Biblical Missions, Inc. Today the Bible-Believing Lahore Church Council has grown to approximately fifty congregations with about thirty-nine pastors. Other ministries within the BBLCCL consist of a Presbyterian Theological Seminary, four Calvin's Academies with about 2,500 students, a Bible Literacy Program, two medical clinics, and a sewing class for women. The small beginnings of the BBLCCL were blessed of God and established in 1973 when Sardar Ahmed Din, who worked for the Consulate at the Pakistan Embassy to support his family, opposed the liberal trends of the World Council of Churches within the Lahore Church Council in Lahore, Pakistan. Rev. Din led a small group of faithful Bible-believing Christians out of the Lahore Church Council and organized a church that would stand upon the Word of God alone and faithfully confess the doctrines of the Westminster standards of the Reformed faith.

The Beginning of the Convention at Lahore, Pakistan

By the providence of God, Rev. Din, in the early 1970s was introduced to a faithful Presbyterian minister in the United States by the name of Rev. Earl Pinckney. Providentially, Rev. Pinckney and a number of other Presbyterian men were in the process of the formation of a mission board and asked Rev. Din to join them. This was the beginning of Westminster Biblical Missions. Soon after organizing the first congregations of the BBLCCL, the Presbyterian Theological Seminary was founded to train men for the ministry. Since the mid 1970s graduates of the seminary have been preaching the gospel and planting Presbyterian congregations. In 1993 the BBLCCL congregations began meeting at Calvin's Academy #1 for the first Annual Presbyterian Convention. Guest speakers were invited to conduct worship services and Bible studies for the congregations and other guests were welcomed to attend for a time of spiritual refreshing in the Word of God. These meetings typically lasted four or five days with upwards of three thousand people in attendance.

The Sixteenth Annual Presbyterian Convention

Last year the Presbyterian Convention was cancelled because of the high risks of terrorists attacks. Although the terrorist alerts remained this year, precautions were taken so that the Presbyterian Convention of 2009 could convene. The Rev. Jonathan Merica, a minister in the Reformed Church in the U.S. and pastor at Calvary Reformed Chapel, Stockton, California, was invited to be the guest speaker. He welcomed the opportunity to minister to the people of God. Rev. Merica presently labors as the Assistant to Rev. Dennis Roe, the General Secretary of Westminster Biblical Missions and a minister in the RCUS. Rev. Emmanuel Gill and Rev. Sardar Din were the translators for the worship services and Bible studies into the Urdu language. Rev. Merica was very grateful for the several men who provided security while traveling through the dangerous areas where terrorist threats were more prevalent. He praises God for His protection and leading of the convention meetings. During one trip to the worship service at Lakho Dehar on November 2, the driver unwittingly decided to travel a different road. Had they not changed their route, they would have been at the scene of a suicide bombing, where six police officers were killed and others injured. During Rev. Merica's stay there were terrorist bombings that occurred in other areas of Pakistan. One occurred in Lahore, but not close enough to be a danger to our Christian brethren of the BBLCCL. Sadly, bombings are becoming more frequent in the Lahore area. We need to pray faithfully for the protection of God's people in a land that is militantly hostile to Christianity.

In the morally and philosophically squishy world in which we live, it is hard to find good footing. We are always saddened, and frankly befuddled, when we see people who are overwhelmed with the pressures of life drop their heads and look at their own feet. We see this in individual lives and in the lives of whole Protestant denominations. When decisions are made just to please people, we call that liberalism. When we look to strength in numbers or our own personal abilities, we call that weakness and failure. When change means taking your eyes off of sound doctrine, we call that unorthodoxy. All will fail.

In the political arena, some people are apt to think that hope rests in change. In many cases, the church has adopted this same mantra-change will bring security. This is true only if that change is humble repentance, but it is false if change only means following another human solution. It is false if all we are looking for is the lowest common denominator that will please a majority. Real change comes by lifting our eyes to a higher power.

Many of the problems we face are just simply overwhelming for us. When we watch people in Haiti digging through fallen concrete with their bare hands to see if there are any survivors under the rubble, we are vividly reminded of the weakness of man and the power of God. How many seconds did it take to level a city of millions of people? Many people's lives are no different from the destruction in Haiti-they are overwhelmed by the scope of the problem in light of their own abilities. Human depravity digs deep holes. And unrepentant man keeps digging.