I'm presently in California for the Shepherd's Conference held at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley. The theme this year is in honor of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation. Speakers include John MacArthur, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Steve Lawson, and many others. It's going to be a great week of teaching and fellowship with other pastors.
I wasn't in California for very long before I was exposed as "not from around here." Yes, the "You're not in Kansas anymore" jokes abound. I've been all over the U.S., having set foot in about 40 different states, but I guess there's just something different about California.
When I got to my hotel, a gentleman recommended to me that Uber was the best way to get a ride, much cheaper than a cab. I'd never used Uber before, so I downloaded the app and scheduled my first trip. The Uber map put me in a weird place to rendezvous with my driver, but we managed to find each other. I apologized and told him this was my first Uber experience, and he explained to me how it all worked.
My destination was Grace Community Church. How I ended up there is a story in itself. The short version is that Nate and I need to work on our communication skills. But since I was on the GCC campus, I figured I would look around. Everyone was getting ready for the conference. There's tables and tents and more tables and somewhere there's surely chairs.
I found my way to the Master's Seminary library. There in a display case under glass are Dr. John MacArthur's first sermon notes -- on the book of Philippians! That's also the first book I preached through. I had no idea it was Dr. MacArthur's first as well. When was that, 1878? Did he ever meet Charles Spurgeon?
Anyway, once it was dark, I figured it was time to head back to my hotel. For some reason, my Uber app didn't want to work. I became concerned I wasn't going to be able to get back to Burbank. I was just about to start fasting and praying when suddenly a car pulled up in front of me. The driver rolled down the window and said, "Gabriel Hughes?"
"Yes?" I replied.
He said he was my Uber driver. We were both kind of stunned because my app wasn't working and he said his was acting up, too. But he did get a notice that a Gabriel Hughes needed a ride from my current location. Because I'm a trusting person, I hopped in and off we went back to Burbank.
He asked me if I went to church there at Grace Community since that's where I was coming from. I said I was in town for a pastor's conference. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said he was an Armenian Christian. Well, I thought he said he was Arminian.
Now, I've never had anyone just outright say to me that they're an Arminian. But this was in a certain context. I was just coming from John MacArthur's church, after all, a famous Calvinist preacher. In my brain, I thought this driver knew of the church and its Calvinist teaching, and he found it necessary to clarify that he was Arminian.
So I started explaining to him the doctrines of grace. I explained that mankind is inherently sinful. In fact, he's so depraved that he can do nothing righteous before God. Romans 3 explains that no one is righteous, no one understands, and no one seeks for God. We cannot will ourselves to believe in Him. But we also can't resist His will when He calls us to Himself.
In God's infinite grace and mercy, which He predestined for His children, He regenerates our hearts to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. We turn from our sin and believe on His name. His sheep know the voice of the Good Shepherd and they follow Him and no one is able to snatch them out of His hand. In the Spirit we are sealed for the day of redemption. That's the short version, anyway.
The driver was rather confused. Somewhere in his attempt to clarify, he said that Armenians were the first Christians. I thought he said that he was First Christian; as in, the First Christian Church denomination. So I asked him, "Is your church like a non-denominational First Christian church, or are you Stone-Campbell and teach baptismal regeneration?" Now he was really confused. (You can look up what he meant by "first Christians" on your own.)
I was eventually able to figure out that he was saying that he was an Armenian Christian, not an Arminian Christian. He explained he had never heard these terms before: Arminianism and Calvinism. So I explained to him that Arminianism was named after Jacobus Arminius from whom the doctrines were derived, and Calvinism was a response to Arminianism named for the teachings of protestant reformer John Calvin.
So this unassuming Uber driver got a theology lesson in the short distance from Grace Community Church to Burbank,. We also managed to get the difference between Baptists and Presbyterians in there. I told him that while there are different perspectives of covenant, we're still brothers and sisters in Christ and Him crucified. That was probably another confusing reference.
It wasn't until the end of our trip that I figured out he considered himself a Christian because he was Armenian, but didn't actually know the gospel. Sometimes he went to church and lit candles, he said. Though I'm sure I gave him a very confusing gospel message, I pray that the Spirit will make sense of it for him. Maybe he knows he can always go to Grace Community Church.
I'm a stranger here in more ways than one. It's all Nate's fault.