Our Prayer Meeting
Saints of Westminster,
Every year, before the men of the church arrive at Epworth by the Sea for our annual men’s retreat, your elders gather together for a time of prayer, fellowship, and to chart a course for the year ahead. As I’m sure you’ve heard from me before (and certainly more than once), we are a church committed to the simple means of grace—to the Word, to the sacraments, and to prayer. That’s who Westminster was when I got here six years ago, and it’s who we will continue to be by God’s grace. If these are the means whereby God promises to bless His people, then we, as your elders, count it our duty and privilege to put these before you week in and week out.
To that end, during our elders retreat, the Session discussed and decided to incorporate a very small change to the format of our prayer meeting that we hope will prove beneficial to all. In addition to rotating our prayer topics each Sunday evening (viz. prayers for local ministries at WPC, for our missionaries, for the civil magistrate, for needs of the body) we will open the prayer meeting with a dedicated time to behold and adore God.
Now, you might be thinking, “Don’t we already do this?” Yes, we do. The prayers of the saints at this church are saturated with praise, love, and glory to God. Praise is already interwoven into the fabric of our prayers. So why the change? Here is our thinking: after a fruitful study through the Lord’s Prayer on Wednesday nights, it seems only fitting that we would begin our prayer meetings in the same way that Jesus began His great model of prayer. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He said, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Three petitions dedicated to God and His glory. Right up front. These are the headwaters of effective prayer, remembering to whom we pray and that all of our petitions, all of our requests, are ultimately for the purpose of bringing glory to His name. The advantage of opening our prayer meetings in this way is that makes the hallowing of God’s name explicit when, oftentimes, it is only implicit and therefore easier to forget.
That said, our prayer meetings will be structured into three parts to better reflect this order of priority in prayer.
First, we’ll spend five or so minutes meditating upon the glory of God. Here it would be appropriate to ponder and praise God’s names, attributes, Word, and works.
Second, we’ll pray for the respective week’s theme, as is already our custom. Again, for about 5 minutes.
Third, we’ll lift up those personal prayer requests that are offered that evening.
It is our sincere hope that bringing the structure of our prayer meeting into closer alignment with the flow the Lord’s Prayer will enhance our time together. If at first it feels a bit strange, don’t worry. We will all grow into it. And if it is not already your custom to attend the Sunday evening prayer meeting, let me invite you to come and join with us! There are untold blessings in prayer. Things happen when God’s people pray. God changes us and He changes the world through our prayers. You need not be a silver-tongued orator to prevail with God in prayer. Everyone is welcome to come. God’s ear is bent toward the prayers of His children. He delights to hear from you, and so would we.
Your Pastor,
Stephen
On Sabbatical
June 13, 2025
Saints of Westminster,
Late last year, as Westminster’s leadership prayerfully charted the course for 2025, your elders graciously afforded me the opportunity to take a three-month sabbatical starting the first week of July. In the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, it’s customary for pastors who have served anywhere between five and seven years to be given time away to rest, reflect, and to prepare themselves for the next phase of ministry in their local congregations.1 It’s hard to believe that it’s been seven and a half years since Sarah and I moved to Jacksonville with a little Reid and six years since I was ordained and installed as your pastor (June 2, 2019). But here we are, by God’s grace! God has done good, gospel work in our midst during that time and I look forward to what he will continue to do upon my return in September.
For some of you this may be the first time that your pastor has gone on sabbatical. No doubt you’ve heard of other pastors and churches going through this process, but perhaps you’re unsure about what a sabbatical will mean for me and the church as a whole. To that end, here is what I will (and won’t) be doing on sabbatical and how Westminster will, I fully expect, thrive in my absence.
First, I am not going on sabbatical in order to pursue another pastoral call. It’s with Westminster’s interest in mind, not just my own, that I am taking this sabbatical. My goal is to come back refreshed and better equipped to serve Westminster more effectively. Ministry, even when peaceful and fruitful as my time at Westminster has been, can become physically and spiritually taxing. Things don’t need to be going wrong for a sabbatical to be right. It’s from a place of deep gratitude and joy in ministry that I take this sabbatical. Just as an axe needs to be sharpened after felling trees according to its design, so too do ministers need to take time to be sharpened with a combination of physical rest, independent study, and time to reflect on the successes and challenges of ministry and to plan for a productive future.
That said, Sarah, the kids, and I will spend several weeks in Maryland with family to rest, a week in Greenville for me to attend a seminar with Carl Truman and David Hall speaking on contemporary challenges in pastoral ministry, and time to make some headway on book #2 and prepare for preaching the book of Romans come this Fall. I plan to be productive, but rest assured I will be resting as well.
Second, one of the greatest encouragements of my time at Westminster has been watching God raise up such capable men to serve alongside me on our Session and as members of our diaconate. Since 2019 Westminster has added a capable minister in Ethan, wise and faithful ruling elders, and an industrious bunch of deacons who will more than pick up any slack that is left by my absence.
Standard protocol for sabbaticals is that members of the congregation not call, text, or email the pastor while he is away. If you receive any communication from me, then know that I will not be offended if you respond—I’d prefer that actually! But otherwise, if you have a material need, your first point of contact should be one of the deacons. If you have a pastoral need or would benefit from some godly counsel, your first call should be to your shepherding elder.
“Wait,” you may be wondering, “shouldn’t my first call be to the pastor if I have a pastoral need?” That’s a fair question. But this is probably one of the biggest upsides of a sabbatical—it reminds us all that ruling elders have been called to be your shepherds, not just the teaching elders. So, bring those men in. It may be that you don’t know your ruling elders as well as you know me or Ethan, but consider this a unique opportunity to connect with them if you haven’t before and to avail yourself of the wisdom they have to offer. Your elders are a blessing to me even as I serve alongside them and I know they will be to you, too.
It is my hope that this same flow of communication—deacons/ruling elders to pastoral staff— will continue even after my return from sabbatical. Ethan and I are no Moseses, but Moses’s ministry was greatly enhanced when, according to his father-in-law’s advice, the seventy elders were appointed to help shoulder the responsibility of leading the people. When ministry works this way, when the ruling elders, deacons, and teaching elders work in concert with one another, the church is able to accomplish considerably more ground. Many hands make light work and more work. Though I know y’all may miss me personally, I fully expect that you’ll find that little to nothing changes due to my being away. My being dispensable is a good sign of a healthy church.
If there are any questions for me or for the elders as we make preparations for my time away, please feel free to ask any member of the session. Thank you again for all the ways that you’ve loved and cared for me, for Sarah, and for Reid, Ruthie, Wes, and Annie. You all are our joy and crown (1 Thess. 2:19)
Your Pastor,
Stephen
1See Rev. Brett A. Michael’s helpful article on the Committee for Ministerial Care website for the OPC, https://opccmc.org/good-expectations-for-your-pastors-sabbatical-2/
Being Conformed to Christ
By. Rev. Stephen SpinnenweberAll of us know someone for whom everything comes naturally. The straight-A student who never studies for tests. The virtuoso who mastered her instrument almost overnight. The all-star athlete who is at the top of every podium. Secretly, we often envy such people. We wish that life came as easily to us as it does to them.
Many Christians feel this same sort of envy and discouragement when they reflect on their sanctification. They see men and women who have read through the Bible countless times, while they struggle to get through Leviticus for the first time. They hear saints who pray as if they’re in the very throne room of heaven, speaking with Jesus face-to-face, while their own prayer life is cold, inconsistent, and ineffective. Their minds wander constantly, unable to concentrate for even a minute in prayer. “They make it look so easy! What’s wrong with me?” they ask. “Why can’t sanctification come as naturally to me as it does to them? Why even try?”
A careful study of Scripture, however, reveals that sanctification is anything but natural—it is a supernatural, progressive work of God within every Christian that enables us to work out our salvation to the glory of our Savior.
THE ROOT OF SANCTIFICATION: GOD’S WORK WITHIN
Scripture teaches that sanctification is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that begins with the renewal of one’s heart and mind. In Ezekiel 36:26, God’s promise of salvation is that He will sovereignly remove the sinner’s heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Without this inward transformation, all external reform is hollow, hypocritical, and displeasing to God. Christ rebuked the Pharisees for such formalism, calling them “whitewashed tombs” who praised God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him (Matt. 23:27; see Isa. 29:13). The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that in sanctification we are “renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness” (Q&A 35). Sanctification is not partial in scope; it is a comprehensive work of the Spirit that transforms the sinner from the inside out.
To what end is this new heart given? As Ezekiel 36:27 says, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” The grace of sanctification is meant to be put to use; our new and living hearts are not dead ends. The Holy Spirit’s work within us empowers us to walk in obedience to God’s commands as an expression of thanksgiving for our redemption in Christ.
THE FRUIT OF SANCTIFICATION: OUR WORKING OUT
The Apostle Paul called the Philippians to “work out [their] own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in [them], both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13). Notice how Paul grounds the imperative to “work out” in the indicative of God’s working within. Every ounce of effort that we expend in the pursuit of holiness is but the fruit of divine grace. Believers cannot work for, or merit, salvation by their works, but Paul reminds us that we are God’s workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
In the early nineteenth century, the Keswick Movement popularized the notion that sanctification is as easy as “letting go and letting God.” Like justification, sanctification was viewed as an entirely passive experience. But this is not the biblical picture. Believers are commanded in countless places to walk by the Spirit, to strive, and to put to death remaining sin (Gal. 5:16; Col. 3:5; Heb. 4:11). Sanctification is an active business. William Swan Plummer said it well: “In justification sin is pardoned. In sanctification sin is slain.” We are commanded to wage war against our sin, but always in the strength of His might (Eph. 6:10). In God’s strength, we have more power to fight against sin than we could ever think or imagine.
So if you find that being conformed to Christ is difficult, do not lose heart. You are not alone. Sanctification is hard work. And yet, challenging as it is, you can rest in God’s precious promise that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
Published in the July 2024 Edition of TABLETALK magazine.
Other Articles by the Rev. Stephen Spinnenweber
STEPHEN SPINNENWEBER
Stephen was ordained and installed as Westminster’s pastor in 2019. He was born and raised in Pasadena, Maryland and earned his BA in history from the University of Maryland University College. Stephen then moved to Greenville, South Carolina where he earned his Masters of Divinity from Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (GPTS). In addition to weekly preaching, teaching, and visitation, Stephen’s writing has been featured on Reformation 21, Place for Truth, Heidelblog, MereOrthodoxy, and in Tabletalk Magazine. Together with friends he hosts several podcasts on the Westminster Standards ( The Shorter and Larger for Life podcasts) and is a General Council member of the Gospel Reformation Network (GRN). Stephen is also the author of a forthcoming book from Christian Focus Publications on the three uses of the Moral Law set to be released in 2025. Stephen and his wife, Sarah, are high school sweethearts and have been married since 2013. They are proud parents to four beautiful children and consider the saints of Westminster an extension of their family.