Christ Church

The denomination he founded is expanding, with satellite churches opening up across the country.

And he says his main church, Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, has doubled in size.

So the message this morning is titled, How to Move to Moscow.

In 2021, Doug gave a sermon to the newest members of his church.

Doug says the group now makes up about 10% of the town's population.

So many families have moved here that Doug has written an entire book of advice on how to adjust to Moscow.

It's called Life Among the Kirkers.

Kirkers is what members of Doug's church call themselves.

That's all they will sing.

And then there are groups like ours, like Christ Church here in Moscow, where we practice what I call dominant psalmody.

And Lefevre's book is just a great blessing to anybody who belongs to the exclusive psalmody or the dominant psalmody camp.

There are a number of things that he does that are just quite valuable.

We're sharing the first episode of their second season called Onward Christian Soldiers.

In this episode, we meet Pastor Doug Wilson, who leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

He's got a vision for this small college town.

He wants to claim it for Jesus.

Here in Moscow, though, it represents an intense battle, a disagreement over the role of religion in public life.

And this church community and the guy giving us the tour have people in the town on edge.

I'm the senior minister at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

I've been serving in that function since 1977.

I came across something I found to be very interesting by a fellow I did not know of before by the name of Dr. Joe Rigney.

And he's a fellow of theology at New St. Andrews College and a pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

He's the author of eight books.

But what caught my attention is a book that he's published this year called The Sin

You're helping both of you drown.

I think that is such a perfect, perfect analogy, and analogies can be so incredibly powerful.

Let me take a step back and ask you, as pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and a fellow theologian at the New St. Andrews College, How did you get interested in this particular issue? Because so often members of the clergy preach that love will handle all, love will conquer all, just love, love, love.

And this is a very—I'm glad that you quoted C.S. Lewis, because I think that is a next-level Christian author, and his theology, which appeals a great deal to me.

I think this is all for myself, maybe, and hopefully for those following, really trying to gain perspective of what is that water that we're swimming in and can we recognize it? I think one of the things that we've observed in local sermons and maybe churches that would trend towards this white Christian nationalism is, is references to churches and maybe parts of this movement outside of Arkansas.

And an example of that, we increasingly hear Doug Wilson's name brought up, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, who's been on the national platform at the Pentagon leading services.

And, you know, when we start to see this kind of thing happen, where it's being referenced outside of this state, to me, it feels like this really is a mainstream thing that is happening.

And I'm curious if that tells us kind of where this movement is, maybe within our country so that we can try to understand from Arkansas, maybe where we fit into that.

It's home to the University of Idaho, but the town is also known for something else, division.

In Moscow, a town of about 27,000, there are two kinds of people, those affiliated with Christ Church and those who are not.

Christ Church is a deeply conservative, evangelical, and patriarchal denomination that has roiled the university town.

Take a walk down Main Street, it's only six blocks, and you can see the divide with your own eyes.

There's seemingly two of everything, coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores.

One for Christ Church members who call themselves Kirkers, and one for everyone else.

Sometimes you can tell this from flags or signs in the windows.

All work, no woke for Kirkers.

Our guest this weekend is Joe Rigney.

He's the author of The Sin of Empathy, and he's also the associate pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.

He'll explain how what he calls untethered empathy goes far beyond the biblical call for compassion, and instead is used to manipulate people into supporting leftist policies and power.

Because how cold, bigoted, hateful, racist, and homophobic must you be to not share in their so-called empathy? When you begin to see this emotional blackmail taking place in our society and the church, you will see how important it is for Christians and pastors to speak clearly and boldly with biblical truth and grace.

And then the last two years I was there, I was the president of Bethlehem College and Seminary.

About three years ago, we decided to move from Minnesota out to Moscow.

I took a position here as a professor of theology at New Saint Andrew's, and I'm a pastor at Christ Church.

Had kind of three lifetimes now, one in Texas, one in Minnesota, and this most recent one now here in Idaho.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Christ Church.

He thinks women shouldn't be allowed to vote-

Uh-huh

They used a, quote, "nondescript Gmail address" that kinda didn't give away anything.

And do you think this is intentional or just-

I mean, they could have done it from Doug Wilson at Christchurch dot whatever.

They did not.

And so that's why basically we started the Fight Laugh Feast conference.

The second reason related to that was my, uh, Christ Church, my hometown's in Moscow, Idaho.

We have a, a, a conference every year called Grace Agenda, so that's on kind of the West Coast.

Yes.