Dedicating a new bureau

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next: a new chapter.

Yesterday WORLD hosted a dedication service at our new Washington Bureau office, across the street from the U.S. Capitol and next door to the Supreme Court building.

AUDIO: [GATHERING]

I was so honored to be among the 14 WORLD staff, two members of our Board of Directors, and more than 40 guests gathered in the Simpson Memorial Chapel to sing, pray, and seek God’s blessing on our new bureau headquarters and studio in the nation’s capital.

Before we close out the week, we wanted to share a few highlights of that event with you. WORLD CEO Kevin Martin began with a corporate scripture reading from Psalm 24—a scripture that we’ve included in the masthead of every issue of WORLD magazine since we started:

AUDIO: PSALM 24 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers…who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully…

After a hymn, U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black spoke first.

BARRY BLACK: I am so delighted to have this opportunity to be in this beautiful space. And as I walked in, I thought about the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg…

Black says that while dedicating our space is an appropriate start to our new venture here in Washington, there’s something even more important.

BARRY BLACK: …whenever I am involved in dedicating something that is a temporal, I think of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 1. John the seer of Patmos: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” So I think we need to keep it in perspective. But in dedicating ourselves, I believe we need to remember that we are dedicating a sacred space.

For 20 years Black has served as U.S. Senate Chaplain and he has seen the power of prayer while declaring the truth.

BARRY BLACK: I hope that you will spend time as you're doing the work of liberty and putting out the truth. I hope that you will take time to wield the power of prayer.

Peter Lillback is president of Westminster Theological Seminary and a member of WORLD’s board. He ended our service by pointing to Acts 17. He says Paul’s Athens’ sermon serves as a model for why WORLD should have this kind of presence here in Washington.

PETER LILLBACK: A Christian voice and a faithful presence is emphatically needed among Washington stoic, epicurean, Marxist, materialist, postmodern, hedonistic and atheistic philosophers, especially among partisan journalists—that strive to control the soundbite—snatched from the corridors of power and deliver them to newsrooms around the globe. To shape the minds of millions, who all too often have been educated out of their inheritance world from its beginning, has been called to present the abiding relevance of the wisdom of the ages, bequeathed to believers from America's Judeo-Christian founders and from the scriptures that those founders read applied and cherished.

This I proclaim to you, the God who made the world and everything in it. The one who is Lord of heaven and earth. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we do dedicate now this place and ask that you would enable us to dedicate ourselves to the task that's before us a task of bringing the truth of the Lord Jesus.

In his word, under the sovereign power of Almighty God, the creator that touches every fact in the universe, we pray, Lord, we would be faithful. Would you give us a heart to serve you? We pray that you'd receive all the glory from all that's done here. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let’s rise together.

AUDIO: [DOXOLOGY]

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