I have often argued for simplifying the busy schedule churches often have.
I just recently came across this quote from Craig Barnes book, The Pastor as Minor Poet:
“So rather than developing a ‘seven day a week’ church that fills up the members’ lives with church activity, the poetic pastor will wonder why these folks need the church to be a subculture that keeps them so busy with religious activity that they never have a chance to follow Christ out into the surrounding world.” (69)
Carl Trueman continues to sound the trumpet of real pastoral oversight. His latest post is right on target and deserves a wide reading. His points echo the key concerns of this blog.
Here is one quote in hopes of enticing you to read the entire post, “Life Together- Or Not”:
“First, I am immensely grateful that I have only ever held membership in churches of a size where the pastor has always been accessible and available. Indeed, my pastors have always even known my name, my wife’s name, my kids’ names, and even what sports they play (this latter may seem trivial but it has been peculiarly important to me: my kids may not always enjoy going to church; but they have never doubted that the pastor actually cares for them; and that is something for which I am more grateful than I can articulate). Indeed, each of my pastors has cared about his people, not as a concept or a good idea or as an indeterminate mass, but as real, particular people with names and histories and strengths and weaknesses; and this surely reflects the character and love of God who, after, calls his sheep by name and cares for us all as individuals. If I gave you the names of said pastors, few reading this post would ever have heard of them: they have written no books; they have never pulled in huge crowds; and they have never spoken at megaconferences. But they have always been there when even the humblest church member has called out for advice, counsel or even help with bailing out a flooded basement.”
In honor of our new semester beginning next week, I thought I would post a story from the autobiography of John G. Paton, which was passed on to me by Patrick Brown. This famous, godly missionary knew how to manage a classroom.
“The following week, a young man and a young woman began to attend the Night School, who showed from the first moment that they were bent on mischief. By talking aloud, joking, telling stories, and laughing, they stopped the work of the School. On my repeated appeals for quiet and order, they became the more boisterous, and gave great merriment to a few of the scholars present. I finally urged the young man, a tall, powerful fellow, to be quiet or at once to leave, declaring that at all hazards I must and would have perfect order; but he only mocked at me, and assumed a fighting attitude. Quietly locking the door and putting the key in my pocket, I turned to my desk, armed myself with the cane, and dared any one at his peril to interfere betwixt us. It was a rough struggle – he smashing at me clumsily with his fists, I with quick movements evading and dealing him blow after blow with the heavy cane for several rounds ’till at length he crouched down at his desk, exhausted and beaten, and I ordered him to turn to his book, which he did in sulky silence. Going to my desk, I addressed them, and asked them to inform all who wished to come to the School, That if they came for education, everything would be heartily done that it was in my power to do; but that any who wished for mischief had better stay away, as I was determined to conquer, not to be conquered, and to secure order and silence, whatever it might cost. Further, I assured them that that cane would not again be lifted by me, if kindness and forbearance on my part could possibly gain the day, as I wished to rule by love and not by terror. But this young man knew he was in the wrong, and it was that which had made him weak against me, though every way stronger far than I. Yet I would be his friend and helper, if he was willing to be friendly with me, the same as if this night had never been. At these words a dead silence fell on the School; every one buried face diligently in book; and the evening closed in uncommon quiet and order.” (46-48, in edition linked above)
Heb 13:7: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” 🙂
This 17th century poem, prepared later as a hymn by Wesley, captures well the truth of living all of life under the gaze of God and for his glory.
“The Elixir”
Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.
To scorn the senses’ sway,
While still to Thee I tend:
In all I do be Thou the Way,
In all be Thou the End.
All may of Thee partake;
Nothing so small can be
But draws, when acted for Thy sake,
Greatness and worth from Thee.
If done to obey Thy laws,
E’en servile labors shine;
Hallowed is toil, if this the cause,
The meanest work divine.
-George Herbert, from The Temple (1633), edited by John Wesley
The following quote comes T. K. Cheyne’s book, The Christian Use of the Psalms, published in 1900. Cheyne, a critical, Anglican scholar critiques what he sees as a flat, mundane use of the Psalms in Anglican churches. I do not agree with a number of his comments and suggestions. However, I found this section telling for several reasons: the value of the Psalms, the value of singing them, how they had already been displaced by this time in several countries, how they have endured in Scotland, and the frank admission of the lack of love of the Bible in his church.
“Have the children of the Puritans retained a sympathetic interest in the Psalter? Not to care at all for the Psalms would certainly be proof of an impoverished spiritual character …. Do the non-episcopal churches in other lands still care for the Psalms? I am afraid that France, Switzerland, and Germany will have to be reconquered by the Psalmists; modern hymns (among the best of which, religiously, are the German) have too largely displaced the fiery old Hebrew Psalms. But this is not the case in Scotland. There we still find a greater love for the Psalter than we, with all our daily services, are able to boast of. Of course, this is partly connected with the greater love of Scottish Protestants for the book of which the Psalter forms a part. Anglicans are but half-hearted lovers of the Bible. No wonder, then, that they do not appreciate the Psalms as much as Scottish Presbyterians. But the inferiority of England to Scotland as regards the Psalter is certainly due in part to the mechanical use of the Psalms which prevails south of the Tweed.”
I just heard that the “world’s most interesting man” is a guy known for recent beer commercials. Must not be a very interesting world. I am blessed to know some very interesting people so I don’t believe the pronouncement. In fact this pronouncement reminds me of a comment from C. S. Lewis in a different setting- when someone says something like this, why would you listen to anything else they say?
Really, this is just a reminder not to live our lives for the recognition of this world. If this is what they praise, why pursue their praise? Our culture has lost its ability to recognize, much less define, greatness. Our culture is blind to true greatness. You would not ask a blind man to tell you if your socks match. You ought not ask the culture to tell you if what you are doing with your life is significant.
They call pigmys giants, and then when told of real giants they refuse to believe they exist.
Brandon O’Brien in his new book Strategically Small Church, The: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective
“Despite the fact that the Bible compares the spread of the gospel to the mustard seed, which appears insignificant and unproductive, the dominant expectation of most pastors is that success is measured in terms of numerical growth. Fifty years from now, this may not be the case. We may all look back on our preoccupation with church size in the late twentieth century and say (as we do now about big hair and head-to-toe-denim), ‘What were we thinking?’ When the history books are written about our mega ministry efforts in the future, I suspect that the era between the 1970s and the present will appear the anomaly. In the decades preceding the church-growth movement, small-church ministry will prove to have been the norm by necessity. In the decades to come, small-church ministry will be the norm by choice.” (39-40, emphasis added)
He goes on to cite trends in Christian publishing which back up this bold prediction including:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Weariness of the burden of perpetual numerical growth
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Realization that the Bible defines ministry success differently than we have done
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Increased interest in leadership development, discipleship and spiritual formation are squeezing out emphasis on size
-         “the fact of the matter is that many people are finding that large-church ministry simply isn’t working anymore†(40)
I think he is on to something.
“But there is a danger in our desire to do big things for God, for our pursuit of success dovetails with a powerful American temptation: the appeal of celebrity. These days, obscurity is the worst kind of failure. When we do something significant, we expect to be rewarded with popularity.” (Brandon O’Brien, The Strategically Small Church,
“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (Jesus, John 5:44)
“It is not too much to say that, however loyal laymen are to the pulpit, they yet consider it a piece of presumption for the preacher to take up the time of the audience with ill-digested thoughts.”
– A. T. Robertson, “Grammar in Preaching”, in The Minister and His Greek New Testament
, 81)
Relevance is a big topic in the church these days. Of course we ought to be relevant, but the issue is how such relevance is defined. Doug Wilson in his A Primer on Worship and Reformation
“There are at least two kinds of irrelevance. One is the irrelevance of offering a bicycle to an oyster. But there is another kind of irrelevance entirely, and that is the practice of setting forth the gospel of light and righteousness to those who love their darkness and iniquity. We are commanded to be irrelevant in this second sense. We are called to worship God in a way that is pleasing to Him, and to which unbelievers will be attracted only if God moves them in a sovereign and mysterious way.” (13)