Tag: Ministry

Categories
Pastors

More on Pillar Men and the Context of Revitalization

I’ve had a couple of people ask me about an article that I wrote, Move Toward Elder Leadership By Developing Pillar Men. The concern that was expressed was that the article lacked context. Without that context, it could be misunderstood in different ways, such as minimizing the contributions of older men in the church, or offering a sort of disingenuous, ‘fifth column’ approach to ministry. Without the context explained I can see that some of these impressions could be taken. So I’ll attempt to unpack a bit better what I mean.

  1. A Pastor’s Dilemma in a “Revitalization”

If a pastor takes a job at a church, at the minimum, there ought to be agreement on paper with the doctrinal positions that he and the church maintain. However, often in spiritually declining churches,  the church body has immature understandings of their own statement faith, or at worst they are a resistant to change, even though such change is argued from Scripture and in keeping with their own statement of faith. 

This type of resistance is the normal context of a revitalization. It may be that some churches are more or less resistant, or they are not resistant, but they are unaware of their practical, doctrinal inconsistencies. 

A conservative pastor who takes a job in a less than conservative church, will have his hands full in staying faithful to his own convictions, working within the parameters of his doctrinal agreement with the church, and extending grace to the congregation as he has received from the Lord. 

Still, pastors will have to make choices. They are limited and they need to know where should they expend their energies in ministry. The priority must be in preaching the Word of God and praying for God to be glorified in the context of the ministry (cf. Acts 6:4). Many pastors will aim to be faithful to this calling, and in the face of resistance, they will not have much more to offer in the ministry. They will feel overtaxed very quickly. They will pray and teach and minister to people as they can. However, in resistant contexts, they can get burnt out in a hurry because they can feel alone in the work, without like-minded support. Many younger men (and older ones) have had short ministries in churches that need revitalization, and they leave that church (and the ministry) disillusioned and exhausted. Often they never knew where to start to address the dilemma of revitalization beyond their Sunday morning ministry. 

  1. The Missing Mentorship

Most pastors in a revitalization are exhausted by maintaining the regular ministry work. What tends to be dropped is the command to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also”. This mentorship of potentially ‘pillar men’ needs to be a high priority for the pastor facing the dilemma of revitalization. It is easily ignored due to the busy demands of regular ministry. However if these men are not invested in, then you are failing to steward your ministry faithfully, and ignoring the long-term view of the church. 

  1.  Older Men 

Some of the misunderstandings of my previous article had to do with my emphasis on younger men, (although I did qualify my statements about older men). Given the context of a revitalization, (which I had not stated in the article, but was the context of the pastor whom I was counselling), the young men need to be prioritized. Why would I say that? Is it because like our culture says, youth is better than old age? No. The reason is based upon the ministry context that I was addressing. A church that has become schlerotic and sick has had its older members participate in promoting the decline, or more likely, watching as the decline occurred all around them. 

In spiritually or doctrinally compromised churches, the older men tend to be doctrinally confused, apathetic, or sadly unsaved. Sometimes there will be a lamenting stalwart who has remained at the church despite the decline, but who has prayed and hoped for better things. Often that man can be a great ally for a pastor as he seeks to bring a church back to biblical moorings. But generally speaking, older men who have become set in their ways, are in deep ruts of bad teaching or bad practice, and they can be resistant to biblical change. 

  1. Strategic Positions

So assuming that there are not a pocket of older men who are spiritually mature and supportive of biblical change in the church, a pastor will invest in the men’s ministry and the young men in particular. 

Over time, as those young men are mentored (2 Tim 2:2), there will be opportunities for various kinds of ministry in the church which they can take up. At this point, the temptation can be for the up and coming ‘pillar men’ to only want to study theology, and teaching or preach publicly. This is where a wise and strategic understanding of the church is critical. According to 1 Cor 12, Ro 12 and Eph 4:15-16, the principle of the church as the body of Christ must be dominant. This means that every believer has God-given roles to play in the body, just as elbows, toes, eyes, lungs and cartilege all have various roles. 

Pillar men have roles to play in a church, and it is critical that they are encouraged to fulfill those roles. The primary way for them to do this is to engage in faithful churchmanship. And that means they should start to serve in ‘unglamorous’ ministries. This is where real relationships are developed, where biblical examples of being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-14) can be expressed. Remember, we’re talking about ministry in a church that has been in spiritual and doctrinal decline. Often ministry inside these churches is more like evangelism than the discipleship of believers. 

As I counselled my pastor friend, I stressed that ministries or committees that might seem unimportant, are nevertheless viewed as important by people in the church. When pillar men engage in patient empathetic ways with these committees and ministries, they show that they care about the people, but they also care enough to be “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). 

In my article, due to its abbreviated manner and lack of context, it might have given the impression that slotted these pillar men into these ministries is a sort of cynical infiltration. On the contrary, when pillar men (or any godly person man or woman) takes a caring interest in others, they are showing that they care about the people, not just about their picture of ecclesiastical perfection. At the same time, when pillar men commit to engage with ministries and committees, they do so with the aim to bring the thinking and the actions of the church into conformity to Christ, taking even every thought captive to him (2 Cor 10:5). This aim is no dark conspiracy, but is the design of the healthy body of Christ, “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph 4:16). 

  1. Culture Before Constitutions

One of the frequent challenges which pastors face is to assist a church to reform it’s governance structures. For example, in Canada, it is surprising how many churches are governed by a board of directors model. This model is not found in Scripture, but is found in the manuals of IBM and General Motors. In the face of these unbiblical structures, many zealous pastors have attempted to instituted structural change rapidly. They push the church to move toward a plurality of elders, or they push to implement meaningful membership and clear inactive members from the rolls. But when they do this, they are attempting a political change in the church without the hard work of applied ministry. As with all sanctifying work, the inside must be changed before the outside can be. 

So encouraging the 2 Tim 2:2 men to engage in the various ministries and committees of the church will result in a shift in the church from decline to spiritual life. This is where change must start. Then when it comes time for the annual meeting, the church will have a new desire to reform it’s structures and even its constitution to reflect biblical governance. 

The task of revitalization is an important one, but for pastors who take up the challenge, they have the opportunity to patiently see God sanctify individuals, and over time, see the transformation of unhealthy churches into healthy ones. 

This is a plan which God has established, and we have the privilege of serving him as he works. 

Categories
Canada Clint Gospel Ministry

How Do We Define a Canadian Evangelical?

When John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously separated over the nature of associations, at issue was the question of ‘Who is a Christian?’ or even ‘What is an Evangelical?’

Now names and debates from the 20th century may be already forgotten in today’s media glut. But the questions remain with us, just as they have always been since the days of Jesus among the Pharisees to the fundamentalist-modernist controversies.

Doctrinal or Sociological?

In Canada, we must ask whether our Evangelicalism is doctrinal or sociological. Put another way, are Evangelicals defined by what they believe or who they associate with?

I was reminded of this belief versus belonging contrast when a new member of my church recently arrived from the Middle East made the comment about how being an Evangelical in Canada is quickly associated with being an American Republican. The term ‘Evangelical’ is now defined as a sociological category, not a doctrinal one.

Well of course we can expect such misundertandings outside the church. We need to remember that from the early days in Antioch, the disciples were called “Christians” (Acts 11:26), and it wasn’t a compliment.

But what about inside the church? How should we be defining ourselves? In Canada, there has often been too little thought about these defining questions. In what follows I will argue that Canadian Evangelicals need to return to a clear doctrinal basis, not mere sociological connections.  

What Do Evangelicals Believe?

At bottom, we need to ask what are the cardinal truths that define an Evangelical. One of the basic ones is a belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. If you don’t confess the inerrancy of Scripture, then you’re not an Evangelical. You might call yourself something else, but your not an Evangelical. Inerrancy is a well worn doctrinal position with detailed ecumenical statements clarifying its definition. If a pastor doesn’t confess inerrancy, he isn’t an Evangelical.

To some this seems obvious. But in Canada, not everyone thinks that way. There are many churches with pastors, elder boards, and denominational committees that view themselves as Evangelicals in a sociological way, but they don’t believe key tenets of what Evangelicals believe.

Doctrine Gives Clarity

I have spoken with pastors from various historically Evangelical denominations and they tend to say something similar. They feel their denominations don’t want to talk about doctrine. Or at least they don’t want to debate doctrine by doing hard work in exegesis, determining what is very clear, less clear and unclear in a text. Denominations have embraced the adage that ‘doctrine divides’. And they are committed to maintain the social cohesion of their institutions, even if it means dropping the doctrinal reason for their existence.

So at general assemblies, pursuit of doctrinal clarification is often met with impassioned pleas for unity and accomodation. Those desiring to discuss doctrine are then viewed prejoratively as doctrinaire.

But doctrine gives clarity. By applying time tested principles to the Scriptures, there is a greater ability to do theological triage. That’s how Albert Mohler put it. He said:

A discipline of theological triage would require Christians to determine a scale of theological urgency that would correspond to the medical world’s framework for medical priority.

By identifying doctrinal definitions a lot of confusing things would be made clearer.

The Honesty Problem

A problem comes when those merely sociological Evangelicals aren’t honest. It’s when they don’t come right out and announce to everyone that they do not believe what Evangelicals confess. They might like being an Evangelical and know lots of Evangelicals and read Evangelical books, but they actually don’t believe what Evangelicals believe. It’s double-talk and phony virtue signalling.

I always have to wonder why it is that people who refuse to confess inerrancy or penal substitutionary atonement still want to hang with those who do?  Are Evangelicals that cool? Certainly not me or the ones I know.

Maybe it’s my suspicion of human nature, but I honestly think that many people know that Evangelicalism is where the action is. In the Evangelical movement, you have more money, more book publishing, more media, more youth and more energy. If non-Evangelicals choose to be consistent they have to join the liberal mainline denominations. Once they cross that threshold, they give up the benefits of the Evangelical movement. Rather it can be quite lucrative to stay in the Evangelical camp while denying what it stands for. A person can adopt a sort of ‘lone prophet chic’. There is one blogger with massive evangelical readership who is clearly non-evangelical in every way. But if she went clearly into the liberal mainline, she’d lose the crowd. Yet she can only truly come back to Evangelical faith by being awakened to repentance for her unbelief and false belief.

The Fact of False Teaching

So Canadian Evangelicals, and especially Reformed Evangelicals (like TGCCanada), ought to be happy about clarifying doctrine, with appropriate levels of priority and triage.

Should we despise the non-evangelical for their false beliefs? No. We must continue to be precise and winsome in our loving presentation of the gospel to them.

What about non-evangelical ‘church leaders’? Do they get honored because they are in church leadership?  My view is that they should be recognized as one of the ‘helping professions’ like doctors or nurses, or even a firefighter or policeman. A Roman Catholic priest may be kind and helpful to someone in a physical or mental way. The United Church minister may do good things in the community.

But a Roman Catholic priest or a non-evangelical pastor is also a false teacher, viewed in doctrinal terms. They may be sincere and utterly convinced of their beliefs, but they are sincerely wrong, offending God by their teaching, and deceiving the people in their pews.

It can seem overly dramatic to call someone a false teacher. Evangelicals have been used to thinking that every Protestant who is not in a mainline liberal denomination is an Evangelical. Often it has been only the obscurantist with a poor skill in theological triage who has labelled people as false teachers within this sociological group. Yet times change.

Faithful Triage

It illustrates the state of Canadian Evangelicalism that a very broad confession such as TGC is possibly viewed as doctrinaire and obscurantist. Still we cannot weaken our resolve to do faithful triage, and identify false teaching. We must be more concerned with the eternal suffering of lost, decieved souls, than the temporary sufferings of disdain or dismissal by gatekeepers of the ‘used to be evangelical’ crowd.

Let us ask ourselves afresh, “What is an Evangelical?” That simple question could bring great clarity to the Canadian Christian scene. The answer will separate the doctrinal from the sociological. Such an answer would be no less than a clarifying answer to prayer.

Categories
Ministry

John MacArthur’s Ministry and its Fruit in My Life.

Image Credit: Josh Spires (Unsplash).

With 50 years of ministry under his belt, it would be difficult to calculate the influence which John MacArthur has had under God.  Such metrics are measured only in heaven and the formulas result in magnification, not of man but God.

So in our limited time, our scope of the fruitfulness of the Spirit through a man’s ministry remains limited as well. Each of our ministries will be flawed and imperfect. There will be sin and consequences. It’s the same for MacArthur, me and you. Nevertheless, as we consider a longstanding, fruitful ministry we can obey the directive of Paul to the Philippians regarding Epaphroditus, “honour such men” (Phil 2:29).

I first heard John MacArthur on Grace To You via the local radio station. The broadcast came on after the hog report and before J. Vernon McGee.  It was on a January evening after a day of feeding cattle that I heard MacArthur’s exposition, and his summons to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I did. And I am forever grateful to God for using John MacArthur in my life that day.

I listened to Grace to You in the months that followed. It was very formative for me as a new believer. It was on the radio broadcast that I learned about The Masters College. It took a long time for a prairie cowboy to be convinced to travel to Los Angeles for college, but I acquiesced and attended TMC and Grace Community Church. I was still new in the faith and the experience during that time set me on a sound footing for the future.

A few years later I saw MacArthur when he would come to Canada for radio rallies, once in Calgary, and another time near Toronto. Somehow I’d get a question in, but I didn’t have any personal time.

In the last few years, I’ve been able to see him at T4G. At a lunch, I had a few moments with him. We talked about Calgary, where I’m from. He noted with interest that his father was born in Calgary and his grandfather worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad while living there.

At the last T4G, with a decade and more of ministry under my belt, I had the chance to speak to MacArthur again. We talked about Calgary and his family connections as before. We went over my testimony about Grace to You on the radio. But I had to cut off my conversation when I got emotional at the thought of the length of his ministry and its effect on the length of mine.  Each year that passes brings us closer to the days when we will not meet again in the flesh but meet in glory.

There are too many layers for me to index when I think about MacArthur’s influence on me, so I’ll have to leave that for another time of reflection. Nor am I making a comprehensive evaluation of his ministry. As Alistair Begg said once, “The best of men are men at best”. For now, I will mention two of MacArthur’s books that have had a major impact on me.  

The first is Ashamed of the Gospel. This book was like a diagnosis of a person with an autoimmune disease. Though the patient might look healthy on the outside, their body is literally attacking itself. MacArthur’s insight was so clear and biblical that it helped me navigate the recurring waves of pragmatism that marked the late 20th-century evangelical church. Apart from a few dated references, Ashamed of the Gospel contains a perennial critique of our own day, proving the accuracy of his analysis, even if his efforts have not held back the tide that prevails. Still, his ministry has been an ark in that flood.

The second book that stamped me most was The Vanishing Conscience. I still think it is MacArthur’s best, and yet his most underrated and underappreciated. Others such as Charismatic Chaos or the Gospel According to Jesus likely sold more copies and were more talked about. They were at the centers of controversy. The Vanishing Conscience was at the center of something else— the battle for mind and heart.  

I could sum up MacArthur’s entire ministry as an extended effort to inform the conscience by the Word of God. It is utterly Puritan. Applying the precision of the Scriptures to the exact workings of that inner complex of heart, mind and soul. It’s no wonder that MacArthur had a chapter in The Vanishing Conscience which highlighted John Owen’s work on the Mortification of Sin.

Even as I limit myself to two books, I’m at a loss. In reflecting on a fruitful ministry, human metrics are poor measuring tools.  Hagiography and biography, weakness and strength will all pale in comparison to the day when the master says, ‘‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ (Matthew 25:23).