Ministry's Not "Running a Church"

Our local ministerium met today. We have a good group of pastors and wives who have been meeting together for years to discuss pertinent subjects. In addition to a summary of Sovereignty and Free Will, we discussed our common reading, which happens to be from Eugene Peterson's, The Contemplative Pastor. It's not always easy to know what subjects will pique another brother's interest, but one did seem to hit home today, viz., "Curing Souls: The Forgotten Art." Let me excerpt a few thoughts from it, and perhaps, if you are interested, you may want to read the entire chapter.

The primary sense of cura in Latin is "care," with undertones of "cure." The soul is the essence of the human personality. The cure of souls, then, is the Scripture-directed, prayer-shaped care that is devoted to persons singly or in groups, in settings sacred and profane. It is a determination to work at the center, to concentrate on the essential. . . . 

Curing Souls Is Not the Same As "Running a Church"

Other pastors and church people will often (mistakingly) speak for us ministers describing what we do as "running a church." But whether mistaken or not, it seems that many pastors bow to such a description. Our calling is thus reduced to an objective work that we perform instead of the prayer-drenched curing of souls. Peterson writes:

It should be clear that the cure of souls is not a specialized form of ministry (analogous, for instance, to hospital chaplain or pastoral counselor) but is the essential pastoral work. . . . Curing souls is a term that filters out what is introduced by a secularizing culture. . . . A caveat: I contrast the cure of souls with the task of running a church, but I do not want to be misunderstood. I am not contemptuous of running a church, nor do I dismiss its importance. I run a church myself: I have for over twenty years. [He continued to 29 years at the same church] I try to do it well.

But I do it in the same spirit that I, along with my wife, run our house. There are many essential things we routinely do, often (but not always) with joy. But running a house is not what we do. We we do is build a home, develop in marriage, raise children, practice hospitality, pursue lives of work and play. It is reducing pastoral work to institutional duties that I object to, not the duties themselves, which I gladly share with others in the church.

"Christian Directions" from Samuel Rutherford

Puritan pastors (like many today) were anxious to assist their flocks with spiritual aids to help them live genuine Christian lives. Below are 8 (online) from the pen of the wonderfully holy Samuel Rutherford. As a pastor, I will copy such as these for distribution at our church, particularly to the several classes I teach. I do this for at least two reasons: 1) the material reveals basic and often more heart-exposing wisdom than that of our present-day fare, and 2) it connects contemporary believers with those from history who have traveled the pilgrim road before us. Thus, they constitute another cross-section of that "great cloud of witnesses" whose faithful endurance encourages us to continue fighting the fight of faith. Exposure to the classics can only provide our fellow-believers with a wider and hopefully, more profound explication of the Christian life. 

1. That hours of the day, less or more time, for the Word and prayer, be given to God; not sparing the twelfth hour, or mid-day, howbeit it should then be the shorter time.

2. In the midst of worldly employments, there should be some thoughts of sin, death, judgment, and eternity, with at least a word or two of [short] prayer[s] to God. These help us foster the presence of an eternal perspective. 

3. To beware of wandering of heart in private prayer. Easy to do, but it can be controlled.

4. Not to grudge if ye come from prayer without sense of joy. Downcasting, sense of guiltiness, and hunger, are often best for us. We neither deny nor exalt our feelings, but see all things as useful which drive us to God.

5. That the Lord's Day, from morning to night, be spent always either in private or public worship. 

6. That words be observed, wandering and idle thoughts be avoided, sudden anger and desire of revenge, even of such as persecute the truth, be guarded against; for we often mix our zeal with our wild-fire.

7. That known, discovered, and revealed sins, that are against the conscience, be avoided, as most dangerous preparatives to hardness of heart. Why? Because these insinuate themselves into our lives undetected, and often are only discovered after they have left a scar.

8. That in dealing with men, faith and truth in covenants and trafficking be regarded, that we deal with all men in sincerity; that conscience be made of idle and lying words; and that our carriage be such, as that they who see it may speak honourably of our sweet Master and profession.

Real Christianity Really Needed TODAY!

ONE cannot help but wonder at Tozer's farsightedness which seemed to witness the very world in which we live today. Although he died in 1963, you could hardly tell it by the following paragraph!

Now more than at any other time in generations, the believer is in a position to go on the offensive. The world is lost on a wide sea, and Christians alone know the way to the desired haven. While things were going well, the world scorned them with their Bible and hymns, but now the world needs them desperately, and it needs that despised Bible, too. For in the Bible, and there only, is found the chart to tell us where we are going on this rough and unknown ocean. The day when Christians should meekly apologize is over—they can get the world's attention not by trying to please, but by boldly declaring the truth of divine revelation. They can make themselves heard not by compromise, but by taking the affirmative and sturdily declaring, Thus saith the Lord.    —A. W. Tozer on Christian Leadership 

As we head into Sunday, let us resolve anew that we who have the truth will not conceal it, but blare it from the roof-tops! Matthew 5:16 urges us, Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works (truth-telling) and give glory to your Father in heaven (because it is evident from your words that heaven is the origin of your message). 

John "Rabbi" Duncan on Calling Men to Christ

I'm not even waiting one day to post this quotation! It comes thanks to John Piper's blog. When my wife, Phyllis, read it to me this morning, I was elated! Why? Because, as Duncan was prone to do, he "hit the nail right on the head." [Let me note that Piper sites Rich Gleanings as his source (see below). He sends you to Amazon where there are a few used copies. My link is to Reformed Heritage who offer the same in a new copy for less!] 

I was so intrigued by the contents of the quotation that I searched my copy of Duncan's sayings, Just A Talker. (He wasn't known for writings but for his peripatetic wisdom). At any rate, I found the same words in my book and to my delight found that I had highlighted the same words! So, I thank Piper for realigning my thoughts by surfacing this great word! I hope you're as encouraged by the profound wisdom found in these words. You may want to re-read Duncan's words. 

Piper writes:

The Bible teaches that we are so sinful we are morally unable to please God (Romans 8:7). It also teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Yet salvation is by faith, and we are called again and again in Scripture to believe (Acts 16:31).

How then shall we preach to those who cannot come to Christ, but must come in order to be saved?

John Duncan (1796-1870) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and a missionary to the Jews in Hungary. He is often referred to as Rabbi Duncan because of his love for Jewish people. John Macleod wrote that "since the days of the Apostles there is hardly on record such a striking work of grace among the Jews as took place in the days of his labors in Buda-Pesth."

Here is Duncan's penetrating answer to our question.

It would not do to tell a man that he may come to Christ, but that he must come. Some, indeed, would have man to do all, though he could do nothing; and others would have him to do nothing, because all was done for him.

As long as I am told that I must come to God, and that I can come, I am left to suppose that some good thing, or some power of good remains in me, and I arrogate to myself that which belongs to Jehovah. The creature is exalted, and God is robbed of His glory.

If, on the other hand, I am told that I cannot come to God, but not also that I must come, I am left to rest contented at a distance from God, I am not responsible for my rebellion, and God Jehovah is not my God.

But if we preach that sinners can't come, and yet must come, then is the honour of God vindicated, and the sinner is shut up. Man must be so shut up that he must come to Christ, and yet know that he cannot. He must come to Christ, or he will look to another, when there is no other to whom he may come; he cannot come, or he will look to himself.

This is the gospel vice, to shut up men to the faith. Some grasp at one limb of the vice and some at the other, leaving the sinner open - but when a man is shut up that he must and cannot, he is shut up to the faith - shut up to the faith, and then would he be shut up in the faith. God is declared to be Jehovah, and the sinner is made willing to be saved by Him, in His own way, as sovereign in His grace. (Rich Gleanings, 392, emphases added)

Rutherford on Loving God for Himself

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), an eminent Scottish Puritan wrote some of the most sublime and spiritual letters in the history of the Christian church. (Online version) C. H. Spurgeon (d. 1892) wrote of him:

What a wealth of spiritual nourishment we have here! Rutherford is beyond all praise of men. Like a strong-winged eagle he soars into the highest heaven and with unblenched eye he looks into the mystery of love divine. There is, to us, something mysterious, awe-creating and superhuman about Rutherford's letters. . . . When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men (from the flyleaf of the Banner of Truth version pictured above).

Richard Baxter (d. 1691) said of his letters, "Hold off the Bible, such a book the world never saw." 

Here, then is a letter which was written to Lady Kenmure:

True Love for Christ Outshines All Other Loves

And among many marks that we are on this journey, and under sail toward heaven, this is one, when the love of God so filleth our hearts, that we forget to love, and care not much for the having, or wanting of, other things; as one extreme heat burneth out another. By this Madam, ye know, ye have betrothed your soul in marriage to Christ, when ye do make but small reckoning of all other suitors or wooers; and when ye can (having little in hand, but much in hope) live as a young heir, during the time of his non-age and minority, being content to be as hardly handled and under as precise a reckoning as servants, because his hope is upon the inheritance. . . . 

Ye shall find it your only happiness, under whatever thing disturbeth and crosseth your peace of mind, in this life, to love nothing for itself, but only God for Himself. . . . Our love to Him should begin on earth, as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not, by a thousand degrees, so much delight in her wedding garment as she doth in her bridegroom; so we, in the life to come, howbeit clothed with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory that goeth about us, as with the bridegroom's joyful face and presence.

Seventeenth century language aside, one can hardly improve upon the heart with which Rutherford writes this, nor the degree of love to which he aims. O Lord, give us such intensity!

Practice Ambitious Meditation!

I suppose it must provide no little relief to consider that the Puritans lacked in some of the same areas as we do ourselves? One such area is meditation on God's Word. Thomas Manton, a perceptive English Puritan, put his finger on it when he said that it is generally easier for Christians to busy themselves battling false doctrine than it is for them to fortify themselves in the faith. 

Hear Manton:

It is the duty of Christians to sequester and set apart some time and place for solemn meditation, or the exercising their souls in heavenly and holy things. 
My purpose is to speak of meditation, a duty unaccustomed and unpracticed; both the practice and the knowledge of it are become strangers to us. The times are times of action and tumult, and we all think that we have so much to do with others, that few desire to converse with God and themselves. Our case is somewhat like theirs in Nehemiah’s time, Neh. 4:17, ‘With one hand they wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.’ We are forced to fight and quarrel for our religion, that we may rescue the innocent and holy principles of it from violation and scorn. I observe that many Christians use the sword, they spend the heat and strength of their spirits in controversies; but I doubt they do not use the trowel enough, and are not so serious in private retirements as they are earnest in public defenses.” (Manton on Genesis 24:63, Sermon 1, p. 5).

Indeed, "It is easier to stand against the enemies of Christ than it is to stand for Christ." This seems so true with regard to meditation on the Word. And I suspect that the chief reason is that it is usually easier for us to react objectively rather than to ponder things subjectively. The former keeps truth at arm's distance where we imagine we can handle it, whereas the later puts us in it's debt, forcing our compliance, or at least our reaction. But Christian growth is all about submission, yielding to God. Together, let this apparent weakness compel our repentance that we do not find more delight in loving Christ than in defending Him. 

Piper Books Online-A Wonderful Resource!

Sometimes in our rush to live life, we run roughshod right over top of some of the most wonderful gifts—free gifts! Such are the resources on the Desiring God website. I am specifically drawing attention to John Piper's numerous books, even the most recent one, Finally Alive. Perhaps it is presumptuous on my part to try and persuade people who read this blog to read books (since they most likely have that habit already!). But, I must say something on the outside chance that I am writing to someone who has not experienced the enlightening benefits of current prophetic voices. My Dad used to quote: “They who will not read have no advantage over those who cannot read.” Piper is a prophetic voice for our day. Let’s take advantage of this great opportunity and—barring the outright purchase of the books—read them online. So, what are you waiting for? Pick one and get started!

Note: The above photo was lifted directly off the Desiring God website today.