Pastor and People

Every summer I pick a few good books to enjoy. During the school semester I am reading weighty and technical books. These books are extremely enjoyable but during the summer months I enjoy reading something that otherwise I might not read. Below is a small list of some wonderful reads I recommend for the summer. Whether on the beach or just sitting by the pool, these books will no doubt fill your summer with many adventures.

The Hobbit
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
ISBN: 0618260307
Binding: Paperback

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

When Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, “looking for someone to share in an adventure,” Bilbo Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit’s doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.

The Hobbit is a classic that all should read. If you have read The Hobbit before, perhaps many times, it is time to pull it off the shelf once again this summer for another great adventure in Middle Earth.

John Adams
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Author: David McCullough
ISBN: 0743223136
Binding: Paperback

In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as “out of his senses”; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history.

This is history on a grand scale — a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Publisher: Vintage
Author: Ron Chernow
ISBN: 1400077303
Binding: Paperback

Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book will indelibly alter our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded “the Octopus” by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America. This is an amazing book, Chernow has outdone himself.

March
Publisher: Penguin
Author: Geraldine Brooks
ISBN: 0143036661
Binding: Paperback

March imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or “contraband.” His narrative begins with cheerful letters home, but March gradually reveals to the reader what he does not to his family: the cruelty and racism of Northern and Southern soldiers, the violence and suffering he is powerless to prevent and his reunion with Grace, a beautiful, educated slave whom he met years earlier as a Connecticut peddler to the plantations. Geraldine Brooks is one of the most amazing writers I have ever read.

If you have read any of these books please drop me a line.

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” - Galatians 2:16

One mark of an excellent ministry is not the size of your church, the number of baptisms per year, the programs and various committees, but if your children grow up to love and adore the church. From the time they are born a pastors’ child is the center of attention in the church and cannot escape scrutiny by members. When dad doesn’t come home when he said he would, when dad misses the ball game, when dad misses the ballet; his children begin to resent the church at an early age. They feel that their dad loves others, who are not of his own family, more than he loves them. Brothers, let us keep watch over how we raise our children in the church. Let us be a pastor to our family first and then a pastor to our congregation.

The familiar verse from Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” If your children grow up to love, adore and cherish Christ and His church and become active members in a local body you have succeeded in your ministry. Teach your children that church life is not always problems and tribulations that consume dad’s attention. The church is the Bride for whom Christ gave His life and is the greatest institution on the earth. Raise your children to cherish Christ above everything else, including yourself.

There are several practical things a dad, pastor, can do to teach his children to love the church and the gospel ministry:

1. Spend time with your children. Set aside time each day to spend with your children. Uninterrupted time where you play, talk, read, etc… This time is just as important as when you sit at your desk. Cherish this time and look forward to this time. Let your children know that they have a place in your life as well as others.

2. Don’t discuss church business in front of your kids. This is a dangerous thing to do! You may discuss certain things with your wife, but never discuss church problems and issues in front of your children. They will grow up thinking the church is noting but problems and something that caused daddy pain and heartache.

3. Praise the church in front of your kids. After the Sunday morning service, on the way home, talk about how wonderful the service was. Discuss with your children their favorite portion of the service, their favorite hymn sung, etc…

4. Don’t let your children be an example to the rest of the congregation. Your parenting skills are a process just like the rest of the parents in your congregation. Just because you are a pastor and a man of God does not mean you will be the perfect parent. Don’t set your children on an unrealistic pedestal as an example to the rest of the congregation. Don’t allow your parenting and disciplinary skills be the standard for the other parents in your church.

5. Pray with your children. One of the best things to instill within the heart of your children at an early age is the love of talking to God. Before they go to bed, or at the breakfast or dinner table pray with your children. Teach them to pray from an early age. This will instill a confidence and trust in God. There earthly father may leave them but they will learn to seek a Father that will never leave nor forsake them.

These are just a few practical steps a pastor and his wife can take in raising their children to love the church. This counsel could be used by all Christian parents so that, “when they are old they will not depart from it.”

You can now listen to the Wheaton Alumni Symposium. The panel was Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and John Piper. They discussed changes in Evangelicalism over the last 40 years (the length of time since they all graduated from college).

It begins with a 10-minute intro from each; then there’s some discussion among themselves; and it closes with some questions from the audience.

When I was first called into the ministry an older preacher tell me that I needed to drive a used car in order to afford books and build a sound library. A sound library is indispensable in the life of the pastor. A faithful expositor builds a library that will aid him in study and sermon preparation in order to “rightly divide the word of truth.” Many of a pastors best friends are those who have died centuries before but set upon his shelf speaking to him daily.

If you are developing your library or need help in organizing the one you have please click on the link below:

850 Books for Biblical Expositors

This is an invaluable resource for anyone in ministry which is made available from the faculty of The Master’s Seminary. This article not only gives you a list of the best 850 study resources and books for those serious about doing Biblical exposition, but also discusses your book collection, periodical collection, tape library, and filing systems. I am sure you will enjoy this link and will find it greatly beneficial to your ministry.

Numbered among Time’s 10 Best Moms Ever were such notables as Marge Simpson, Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, and Mrs. Jumbo from the hit Disney movie Dumbo. Among the list was someone I had not even considered as I was reading the Time story. Jochabed, the mother of Moses was number 5 on the list.

When Pharaoh demanded that all the male Jewish newborns be slaughtered, Jochabed had a difficult decision and was faced with trying circumstances. Jochabed was pregnant with Moses, the very one God would use to deliver His people out of Egyptian captivity and finally posses the Promised Land. Instead of subjecting her son to murder, Jochabed placed her newborn baby in a floating basket among the current of the Nile River (Exodus 2). Moses floated into the bathing waters of Pharaoh’s daughter who claimed him as her own. God’s marvelous providence positioned Jochabed as the nurse that would raise Moses in Pharaoh’s household.

Faced with the punishment of death for not following Pharaoh’s orders, Jochabed choose life for her son and placed him in the providential hands of God. She courageously choose to obey God rather than man. As we reflect on mothers and their infinite value in our lives and society let us praise the mothers who choose life!

Jonathan Edwards: A Life

Publisher: Triliteral LLC - Yale
Author: Marsden, George M.
ISBN-10: 0300105967 | ISBN-13: 9780300105964

Introduction

Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden is a captivating biography of one of America’s greatest thinkers, theologians, and preachers. Chronicling the life of this New England pastor, Marsden takes the reader into the 18th century making the sights and sounds of the era come alive. Through the eyes of a Northampton pastor, Marsden paints a picture of Edwards’s conversion, ascent to the pulpit, family and home life, and private journey as a child of God. A reader will come away from this book being encouraged and challenged to discipline oneself in matters of spiritual reflection for the sake of the glory of Christ and His kingdom.

Summary

Jonathan Edwards is a fascinating character of Puritan heritage and background. Beginning with his rearing in the godly home of his father Timothy and mother Esther, Edwards learned the disciplines and practices that he would use for the rest of his life. He came to “a new sense of things” early in life and told his father of his experiences. Jonathan recalled that he was “pretty much affected” by this conversation, and when it ended he walked into the fields for contemplation. “And as I was walking there,” he reported, “and looked up on the sky and clouds; there came into my mind, a sweet sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.” From that point forward Edwards began his journey into the things of Christ.

After his college training at Yale and a brief pastorate at a young Presbyterian congregation in New York, he joined his grandfather Solomon Stoddard in the church of Northampton. Marsden writes, “While grandson and grandfather agreed on most subjects, the most difficult transition for Jonathan was the much-debated question of conversion and communion to working in his grandfather’s domain.” This debate would cause Edwards to loose his pastoral position in years to come. His marriage to Sarah in July 1727 was a step signaling the young assistant’s transition to adult and authoritative status. After his grandfather’s death Jonathan assumed the senior pastor role in the Northampton church giving him many years of ministry and labor among the people.

The years of 1740-41 brought a spiritual awakening in New England that swept from Boston and along the eastern seaboard. Marsden says, “As revival fires were sweeping from Boston throughout New England during the spring, Edwards was enjoying a relatively modest though gratifying awakening among the young people of Northampton.” After the revival years were ended Edwards published one of his greatest works, Religious Affections which appeared in 1746. Affections grew from a sermon series Edwards preached in his own church examining the proper place of affections in the Christian life. This exposition remains the most widely read and admired of his theological works.

After many years of fruitful ministry and labor among the people of Northampton some in the church began to question Edwards regarding who he would admit to the Lord’s Table. Not following his grandfather’s belief that unregenerate and regenerate members may partake of the Lord’s Supper, Edwards was asked to leave the church. In his farewell sermon, preached July 1, 1750, Edwards firmly reminded his congregation of such an eternal perspective, which had been the central motif of his ministry.

After the ‘communion controversy’ ended his pastoral charge in Northampton, Edwards moved his ‘sizable’ family to Stockbridge where he would pastor and minister to the Indians. During that pastorate Edwards was asked to become a college president in Princeton where he would remain until his death on March 22, 1758.

Evaluation

Marsden sets the stage for the reader of this biography by developing the reality of life in the 18th century. He is not afraid to put on display the vulnerabilities, failures, and successes of Edwards as a pastor. In the midst of numerous writing and preaching what one sees at the core of Edwards’ outlook is a rigorously unsentimental view of love. Marsden says, “This attitude is especially difficult to appreciate for those who sensibilities have been shaped by the sentimentality of succeeding eras.” Edwards begins with the premise that the Trinitarian God is essentially loving and creates the universe in order to share that love with others. Yet God permits real and terrible evil in that universe; it is in a state of war because of Satan’s rebellion against God. “Those on the side of evil in this warfare hate true love and what is ultimately good” Marsden says. For the Christian who was to be untied with Christ, life remained a struggle of the deepest contrasts. Edwards resolved the highs and lows of his own spiritual experiences into the lessons of this tough-minded theological heritage that did not flinch at the discomforts of a lifetime of struggles, even for the regenerate. As Edwards expressed in one of the most revealing early entries in his “Shadows of Divine Things” notebook:

“Roses grow upon briers, which is to signify that all temporal sweets are mixed with bitter. But what seems more especially to be meant by it, is that true happiness, the crown of glory, is to be come at in no other way than by bearing Christ’s cross by a life of mortification, self-denial and labor, and bearing all things for Christ.”

This theme of love dominates Edwards life and pastorate as he preaches, writes and thinks on the beauty and love of God in Christ. Through the Great Awakening, communion controversy, and various frontier struggles Edwards kept his mind and heart completely focused on the love of Christ which he would enjoy more completely when he beheld Christ in the beauty of Heaven. The theme of love in Edwards is what dominates Marsden’s biography. This theme is what should dominate the life of any pastor and man of God. It should be the driving force that keeps his mind and heart focused on the glory of Christ.

One of the best and most informative chapters in this biography is entitled, “The Unfinished Masterworks”. As Edwards set off for Princeton in January 1758 he had to resign himself to the reality that it might be God’s will that he not finish the two “great works” he had described in his letters to the college trustees. It continues to be a mystery as to what two “great works” he was referring to in his letter. Marsden outlines the works of Edwards in the chapter giving particular emphasis to his Harmony of the Old and New Testaments as well as his Body of Divinity. The notebooks he carried with him to Princeton would fill many thousand pages when published. The writing side of Edwards consumed his time and energy as he wrote everything down that came to his mind. This is an important aspect that needs to be emphasized in the personal lives of modern pastors. Edwards sets for us the perfect example of a disciplined man devoted to all things concerning Christ.

Marsden shows the modern reader what happens to a man who is truly devoted to kingdom matters. He may be ridiculed by his own family, he may be fired from his own pastorate, and even die an early death but he will have an impact upon history that is unparallel. Marsden begins chapter 30 by saying, “Edwards spent his whole life preparing to die.” Should this not be the focus of every believer of Christ? Edwards shows us how to live, how to preach, how to write and how to be a loving pastor and servant of Christ.

Conclusion

Jonathan Edwards helps to bridge the gap between the Edwards of the students of American culture and the Edwards of the theologians. Marsden takes seriously the thought of Edwards in regards to the larger Christian tradition. This biography will give the reader a wider look at 18th century life and thought. It will answer questions as to what was going on in the intellectual and cultural advance surrounding Jonathan Edwards and his ministry. This author would highly recommend this biography as one not to be overlooked in the study of Jonathan Edwards.

In our thinking about the duties and demands of a pastor we often forget what a heavy load is carried by the pastors’ wife. She is often swept into the shadows as we elevate the pastor as the only one needing mentoring, training, and direction. It is said by many modern-day churches that the pastor and his wife share in a ‘co-pastorate’ of the church. I have seen signs with a picture of the happy couple advertising them as ‘Pastors’ or ‘Co-Pastors’. However, this is not the biblical role or mandate of the pastors’ wife. The pastorate of a church is for Godly men who have been called by God into such a high position. Even though it is not biblical for the wife to be a ‘co-pastor’ it is biblical for the wife to support her husband in the ministry and maintain an active ministry role in the church by being a Godly example to all other women and help-mate to her husband.

The wife of a pastor carries many burdens and also wears many hats. She is often asked to fill the vacant nursery spot, the empty choir chair, or cook the extra dish for the pot-luck dinner. She is kept in the dark about confidential conversations that go on between her husband and others in the church. She is ridiculed and examined by busy-bodies in the church for the way she dresses and mother’s her children. Never think this is an easy job. To be the wife of a pastor takes a special God-called women who is of noble character with the ‘patience of Job’.

There are many hats worn by the pastors’ wife and many obligations in which she should attend as her husband shepherds the flock. Below you will find a small list of some responsibilities that fall at her feet.

1. She should be a help-mate and biggest supporter of her husband. The first role she carries is paramount and necessary for the successful ministry of her husband. She is his solace when ministry gets tough and hard. She is his comfort when he feels alone and down-trodden. She is his vacation from the endless demands of ministry.

2. She should be a Godly mother. Like it or not the eyes of every church member are on the pastors’ wife and her motherly skills. She should display the utmost Godly character in how she teaches and trains her children. She should give Godly discipline, correction and guidance for her children. She should teach her children the importance of their father’s calling and ministry. She should teach her children to love the church, to love ministry, and to cherish Christ as their supreme satisfaction.

3. She should be a mentor to younger women. Not only should the pastors’ wife have mentors in her own life, but she should also mentor younger women in the church. Discipleship should be her main ministry in the church. She should pour her life into the lives of the women around her through various ministry opportunities.

4. She should be an example to all. The pastors’ wife will often set the tone and effectiveness of her husbands’ ministry. For example, if the pastor and his wife fight before Sunday morning worship the congregation will be able to tell there are issues the moment he steps into the pulpit. It is the pastors’ wife that watch-guards the life of her husband and the lives of her children. She is to be an example of character, virtue, holiness, righteousness, integrity, faithfulness, and love.

Church - let us love our pastors’ wives and recognize her for what she is. Pastors - love your wives and honor her, love her, and show her your appreciation for all she does. If you are a pastors’ wife - Thank You!

The weekly radio broadcast from The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust is now available online in a podcast at OnePlace.com. That means you can get Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Mp3 sermons downloads automatically each week.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899 - 1981) has been described as ‘a great pillar of the 20th century Evangelical Church’. Born in Wales, and educated in London, he was a brilliant student who embarked upon a short, but successful, career as a medical doctor at the famous St Bartholemew’s Hospital. However, the call of Gospel ministry was so strong that he left medicine in order to become minister of a mission hall in Port Talbot, South Wales. Eventually he was called to Westminster Chapel in London, where thousands flocked to hear his ‘full-blooded’ Gospel preaching, described by one hearer as ‘logic on fire’. With some 1600 of his sermons recorded and digitally restored, this has left a legacy which is now available for the blessing of another generation of Christians around the world - ‘Though being dead he still speaks’.

One of the most widely circulated contemporary accounts of the Kentucky revival of 1800 was written by the Rev. George Baxter, successor to William Graham in the teaching work in Lexington, Virginia. Baxter described his extended visit to Kentucky in the autumn of 1801, in a letter to Archibald Alexander, dated 1 January 1802:

The power with which this revival has spread, and its influence in moralizing the people, are difficult for you to conceive of, and more difficult for me to describe…On my way to Kentucky, I was told by settlers on the road, that the character of Kentucky travelers was entirely changed, and that they were now as distinguished for sobriety as they had formerly been for dissoluteness; and indeed, I found Kentucky the most moral place I had ever been in; a profane expression was hardly heard; a religious awe seemed to pervade the country; and some deistical characters had confessed that from whatever cause the revival might originate, it certainly made the people better…

Upon the whole, sir, I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraordinary that have ever visited the Church of Christ, and, all things considered, peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of that country. Infidelity was triumphant, and religion at the point of expiring. Something of an extraordinary nature seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people, who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable, and futurity a dream.

Oh, that the Holy Spirit would visit His church again in Kentucky. It does no good to schedule a revival and advertise popular preachers and singers. For real revival to sweep our land there must be a transformation of the heart and mind by the power of Christ. There is no substitute. We will not see revival again in Kentucky until God sends one. Let us all ardently pray to this end and for Christ to be glorified in the bluegrass state like that of 1800.
____________
To read more of the 1800 Kentucky revival please see Revival and Revivalism by Iain H. Murray