Wylie C. Johnson, "The Preacher from the Layman's Viewpoint" (1954)

While visiting Refiner’s Fire Bookshop in Louisville this summer, the owner, my friend, Ron Sloan, pointed me to a real jewel. It was Wylie C. Johnson’s “Tharp Lecture” at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary entitled “The Preacher From the Layman’s Viewpoint” (Feb. 24, 1954). It was a simple, paperback booklet. I don’t know anything about Mr. Johnson or the Tharp Lectures, except that this booklet said it was an annual lectureship which brought in laymen to speak to pastors I training. So, I did not know what to expect from this little address, but it did not take long for me to discover that this was a very useful lecture that deserves to be heard again. In his own “down-home” way Mr. Johnson gave great advice to his audience particularly crying out for pastors to resist the growing popularity of an entertainment model and to beware of pride.

Here are some excerpts:

(This one reminds me of the discussion of Oprah as a model for pastors)

“The gospel of Christ is not just a beautiful philosophy of life. It is not just a sublime impulse. It is not just a reforming and steadying influence upon society and upon the individual.

Many of the sheep are developing religious gout on this intellectual, entertaining, psychological diet. They want and need the spiritual strength that comes only from the ‘Bread of Life.’

Christ’s preacher is not a dramatic actor, presenting a play that he dreamed up. The gospel of Christ is not a little dab of philosophy added to a cup of psychology, stirred with eloquence, and flavored with a wee bit of religion.”

A wonderful reminder of our duty (reminiscent of an earlier Truet quote I posted)-

[Beginning with a quote from George W. Truett] “ ‘Tell it not in Gath. Publish it not Askelon. A prophet of God out in the race with little, cheap theatricals! If I could get the ear and heart of the young man beginning his ministry today, I would beseech him to shun as he would deadly poison every tendency within him, every urge his heart feels for fame, popularity and publicity in the ministry. Fame is nothing. Doing the will of God modestly and humbly is everything, and a record is kept on high.’
The preacher obsessed with this modern mania for headline publicity, who has a flair for the sensational, will soon be forgotten by the laymen, while quiet, humble preachers whose spiritual qualities enrich our lives will long be remembered.”

Good reminder of the temptation to pastoral arrogance-

“Sometimes preachers come to think that they are the only ones to whom God has revealed himself. They sometimes get the messiah complex and claim to be everything from fortune tellers to divine healers, and frequently wind up attacking every other Christian group whose theology differs from their own.”

“The very nature of your calling, speaking for God, is conducive to creating egotism and selfishness. Egotism is destroying more preacher influence than all the combined evils that you preach so much about.”

Then, another note about what we are supposed to be about-

“We laymen want in our preachers sincerity – not salesmanship. A few years ago there was a book published on ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’ This book became a best seller. Business and professional men bought many copies of it, and I am afraid some preachers also read it.”

[Aren’t some people know encouraging pastors to read this sort of book instead of theological books? We could use a good dose of this layman’s sanctified common sense]

I don’t know if this address is still available anywhere. If anyone knows I’d be interested to find out.

Carlyle on Reading

As we enter the weekend here's a great quote sent to me by Brian Denker.

"What we become depends on what we read after all the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is the collection of books."
--Thomas Carlyle

Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth

As we labor for the renewal of the Church, for a return to Biblical thinking and practice, it is easy to get discouraged. The progress is often slow, people sometimes oppose, we see our own weakness and failures, and we can begin to wonder if we are doing anything worthwhile. We can be tempted to think that this guy may be doing something worthwhile, or that pastor over there, but we are simply spinning our wheels, wasting our time, stuck in a place of contempt. What’s more no one seems to notice our hard work. No one seems to be applauding our efforts. We can be tempted to give it all up. Of course we know better. God is in control, He loves His church more than we do, His approval is all that matters- but in spite of our orthodoxy the tempting, self-centered, discouraging thoughts still assail us.

Does our labor matter? We must speak forcefully to ourselves and say, “Yes, our labor most certainly matters- not because of us but because of God. God is at work whether I see him or not. Do we not walk by faith rather than sight? It is God’s job to see how and where things will develop mine is simply to be faithful in the place he has put me. And in doing so I may one day see the part I have played.” One of the most encouraging passages I have read in some time on this is Haggai 2:1-9. I would encourage you to check out Lee Tankersley’s sermon on this text. Much more could be said on this topic, and I hope to return to it. But in closing here is a poem I have also found helpful on this topic.

SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!

Arthur Hugh Clough

p.s. This poem also nicely speaks to those who in essence say, "Once you've got it worked out I'l join you," or the naysayers who while professing their agreement with the need for such work continue to say it is hopeless and so never put their hand to the plow, or those who for fear of failure never step into the fray.

A. T. Robertson on the Value of Greek for Preachers

Robertson is probably the most prominent New Testament scholar to emerge from Southern Baptist ranks. He was not an ivory tower academician, however. His concern that study be translated into good preaching for the building up of the church is evident throughout his work. In fact on my count, his published works fall primarily into two camps: Greek grammar and helps for preachers. Here is an excerpt from his book, The Minister and His Greek New Testament:

It ought to be taken for granted that the preacher has his Greek Testament. This statement will be challenged by many who excuse themselves from making any effort to know the Greek New Testament. I do not say that every preacher should become an expert in his knowledge of the New Testament Greek. That cannot be expected. I do not affirm that no preacher should be allowed to preach who does not possess some knowledge of the original New Testament. I am opposed to such a restriction. But a little is a big per cent on nothing, as John A. Broadus used to say. This is preeminently true of the Greek New Testament.
…
We excuse other men for not having a technical knowledge of the Bible. We do not expect all men to know the details of medicine, law, banking, railroading. But the preacher cannot be excused from an accurate apprehension of the New Testament. This is the book that he undertakes to expound. It is his specialty, and this he must know whatever else he does or does not know. Excuses for neglecting the New Testament are only excuses after all. Dwight L. Moody made himself at home in the English Bible, and he shook the world. Spurgeon made himself efficient in Greek and Hebrew in spite of insufficient schooling. John Knox studied Greek when over fifty. Alexander Maclaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture are the wonder of modern preachers because he steadily throughout a long life pursued his Hebrew and Greek studies. He had consummate genius and he added to it fullness of knowledge by means of laborious scholarship. … A popular preacher like Dr. G. Campbell Morgan is a close and laborious student of Greek New Testament grammar.

The full chapter from which this quote comes can be read online here.

C. S. Lewis on the Emptiness of External Religion

To follow the previous post, here is a quote from C. S. Lewis where he is making the point that the worst sins are often not the obvious ones, but can often be masked in religiosity. Lewis specifically mentions the pleasure of power, which is a good warning to anyone in leadership. This quote is also a good reminder of the heart of the problem and our need of the gospel, not just moral renovation:

"A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither."
Mere Christianity, 95.

He had a way with words didn't he. :)

Geerhardus Vos on Gospel Preaching

On our recent vacation I read Letters of Geerhardus Vos . I will be posting a full review soon, but I wanted to go ahead and make one observation from the book. The biographical sketch and letters show Vos concerned about churches who retained a conservative profession but whose preaching consisted merely of moralisms. Liberalism might be rebuked, sin would be denounced, and a good life commended but there was no gospel. Vos wrote:

“Now I do not mean to affirm that in all cases there need be the preaching of false doctrine which involves an open and direct denial of the evangelical truth. It is quite possible that both to the intention and the actual performance of the preacher any departure from the historical faith of the church may be entirely foreign. And yet there may be such a failure in the intelligent presentation of the gospel with the proper emphasis upon that which is primary and fundamental as to bring about a result almost equally deplorable as where the principles of the gospel are openly contradicted or denied. There can be a betrayal of the gospel of grace by silence. There can be disloyalty to Christ by omission as well as by positive offence against the message that he has entrusted to our keeping. It is possible, Sabbath after Sabbath and year after year, to preach things of which none can say that they are untrue and none can deny that in their proper place and time they may be important, and yet to forgo telling people plainly and to forgo giving them the distinct impression that they need forgiveness and salvation from sin through the cross of Christ’ (Grace and Glory, 237-238).” (82, footnote 211)

This has parallels to churches today. We might even have tacked on calls for people to “ask Jesus in their lives” but still the gospel is too often absent. We may pride ourselves in our conservatism but too much of our preaching consists merely of instructions and admonitions on being good people. The gospel begins with the fact that we are not good (and thus strips away our smug assurance) and then points us not to a victorious culture warrior but to a crucified Messiah as the answer to our plight. Of course we must have teaching on living morally, but this instruction must be rooted in the gospel (see Paul’s letters), not extracted as a few points on good living.

One’s Reading, a Mirror of the Soul

Recently I was sent the following quote from Oswald Sander's Spiritual Leadership.

"If a man is known by the company he keeps, so also his character is reflected in the books he reads. A leader's reading is the outward expression of his inner hungers and aspirations." (104)

How true it is! It is for this reason that in interviews (for pastors, professors, and other jobs) I always want to hear the man list authors he likes to read and books that have been influential to him. If one’s reading is a steady diet of growth technique books (for example), you likely do not have a theologian shepherd- which is what a church needs. One’s reading may be (indeed should be) broad, but there ought to be a clear theme of thinking deeply on the truths of Scripture.

Luther on True Faith

Here is a great quote from Luther’s preface to his commentary on Romans on the nature of true faith. This is such a needed truth in our day, when people think they have saving faith because they have walked an aisle, prayed a prayer or even been baptized but there are no active results to this faith. Luther of all people clearly believed that salvation is by faith apart from works, but here he clearly shows that he (following Paul!) believes that true faith must issue in works. The problem is that we, like those in Luther’s day, conceive of faith as “as human figment” rather than as he says “a divine work.” The full quote is very worthwhile.

Faith is not the human notion and dream that some people call faith. When they see that no improvement of life and no good works follow—although they can hear and say much about faith—they fall into the error of saying, “Faith is not enough; one must do works in order to be righteous and be saved.” This is due to the fact that when they hear the gospel, they get busy and by their own powers create an idea in their heart which says, “I believe”; they take this then to be a true faith. But, as it is a human figment and idea that never reaches the depths of the heart, nothing comes of it either, and no improvement follows.

Faith, however, is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God, John 1[:12-13]. It kills the old Adam and makes us altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers; and it brings with it the Holy Spirit. O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them. Whoever does not do such works, however, is an unbeliever. He gropes and looks around for faith and good works, but knows neither what faith is nor what good works are. Yet he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good works.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God who has shown him this grace. Thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire. Beware, therefore, of your own false notions and of the idle talkers who imagine themselves wise enough to make decisions about faith and good works, and yet are the greatest fools. Pray God that he may work faith in you. Otherwise you will surely remain forever without faith, regardless of what you may think or do.

(HT: Kairos Journal)

Perelandra

On the first day of our vacation I finished reading Perelandra, the second book in C. S. Lewis’ space trilogy. Since I commented on the first book (Out of the Silent Planet), I thought I’d comment briefly on this one as well.

I thought Perelandra was a significantly different type of story from Out of the Silent Planet. It took just a bit to adjust therefore. However, it is a great story. Perhaps one of the most beneficial aspects is the compelling description of the fall. Lewis is not describing the fall of Adam and Eve but the temptation and potential fall of the “Eve” of another planet (Venus). Lewis is masterful in places I thought in portraying the allurement of sin, the trickery of half truths, and finally the ugliness of sin- especially in contrast to the purity of this new world as he describes it. In fact, as I was reading this book I found myself more repulsed by sin than normal. Going along one day, I encountered a typical (for me) tempting thought. I am accustomed to the struggle but on this day, I found myself more disgusted with sin than usual. I was glad for this but surprised. I began to ask myself why this was so. As I thought about it, I traced the increased repugnance back to the reading of Perelandra. Without me consciously thinking about it, the portrayal of sin and evil in the book and helped me to strip away the veneer of sin. Anything which does this is to be appreciated and commended!

Hating Sin

This past Sunday my fellow pastor, Lee Tankersley, preached on Psalm 78 emphasizing the terribleness of sin and then the greatness of God's mercy. As the Psalm seeks to remind us of just how bad sin is, I was remnded of an exhortation I wrote several years ago for myself onthis topic. It has been helpful to me alongthe way to re-read this, in the vein of thePuritan idea of preachign to oneself. So I thought it might be beneficial to post it here. Here it is:

Do you hate sin already this morning? I mean do you seethe with hatred and disgust against it, loathing it in its every manifestation in your own soul and character? If not you had best pause for a moment to look sin in the face long enough for its mirage of beauty to pass away so that you may be shocked and horrified anew at what you see. Do not flirt with sin today! Sin is a whore, and she seeks to seduce you and to destroy you. Think for a moment how quickly sin can wreck your life, your family, your ministry, even the reputation of your LORD. You dare not risk this. Do not walk even close lest you fall in.There is no room for toleration, no place for compromise. Every sin weakens your character and paves the way for larger sin. Sin is not passive; it is an aggressive cancer eating away at your soul.
Take up your weapons then and resist today. Do not let up. Do not give in. Spare not! Though you are weary do not surrender. You will have rest in the peace of purity, in the calm of a clean conscience.

Away for Vacation

My family and I will be away this week on vacation. My boys are especially excited. My four year old kept commenting with amazement that we would be on “cation” for 5 days. When I told him that actually we would be gone 6 days he remarked with amazement, “That more fingers than I have on my hand!”
I may post something during the week if I come across something in reading and if we have good connection, but I probably will not.

What is pastoral Ministry?

I am currently reading (slowly, along the way) James W. Thompson’s new book, Pastoral Ministry According to Paul (Baker, 2006). I have a hunch that I will see things a bit differently than Thompson, but as far as diagnosing the problem I think he is ‘spot on.’ Here are some key quotes from his first chapter where he details the shifting ideas on what a pastor is supposed to be and the lack of theological basis to these ideas.

“Congregations continue to assume that the minister will maintain the traditional roles of marrying and burying, but they believe that the ultimate goal of the minister is to take the congregation to a new level of growth. The minister must be both an effective communicator and an administrator. In a competitive religious marketplace, the task of the minister is to ensure that the congregation maintains its place among religious consumers. Often search committees no longer look for someone who conforms to one of these models. Instead they seek someone who is a combination of, for instance, Jay Leno, Lee Iacocca, and Dr. Phil.

These often unstated assumptions indicate that the missing dimension in the conversation about ministry is a theologically coherent understanding of the purpose of ministry that incorporates the numerous roles of the minister.” (9)

“Without a theological foundation, the minister too easily becomes the one who ensures the church’s competitive edge in the marketplace of consumer religion.

Despite the pressures that often come from the church and society to define the minister’s role in pragmatic terms as the maintenance and growth of the institution, the answer to the question of ministerial identity . . . is a theological one.” (11)

I also really appreciate his approach to an answer. What he describes here is exactly what I have attempted in my Pastoral Ministry course. Thompson writes:

“Others have challenged us to renew this theological dimension by returning to the classical texts concerning ministry. Although engagement with the classical texts is a valuable exercise, I propose that we consider going beyond these ancient texts to a reconsideration of the significance of Pauline theology for defining the goals of ministry.” (11)

Insights from Out of the Silent Planet

I am not posting much just now because I am focusing on making progress with a writing project. However I wanted to go ahead and post a lengthy quote from C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet. I have just recently begun reading Lewis’ science fiction, and I really enjoyed this book. Lewis’ views on life emerge naturally in his stories. I have found this reading to be a good example of the value of reading a wide range of sorts of books.
In this scene, the protagonist (man or ‘hman’) is talking with a being on Malacandra (Mars). The ideas here on the value of memory, holistic view of life, the value of poetry, and even realistic appreciation of the place of danger in life are all helpful.

“ ‘But it takes his whole life. When he is young he has to look for his mate; and then he has to court her; then he begets young; then he rears them; then he remembers all this, and boils it inside him and makes it into poems and wisdom’ . . . . ‘A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hman, as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. The seroni could say it better than I say it now. Not better than I could say it in a poem. What you call remembering is the last part of the pleasure, as the crah is the last part of a poem. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then – that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it. You say you have poets in your world. Do they not teach you this?’
…
‘And indeed,’ he continued, ‘the poem is a good example. For the most splendid line becomes fully splendid only by means of all the lines after it; if you went back to it you would find it less splendid than you thought. You would kill it. I mean in a good poem.’” (73)

“And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back – if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?”

“How can I make you understand, when you do not understand the poets?” (75)

“I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes.” (75)

Added Note: By the way, I found my inexpensive copies of Lewis’ trilogy at Refiner’s Fire Books, in Louisville, KY owned by my good friend Ron Sloan.

Ordination Charge- Love the Church

Ordination Charge- Love the Church

Here is a slightly edited version of an ordination charge I recently gave. I try here to communicate that love for the church ought to be a key source from which our ministry arises. Loving the people is not in contrast to preaching, etc. Rather, it is the context from which it emerges.
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1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

We need more men who love the church deeply, passionately, vehemently.

We need men who love the church universal, whose hearts race and the thought of joining in labor with those who have gone before, who feel the connection with brothers and sisters around the world. We need men who value the communion of the saints.

However, loving people in general can at times be an excuse for loving no one in particular. We need men who love the particular, local church they serve.

If you love your people:
-It will keep you from being just one more denominational politician disguised as a preacher.
-It will keep you from being a mere professional simply seeking advancement in a career, treating the people of God as stepping stones, building your own kingdom and calling it God’s.
-Love for your people will guard your heart from arrogance
-Love will drive you to study the text and preach well, not to impress but because you know your people need the word of God
-Love for your people will aid you in your own fight with sin, as you know your sin will affect them and as you know they need a righteous man to lead them.
-Love will keep you out of the ivory tower and compel you out into the lives of your people to know them, to know their lives, their joys, and their struggles. How else will you pray for them, preach to them and oversee their souls?
-Love will compel you to watch over their souls and not be content with simply filling a pulpit.
-Love will cause you to labor hard and to impart not only a message but your very life. (1 Thess 2)
-Love will cause you to speak the word boldly to them. Some speak boldly, it seems, because they like to hear their own voice and they are pleased by their own posturing. Let it not be so with you. Rather follow the maxim of Bernard of Clairvaux, “Boldly I speak, because faithfully I love.” Then your people may say of you as they did of Baxter, “We take all things well from one who always and wholly loves us.”
-Love will lead you to discipline.
-Love will keep you from being overbearing (1 Pet 5).
-Love will cause you to shepherd the flock “not under compulsion, but willingly…not for shameful gain, but eagerly” (1 Pet 5).

So it has always been with the choice servants of God:
Luther opposed all the assembled powers of his day because he would not bear to see his people deceived by the indulgence hawkers.
Huss and Tyndale went to the flames because love for their people drove them to give them the Word in their own language.

Love the church, particularly your specific congregation, because in doing so you imitate the Chief Shepherd who loved the Church and gave Himself up for her (Eph 5).

Imitate your Lord who said:
“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” (John 10:11-13, ESV)