I write this as a pastor, writing to pastors. I have pastored in two churches (and served for an extended time as ‘pulpit supply’ in a third). I have drawn my living as a shepherd of God’s flock for 17 years. But for about 10 of those years I stand ashamed.
I started well. I started simply. But in the midst of my time I began to imbibe deeply of radical new ideas and thoughts. I actually resigned a position as an associate pastor because the lead pastor and elders refused to follow me in these new directions. I will state, that if I had read then, what I write now, I would have resisted or rejected this correction.
I was awoken to the depth of my descent by a deeply carnal man, who made lip-service to faith, but worshipped at the altar of success and financial gain. He was the local funeral director, and a man for whom I once performed 42 funerals in a single year. Throughout my descent I held firmly to the conviction that I was faithfully serving my Lord and presenting the gospel in a non-offensive and culturally relevant way to hundreds who heard my funeral services. I was once told that I was the ‘most-human minister’ a person had ever met – an intended compliment to my ability to make everyone feel warm and affirmed in my service. Then, one day, I asked the funeral director if the United Minister had been doing many funerals lately. His response was like a thunder-clap from the heavens. I can still remember the exact place in the cemetery I was standing when he spoke the words. He said, ‘I find her a little too preachy for my taste.’
Think about that for a moment. I was gaining wealth and popularity based on the fact that I was softer on the gospel than the minister at the United Church.
This news, coupled with a handful of other rattling experiences I had had with some of the young ‘Puritan’ (my nickname for them) pastors who had come into our association shook me deeply.
I began to read my Bible more closely – to look at how the prophets of God in the Old Testament and Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament preached. I read the stories of men used by God to stir awakenings and revivals, men like Luther and Calvin, Wesley and Whitefield, Spurgeon and Ryle. None of them took it upon themselves to ‘re-interpret’ the gospel – they were not afraid to preach the whole truth as the Word and Will of God.
I suppose, at this point, I could write a very long article if I plunged into all of this – instead, let me point you to one of many passages that has become the life of my pulpit and the death of my burgeoning funeral business:
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (I Timothy 3:13-16 ESV)
Here is a novel approach to scripture – what if we assumed it contained, not only the message of the gospel, but the method for applying it?
Now, the emergent crowd will call you a fool, and declare that preaching is dead. (In fact, I heard Hugh Halter declare to CBOQ assembly in 2011, “If you spend more than 6 minutes preparing your sermon you’re wasting your time, because no one is listening.”) But Paul, in his instruction to the young pastor Timothy offers the opposite advice – he tells him to ‘devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching’. But wait, this isn’t only the instruction of Paul to Timothy, this is the instruction of the Spirit of God to pastors. That’s what scripture is, it is the Word of God, NOT, as some have treasonably suggested, the fallible opinions of a bigoted Jewish man. The Christian pastor has nothing to do with such fallacy; he knows that every word recorded in scripture carries equal weight, because though written by the hand of a man, it was breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV).
What Must Be Avoided
Fellow pastors – let’s be done with human wisdom of every sort. Let us return to the reformation ideal of Sola Scriptura. Someone else can write more fully on the fullness of this idea, but in brief synopsis, let me state, this is not the belief only the Bible contains truth, but rather that the only AUTHORATATIVE truth is found in the Bible. All other truth claims must present themselves first to scripture before they are admitted to my mind. Therefore every book that you read, every sermon you hear, every idea proclaimed by someone purporting to represent Christ must be examined by this standard – is this supported or rejected by the Word of God.
I have been, in recent times, dismissed and criticized by other ministry leaders for refusing to even entertain the thoughts and teachings of certain purported Christian scholars on the basis of the fact that they fail the very first test that must be applied to any Christian teaching: Does this teaching accept the Bible as the Word of God, and does their teaching show submission and obedience to that Word.
Some will protest that this immediately closes the door on some of the most educated, eloquent and respected scholars of our day and days gone by. Indeed it does, but my concern is not with a writers education, their eloquence or the level of respect the world, the church or the academy has accorded to them. My concern is with the question of whether they give evidence of being a regenerate child of God. My first question, in the case of any man or woman writing a book or proclaiming from a pulpit or lectern, is: Does this person believe the Bible is the infallible, authoritative, sufficient Word of God? The moment a person, who doesn’t believe some part of the Bible is true, and then takes it upon themselves to write about the Bible, everything they write will at best be confusion, and at worst, will be a heresy dependent on human wisdom and divorced from every aspect of the fear and knowledge of God.
Now some of you may be made uncomfortable at this point, because you suspect that this standard might discount your preaching and teaching. My brother, if you are dabbling with teaching that would jettison part of God’s word as irrelevant, fallible or wrong – then this standard condemns your preaching. On what basis have you decided to reject the clear teaching of scripture? On the word of a seminary professor or the author of a commentary? And who gave them authority to judge scripture? At the end of this road you will find the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, Jesus described him as a liar and the Father of lies. When the teaching of my pulpit is controlled by the sensitivities of the culture I live in, the wrong spirit is in control.
Brother if you are in this condition now, let me tell you that I was there also (I have a box of soft sermons that will never be preached again). The world doesn’t need our new ideas, our new methods or our new perspectives, what the world desperately needs the gospel in all its beauty, power and glory.
Brothers, we need more discernment in this area! Not only in what we preach and proclaim, but in the books we read and recommend to our congregants – and in the people we invite to address our denomination at Assembly.
Let me relate two stories from Assembly that have caused me grave concern. (I relate these, not in the spirit of tearing down the CBOQ, but in diagnosing a dangerous cancer that has crept in among us; I write this with the sincere belief that our denomination is in grave spiritual condition AND that it may yet be saved for God’s greater glory. Please accept these stories in that spirit.)
In 2011 Hugh Halter spent two days speaking about the ‘Tangible Kingdom’; as Assembly drew to a close we were asked to join our table in responding to a number of action questions based on his presentation. I had come to Assembly on my own, I didn’t know any of the people at my table, it turns out they were from a couple of Toronto based churches. As I looked through the action questions, I found not a one that I could support, or endorse. The delegates at my table knew I was a pastor and looked to me to lead the conversation. Rather than address any of the questions, I simply said to them, ‘If you apply the teachings this man has given to us you will ruin your church and become unprofitable to the gospel.’ One of the women at the table immediately exclaimed, ‘O thank goodness there are still some pastors who have their head on straight.’ But, my friends, I fear a number of you bought his books and may have squandered your church in unbiblical directions.
Last year (2013) I brought to Assembly a relatively new Christian. Sharin had been steeped in the New Age movement, not only as a practitioner, but an instructor in ‘Crystal Healing’ among other things. She was miraculously saved (as is everyone who is ever saved) and was excited to be part of Assembly for the first time. Ruth Haley Barton was the invited guest, and her teachings were wildly wide of scripture. Her entire lecture was on restorative practices for the soul of leadership. But her methodology was not drawn from scripture – it was based on new age mysticism, thinly guised as Christianity. But It wasn’t disguised enough to fool Sharin! Sharin literally cried herself to sleep that night because, as she related to me, she had only just escaped that life, and had found it now being taught at the CBOQ Assembly.
Brother pastors, we need to show more discernment. We need to destroy every argument and lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 10:5)
What Must Be Embraced
I have some good news and some bad news at this point. The good news is that the solution to the question of what we need to do is simple. The bad news is that you probably didn’t need a Master’s degree to figure this out (but don’t feel too bad, I went and got one too).
Have you ever heard tell of a revival that sprang from liberalism? Was there ever a reformation that came from a ‘new’ idea? Has an awakening ever been spawned under the preaching of those who deny, in part or full the Authority of the Bible? Now, if down through the ages, God has demonstrated a willingness to bless and prosper faithful preaching; but lukewarm, human sophism is met with decline and decay, are we not fools if we neglect the former and embrace the latter?
Can we expect that we might see the world converted to Christ by some neutered, un-offensive, relativized gospel? Have we abandoned the God ordained means of salvation (Rom. 10:14-17) for a kinder, gentler method, devised by men and women wise in their own eyes!
As I said earlier, I once resigned a position over this very matter. I had passionately reasoned with the elders board that we needed to make the message of the gospel more relevant; that we needed to ‘incarnate the gospel’ for people to see, and that then they would be so attracted to Jesus that getting them to faith would be simple. But I can tell you, that experientially I have found this not to be the case. I became the ‘chaplain to the red-necks’; I was warmly greeted at funeral receptions by crowds of people who heard my soft-soap gospel of a Jesus who loves them so much and wants to give them a more abundant life (both of these statements are true – the lie came in what I consistently left out). I preached the gospel of ‘enhanced life’ in Jesus and found few converts; and the few I found had little interest in being conformed to the image of Christ and quickly fell away.
In order to fill churches with people who are comfortable with Jesus while at the same time comfortable with sin, requires a catastrophic distortion of the message once for all delivered to the saints. On the other hand, the gospel, preached in its fullness and robustness has filled my church, not with people who are looking to Jesus for ‘life-enhancement’ or with people who want to explain why they are okay with Jesus in spite of open rebellion towards the Word of God. But with three sorts of people. First, the saved, who are tender to the Word of God and entirely dependent on the work of Christ to save them; second, those under deep conviction, who can openly respond to you that they know they are, as yet un-saved, but they know the gospel and keep coming back; third, the curious. I cannot explain the appearance of this third group of people, but I can testify to you that on almost any week there are new strangers sitting in my pews, some who come from other churches to hear and see; some who have no history with the church; some who stay; some who never return. But every single one of them hears the gospel proclaimed in its fullness and richness week after week.
My experience is not unique. There are others among us who can testify to the mysterious and amazing power of the gospel to transform the hardest and proudest hearts into contrite and broken hearts grateful for the gospel.
Now let me state, finally, that this is not ‘hell-fire and brimstone’ preaching – that is to say – this is not a red-faced angry preacher, railing against the ills of the world. No, it is the presentation of the gospel in all of its glory and beauty; the declaration of God’s just condemnation of sin, and Jesus all-sufficient sacrifice to pay the penalty righteously declared against me. In this preaching I strive to be as winsome and compassionate as possible in speaking to people about the condition of their souls. It is the gospel preached with the confidence that God will use the foolishness of preaching for his glory, to harden or humble hearts. It is a constant plea to be reconciled to God.
I return you again to the passage which instructs us in this way: Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (I Timothy 3:13-16 ESV)
I can say that I am financially poorer for preaching the gospel. If you ask around you will find that not everyone speaks well of me. But I live day by day on the grace of God, and find a peace that passes understanding in living daily in and by the gospel.
Marc Bertrand