Have you ever taken the time to reflect on the series of choices and events that have placed you where you are at today?  From time-to-time I enjoy doing so and even find much encouragement in reading previous journal entries that I made so that I can more easily see the hand of God at work in leading my family and me.

The following two journal entries are from October of 2005.  I had just begun Seminary the previous May at Regent University in Virginian Beach, VA.  Prior to beginning Seminary Studies I was involved with a Word of Faith Church in PA and was actually beginning to study Reformed Theology (That’s another story for another day).

Apart from a couple of books I had read by that time, I had no idea what “Presbyterianism” was.  With no further a due, here is how the LORD led me into the Presbyterian Church.

October 4, 2005

I just finished studying Greek moments ago and felt that it would be appropriate to write a little tonight before going to bed.

Tomorrow is a big day!  It is Regent University’s ministry fair.  There will be ministers from across the Tidewater area that will be representing their respective ministries at the school.

I perceive that God is preparing to open a door for me to step into tomorrow.  Call me crazy, but there is a particular someone in whom God has prepared before hand for me to meet.  I ask in the Name of Jesus Christ, Father, that You will confirm in both of our hearts that we are to meet.  I ask that You would confirm this foreordained relationship through a mutual acquaintance from WV.  I thank You for guiding and leading my steps at this time.  I commit myself to Your ways, knowing that You have ordained this time and that there is an opportunity that You are wanting me to embark upon at this time.  In Jesus Name, AMEN!

[When writing and praying this I had in mind that God was going to introduce me to someone at the school that had a mutual friendship back home in WV]

October 7, 2005

I haven’t had the opportunity to write since the Ministry Fair this past weekend; however, I believe God did confirm what I asked of Him for the fair.  The reason that I say confirm is that I still need to test this out.  I asked God to confirm where I am to be through a mutual affiliation from WV while I was at the Ministry Fair.

I was at the Fair for a period of three hours and was actually on my way out when I came across this last booth.  In all honesty I had full intentions of walking by due to the denominational affiliation.  The Church representatives were from KPC (Kempsville Presbyterian Church).  It’s not that I didn’t like the people and that I would not fellowship with them, it’s the fact that if I am going to expose myself to a particular ministry then I believe that I should be involved with one that is congruent with my own beliefs.

Beside the point, like I said, I had no intentions of going to this booth due to my exhaustion; however, I happened to have made eye contact with this particular gentleman and decided to strike up a friendly conversation.  Upon talking with him I discovered that the Senior Pastor and Worship Leader used to minister at a church in Cross Lanes, WV [This is where I’m from].

When I first heard this I was simply shocked and surprised, to a degree.  My first reaction was,
“God, I am not going to go to a Presbyterian Church!  Why would you lead me to such a particular place?”

Upon further discussion I came to find out that the church is Charismatic and believes in the [gifts] of the Holy Spirit.

I am looking forward to the opportunity to attend the church and test out the will of the Lord in this matter.  I commit this situation to You God and ask for You to have Your way.  I will not be done but Yours!

Final Thoughts

I can’t say that my life goal was to be a Presbyterian Minister.  Before attending Seminary, such a thought wasn’t even remotely on my radar.  Amazingly enough I have had the opportunity to serve at an Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in WV and am now pursuing ordination through the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

My hope and desire is to serve as a Senior Pastor while finishing my Master of Divinity (M.Div.) with intentions of pursuing a Ph.D. or Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) so that I can have a greater ability and more opportunities to teach.

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The following is an excerpt from Tim Keller’s book, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith (pgs. 14-16):

The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him.  We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life.

In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the elder-brother type does not.  Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders “the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you” (Matt. 21.31).

Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect.  The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones.  We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people.  The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church.  That can only mean one thing.

If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.  If our churches aren’t appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we’d like to think.

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From Mark Driscoll’s Facebook Page:

I was recently visiting a friend who pastors another church and he introduced me to an older pastor who has encouraged him for many years. This eighty-six-year- old preacher had lots of gas still in his tank, and speculated out loud whether he thought he could take me at racquetball. He was a genuinely happy man filled with joy and still dreaming new dreams for ministry.

At one point in our brief conversation, I asked him what the “secret” was to his lifelong ministry, good health, and joy.

Of course, the old preacher rattled off three points:

“Read the Bible every day.” I asked him how many times he had read the Bible, and he said he was finishing up his 358th reading of the entire Bible!

“Mumble prayers throughout the day.” He explained that it is vital to pray in the morning to connect with God and confess sin, but that we also need to mumble prayers throughout the day, talking to God about everything.

“Refuse to have any enemies.” He said that if you choose to forgive everyone of all their sins, then no matter who or what is against you, your heart will not become hard and bitter because you treat everyone like a friend.

Which one is most convicting for you? Me? Easily number 3.

Which one was most convicting of me?  Well, that’s easily all of them. 

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Today we live in a day and age where many Pastors are more concerned about following the latest trends for the sake of relevance at the expense of mitigating one of their primary roles and responsibilities: Teaching the Word of God.  So, instead of working through the Scriptures, word by word, line by line, and book by book, I am thoroughly convinced that many pastors look to what they are trying  to accomplish and how that can best be effectively communicated through various means and methods. 

If you were to observe different ministries you would find that many Pastors go to the Word to choose a passage that serves more as a “sound-bite” for their chosen topic than solid exposition.  Instead of persuading people of what God’s Word declares for all of life (2 Timothy 3.16-17), there lies a scent of manipulation.  How can I be so brazen and bold with my observation?  Listen to this blurb from an article that John MacArthur wrote called, How do you differentiate between persuasion and manipulation?” 

The difference lies in the means we use to persuade. The Word of God is the only legitimate means of persuasion.  Legitimate persuasion is cognitive—stirring the mind with reasonable truth.  Convincing with tear-jerking stories, histrionics, and emotional outbursts takes an unfair advantage of people and wrongly muddles their thinking. That does not mean we cannot use all the communication skills available to us, but we should avoid playing on people’s emotions, even by repeated singing or playing of hymns. These are artificial and should be avoided because they bypass the reason.

Our goal in preaching is to constrain people to choose change because it is reasonable and right before God, not because they have been manipulated into some momentary feeling or action.  We persuade them from the Scriptures to choose the right course of action.  We do not pile on emotional pressure until they break.  We want them to know clearly what the alternatives are and that they must choose.

Apart from Biblical exposition we observe a plethora of interviews, videos, emotional outburst, music, and miscellaneous decorations covering pulpits like ornaments on a Christmas Tree.  

Call of the Pastor to Preach

In addressing the call of a Pastor, I’ll quickly relate the call from the Scriptures, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Churches Book of Order. 

The Scriptures

When Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, we are told that He gave different gifts to the church.  One of those gifts that He gave to the church was Pastors, who are also Teachers (Ephesians 4.11).  The men that serve in this capacity are not only to have signs of God’s grace at work in and through their lives (1 Timothy 3.1-7), they are to be able teachers (1 Timothy 3.2; Titus 1.9). 

These teachers are not to teach anything they wish and desire, or from any source.  Pastors are to teach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20.26-31) which is derived from the entire Bible, both the Old and New Testaments (Matthew 5.17-20; 2 Timothy 3.16-17).       

Since this is the charge that each and every Pastor has been given by God, we need to answer the question,”How should a preacher preach?”

How should a Preacher preach?

David Wells once observed that when the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word is not lived out by the Pastor of any given congregation, that “these serious distortions are in influencing pulpits and account for the catastrophic weaknesses in both belief and behavior everywhere evident in Western evangelical churches today.  As this happens, one of the “marks” of the true church makes its way out the back door” (Courage to Be Protestant., pgs. 229-230). 

It is with this grave concern that we need to approach the issue of just how preachers should preach. 

In answering this question, let us consider the 159^th question of the Westminster Larger Catechism that asks, “How is the Word of God to be preached by those that are called thereunto?”

In answering this question, the Westminster divines (i.e. authors) said,

They that are called to labor in the ministry of the Word, are to preach sound doctrine, diligently, in season and out of season; plainly, not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God; wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers; zealously, with fervent love to God and the souls of his people; sincerely, aiming at his glory, and their conversion, edification, and salvation.

Preaching is more than having one good line with an illustration and application.  It’s an all encompassing, laborious endeavor. 

Now, let’s consider a more contemporary source in answering this question.  Bryan Chapell, in Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, had the following to say about expositional teaching¸

The fact that the power for spiritual change resides in God’s Word argues the case for expository preaching.  Expository preaching attempts to present and apply the truths of a specific passage.   Other types of preaching that proclaim biblical truth are certainly valid and valuable, but for the beginning preacher and for a regular congregational diet, no preaching type is more important that expository (pg., 30).

He goes on to say,

An expository sermon may be defined as a message whose structure and thought are derived from a biblical text, that covers the scope of the text, and that explains the features and context of the text in order to disclose the enduring principles for faithful thinking, living, and worship intended by the Spirit, who inspired the text.  The expository sermon uses the features of the text and its context to explain what that portion of the Bible means (pg. 31).

It is with these reasons in mind that preaching, within the Reformed tradition,  ”has always held a central place in the life of historic Protestant churches.  This is the way they have practiced their belief in the sole authority and consequent sufficiency of Scripture (Wells, pg. 229).

Within the Reformed Tradition we should look no further than the example set by John Calvin in the manner by which he approached these responsibilities.  Calvin is readily known for his lectico continua (Latin for “continuous expositions”) of Scripture, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book, ensured that he would preach the full counsel of God.

The answer and practice to this question – how should a preacher preach – is of preeminent importance.  If our preachers do not preach then our churches are not being built upon God’s Word.  This precarious situation reminds me of Psalm 127.1, which reads, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”    

In the end, let us heed the words of David Wells, who said:

They have lost their understanding that the truth of God, in the hands of God, is sufficient for the life of the church in this world…Unless evangelicals recover their confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture, their claim that Scripture alone is authoritative will remain empty.  It will remain a charade (Wells, 227).

Sometime during this week or next we’ll address this issue from a Presbyterian Denomination standpoint. 

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