WHO MADE THIS MOUTH?

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Reflections on Being a Dull-of-Speech Preacher

Some anniversaries on the calendar mark more significant milestones than others. Ever since 2005, March 8 reminds me how dramatically and increasingly challenging my pastoral vocation became from that day on. It took five hours on the table that Tuesday for a surgeon to excise an egg-sized cancerous tumor along with one-third of my tongue. Never again would I step into a pulpit without acknowledging that an already tough task had become even harder because of the new speech impairments.

Also vivid in my memory that year is the Sunday just five days after my surgery. Surprisingly, I felt well enough to attend church. Nancy, my late wife, and I occupied the front row as usual. A fellow elder, slated to give the pastoral prayer that day, sat supportively beside me. As the time approached in the service for that prayer, I felt strongly impressed that the Lord actually wanted me to do it. Much to my surprise and to the congregation’s, there I, their teaching pastor, stood before them to pray, with 33% less of a tongue and sporting a hockey-stick shaped, still-sutured scar running from my right ear to my Adam’s apple.

I don’t remember what I prayed. But I do recall exactly how I started. I slowly read this text from Exodus 4:10-12:

10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Our guest preacher of the day, Dr. Bruce Waltke, called that extraordinary God-moment a sermon all its own. He was right. I’ve never forgotten that day, or the day of my surgery, which marked me for good ever since.

Ten years later my slow-of-speech-and-tongue mouth got even worse. Downstream effects of radiation treatment in ‘05 eventually fried my mandible requiring jaw reconstruction in 2016 (see image above). Multiple surgeries added to my frustration and difficulty with articulation throughout the last six years of my vocational ministry. Thankfully the Lord continued to help me all the way to the pastoral finish line. Retirement in 2022 brought a measure of welcomed relief from weekly pulpit demands. And yet . . . I’ve wrestled often with what usefulness in retirement looks like for me. Could I or should I still preach occasionally, as humbling as it is, or chalk it up to “that was then, this is now”? Over the last few years, I had all but given up on the prospect. After all, who wants to listen to Preacher Dull/Heavy/Slow of Speech and Tongue (literal meaning of the Hebrew kabed)? Or so I thought.

But recently the Lord has been working in some unexpected ways. Last month I found myself officiating a wedding including a personal charge to the couple. This Sunday evening I will preach my first sermon in three years at our local church. And Lord willing, this September I will bring four messages on fighting for peace and unity for a church camp in British Columbia. Go figure! The Lord seems to have more for me to do.

Whatever speech issues plagued Moses enough for him to balk at his calling, mine make me sympathetic to his reluctance. I’m so thankful this exchange between him and the Lord made it into the biblical record. It serves as a continual encouragement in my retirement to welcome any further calling he may require of me, no matter how surprising.

Who has made this man’s mouth? Is it not the Lord? It is. How will this man speak no matter however, wherever called upon to do so? Same answer as always. Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.

I believe Lord, help my unbelief.

HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR

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Four Practical Applications for Overcoming Lovelessness

My recent posts focused on Christ’s letter to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

Jesus holds his churches accountable for practicing fervent love. We must make every effort to comply with his demands to that end. We need ears to hear his complaint against lovelessness. Embrace his remedy for lovelessness. Heed his warning about lovelessness. What will it look like if we have ears to hear what the Spirit says and overcome with conquering love? Here are some ideas for application.

Audit Your Love

What better, more obvious way to be a doer of the word and no hearer only from this text, than to continually audit yourself individually and your church corporately about how loving you are. If we don’t do this, we run the risk of hearing Jesus say, I have this against you. Please take this seriously. Regularly subject yourself to the blazing light of the attributes of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and remember and repent accordingly.

Study Biblical Love

Alexander Strauch’s little book Love or Die: Christ’s Wake Up Call to the Church (Lewis & Roth, 2008) is a profitable resource to this end. He points to nearly 1,000 references to love in one form or another in God’s word. Do you want to pursue love more diligently? Then you must read and study what God says about love in his word. Strauch’s appendix B contains 50 Key Texts on Love. That will get you started. Prefer learning by listening? Consider streaming John Piper’s sermon series (15 messages) entitled The Greatest of These Is Love.

Pray for Love

If Jesus reported on an audit of your church, would it include a commendation like this? I know your works how you earnestly pray for one another—especially that you grow in love and even overflow in love? Let’s take our cue from Paul in 1 Thessalonians 3:12. May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you. The Thessalonian church was a prime example of first love according to 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10:

“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.”

Practice Genuine Love

First John 3:16 says this: Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. Here’s my challenge. Conduct a self-audit in Romans 12:9-21 soon, and ask the Lord to focus you on just one tangible love practice in which you want to grow. Choose from among honoring, praying, giving, serving, showing hospitality, blessing, rejoicing, weeping, peacemaking, associating with the lowly, and more. You can do this! The Holy Spirit will help you (Gal. 5:22). 

There is evidence in the writings of the church fathers of the 2nd century that the Ephesian church did repent. A letter by Ignatius to the church praised them as “characterized by faith in and love of Christ”—their pastor “a man of inexpressible love.” 

May we too have ears to hear what Jesus says about the serious sin of lovelessness. To the one who conquers he will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

I WILL COME & REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND

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What Jesus Threatens If a Church Persists in Seriousness Lovelessness

I can only imagine one thing worse than my church getting a letter from Jesus containing his personal complaint about our fellowship–the consequences should we fail to comply with his demands. Both happened to the church of Ephesus back in the 1st century. The text is recorded for us in Revelation 2:1-7.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

In my first post in this series, The Serious Sin of Lovelessness, I introduced the letter with its complaint. In the second post, I Have This Against You, I unpacked the grievous complaint about their lovelessness. In this post, I want to consider Jesus’s prescription for change and consequences for failure.

A Continuous Remedy (v. 5a)

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

Note the two-pronged cure for lovelessness which Jesus prescribes: remember and repent. Remember is a present tense command. It conveys a continual calling to mind the fervent culture of love they enjoyed in the past. Apparently at one time these people practiced a Romans 12:10-like brotherly affection outdoing one another in showing honor. They knew some good old days of Philippians 1:9-like love abounding more and more with knowledge and discernment. A good memory can be a good thing in the Christian life.

But somewhere along the way something broke. They fell. They abandoned the fierce love they had practiced earlier. And so, he commands them to repent. That’s a different verb tense suggesting a decisive, immediate break with present actions in favor of an altogether different direction—do the works you did at first. And work it is. Love is labor and toil in all kinds of forms. Martin Luther said our life is to be a constant and ceaseless repentance. Nowhere is that more important—think 1 Corinthians 13—than in the practice of love. To lack it makes us nothing. 

An Ominous Warning (v. 5b)

What happens if we fail to conquer (v. 7), by his grace, in the matter of ongoing fervent love as a church? If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Jesus was dead serious, literally, with this church over its sin of lovelessness. Don’t be deceived. If we excel in championing doctrinal purity only to suffer a loss of ever-increasing love for one another, we face utterly devastating consequences. A failing grade in love invites Jesus’s sternest of judgments. I will come and remove your lampstand. Scholar D. A Carson explains:

“The removal of the lampstand from its place can signify nothing less than the end of Christ’s recognition of the church as a church of his. It will become as devoid of Christ as the temple of Jerusalem became empty of God prior to its destruction. So grave is the sin of lovelessness in a Christian church.”

An ominous warning indeed. May God spare us such a terrifying judgment.

In my final post in this series, I will offer four practical applications from the letter to help our churches thrive in love which keeps the lampstand burning brightly.

I HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU

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Jesus Takes Personal Offense to Lovelessness in the Church

You’ve been served.

Have you ever heard those words spoken to you? I have, thankfully only once. Years ago, I caused a car accident involving two other vehicles on one of our busy Orlando highways. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt–or so I thought. Months later the doorbell rang one morning. Upon answering, I was handed a manila envelope giving me notice of a lawsuit against me for $100K in damages resulting from that wreck. Weeks later my insurance company settled for considerably less than that amount. But it’s hard to describe the sinking feeling which comes with hearing someone say, “You’ve been served.”

Imagine something quite similar happening to you and your church, only the One serving the papers is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The first-century Ephesian church experienced that very thing in Revelation 2:1-7.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

The Main Idea

In my last post, The Serious Sin of Lovelessness, I summarized the thrust of the letter this way:

Because Jesus holds us accountable for practicing fervent love, we should make every effort to comply with his demands to that end.

There are three things in the text related to this accountability: from Jesus there is a grievous complaint, there is a continuous remedy, and there is an ominous warning. In this post I want to address the nature of the lawsuit.

Jesus’s Grievous Complaint

But I have this against you.

Before dealing with the charge, notice the context of this blistering accusation. It’s signaled by the strong contrast “but” at the start of v. 4. The previous two verses could hardly be different in tone and content:

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.”

The High Priestly audit does not overlook the good. Toil. Perseverance. Hatred of evil. Calling out false teachers. Suffering for the name. Yet more commendation comes in v. 6. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. That’s probably a reference to libertinism—cheap grace—do what you want because it’s all forgiven anyway. Upshot? They hated false doctrine and ungodliness just as Jesus does, and he credited them for it. High praise indeed. Well done, good and faithful servants.

All well and good, but … back to v. 4. I have this against you. That’s highly personal language. Jesus takes personally this flagrant flaw among this otherwise first-rate church of his: you have abandoned the love you had at first. I suspect most are more familiar with a different translation: you have left your first love. The original literally reads: you have abandoned the love of you the first. The word “first” comes at the end of the sentence for emphasis. Either approach has merit. But I lean with the ESV in light of the word “fallen” in v. 5. We’re talking serious failure here.

My principal objection to the idea of abandoning their first love, Jesus, is that the praises heaped upon them don’t seem worthy of a lack of love for Christ in the midst of such a wicked culture. They strike me as far too strong. Unless of course a lack of love among one another in the assembly amounts to a lack of ultimate love for Christ. In truth, the two are never far apart, as in 1 John 4:7-8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Professor Dennis Johnson of Westminster West Seminary hit the target here in a Table Talk article for Ligonier Ministries:

“Keeping a firm grip on both poles — truth and love — is a constant challenge for redeemed sinners who swing like pendulums from one extreme to another. Too often, churches and their leaders either stand for biblical truth vigorously but lovelessly or else they preserve apparent unity and love at the expense of truth. Of course, when the truth of the gospel truly grasps our hearts, love for others must result; and, by the same token, the love that delights Jesus grows only in the rich soil of fidelity to God’s truth.”

Jesus holds us accountable for practicing fervent love. We should make every effort to comply with his demands to that end. This is a grievous complaint. A loss of love is no minor defect. No amount of religious orthodoxy and doctrinal fidelity can make up for lovelessness. How should we respond?

Audit Your Love

What better, more obvious way to be a doer of the word and no hearer only from this text, than to continually audit yourself individually and your church corporately about how loving you are. If we don’t do this, we run the risk of hearing Jesus say, I have this against you. Please take this seriously. Regularly subject yourself particularly to the blazing light of the attributes of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and take stock accordingly of any hurtful way within you (Psalm 139:24).

Self-auditing must precede embracing Jesus’s remedy in the text–the subject of my next post.

THE SERIOUS SIN OF LOVELESSNESS

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What If Jesus Conducted an Audit of Your Church?

I tend to look forward to fetching the daily mail. But I admit that my heart skips a beat when occasionally we get something with the return address label, Internal Revenue Service. I immediately stress. “Oh no, what if they wish to dispute a past tax return?” I think I’d rather have a root canal than face an audit by an IRS agent. Maybe you can relate.

Imagine with me for a moment a Sunday when the pastor announces to your church that he has received a certified letter from none other than King Jesus. And he informs you of a pending heavenly audit scheduled among the congregation at some future date. The Lord Jesus personally plans to conduct a thorough inspection of every aspect of your ministry and people. I wonder how you might take stock of your ways in advance. I wonder what changes that prospect might galvanize before his arrival.

Revelation 2:1 makes that plain. These are: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands (emphasis added). Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher of old, summed this up well:

“No one knows the churches as Jesus does . . . he continually walks among them.  … His eyes are as a flame of fire. He sees the churches through and through, and knows their true condition much better than they know themselves. The Lord Jesus Christ is a most careful observer of churches and of individuals; nothing is hid from his observant eye.”

Does that sober you? I suspect it does. Your church is one of Christ’s lampstands. In a way, he has already written a letter to your church and every other church for that matter. Jesus means for us to ponder this one long ago to Ephesus, along with the other six in these two chapters, to see what he might say to us. As we confront the message here to Ephesus, I want to help you wrestle with what he might say to you about the serious sin of lovelessness.

Most scholars regard chapters two and three as real letters written to real historical, 1st-century churches. It begins with Ephesus—the highest profile, most influential one of all. Ephesus was a hotbed of idolatry, false teaching, and sin—a difficult city in which to function as an effective body of believers. This timely letter from John on Patmos took aim at a major fault in the church at the time of writing. 

Here’s the text of the entire letter to Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

Here is the main idea: Because Jesus holds us accountable for practicing fervent love, we should make every effort to comply with his demands to that end. I want you to see three things in the text related to this accountability: from Jesus there is a grievous complaint, there is a continuous remedy, and there is an ominous warning.

In my next post I will unpack one or more of these particular aspects of the Ephesian audit. In the meantime, I invite you to pray Colossians 3:14 often for your local church community.

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

And remember, Jesus walks amidst the fellowship with eyes a flame of fire.

THE 4 PHASES OF RETIREMENT

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How to Squeeze All the Juice Out of Retirement

I thoroughly enjoyed and profited by the winsome and insightful 13-minute TED talk hyperlinked below.

Imagine squeezing all the juice out of retirement!

When interviewed on his research, Dr. Riley Moynes commented, “I wish I knew then what I know now about the psychological challenges that accompany retirement. It would have made things much clearer and easier.”

By interviewing hundreds of retirees, Dr. Moynes has discovered a framework that can help make more sense of this challenging chapter of our lives…one that, for many, could last for 30 years or more.

If you’re retired, this talk will make things much clearer for you. If you’re not, you’ll have a better idea of what to expect when that time comes.

I wish I had viewed it three years ago when I transitioned from vocational ministry to retirement. I am thankful to find myself now enjoying phase four, but suspect the path would have been less painful if I knew more about the first three. Enjoy!

LESSONS FROM THE SHEEPFOLD

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Six Valuable Takeaways from a Lifetime of Pastoral Ministry

Over nearly forty years, I’ve pastored six different churches. The Lord has used each of them to teach me much—especially about just how far short I continually fall as a follower of Jesus and how desperately I need him. Beyond that, however, I’ve learned at least one essential lesson from each.

Church #1. Pastors exercise spiritual authority as servants, not tyrants. Peter exhorts, “Shepherd the flock . . . not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:1-4).

Church #2. Pastors acquire breadth of influence as a gift from above, not by fueling personal ambition. John the Baptist settled that declaring, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27).

Church #3. Pastors excel when they release people to use their spiritual gifts within the church, not imagining they must do everything themselves. Paul charged pastors with this job description: “Equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

Church #4. Pastors must always summon the courage to obey God as best they know, not succumbing to fearful people-pleasing. No sin has hunted me more than what these words warn: “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Church #5. Pastors lead the way by example, precept, and training as do-their-best peacemakers fostering and guarding church unity, not permitting other concerns to trump that responsibility. I published my book, “The Peacemaking Church,” anchored in one verse: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

Church #6. Pastors must never forget what their people need most from them is to point them relentlessly to Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, not settling for any lesser priority. What Paul called “of first importance”—the gospel of Christ died, buried, and raised (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)—must remain every pastor’s main thing which he keeps the main thing.

And that’s the most valuable lesson of all.
 

HAPPY 250th USA!

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Celebrate AND Pray for Our Nation This 4th of July

The video is part of the Prayer24·365 / Prayercast series, which creates short, devotional-style videos inviting viewers to pray for different nations. This particular video focuses on the United States of America, encouraging prayer for the country’s spiritual, social, and national well‑being.

Jan and I regularly make use of this media resource to aid us in our daily devotional time. Along with the Operation World app, we find these tools to be essential helps to praying specifically for the nations. I highly recommend both!

I encourage you to take five minutes today to watch and pray along with this helpful guide for strategic intercession on behalf of our blessed nation.

WHO DOES THIS JOB?

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Why & How We Must Pray for Pastors

On occasion, some younger pastor seeking counsel coaxes me out of retirement. Typically, he unpacks a perplexing story about a shepherding challenge. He hopes to gain some wisdom from my thirty-six-year ministry history to help navigate his latest flock mess. After these heavy-lifting soul-care conversations, I sometimes lighten the mood a bit jesting with this question: Who does this job anyway?

Over the decades of my sometimes wood-hay-stubble, other times gold-silver-precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12) pastoral stewardship, some realities about my seemingly impossible task crystallized sooner than others.  Perhaps most importantly? Undershepherds desperately need their sheep’s ongoing prayers for the Chief Shepherd’s (1Peter 5:4) help. Why else would the apostle Paul close one epistle so succinctly, “Brethren, pray for us” (1Thess. 5:25) and entreat the same more specifically in a second to the same church (2 Thess. 3:1-2)? He appealed to another assembly to strive together with him in their prayers (Rom. 15:30). He pleaded yet again elsewhere, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Cor. 1:11). Look here for more of the same (Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-3). Another writer urged his readers to pray more earnestly for him (Heb. 13:18-19). Our pastors need our prayers; the Bible tells us so.

Retirement brings all kinds of reflection about one’s vocational past. I’ve pondered often lately about the whys and hows to pray for my pastors. This pastor-turned-sheep remembers the challenges. He knows the need for tons of prayer support. I’ve landed on some whys that inform various hows in supporting your local shepherds with strategic intercession. In this post I want to emphasize just one.

Pastors Are Beset with Inestimable Weakness

At times the Holy Spirit brings my devotional Bible reading to a full stop over a particular passage. That happened recently with Hebrews 5:1-2.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness (emphasis added).

Weakness. Let that word sink in. The frailty to which all human flesh is heir, as one lexicon puts it. Frailty—like ignorance and waywardness—among countless other weights and close-clinging sins (Heb. 12:1) passed down from Adam. Now, let another word sink in. Beset. That’s how the ESV translates a compound of two Greek words—around/to place, i.e., surrounded. Like Paul’s chains fettered [same word] him about in prison (Acts 28:20), new covenant pastors drag around with them the same restraints of remaining sin that encumbered their old covenant counterparts. Just like their sheep, pastors stumble in many ways. Consequently, they await a stricter evaluation at the final judgment given their influential teaching stewardship (James 3:1-2).  

Like it or not, though above reproach in character as required (1 Tim. 3:2), your pastor still sins like you and I do (Ecc. 7:20). Sometimes he even sins against you! If he’s at all like I have been and still am, he will battle off and on with things like pride, anxiety, insecurity, comparison, anger, immoderate appetites, fear, entitlement, resentment, selfishness, covetousness, self-reliance, demandingness, and a host of other deeds of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). So, you must pray for him, let alone deal gently with him as he does with your ignorant/wayward-tending self.

Specific ways to pray for your beset-with-weakness pastor will have to wait for my next post. In the meantime, please be mindful of this candid testimony of the self-confessed chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), Paul the apostle, in Romans 7:

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Sufficient for now and always may we pray for our pastors in light of Paul’s answer to his own cry in v. 25: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Pray that your pastor runs his race relentlessly fixing his eyes, not on his sins, but on the One who kept the law perfectly in his stead and paid the price for his every weakness with precious blood spilt at Calvary (Heb. 12:1-2).

You’ll be the better-off sheep for doing so.

THE ONE THING WORSE THAN TOO FEW ELDERS SERVING THE CHURCH

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Questions to Ask to Help Prevent Affirming the Wrong Ones

Just the other night Jan and I watched a podcast hosted by retired 90-year-old pastor Chuck Swindoll. It featured his interview with Pastor Robert Jeffrees of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Hard Seasons, Close Calls, and the Grace That Kept Us runs a little over an hour. At one point in their conversation, Dr. Jeffrees turned the tables on his interviewer with a question of his own. It was something on the order of “What’s the biggest mistake you made in all your years of pastoral ministry?”

The answer surprised me a bit. But Dr. Swindoll did not hesitate with his reply: “Laying hands too soon on men to serve as fellow elders.” I suspect some painful stories lie behind that choice of hard seasons. But I get it. I’ve said it many times. There’s only one thing worse than having too few elders to help shepherd the flock; it’s having the wrong ones.

My own church currently suffers from what I fear is an all-too-common dilemma: too few elders for so many people. We feel the pain of it. Fortunately, we have some men in the developmental pipeline whom we hope may well join the leadership ranks in due time. But how will we avoid making a mistake like Chuck Swindoll made?

Thankfully our current elders wisely refuse to rush the process (1 Tim. 5:22). They will only put forward men they believe meet the qualifications and are called to the office. Then the membership must decide to affirm or not each brother under consideration. Here are some of the questions (for both elder and deacon) we must ask ourselves about a candidate as we participate in a process so crucial to the peace and purity of the church.

  1. Does he have a good reputation, both in the church and outside of the church (Acts 6:3)? In other words, do others speak well of him in terms of conduct that reflects Christian commitments and biblical values?

  2. Is he filled with the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3)? Does he manifest the fruit of the Spirit as described in Gal. 5:22-23 and does he demonstrate the wisdom that comes from above as described in James 3:17-18?

  3. Is he full of faith (Acts 6:5)? Without being given to presumption, does he take calculated risks for the glory of God that show belief in what only He can do and without which it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6)?

  4. In the case of a candidate for the office of deacon, is he already busy about serving within the church (1 Tim. 3:10)? Does he imitate the example of Jesus as a servant in the way he lays down his life for others (Matt. 20:25-28)?

  5. In the case of a candidate for the office of elder, is he already busy about shepherding people in some way within the church (1 Peter 5:2)? Do you sense the Spirit of God is upon him for this purpose (Acts 20:28)? Does he have a capacity to teach the Word (not necessarily in the pulpit, but especially personally) and defend sound doctrine in an understandable and effective way (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9)?

  6. In the case of either office, is he above reproach in terms of his overall godly character (1 Tim. 3:2ff; Titus 1:5ff)? That is to say, not that he is perfect, but that he walks in the light in such a way that no one can make a charge of sin stick to him in terms of the way he lives his life?

  7. If he is married, is he a one-woman-man, rock-solid faithful to his wife in every way (1 Tim. 3:2)? If he is a single man, does he practice self-control and treat women like sisters with all purity (1 Tim. 5:2)?

  8. Does he manage his own household well and if he is a father, are his children who live under his roof and subject to his authority in submission to him as a rule (1 Tim. 3:4-5, 12)?

  9. Does he resonate enthusiastically with the values, mission, and vision of the church (Amos 3:3)?

  10. Is he a peacemaker (Matt. 5:9)? Does he know how to resolve conflict biblically in a manner consistent with the 4 G’s of biblical peacemaking?

  11. Has he been around the church long enough so that we may be assured that we don’t fail by laying hands on him too quickly and thus take part in the sins of others (1 Tim. 5:22)?

  12. Perhaps most importantly, is he ever-growing as a God-entranced, Christ-glorifying, Spirit-filled, church-loving, humility-clothed (1 Pet. 5:5), not-his-own-but-bought-with-a-price beholder of glory in the gospel, thus and only thus empowered to help others do the same (2 Cor. 3:18)?

God’s word sets the bar high when it comes to the qualifications of men fit for office in his church. A lot rides on the men we affirm to serve God and us in the future. We have fewer responsibilities as members which are more important than this one. May the Lord be pleased to bless us with more men such as these.