The Unadulterated Words of God

I came across a short article written by Michael Horton on the Touchstone Mag site.  He wrote about what our society clamors for in their pastor these days.  I've seen exactly what he wrote about, and really, I'm sure just about everyone has.  He writes:

Never mind Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to submit to elders and pastors as official ambassadors of Christ. These days, even in more confessional denominations, it seems that instead of being the Lord’s servant, ambassador, and minister of reconciliation, a pastor is supposed to be the community’s quarterback, class president, or the one voted “most likely to succeed.”

It used to be that the pastor had an office and worked in his study, but today the pastor has a job and works in his office. Whereas Peter organized the diaconal office so that the apostles could devote themselves to the Word and to prayer, ideal ministers seem increasingly to be managers, therapists, entertainers, and entrepreneurial businesspeople.

Open up the average issue of Christianity Today to advertisements for pastoral positions and you’ll find descriptions like “team builder,” “warm and personal style,” “outgoing,” “contagious personality,” and “effective communicator.” (Catholic friends tell me that something like this affects Catholicism, too.)

I think they’re looking for a Director of Sales and Marketing, whom they may (or may not) call “Pastor.” I’m not against directors of sales and marketing; I just don’t think that this is what we should be looking for in the way of shepherds.

Like I said, I've seen this before.  The last church we were members of, our pastor was the Executive Pastor.  And everyone loved (and still does, I'm sure) him because he was so "edgy."  It would not be unusual for him to show up wearing some snazzy green shoes, or his hair dyed white blonde.  Once he pulled onto the stage in a car.  What an impact he made on all of us congregants.  (Oh.  Sorry.  I mean customers.  That's what the leadership in that church call their members.)  As I look back, I wonder if he was making the best  kind of impact.  While he was long on wowing us all with the kewl things he did, he was short on teaching doctrine - the meat and potatoes of the Christian faith.  This church that we went to was heavily influenced by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago.  Recently, Bill Hybels, the Executive Pastor of that church has gone on the record to say,

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

It's hard to put too much blame on these pastors.  I look at my own home and think about the times when I've thought that the kids needed some neat-o kid's devotional book so they would be interested in their own quiet times.  I bought one of those devotional books once for my oldest son, and we got about halfway through it before I realized I was throwing eye-candy at him, in the hopes that it would draw him to God.  Since then, we've been sticking with, of ALL things, the BIBLE.  The word of God is enough!  I wish the church would make peace with that thought so we could do away with green shoes and mega-church programs that don't fill our need for communion with God. 

I love Ruth Beechick, and I'm sure most of you get The Homeschool Minute from TOS.  I love what she wrote in the latest edition and have to include it here so I can read it over and over.

The early Christians were strong on discipleship. A historian, Eusebius, wrote a history of the first 300 years of the church, and much of it tells how carefully they guarded the great truths of the faith. Heresies arose often, teaching doctrines such as claiming that Jesus had not existed from all eternity, thus was not fully God.

Church leaders taught and wrote letters against the errors. One writer of truth, Clement, said that "the apostles of the devil have filled [Clement's letters] with tares, exchanging some things, and adding others." They also "attempted to adulterate the sacred writings of the Lord." Many of the Christians in those days suffered martyrdom, bravely and even gladly. The true doctrines were worth dying for.

Through those early centuries, they preserved the sacred truths and the very words of scripture in order to disciple the young and the next generations. We today still benefit from their faithful guarding of true doctrines. Those early Christians discipled not by pop psychology, not by entertainment, but by the true, unadulterated words of God.