What Do We Want from Our Pastors?

Looking back on the many different churches I’ve been a part of, the matter of church leadership has always been a major concern. Pastors, elders, deacons (and deaconesses), board members, teachers, and various other office-holders appear in my memory in varying shades of “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” The overarching question that I keep coming back to is: What does the Lord of the church want His church to be? Because that ought to determine the nature of the church’s leadership.

Shepherding the “flock of God” is, or should be, a high and holy calling. Jesus prayed, not only for His immediate band of apostles and other followers, but also for “those who will believe through their word.” For the church of the future, all the way down to you and me. And He prayed that the Father would “sanctify them by Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” Throughout the Scriptures, the ministry of that sacred, sanctifying word is of paramount importance.

If you’re like me, you’re in constant need of reminding about “the basics.” I’m apt to forget what the Bible is. Not simply a written record of the opinions of those who lived centuries ago in a far-off land. It’s exactly the opposite. The Bible is the eternal truth of the living, ruling, supreme, saving God of the universe. The Bible’s message is as contemporary and relevant as if it had been written this very morning. And its truth, its WHOLE truth, is to SANCTIFY God’s people.

Parts of the Scriptures are thrilling, inspiring, fascinating, heartwarming, challenging. Other parts are strange, obscure, tiresome, uncomfortable, terrifying. But Christians consider “all Scripture” to be “God-breathed...profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God should be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” Serious Christians should desire to learn and treasure and obey “the whole counsel of God.”

Perhaps you find yourself in a church that seems content with lighthearted “sermonettes” on a Sunday morning. Your pastor picks his topic based on what he deems to be the “felt needs” of his people. Or the current crisis facing society the previous week. Or maybe he follows the dictates of the church calendar that rotates through a set litany of topics each year. Many pastors appear eager to make their flocks feel better about themselves and life in general. They portray God as a fountain of happiness, but downplay His desire to SANCTIFY us (make us HOLY).

Really, I’ve found that, by and large, a church will get the kind of pastor it WANTS. And very often, the kind it DESERVES. Unless a group of believers is truly hungry to be taught ALL of the Scriptures, that group will end up with a pastor who is more of a “hireling” than a shepherd. One who feeds the sheep with just what will keep them barely alive, not make them all that God wants them to be.

When was the last time that your minister preached through an entire book of the Bible? How about one of the difficult ones like Ecclesiastes or Ezekiel or Hebrews? Does your preacher tend to cycle through a limited pool of topics or preach only from the New Testament or even just the four Gospels? Would you be willing to go deeper and broader in God’s truth, if only your leader was willing to lead the way?

God gave us 66 books for a good reason. He knew what His people needed from all eternity, and He gave it to us in the form of a magnificent Book! Do we want a pastor who is everybody’s “pal” and keeps us all feeling good Sundays with his jokes and anecdotes and pep talks? Or do we want a scholarly mind that grapples with the depth and breadth of holy Scripture in order to challenge His people to make strides spiritually, preparing them for an unknown future that might include persecution and call for strong, sanctified soldiers of the cross?

What DO we want from our pastors? Isn’t it time to voice those desires in prayer? Isn’t it high time to be serious about our faith, our Lord, our churches, our world?

MNA
7/3/2020

Pearls, Pigs and Parables

God’s truth is the most precious thing on earth. It makes one wise unto salvation. It’s the one true window we possess into the wondrous unseen world of heavenly things. Besides the souls of men and women, it’s the one treasure of this world that shall never pass away.

In our Christian literature-soaked culture, it’s hard to fathom that, in whole regions of our planet, people are risking more than their lives in order to possess even a fragment of this Book of Books.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Christian Scriptures (Testaments Old and New) is that, in spite of their divine origin and profound wisdom, so much of this Book is so easy to comprehend. Its overarching theme and story-line reads like a simple fairy tale. Yet its history, teaching and directives are so practical and all-encompassing, that the most scholarly minds are still plumbing its depths after thousands of years!

Clearly, the Bible is a message from the keenest and deepest Thinker in the universe. Of course, as has often been admitted, ALL truth is GOD’S truth...we know many useful things about our world through our secular observations. Yet there are essential truths God has shared with us in the Scriptures about humanity, Himself, history, hope for the future--things we could learn in no other way. Pearls of great price, indeed!

Unfortunately, most people today fail to recognize God’s written revelation as the precious string of pearls it is. Many who feel themselves too self-sufficient, worldly-wise, scientific and sophisticated, view those who love God’s Word as “Bible-thumpers,” bigoted hayseeds and unschooled hicks. The combined childlike simplicity and timeless profundity of the Scriptures leave them uninterested, unimpressed, unmoved.

To most folks, the Bible is a purely human invention, a crutch for feeble minds; at best, it’s just one arcane religious tome among many. To them, the possibility that their sovereign Maker has a message they desperately need to hear, is too remote a possibility to bother about. If honest, they would say, “That book was useful in years gone by, before mankind ‘came of age’ and realized we’re nothing but creatures sprung up by chance from primordial slime. But we’ve grown up. We’ve gone beyond supernatural explanations and old-fashioned myths.”

Interestingly, this was the attitude of many of the skeptics in Jesus’ day when He was ministering throughout Galilee and Judea. Jews of the party of the Sadducees were especially prone to dismiss Jesus as just one more troublesome fanatic who spoke of a supernatural realm and a coming divine kingdom, where all human power structures would be subject to God’s judgment, and the down-trodden poor would be rewarded and comforted at last.

The Pharisees weren’t much better. Unlike the Sadducees, they believed in the supernatural and the possibility of miracles. But they saw God as One who could be appeased and manipulated by “playing the system” of rules and regulations, most of which their traditions had added on to God’s own requirements of obedient Jews. They listened carefully to Jesus’ teachings. But they did so with the primary goal of confirming their own preconceived interpretations, or else, finding fault with His teaching so they could accuse Him of sedition or heresy.

One of the most insulting epithets that I can think of is to call somebody a “pig” or a “swine.” To most people, this would be associated with one who is inhumanly selfish, rotten, dirty or vile. Pigs are animals which are known as rooters in the mud and the slime. This is a name thrown at police officers by those who run afoul of the law. It’s used by tyrants to describe people they have no use for and wish to denigrate as less than human. I’ve even heard it used to characterize women who are hopelessly committed to lives of prostitution.

When Jesus wanted to make a point about those who had no use for His words, He drew the picture of casting a valuable string of pearls into the pigsty. He warned His followers against casting pearls before swine, and giving holy things to dogs (Matthew 7:6). Both dogs and pigs were unclean animals to the Jews, and the Lord was clearly saying that some hearers of the truth are so hardened in their hearts and confirmed in their rejection of what is holy, that the clear presentation of God’s truth to such people only provokes them to even more violent rejection.

This is one of the reasons, I believe, that Jesus’ primary mode of teaching, especially among large crowds, was by way of parables. Some of His most chilling words are recorded in Mark 4:11-12...

“To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

Elsewhere, Jesus taught that one must become as a little child to enter His kingdom. Little children typically will sit on a parent’s or grandparent’s lap and happily drink in the stories and instructions he or she is given. An innocent little child won’t get hung up on doubts and objections and needless adult-style worries when confronted with uncomfortable truths.

Sadly, though, most folks bring a great deal of mental and moral baggage with them as they are exposed to the precious pearls of God’s truth. And far too many of them consider themselves too sophisticated and “mature” to humbly submit to what God has to tell them. They see themselves as above and beyond the need for repentance and a new birth such as Jesus offered to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. These know-it-alls find it offensive that a simple carpenter from Galilee (or one of His untaught followers) would seek to instruct them in matters of spiritual importance.

In Romans chapter one, Paul writes that the sinful proclivity of mankind that chiefly causes God to display His holy wrath against us, is that of suppressing His truth in unrighteousness. Even the mere awareness of God’s presence in our universe, revealed in creation and in our own consciences, is so repugnant to us, we do all we can to repress it, deny it, explain it away, push it down and out of sight. And when we can’t do that, we twist that knowledge into a false deity-- some idol we can fashion and control.

Jesus’ words of warning must be heard. Even now, God is scattering the seed of His Word all around us. It is a day of grace. But, that grace will not be offered forever. If my heart is resisting the simple call of Christ to repent and believe and follow Him, the day may come when He’ll consider me dog-like or pig-like enough to keep His pearls away from me forever.