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Give Them Your Job Description

PM

Church planting brings with it many advantages, the greatest of which might just be the proverbial “blank slate.” No institutional sacred cows exist; no man-made traditions wait like thieves in the wings. Rather, what you’ve got is total freedom to build and, hopefully, you create no thieving cows.

One of the first things I put on the blank slate of IDC was teaching my own job description. There is something of a symbiotic relationship between the pastor’s health and the congregation’s health. There are two reverberating and reciprocating axioms on this matter:

  • Healthy pastors ordinarily fuel a healthy church.
  • A healthy church ordinarily fuels healthy pastors.

That sounds about right, doesn’t it? So then the question for me became, “What are some ways in which I can help the church know what God says pastors must be and do?” Here are four things we’ve done the last two years, things God seems to have kindly blessed in abundance.

4 Ways to Do It

Teach. The first book of the Bible we preached through was 1 Timothy. I wanted our people to know what God said about how we ought to live together as a pillar and buttress of His truth. Furthermore, 1 Timothy got us set in the right direction from the beginning about faithful church leadership. We got to examine the qualifications of elders and deacons in chapter 3, and the biblical pattern of faithful ministry in chapter 4. We also used our Family Meetings (bi-monthly church member meetings) to teach on biblical leadership when we began to train elders and deacons.

We are about to have one open week in our sermon calendar between the completion of 1 John and start of Missions Month. What shall we do with that stand alone? Acts 6:1-7 here we come.

Pray. We pray frequently for our church’s leadership during corporate prayer times. We have a 6-7 minute pastoral prayer in every gathered worship and I often pray for our current church officers to be faithful in their work. I also pray each week for other churches and their pastors to be God-glorifying stewards of the gospel. Such prayer times honor the office and, by extension, teach about what’s most important in pastoral ministry. Additionally, 1-2 times each year we dedicate a corporate prayer night to pray for church leaders — usually those at other churches. This allows us to not only model unity, but model how members can best pray for pastors.

Discuss. About eight months into our church’s existence I had over half the men in our church read Thabiti Anyabwile’s Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons for our monthly men’s meeting. What encouragement came from the subsequent discussion! Our guys were instructed from another voice and were challenged to examine their own lives against the qualifications of Scripture. At this meeting I said something we’ve since adopted as an IDC maxim, “Desire to be qualified even if you don’t aspire to the office.”

Disciple. All the labors above constitute discipling for sure, but I’m thinking here of one-to-one discipling. Some great questions you can use in discipling men in the church is, “Do you ever see yourself being an elder or deacon in the church? Is there anything in your life right now preventing you from being qualified?” I think I got that from Mark Dever — it totally sounds like something he’d do. I’ve had incredibly fruitful conversations grow from those simple questions. Discipling’s aim is conformity to Christ and who does Jesus intend to uniquely represent Him in the church? Faithful shepherds.

Encouraging Health Together

Truth brings unity and freedom. Focusing on and shepherding unto the biblical truth surrounding pastoral ministry has brought untold benefits to our church. The most acute thing I can point to is the incredible amount of encouragement and prayer I get each week from our members. Their encouragements and prayers are saturated with concerns firmly attached to what God calls pastors to be. This in turn empowers us to shepherd them unto what God calls them to be as children of faith.

Till the soil of truth regarding pastoral ministry and watch God — in His own time and power — ignite health in your midst.

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7 Simple Suggestions for Morning Prayer

The Heart of Prayer

I have two simple maxims on the place of prayer in pastoral ministry: 1) prayer is the greatest work, and 2) prayer is the hardest work. The Lord Jesus set the model for us. His life of prayer was full of dependency, consistency, and expectancy. A desire to pastor “like Jesus” calls for careful attention to His prayer life.

While you can’t properly call it a prescription, one unassailable description of Jesus’ prayer life was His affinity for praying early in the morning. Mark famously recounts Jesus’ patter in prayer in 1:35 saying, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (cf. Luke 4:42).

A Commendation, Not a Command

In a sermon entitled “Christ the Example of Ministers” Jonathan Edwards exhorts,

The ministers of Christ should be persons of the same spirit that their Lord was of: the same spirit of humility and lowliness of heart; for the servant is not greater than his Lord. They should be of the same spirit of heavenly-mindedness, and contempt of the glory, wealth, and pleasures of this world. They should be of the same spirit of devotion and fervent love to God. They should follow the example of his prayerfulness; of whom we read from time to time of his retiring from the world, away from the noise and applause of the multitudes, into mountains and solitary places, for secret prayer, and holy converse with his Father; and once of his rising up in the morning a great while before day, and going and departing into a solitary place to pray, Mark 1:35.

If someone wants to quibble with the Northampton Man they would probably do so with his three-fold use of “should” in the above paragraph. Many might take Edwards’ language of “should” as a binding command—and they probably should! After all, the word does ordinarily communicate duty. But I want to rescue, what is in my estimation, Edwards’ wise counsel. Minsters of Christ love to model their lives after Christ. So while we ought not command morning prayer of others, we can commend it.

There is an arresting power in pastors so desperately dependent on God they long to see their God’s face first thing in the morning. Consider the spiritual blood-earnestness of M’Cheyne who wrote,

I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer.  This is a wretched system.  It is unscriptural.  Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place.  David said, “Early will I seek thee,”  and, “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning.”  Family prayer loses much  of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me.  My conscience feels guilty, my soul unfed, my lamp not trimmed. Then, when in secret prayer, the soul is often out of tune.  I feel it is far better to begin with God—to see His face first—to get my soul near Him before it is near another.

Yes, it does seem better to begin the day with Him.

Praying Like Jesus Prayed

A modern author, full of grace and mercy, who sounds a similar call is Paul Miller in his book A Praying Life. He says, “Jesus’ pattern of morning prayer follows the ancient rhythm of the Hebrew writers who bent their hearts to God in the morning.” A sample from the Psalms echo the biblical commendation I’m trying to draw out:

  • “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” (5:3)
  • “But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.” (59:16)
  • “But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” (88:13)
  • “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (143:8)

With Jesus and the Psals in mind Miller goes on to offer the following “seven simple suggestions for how you can spend time with your Father in the morning”:

  1. Go to bed. What you do in the evening will shape your morning. The Hebrew notion of a day as the evening and morning (see Genesis 1) helps you plan for prayer. If you want to pray in the morning, then plan your evening so you don’t stay up too late. The evening and the morning are connected.
  2. Get up. Praying in bed is wonderful. But you’ll never develop a morning prayer time in bed. Some of my richest prayer times are at night. I’ll wake up praying. But those prayer times only began to emerge because I got out of bed to pray.
  3. Get awake. Maybe you need to make a pot of coffee first or take a shower.
  4. Get a quiet place. Maybe a room, a chair, or a place with a view. Or maybe you do better going for a walk. Make sure that no one can interrupt you.
  5. Get comfortable. Don’t feel like you have to pray on your knees. For years I was hindered from praying because I found it so uncomfortable to pray on my knees.
  6. Get going. Start with just five minutes. Start with a small goal that you can attain rather than something heroic. You’ll quickly find that the time will fly.
  7. Keep going. Consistency is more important than length. If you pray five minutes every day, then the length of time will slowly grow. You’ll look up and discover that twenty minutes have gone by. You’ll enjoy being with God. Jesus is so concerned about hanging in there with prayer he tells “his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1, NIV).

That’s helpful and simple counsel. May you put it to discerning use in your ministry.

Don’t doubt the power of devoted morning prayer. It may just be the spiritual catalyst your ministry is missing.

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On Preaching with Steve Lawson

Last week I listened to an “In the Room” podcast episode with H.B. Charles and it was extraordinarily helpful (listen to it here). In the course of the interview I found out H.B. has his own podcast. So I ventured over to iTunes, found his “On Preaching Podcast” and my eyes immediately widened when I saw that H.B. had recently interviewed Steve Lawson for over two hours on preaching.

I’ve long thought Lawson is an underrated powerhouse of exposition. He is Macarthur-esque in his bold dogmatism and Spurgeon-esque in his unwavering commitment to God’s word. You’ll want to check out H.B.’s interview with Lawson to hear about his call to the ministry, his amazing preaching influences, why he thinks pastors should get away from the computer, and how R.C. Sproul changed the way he speaks. Listen or watch the interview below.

Listen to Part 1 of the Interview with Steve Lawson.

Listen to Part 2 of the Interview with Steve Lawson.

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Sovereign Satisfaction

1 John Podcast

I think I was probably 11 or 12 when I discovered that my soul quakes at heights. My family used to vacation in the summer at a camp in Colorado called Horn Creek. One of the weekly activities for the courageous spry was to climb Horn Peak, some 13,500 feet in the air. So my dad and I took off. Eventually we made it to Little Horn, which is about 500 feet short of the summit. We sat down, I looked down, and said to my dad something like, “I don’t want to go any further.” The thought of going just another 500 feet to the highest point was terrifying—I was quaking even though I wore a hat proclaiming, “No Fear.” So down we went.

The next year we returned to Colorado and conquered the Horn. I think I also conquered my somewhat debilitating fear of heights. But thoughts of summits still make my heart flutter. Who can stand at the Grand Canyon, look out and not tremble in awe? Who can look down from Mt. Everest and not be moved? To stand on or next to grand heights will always move the soul; it’s part of being an ordinary human being.

From the last three words of 4:8 through 4:10 we come to the Grand Canyon of God’s grace and the Mt. Everest of God’s love; we come to the cross of Jesus Christ. The most hallowed ground in history. Will you be moved? God intends you to be and John intends you to be.

How might we know that God is love? John says look at the death of Christ. Notice 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” Love came so that we might live. How does His love in Christ bring us life? Look at 4:10, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I want you to see two things about God’s love in this most precious of verses.

2 Truths About God’s Love

God’s love is a sovereign love. His love is not a response to ours, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us.” He initiated the work of salvation according to His own eternal, sovereign decree of love. The cross shines forth and shouts out God’s sovereign love.

God’s love is a satisfying love. He “sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” What is this word “propitiation?” “Propitiation” is a sacrifice that satisfies divine wrath. It was on the cross that Jesus suffered, and His greatest anguish was not the immense physical pain associated with crucifixion, but the agony of being treated by the Father as a sinner. He who knew no sin was made to be sin, and so suffered the wrath of God. And His suffering was perfect for God’s wrath was satisfied. As the hymn says, “Til on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.”

Interestingly enough, last summer a mainline Presbyterian denomination, the PCUSA, published a new hymnbook and much hullaballo ensued about their decision to not include “In Christ Alone” in the book. They’d contacted the Keith Getty and Stuart Townend (writers of “In Christ Alone”) asking them if the denomination could change “the wrath of God was satisfied” line to “the love of God was magnified.” The writers declined and the denomination yanked it from the hymnbook. God’s wrath is something they’d rather remove than sing about, and what they don’t realize is that to apologize for God’s wrath is to rob Jesus’ of due honor and praise. To lessen the wrath of God is to make light of the sin of men, rob majesty from Jesus’ work of propitiation, and steal glory from God’s love.

If you are a Christian, are you affected by this incredible sovereign and satisfying love of God? If not, let me submit to you that it’s probably because you have a low view of sin and thus of God’s wrath. If God’s wrath is not great, your experience of His love will be small.

Maybe you’re not a Christian, if so, you just stop and consider here the wrath of God towards sin. The Bible says we all have been born in sin and sin makes us indifferent towards God. But God is not indifferent towards sin; it is a traitorous offense that demands His consuming wrath. That wrath will fall on you if you don’t turn from your sin and trust in Christ. Eternal life, not wrath, can be your portion if you believe Jesus is the loving savior from your sin.

What, for John, is the logical outcome of God’s love for us in Christ? Notice 4:11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Love for one another is thus the grateful duty of every person who knows God’s supreme love revealed at the cross.

Love one another because of who God is and love because of what God did.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Love of God,” on 1 John 4:7-12.

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To Yourself First, Then To Them

“A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.” – John Owen, Works Vol: XVI, 76.

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Tethered Preaching

TSGJohn Piper’s The Supremacy of God in Preaching is probably my favorite book on the subject. When reading the book you can’t help but feel the gravitas of proclaiming God’s word loading your soul—in a wondrous way.

Twenty-five years after its original publication Baker just published a revised version that includes four brand new chapters representing Pipers thoughts on preaching after thirty-three years at Bethlehem Baptist. One of the new chapters is titled, “In Honor of Tethered Preaching: John Calvin and the Entertaining Pastor.” Let me whet your appetite for the new edition with Piper’s answer to the question, “What is an Entertainment-Oriented Preacher?”

The difference between an entertainment-oriented preacher and a Bible-oriented preacher is the presence or absence of a manifest connection between the preacher’s words and the Bible as the authorization of what he says.

The entertainment-oriented preacher gives the impression that he is not tethered to an authoritative book in what he says. What he says doesn’t seem to be shaped and constrained by an authority outside himself. He gives the impression that what he says has significance for reasons other than that it manifestly expresses the meaning and significance of the Bible. So he seems untethered to objective authority.

The entertainment-oriented preacher seems to be at ease talking about many things that are not drawn out of the Bible. In his message, he seems to enjoy more talking about other things than what the Bible teaches. His words seem to have a self-standing worth as interesting or fun. They are entertaining. But they don’t give the impression that this man stands as the representative of God before God’s people to deliver God’s message.

What then is a “Bible-oriented preacher?” Grab a copy today to find out!

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A Church Polity Boot Camp

imageToday the other elders at IDC and an elder candidate head out to Washington D.C. for a Weekender at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. What is a Weekender?

The company line says,

Three times a year, 9Marks and Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. host around one hundred pastors, seminarians, and church leaders from Thursday night to Monday morning for a full-on immersion in the life and inner workings of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, a church committed to living and ministering biblically.

You’ll have box seats for a new members’ class. You’ll be front and center for lectures from Mark Dever on expositional preaching and implementing change. You’ll even go behind closed doors to observe an elders’ meeting. And all that’s just the first half of the weekend.

From leadership to worship to body life and more, it’s all on the table. So bring your questions, and don’t forget to stash some cash for the CHBC bookstall.

In other words, it’s a boot camp on healthy, congregational polity.

Back in the Day

In May of 2012 I went to a Weekender and it was there innumerable ecclesiological convictions clicked into place. At that point in my ministerial life I had no shortage of theoretical convictions about church life and polity, but I’d seen precious few fleshed out ordinary practice. The Weekender at CHBC provided the picture that a lovingly faithful congregational life enjoys painting.

It was oh so timely as I was just about to being gathering a core group for a church plant. Looking back on it now I can’t believe I was walking into planting without many of those convictions having tangible experience attached to them. Yet God, in His kindness, put me into an experiential grinder at the Weekender and I’ve never been the same.

If you are a pastor or church leader, consider going to a Weekender.

Take Much and Leave Little

Any elder or staff member at CHBC will tell you their church is far from perfect. So don’t go to a Weekender to see the perfect church. Go instead to see a rigorous adherence to letting God’s word shape God’s people. Go to see how elders at a very large church manage to spiritually shepherd by knowing all the sheep. Go for the congregational devotion to prayer. Go for the soul-stirring singing on Sunday morning. Go for the thoughtful interactions and lectures on polity, preaching, and missions.

Go to see biblical polity in action.

Find out more information on upcoming Weekenders here.

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Don’t Be a Cherry-Picker

“While psalms of thanksgiving are wonderful, they are rarer in the book of Psalms than psalms of lament. Cherry-picking only the praises from the Psalms tends to shape a church culture in which only positive emotions can be expressed before God in faith.” — Todd Billings, Rejoicing in Lament, 40-41.

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Cultivating Biblical Godliness

Reformation Heritage is quietly putting together a wonderful little series of booklets on the theme of “Cultivating Biblical Godliness.” You might consider buying a few of these slim volumes for your church’s bookstore.

Here’s what RHB has to say about the series:

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “The world today is looking for, and desperately needs, true Christians. I am never tired of saying that what the Church needs to do is not to organize evangelistic campaigns and attract outside people, but to begin herself to live the Christian life. If she did that, men and women would be crowding into our buildings. They would say, ‘What is the secret of this?’”

Many people who are new to the church need instruction in the most basic aspects of godly living. Even where churches are engaged heavily in discipleship, visitors and members often have gaps in their understanding and practice. One of the greatest needs of our time is for the Spirit of God to cultivate biblical godliness in us in order to put the glory of Christ on display through us, all to the glory of God the Father.

For these reasons, Joel Beeke and Ryan McGraw are coediting a series of booklets titled Cultivating Biblical Godliness. These booklets treat matters that are vital to Christian experience, and each contribution aims to address a wide variety of people and circumstances at a fundamental and introductory level. This includes teaching people what to believe in order to practice personal holiness as well as specific directions on how to cultivate biblical godliness in relation to issues that are common to God’s people.

The distinctive feature of this series is its experiential tone. While some booklet series aim to enlighten the mind, these booklets aim to warm the affections as well. The goal is to promote communion with the triune God and to transform the entire person in thought, speech, and behavior. To this end, we intend to include a wide range of authors whom the Spirit has blessed to skillfully stir up the church to personal holiness and affection to Christ through their preaching and writing ministries.

We need a Christianity that puts the transformative power of God in the gospel on display through developing a communion with God that is visible to the world. Our prayer is that through this series, the Lord would revive His church by producing Christians who are full of love for Christ, who deny themselves in order to follow Him at great personal cost, and who know the joys of walking with the triune God. This is the kind of Christianity that we need. This is the kind of Christianity that the triune God has used to turn the world upside down. May He  be pleased to do so again.

Current Titles

cultivating__43265.1411578436.1280.1280What is a Christian? by Ryan McGraw. What is a Christian? This is a truly vital question because never-ending happiness or everlasting horror hinges upon understanding the correct, biblical answer to it. Yet few questions have provoked so much confusion. Ryan McGraw lays out what it means to be a Christian in terms of what one believes, what one experiences, and what one does—a full-orbed Christianity of head, heart, and hands. If you are investigating what it means to follow Jesus Christ, if you are wrestling with the question of whether you are truly saved, if you desire to grow as a Christian by getting back to the basics, or if you are seeking to help others, here are simple and clear answers from the Holy Scriptures.

cultivating_3__88370.1411577452.1280.1280What Does it Mean to Love God? by Maurice Roberts. How do you love a person you cannot see? What do you give to someone who has it all? Why is it so important to love the Creator of the galaxies? What does it mean to love God? Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment given to mankind is to love the Lord with all our mind, heart, and strength, and yet what it means to love God can be a profound mystery. Maurice Roberts explains the biblical meaning of love for God and shows how such love moves us to do many things, from thirsting for God to praying for our neighbor’s salvation. He shows that love for God is like a sweet fire that must lift all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our strength in a holy flame toward God.

cultivating_4__85970.1411574472.1280.1280How Do I Kill Remaining Sin? by Geoff Thomas. Are you dying? If not, then you have not yet begun to live. The Bible teaches us that when God forgives a person by the death of Jesus Christ, He starts a process in him of dying daily—putting his sinful habits to death as he lives in union with Christ. Though being born again brings fundamental changes in a person’s soul, every Christian has sin remaining in him. Pastor Geoffrey Thomas explains how Christians can fight and conquer sin in their lives by the grace of Christ so that they grow to be more like Jesus, living wholeheartedly for the Lord one day at a time.

9781601783677__48505.1414713222.1280.1280How Do Preaching and Corporate Prayer Work Together? by Ryan McGraw. In John 14:12–14, Jesus declares that His people would accomplish “greater works” than His. What are these greater works the church would accomplish, and how could they be even greater than Christ’s miracles? With biblical insight, author Ryan McGraw takes a closer look at this passage, along with the book of Acts, and explains that these greater works are connected to corporate prayer and faithful preaching, which are vital to the life of every local congregation. How Do Preaching and Corporate Prayer Work Together? affirms the priority of prayer and preaching in the church and offers practical instruction for effective corporate prayer that, by God’s grace, will bear fruit in preaching.

9781601783653__67133.1414712951.1280.1280How Should Men Lead Their Families? by Joel Beeke. God’s Word teaches us that Jesus Christ was ordained by God and anointed by the Spirit for His work as prophet, priest, and king of His children. Those who are in union with Him share His offices in a limited but important way. In this booklet, Joel Beeke explains how husbands and fathers should lead their families as prophets, priests, and kings. Filled with biblical wisdom and practical application, How Should Men Lead Their Families? is a helpful guide for men who desire to bear the image of the Father of glory and of the heavenly Husband as they lead, teach, love, evangelize, protect, and rule over their wives and children.

cultivating_6_front__59035.1416344107.1280.1280What is Experiential Calvinism? by Iain Hamilton. “There is no such thing as ‘dead Calvinism,’” writes author Ian Hamilton. Calvinism, simply put, is biblical Christianity. No mere human devised theological system, Calvinism is rooted in and shaped by God’s revelation in Holy Scripture. Hamilton asserts that Calvinism is “natively experiential.” In What Is Experiential Calvinism?, the author shows us that Calvinism is far richer and more profound than five points and helps us see that the lives and ministries of those who are true Calvinists pulse with living, Spirit-inspired, Christ-glorifying, God-centered truth.

Why_Fast__19156.1421871688.1280.1280Why Should I Fast? by Daniel Hyde. Today, the church seems to have forgotten about the spiritual discipline of fasting. Most of us have never heard a sermon about it, and few of us have ever practiced it. We think of fasting as an antiquated relic of the past. So why should we fast in an age of fast food? Pastor Daniel R. Hyde argues that “fasting is actually a basic biblical teaching and practice, one that is vital to cultivating godly living in an ungodly generation.” Fasting is a means to the end of abiding, deep, and personal communion with the triune God through prayer. The author explains what fasting is, provides biblical examples of it, reminds us of what Jesus taught regarding it, and tells us how to go about it.

cultivating_2__61953.1411576007.1280.1280How Should Teen Read the Bible? by Joel Beeke. Most Christians know that they should read the Bible, and many have tried, but it is not unusual for people to get stuck, get lost, or get discouraged. Here is a booklet that lays out wise guidelines for how to read the most important book in the world and not give up. Joel Beeke offers many helpful tips on how to benefit from the Scriptures with the constant awareness that our attitude is crucial. Written especially for young people, How Should Teens Read the Bible? Is an extremely practical resource for anyone who wants to read the Scriptures with regularity, joy, and delight.

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A Faithful Friend

M'Cheyne

Some years ago I heard John Piper recount recount the genesis for his love affair with Jonathan Edwards. He said, “One of my seminary professors suggested to us back in 1970 that we find one great and godly teacher in the history of the church and make him a lifelong companion. That’s what Edwards has become for me. It’s hard to overestimate what he has meant to me theologically and personally in my vision of God and my love for Christ.”

Upon hearing that advice I immediately set about finding a “lifelong companion” from church history.

A Whimsical Purchase

For quite a while it seemed as though Edwards would be my own historical mentor.  It all began with George Marsden’s Jonathan Edwards: A Life, a ravishing account that still may be the best biography I’ve ever read. Marsden, for me, was the gateway into further Edwards study—study I found unusually captivating. So many aspects of his life and ministry invigorated my soul: his ruthless devotion to God, warmth in cherishing God’s sweetness and beauty, unmatched theological profundity, and faithful labor in his home. And so it was from 2007-2010 that Edwards was my homeboy.

Yet something happened in the summer of 2010 that shifted my focus from the Northampton man; on a whim I purchased The Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne by Andrew Bonar. My life has, quite literally, never been the same.

They’d Weep Just Looking at Him

I first came across the name of M’Cheyne in 2007 when I read Martyn Lloyd-Jones Preaching and Preachers. The Doctor said,

You remember what was said of the saintly Robert Murray McCheyne of Scotland in the last century. It is said that when he appeared in the pulpit, even before he had uttered a single word, people would begin to weep silently. Why? Because of this very element of seriousness. The very sight of the man gave the impression that he had come from the presence of god and he was to deliver a message from God to them. That is what had such an effect upon people even before he had opened his mouth. We forget this element at our peril, and at great cost to our listeners.

I thought to myself, “Now that’s saintly seriousness worth pursuing.” At Lloyd-Jones’ prompting, later in Preaching and Preachers, I took up M’Cheyne’s Bible reading plan. While I was, in some way, with M’Cheyne every day, I knew little about his story and ministry. These were the years of Edwards fandom and fervor after all. So I picked up Bonar’s work on Mr. M’Cheyne to inform my ignorance and I dare say my “Lifetime Companion/Historical Mentor” instantaneously shifted from Edwards to the young Scotsman.

I think the best way to describe the quick change was M’Cheyne’s ordinaryness. Edwards is called “the greatest American thinker” for a reason—his intellect is otherworldly. Any personal aspirations to be like Edwards could only get so far because there will ever be anyone like Edwards. M’Cheyne, however, had no extraordinary gifts. Yes, he was a fantastic student who ardently loved poetry and the classics, but such characteristics were hardly unique in Scotland at the time. He was in the gospel ministry for only seven years before he died unseasonably young. So what then does M’Cheyne have to offer? Here’s my best answer: M’Cheyne models ordinary ministry set aflame by extraordinary devotion to Christ.

I want to be like that.

Passion Overflowing

To read M’Cheyne is to read the soul of a man inflamed with love for Christ. His twin passions were evangelism and holiness; not unlike our Savior’s heartbeat. He stoked the flame of love for Christ through earnest commitment to the word and prayer. I’ve yet to hear anyone encounter M’Cheyne without sensing a challenge from his white-hot intensity toward and love for Christ.

In his introduction to Owen’s The Mortification of Sin J.I. Packer recounts how Keswick theology had made him frantic in the pursuit of holiness. “And then (thank God),” Packer writes, “[I] was given an old clergyman’s library, and in it was an uncut set of Owen, and I cut the pages of volume VI more or less at random, and read Owen on mortification—and God used what the old Puritan had written three centuries before to sort me out.”

I can sympathize with the need for spiritual sorting. At key occasions in my life and ministry over the last five years God has used M’Cheyne to sort me out. It’s no overstatement to say that on at least two occasions M’Cheyne saved my ministerial soul.

That’s what a lifelong companion does.

Do you have one?

If so, fantastic. Immerse yourself in that person’s life until it’s hard to separate his thoughts from your own. If you don’t have a historical mentor, choose wisely . . . and patiently. It may take you years to find one, but you’ll know it when he or she arrives, for they will likely sort you out with power and ease. That’s what friends are for.