Today is our anniversary, and I am glad to see this date roll around. It is a time to celebrate what is great about our union, a time to reflect on what has happened in the past year, and a time to record the ways in which God has allowed us to rejoice and weep together as we chart our way through the world as a family. Together we can look back to that time when we exchanged vows at the front of the church building, and among many witnesses committed ourselves to stand together, for better for worse, for richer for poorer.
Our bond, though, like that of many others, is not without its perils. There is the anti-commitment culture which we mark among our peers, the sad stories of those who have defaulted on this vital relationship to the ruin of themselves and their partner, and others who have grown apart as different priorities and interests occupy their time and attention. Together we know that it takes work to make this happen, labour to make this last, commitment to make good on the weighty words we traded some time ago.
While all of the above is true of my wife and I (including today's date) I am referring to another relationship which started just one year ago today - my ministry as Pastor in Millisle Baptist Church. Outside of my commitment to Carolyn, the covenant between God's people within that fellowship and I is one of the most sacred trusts I hold, and one which is not invulnerable to threats.
Some time ago Dan Phillips wrote about 'Porn and Paper Pastors'. In recent days I've been reflecting on the fact that if modern listeners and sermon samplers run the risk of making paper Pastors into spiritual porn, then modern preachers run a parallel risk of making the lure of wider influence a spiritual mistress who can sap their energy, divert their affections and lead to a breakdown in the health of the most important ministry relationship they enjoy, with the church of which they are pastor.
Now please hear what I am not saying. I am deeply thankful to God for those individuals whom he has given not only to their local ministry context, but to the wider Christian world. I have benefitted enormously and lastingly from the ministries of men like Geoff Thomas, John Piper, Rupert Bentley-Taylor, John MacArthur and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. What is characteristic of these individuals is that they are local church men, whose enriching preaching has spilled over into the wider domain without any seeming design or desire for global recognition. Our world would be a very much poorer place were ministries of this ilk hampered from receiving a hearing in the wider Christian world.
But there is a clear and present danger nevertheless. There is a view among some Christians that only 'international conference speakers' are worthy of being listened to, and this can infect the hearts of local Pastors at the most devastating level - that of motivation. A gifted, articulate minister of the Gospel might find that he wishes a wider audience for his words week by week, that somehow what he offers to his people is worthy of a greater hearing than the mere context of the local church. What can begin as a noble concern - to be used as widely as possible - can easily lead to the Pastor-people relationship becoming commodified, and to the local church becoming a spring board to 'greater things' or a mere sounding board for sermons rather than their terminus.
Local church work can be hard, springing as it does from the heady romance and hard realism of commitment and relationship. Members of a local church hear their pastor preach his best of sermons, and they also endure his worst; they bless God for his pastoral care at times of crisis, and wish in their hearts that he had been there on that one occasion when they really needed him and he didn't show; they learn his idiosyncrasies, both endearing and infuriating; and by the grace of God they learn to love him, and he them through the best and worst of times. It is a commitment built on covenant, realised in the hard slog of the everyday, amidst failure and blessing, hardship and happiness, and that is its unique dignity.
Without due care wider influence can be to local ministry what a mistress is to marriage, carrying the mid-life crisis cringe factor of wanting instant acceptance, ready gratification, of feeling attractive to another, of polishing and preening one's best material for the gathered masses, and of carrying little or no burden of accountability in terms of how the message is preached and then lived by the one delivering it.
Preaching, like any form of ministry, can be a risky business. Not only does it carry the dynamite-danger of bringing the living Word of the living God to His people, but our personalities have an uncomfortable habit of getting in the way. James' public health warning that 'not many...should presume to be teachers' (James 3:1) clearly indicates that those who stand to declare God's truth also stand to incur God's censure, should the motive or matter of their ministry not be pure and Christ exalting. There are many threats to the health of local church ministry, responsibilities carried by members and minister alike, but the world has owned in the past the glorious results of earnest ministry realised in the real world of the local church amidst its vagaries and victories, and that is surely of worth in the eyes of the Lord.
Today is our anniversary and I thank God for placing me in a family where I can minister and fail, where we can work and live, and disagree and resolve, and commit ourselves together for the long haul.
And that's where marriage trumps a mistress every time.
*This post is part response, part addendum, to the now classic article 'Porn and Paper Pastors' written by Dan Phillips for the Pyromaniacs blog (view it here).
Our bond, though, like that of many others, is not without its perils. There is the anti-commitment culture which we mark among our peers, the sad stories of those who have defaulted on this vital relationship to the ruin of themselves and their partner, and others who have grown apart as different priorities and interests occupy their time and attention. Together we know that it takes work to make this happen, labour to make this last, commitment to make good on the weighty words we traded some time ago.
While all of the above is true of my wife and I (including today's date) I am referring to another relationship which started just one year ago today - my ministry as Pastor in Millisle Baptist Church. Outside of my commitment to Carolyn, the covenant between God's people within that fellowship and I is one of the most sacred trusts I hold, and one which is not invulnerable to threats.
Some time ago Dan Phillips wrote about 'Porn and Paper Pastors'. In recent days I've been reflecting on the fact that if modern listeners and sermon samplers run the risk of making paper Pastors into spiritual porn, then modern preachers run a parallel risk of making the lure of wider influence a spiritual mistress who can sap their energy, divert their affections and lead to a breakdown in the health of the most important ministry relationship they enjoy, with the church of which they are pastor.
Now please hear what I am not saying. I am deeply thankful to God for those individuals whom he has given not only to their local ministry context, but to the wider Christian world. I have benefitted enormously and lastingly from the ministries of men like Geoff Thomas, John Piper, Rupert Bentley-Taylor, John MacArthur and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. What is characteristic of these individuals is that they are local church men, whose enriching preaching has spilled over into the wider domain without any seeming design or desire for global recognition. Our world would be a very much poorer place were ministries of this ilk hampered from receiving a hearing in the wider Christian world.
But there is a clear and present danger nevertheless. There is a view among some Christians that only 'international conference speakers' are worthy of being listened to, and this can infect the hearts of local Pastors at the most devastating level - that of motivation. A gifted, articulate minister of the Gospel might find that he wishes a wider audience for his words week by week, that somehow what he offers to his people is worthy of a greater hearing than the mere context of the local church. What can begin as a noble concern - to be used as widely as possible - can easily lead to the Pastor-people relationship becoming commodified, and to the local church becoming a spring board to 'greater things' or a mere sounding board for sermons rather than their terminus.
Local church work can be hard, springing as it does from the heady romance and hard realism of commitment and relationship. Members of a local church hear their pastor preach his best of sermons, and they also endure his worst; they bless God for his pastoral care at times of crisis, and wish in their hearts that he had been there on that one occasion when they really needed him and he didn't show; they learn his idiosyncrasies, both endearing and infuriating; and by the grace of God they learn to love him, and he them through the best and worst of times. It is a commitment built on covenant, realised in the hard slog of the everyday, amidst failure and blessing, hardship and happiness, and that is its unique dignity.
Without due care wider influence can be to local ministry what a mistress is to marriage, carrying the mid-life crisis cringe factor of wanting instant acceptance, ready gratification, of feeling attractive to another, of polishing and preening one's best material for the gathered masses, and of carrying little or no burden of accountability in terms of how the message is preached and then lived by the one delivering it.
Preaching, like any form of ministry, can be a risky business. Not only does it carry the dynamite-danger of bringing the living Word of the living God to His people, but our personalities have an uncomfortable habit of getting in the way. James' public health warning that 'not many...should presume to be teachers' (James 3:1) clearly indicates that those who stand to declare God's truth also stand to incur God's censure, should the motive or matter of their ministry not be pure and Christ exalting. There are many threats to the health of local church ministry, responsibilities carried by members and minister alike, but the world has owned in the past the glorious results of earnest ministry realised in the real world of the local church amidst its vagaries and victories, and that is surely of worth in the eyes of the Lord.
Today is our anniversary and I thank God for placing me in a family where I can minister and fail, where we can work and live, and disagree and resolve, and commit ourselves together for the long haul.
And that's where marriage trumps a mistress every time.
*This post is part response, part addendum, to the now classic article 'Porn and Paper Pastors' written by Dan Phillips for the Pyromaniacs blog (view it here).
