It is going to be quite some time before we notice the impact of last night’s decision to call Kurt Heath as our preaching/senior pastor.  It is going to take time for the church to get to know him, for him to get to know us, etc.  Nonetheless, I think that we can already praise God for a few things:

1) Kurt’s love for God’s Word.  We are a church committed to being formed and constantly reformed by the Word of God.  Kurt is committed to preaching the Word of God, to delivering Scripture clearly, directly, plainly, and powerfully.  That is the only way true, spiritual growth will come to this body and it is the only good foundation for the numerical growth we can expect in the months and years to come.

2) Kurt’s love for the lost.  One of the things I’m thankful for most about Third Avenue is the way I’m regularly challenged to share the Gospel and, thinking of a message recently by a dear brother, not just to share the Gospel, but see the lost know God’s Word.  There is in Kurt a desire to speak to non-Christians in a matter-of-fact way about the Gospel.  I see that and appreciate that in his preaching, and I think that throughout the course of a lifetime of preaching, we can trust that Third Avenue will be a place where non-Christians can be thoughtfully and lovingling provoked to take the claims of Christ seriously.

3) Kurt’s sense of urgency.  Granted, I’m thinking most about the comments from his sermon yesterday, when he reminded us that Christ’s return is imminent, and he asked us how Christ would find us, what Christ would find us doing, how the Savior would find us waiting?  This, of course, is not finally Kurt’s sense of urgency, it is a sense of urgency given by the Spirit to Peter.  Still, it is a sense of urgency that led Kurt to leave a life on Capitol Hill, a more comfortable life in politics for the less distinguished pastorate.  For many, this is an obvious choice, but for others, it epitomizes foolishness.  But, when Christ comes back, it appears Kurt wants to be found shepherding.  He senses the urgent need of the church for men devoted to that task.  We, at Third, can be thankful for that.

What a gift to the church pastors are, and what a gift Kurt is.  Not because he is more valuable than the other elders at Third Avenue, but because he, by God’s grace, has sensed the call to plant himself here, to preach here, and pour himself out behind that body and this congregation in a unique way.  In just a few weeks, he will begin his duties full time and Satan will undoubtedly redouble his attack, anxious to see the leaders of God’s people fall.  Remember to pray for your pastors, and Kurt especially, that their love for God’s Word, love for the lost, and sense of urgency would not diminish; that their holiness would grow, and that the Lord would use them to build up the church.

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