I wrote a review this weekend of Brian McLaren’s book, The Last Word, and the Word After That. You’ll be able to see the whole review in the May/June issue of Modern Reformation, but here are a couple of paragraphs from it.
Finally, it should be noted that The Last Word is conspicuously lacking in any emphasis on, or practically any mention of, the cross of Christ. Perhaps that is unintentional, but whatever the case, it is at least strange that a book which focuses so intently on hell should so assiduously avoid discussion of the means God has given for avoiding it. Maybe the explanation for all this lies in the fact that McLaren’s gospel is so socially oriented, so focused on the present, that it has no obvious place for concepts like atonement, substitution, propitiation, or eschatological salvation. Yet those are the ideas which lie at the very heart of the cross’s meaning. It is therefore not surprising that a gospel which downplays those concepts will also wind up downplaying the cross. Ultimately, McLaren is so careful to avoid the uncomfortable “legal” language of evangelical Christianity, and so intent on making the gospel a matter of the here-and-now rather than the there-and-then, that he ends up leaving the cross itself with nothing better than a tenuous foothold in the Christian gospel.
McLaren set out with his “New Kind of Christian” trilogy to rescue the Gospel from irrelevance. By approaching Scripture from a decidedly this-worldly perspective, by revisiting the teachings of Jesus with postmodern sensibilities, and by stating the gospel in terms of social justice, he hoped to make the Christian faith attractive to a new generation. In the process, however, what McLaren has finally presented is a gospel so nearly emptied of eternity, so tethered to the here-and-now, that it really has no ability at all to offer a full and lasting hope. After all, as Paul wrote, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”
Christine Leigh Heyrman, surveying Baptist practices in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth centuries wrote, “While they excelled at producing young preachers, the Baptists never instituted any system for distributing them to full advantage” (Southern Cross, 111). Is it just me, or does anyone else feel this statement rings true today?
Yesterday, Aaron reminded us what we are to be looking for in a “faithful minister” – one whose personal holiness testifies to the power of the gospel. We know that this is an office not to be entered into lightly, and this Sunday morning in Sunday School, we will be thinking about “The Call To Christian Ministry” in our series “Conversations That Matter.”
One of the responsibilities that the leaders of Third Avenue Baptist have is to shepherd the young men in our congregation who believe themselves to be called to pastoral ministry.
Nearly four years ago, I moved to Louisville, KY, single and childless, with the intention of finishing my bachelor’s degree and with the hope completing an M.Div. I wanted to pastor upon graduation, something many can resonate with. Well, four years later much of that has changed. I’m now married and a father. With the exception of graduating from Boyce this coming May, my long-term plans are unclear. Many circumstances have caused me to question my original intentions. Yet, one thing is clear that wasn’t prior to coming to Louisville – the local church plays a vital role in my decision. As one who is considering his calling, here are some questions I often ask myself.
1. Do other members and leaders affirm my sense of calling? As grateful as I am for a seminary, it’s not the seminary’s responsibility to affirm this calling. It’s the church’s. During my years of study and preparation it is my responsibility to seek out the church’s counsel and affirmation about my calling.
2. Is my passion only for pastoral ministry? In my four years at TABC I’ve seen first-hand that pastoral ministry is not an easy task. The pastor must be a man called by God with a passion first and foremost for Christ and his church. I’m fortunate to have the privilege to work in the secular work place. This has exposed me to a number of other opportunities that I would not have had otherwise. God uses this exposure to help me discern my desires and calling.
3. Are there other ways I can be used by the church? You should not feel ashamed to have gone halfway through seminary and yet not have a firm conviction that you are being called into the pastoral ministry. Either way, you can trust that in God’s providence you will serve the church as God intended. It is a glorious thing to see members faithfully living and serving in a local church, whether they are finishing their Ph.D. or tending to their homes. God has gifted each to serve his church.
The following description of a “faithful minister” was written by John Williamson Nevin (1803-1886). As we at Third Avenue are in the process of seeking and calling a pastor, this short passage reminds us of the tremendous weight of pastoral ministry and how the Lord uses a pastor’s life and words for a congregation’s good:
The faithful minister is found preaching the gospel from house to house, as well as in a more public way; visiting the families that are under his care, expressly for this purpose; conversing with old and young, on the great subject of personal religion; mingling with the poor, in their humble dwellings, as well as with those in better circumstances; ministering the instructions of religion, or its consolations, at the bed-side of the sick or dying; and in one word laying himself out in continual labors of love toward all, as the servant of all for Jesus’ sake. The holiness of his own life particularly becomes, in these circumstances, an agency powerful beyond all others, to recommend and enforce the gospel he is called to preach. To all who know him, his very presence carries with it the weight of an impressive testimony in favor of the truth. [The Anxious Bench (1844)]
Pray this description would mark the man we ultimately call as our senior pastor, those we finally recognize as elders, and all those who one day are sent out from Third Avenue to shepherd flocks of their own.
