C.J. Mahaney's Blog, page 4

Ordinary Pastors, part 3: Be Faithful to the Message

By C.J. Mahaney

Part 3 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.

Paul’s first charge is this: “Preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2).

As pastors, we are called to be faithful to preach—and not to preach just anything; the content of our preaching is “the word.”

Timothy would recognize this as yet another reference to Scripture in general (3:16–17) and the gospel in particular (1 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 2:8). Paul does not need to further specify or clarify for Timothy. The “deposit,” “sound teaching,” “the truth,” or “the faith”—these are all references to the gospel: “the trustworthy saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

The charge is be faithful to preach the gospel. The content of our teaching, of each sermon, should be informed by this specific charge.

We must never assume that those in our churches have sufficient knowledge of the gospel, or have exhausted their need for the gospel.
We must never address a topic isolated from the gospel. 
We must never exhort anyone to obedience apart from the gospel.
We must never preach more passionately about any topic other than the gospel. 

You and I have been entrusted with the old, old story. We must not alter, adjust, or add to that story. Instead, we must faithfully proclaim it.

Preach the Word

You will be tempted to stray from this story.

If you haven’t been tempted already, you will before long. Straying from this story is sometimes an effective way to gain applause, or win personal approval, or satisfy those Paul describes in verses 3–4: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

But regardless of the temptations, you must be faithful to preach the Word!

The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).

Ordinary Pastors, part 2: A Biblical Definition of Ministry

By C.J. Mahaney

Part 2 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.

I want to interrupt our tendency to unfavorable comparison, unattainable aspirations, and the resulting discouragement of soul. I want to ask a question: Why are we discouraged?

Often we are vulnerable to discouragement because we have forgotten what pastoral ministry truly is. We measure ourselves against unattainable standards, and inevitably we do not measure up.

So if you find yourself discouraged, you’re not alone. I’m familiar with this state of soul. And the most effective way I can encourage you is to remind you of the definition of genuine pastoral ministry, as revealed in Scripture.

In 2 Timothy 4:1–5, we find a biblical definition of ministry that will clarify our goals, purify our hearts, and liberate our souls. This passage can protect us from the temptation to compare ourselves with others. It can realign our motivations for ministry. It can protect ordinary pastors from discouragement. And it can sustain us through many years of joyful service to God’s people.

Paul writes to Timothy (and to all of us),

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Pastors, this is your definition of ministry.

Paul's Charge

Second Timothy 4:1–5 is more than a definition—it is a charge!

Paul, who is facing imminent execution, says to Timothy, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus” (v. 1). When reading it we should imagine Paul’s voice appropriately raised, infused with seriousness and urgency. In these words, Paul places Timothy—who, in comparison to the Apostle Paul, is an ordinary pastor—under a divinely inspired obligation.

And this divinely inspired letter is not just personal correspondence between Paul and Timothy. “These words,” John Stott writes, “are Paul’s legacy to the church….It is impossible to read them without being profoundly stirred.”* These words are Paul’s charge—and God’s—to every extraordinary pastor, and every ordinary one.

We all have differing gifts, influence, and even fruitfulness. Let’s be honest: I can’t match the gifting and influence of John Piper or Al Mohler. And neither can you. But regardless of our varying gifts, we all have the same charge: pastoral faithfulness.

Pastoral ministry that is pleasing to God is not ultimately about gifting, influence, or even fruitfulness. It is not about how many books you have written, which conferences invite you to speak, or how many of your sermons are downloaded on iTunes. It is not even about whether your church membership numbers grow or shrink. Pastoral ministry that is pleasing to God is about faithfulness to the charge of 2 Timothy 4. You and I are called to be faithful to this charge.

In the following posts we’ll look at the three areas in which Paul calls us to faithfulness:

faithfulness to the message,
faithfulness to the ministry, and 
faithfulness to the Savior.

As we examine this passage, let’s allow Paul’s pastoral charge to address our motivation for ministry, shape our aspirations, and protect us from discouragement.

The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).

* John Stott, The Message of 2 Timothy (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973), 105.

Ordinary Pastors, part 1: Called, Gifted, and Discouraged

By C.J. Mahaney

Some pastors are extraordinary gifts to the church—Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Lig Duncan, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, John Piper, and Thabiti Anyabwile among them. It is a privilege to listen to and learn from these men. When I think about these men, I often think of the PGA tour motto: “These guys are good.” These guys are smart. These guys are unusually gifted. (Although that certainly isn’t how they see themselves.)

Chances are, if you’re a pastor, you think of yourself as somewhat ordinary.

If you are like me, you feel very ordinary indeed. Every so often I get the privilege of having lunch with Al, Mark, and Lig. At those meals the conversation is fast and furious, and I get dizzy trying to keep up with them. The discussion sweeps from century to century, dropping into a particular year then zooming out again, a whirlwind tour of history, philosophy, literature, theology, politics—everything except sports. They kindly assume I understand what they are talking about. I can assure you that most of the time I don’t.

These guys are smart. I am not. I am comforted, though, and here’s why: most of the smart guys I know have no athletic ability whatsoever. I’ve got an extraordinary jump shot, but I am an ordinary pastor.

Tom

I want to introduce you to another ordinary pastor. His name was Tom. Tom’s life began in 1911 and ended in 1992. During those 81 years, Tom was a faithful and loving husband, a kind and wise father, and the faithful pastor of a small church in Canada. I doubt you have heard of Tom Carson. If you have, it’s only because he had a remarkable son: Dr. Don Carson, the brilliant biblical scholar and prolific writer. Dr. Carson has written or edited more than 60 books, including one about his dad: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson.

In his introduction, Don Carson explains the purpose for this memoir:

Some pastors, mightily endowed by God, are remarkable gifts to the church. They love their people, they handle Scripture well, they see many conversions, their ministries span generations, they understand their culture yet refuse to be domesticated by it, they are theologically robust and personally disciplined. I do not need to provide you with a list of names: you know some of these people, and you have been encouraged and challenged by them, as I have. Some of them, of course, carry enormous burdens that watching Christians do not readily see. Nevertheless, when we ourselves are not being tempted by the green-eyed monster, we thank God for such Christian leaders from the past and pray for the current ones.

Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches.…

Most of us—let us be frank—are ordinary pastors.

Dad was one of them. This little book is a modest attempt to let the voice and ministry of one ordinary pastor be heard, for such servants have much to teach us.*

Let’s be frank: most of us are ordinary pastors. We mean well. We work hard. But our sermons are average at best. Thousands of people all over the world are not downloading our sermons on iTunes. No, it’s just average stuff, with maybe an occasional good sermon in the mix (or so we think until we talk with a few church members and realize, yeah, maybe not). Most ordinary pastors will not write a bestselling book. Most ordinary pastors will not write a book at all.

Most of us are ordinary pastors. We are truly called, and we are genuinely gifted by God for our task, but we are not unusually gifted.

Too often ordinary pastors are discouraged pastors.

Discouraged Pastors

Tom Carson was an ordinary pastor, and often a discouraged one. His son Don Carson devotes an entire chapter to this (chapter 6: “Discouragement, Despair, and a Vow”). In that chapter we get a glimpse of Tom Carson’s private journals, entries like this one:

Sunday, Mar. 5, 1961

Rose 6:50 a.m. Prayer and study. Preached (poorly) from 2 Cor. 2. Twenty-four present.…Rested. Studied. Evening 19 present. Preached from Rom 1:1–17 (poorly).**

Tom Carson wasn’t writing this for anyone else. He had no idea this journal entry would one day be published. And he is obviously discouraged. His son Don Carson writes, “The reasons for such discouragement are many, but some of them, at least, overlap with Tom’s self-doubt, guilty conscience, sense of failure, long hours, and growing frustration with apparent fruitlessness.”

Perhaps this describes you.

At some point in our lives, we can all relate to Tom Carson.

The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).

* D.A. Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 9.

** Ibid., 82.

Ordinary Pastors (series intro)

By Tony Reinke

We tend to overlook the “ordinary” things in life.

We don't watch a keynote speeches live online to see the unveiling of a new model of an ordinary mobile phone.

We don't buy expensive stadium tickets to watch ordinary athletes compete.

And ordinary YouTube videos never “go viral.”

The common, the everyday, the routine, the uneventful, the garden-variety...none of it grabs headlines or our attention. We notice the extra-ordinary, and when it comes we will watch, buy, and spread it.

Yet the honest truth is that most pastors do not think of themselves as exceptional. Most pastors are ordinary pastors, and normally they are the first to admit it. These ordinary pastors often face particular struggles and temptations, especially the temptation to compare themselves unfavorably to extraordinarily gifted pastors and preachers.

In advance of C.J.’s chapter “Ordinary Pastors” to be published in the forthcoming Together for the Gospel book, we are reprinting the chapter in 12 parts (courtesy of Crossway). In this series C.J. addresses some of the common temptations ordinary pastors experience and sets for them a realistic vision for successful pastoral ministry that honors God and faithfully proclaims the Savior.

The ultimate goal of the series is to encourage ordinary pastors, men who are laboring faithfully in their ordinary churches and who seek to honor the extraordinary Savior. In the words of on older mentor to a young pastor, “What is important at the end of the day is the church—ordinary churches trying to live faithfully in a rapidly changing society. Ordinary churches pastored by ordinary people like you and me, knowing that we cannot do everything, but trying to do what we can and seeking God's face for His presence and blessing so that His dear Son might be honored and His people strengthened.”*

May this 12-part series, Ordinary Pastors, play a small role to that end.

* D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life (Crossway, 1993), 226-227.

The Worst Sinner in the Room

By Tony Reinke

John Newton went to prison in the fall of 1775. It wasn’t exactly a prison, more of a correctional institution for thieves and prostitutes. And he wasn’t sent there by force, he entered the facility voluntarily as a 50-year-old pastor.

The correctional facility in London was known as Westminster Bridewell. The inmates in the facility were subjected to hard labor and, in the spirit of behavior reform, to physical lashings for disobedience. Those floggings (of both men and women) were meted out in public and in full view of the good citizens of London. The social distance between the law-abiding citizens and the law-breaking miscreants was as obvious as the three-story prison walls.

Into Bridewell Newton entered with a Bible and a very personal story of God’s saving grace. He recounted his visit in a letter to a friend:

You would have liked to have been with me last Wednesday. I preached at Westminster Bridewell. It is a prison and house of correction. The bulk of my congregation were housebreakers [burglars], highwaymen [a highway robber on horseback], pickpockets, and poor unhappy women, such as infest the streets of this city, sunk in sin, and lost to shame [prostitutes]. I had a hundred or more of these before me.

I preached from 1 Timothy 1:15 [“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (KJV)]. I began with telling them my own story. This gained their attention more than I expected. I spoke to them near an hour and a half.

I shed many tears myself, and saw some of them shed tears likewise.

Ah! had you seen their present condition, and could you hear the history of some of them, it would make you sing, “O to grace how great a debtor!”

By nature they were no worse than the most sober and modest people; and there was doubtless a time when many of them little thought what they should live to do and suffer. I might have been, like them, in chains, and one of them have come to preach to me, had the Lord so pleased.*

Newton was obviously struck by the response to his own testimony and to the gospel of free grace. But Newton was also moved by the experience of being inside the prison. It was a deeply personal experience. Given his life before conversion, it was not difficult for Newton to imagine a role reversal with himself wearing the chains and subjected to public flogging.

By all accounts the miscreants in the correctional facility were sinners and they knew it. The citizens of London knew it. But what those inmates probably didn’t expect was to see a 50-year-old pastor walk into the prison and candidly share the story of his own sinfully wretched background.

In his visit to the prison two important points are clear.

First, Newton believed that the grace of God could reach anyone, no matter how dark or prevailing the sin.

Second, Newton found in 1 Timothy 1:15 a natural transition from his own life of sin to Paul’s claim of being the chief of sinners. Newton could make such a smooth transition because he genuinely believed that he was the worst sinner he knew—even in a room where he found himself encircled by 100 thieves and prostitutes.**

Tony Reinke serves as the editorial and research assistant to C.J. Mahaney. Reading Newton’s Mail is a series of blog posts reflecting on various published letters written by John Newton (1725–1807), the onetime captain of a slave trading ship—a self-described apostate, blasphemer, and infidel, who was eventually converted by grace. Newton is most famous for authoring the hymn “Amazing Grace,” or maybe for helping William Wilberforce put an end to the African slave trade in Britain. Less legendarily, Newton faithfully pastored two churches for 43 years, a fruitful period of his life when a majority of his letters were written. Reading Newton’s Mail is published on Fridays here on the Cheap Seats blog.

* John Newton, The Works of John Newton (London: 1820), 2:150.

** Newton explicitly refers to himself as the “chief of sinners” at several places in his writings (see for example his Works, 2:246, 5:570, and 6:58). And at one point in a sermon he explains the rationale behind his conviction: “It is probable, that all who are convinced and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, having a clearer knowledge of the nature, number, and aggravation of their own sins, than they can possibly have of those of any other person, account themselves among the chief of sinners, though many of them may have been preserved from gross enormities” (5:173).

Curtis Allen: Friend, Pastor, Reformed Rap Pioneer

By C.J. Mahaney

Curtis Allen is a friend of mine and a much loved pastor. He graduated from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College and served as a pastoral intern at Covenant Life Church. He currently pastors at Solid Rock Church.

But as many of you already know, Curtis—a.k.a. Voice—is also a gifted songwriter and rapper. And just this week Christianity Today identified him as one of five notable reformed rap and hip-hop artists.

I appreciate each of these men—Curtis, Lecrae, Trip Lee, Shai Linne, and Flame—and I am grateful to God for their work in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And if you haven’t heard them yet, be sure to check out Curtis’s raps about the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Catechism.

C.J. on Jude on Film

By Tony Reinke

Three of C.J.’s recent sermons have been added to our online video archive. Here are the details and links:

When Someone Doubts
Jude 22–23
March 20, 2011
Covenant Fellowship Church; Glen Mills, PA           

Keep Yourself in the Love of God
Jude 20–25
September 12, 2010
Bethlehem Baptist Church; Minneapolis, MN           

God's Preserving Grace: A Magnificent Doxology
Jude 24–25
January 30, 2011
Covenant Fellowship Church; Glen Mills, PA

Spiritual Depression: An Interview with John Newton

By Tony Reinke

John Newton wrote a number of valuable letters on the high marks and the low points of the Christian life. One of those letters was originally to a pastor. But as you will soon see, it has application for every Christian, especially on the topic of spiritual depression (see Psalm 42).

For this entry in the series I’ve chosen to reformat one letter into an interview format. We’ll see how it goes.

Rev. Newton, thanks for your time today. Let’s begin discussing the topic of how spiritual depression affects pastors. You have many years of pastoral experience yourself. Does God preserve pastors from undergoing spiritual valleys? Do pastors get a special divine favor and higher proportion of comforts in life to better serve their local churches?

Give me leave to ask pastors: What would you do if you did not find yourself occasionally poor, insufficient, and stupid?

Are you aware of what might be the possible, the probable, the almost certain consequences, if you always found your spirit enlarged, and your frames lively and comfortable?

Would you not be in great danger of being puffed up with spiritual pride?

Would you not be less sensible of your absolute dependence upon the power of Christ, and of your continual need of his blood, pardon, and intercession?

Would you not be quite at a loss to speak suitably and feelingly to the case of many gracious souls, who are groaning under those effects of a depraved nature, from which, upon that supposition, you would be exempted?

How could you speak properly upon the deceitfulness of the heart, if you did not feel the deceitfulness of your own; or adapt yourself to the changing experiences through which your hearers pass, if you yourself were always alike, or nearly so?

Or how could you speak pertinently of the inward warfare, the contrary principles of flesh and spirit fighting one against another, if your own spiritual desires were always vigorous and successful, and met with little opposition or control?

The angel who appeared to Cornelius did not preach the Gospel to him, but directed him to send for Peter: for though the glory and grace of the Saviour seems a fitter subject for an angel’s powers than for the poor stammering tongues of sinful men, yet an angel could not preach experimentally, nor describe the warfare between grace and sin from his own feelings (Acts 10:1–8).

And if we could suppose a minister as full of comforts and as free from failings as an angel, though he would be a good and happy man, I cannot conceive that he would be a good or useful preacher; for he would not know how to sympathize with the weak and afflicted of the flock, or to comfort them under their difficulties with the consolations wherewith he himself, in similar circumstances, had been comforted of God.

So what’s behind this spiritual depression in the pastor’s experience?

We may extend the subject so as to make it applicable to believers in general.

First, let me say that resting in the recollection of past comforts, without a continual thirst for fresh communications from the Fountain of life, is, I am afraid, the canker which eats away the beauty and fruitfulness of many professors in the present day; and which, if it does not prove them to be absolutely dead, is at least a sufficient evidence that they are lamentably sick.

But on the other hand, if we are conscious of the desire, if we seek it carefully in the use of all appointed means, if we willingly allow in ourselves nothing which grieves the Spirit of God, and to damp our sense of divine things—if the Lord is pleased to keep us short of those comforts which he has taught us to prize, instead of lively sensations of joy and praise we feel a languor and deadness of spirit.

In other words, you say that spiritual depression stems from an appropriate thirst for communion with God. So how do we respond when we feel this languor and deadness of spirit?

Provided we do indeed feel it, and are humbled for it, we have no need to give way to despondency or excessive sorrow.

Still the foundation of our hope, and the ground of our abiding joys, is the same; and the heart may be as really alive to God, and grace as truly in exercise, when we walk in comparative darkness and see little light, as when the frame of our spirits is more comfortable. Neither the reality nor the measure of grace can be properly estimated by the degree of our sensible comforts.

So you seem to say that grace is at work in the Christian’s life whether the experience is bright or dark. That’s an important point. So when the darkness descends, when a Christian walks through a dark valley and the soul is cast down, what should be his posture?

The Apostle exhorts believers to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4). He well knew that they were exposed to trials and temptations, and to much trouble from an evil heart of unbelief; and he prevents the objections we might be ready to make, by adding, “And again I say, Rejoice”—as if he had said, I call upon you to rejoice, not at some times only, but at all times.

Not only when upon the mount, but when in the valley.

Not only when you conquer, but while you are fighting.

Not only when the Lord shines upon you, but when he seems to hide his face.

When he enables you to do all things, you are no better in yourselves than you were before; and when you feel you can do nothing, you are no worse. Your experiences will vary, but his love and promises are always unchangeable.

Thus, it makes sense that we can always rejoice. But that takes faith. So what gets in the way of our rejoicing? Why is it so hard to rejoice in the valley?

Sinful principles may, and too often do, mix with and defile our best desires. I have often detected the two vile abominations, self-will and self-righteousness insinuating themselves into this concern. Like Satan, who works by them, they can occasionally assume the appearance of an angel of light.

I have felt impatience in my spirit, utterly unsuitable to my state as a sinner and a beggar, and to my profession of yielding myself and all my concerns to the Lord’s disposal.

He has mercifully convinced me that I labor under a complication of disorders, summed up in the word sin. He has graciously revealed himself to me as the infallible physician. And has enabled me, as such, to commit myself to him, and to expect my cure from his hand alone.

Yet how often, instead of thankfully accepting his prescriptions, have I foolishly and presumptuously ventured to prescribe to him, and to point out how I would have him deal with me! How often have I thought something was necessary which he saw best to deny, and that I could have done better without those dispensations which his wisdom appointed to work for my good!

He is God, and not man, or else he would have been weary of me, and left me to my own management long ago.

It has cost me something to bring me to confess that he is wiser than I; but I trust, through his blessing, I have not suffered wholly in vain.

My sensible comforts have not been great. The proofs I have had of the evils of my sinful nature, my incapacity and aversion to good, have neither been few nor small. But by these unpromising means I hope he has made his grace and salvation precious to my soul, and in some measure weaned me from leaning to my own understanding.

So because we are sinners we will find it especially difficult to rejoice in moments when our personal weakness is exposed. Can you explain further how self-righteousness gets in the way of our joy in God?

Self-righteousness has had a considerable hand in dictating many of my desires for an increase of comfort and spiritual strength. I have wanted some stock of my own. I have been wearied of being so perpetually beholden to him, necessitated to come to him always in the same strain, as a poor miserable sinner. I could have liked to do something for myself, and to depend upon him chiefly upon extraordinary occasions.

I have found indeed, that I could do nothing without his assistance, nor any thing even with it, but what I have reason to be ashamed of. If this had only humbled me, and led me to rejoice in his all-sufficiency, it would have been well. But it has often had a different effect, to make me sullen, angry, and discontented, as if it was not best and most desirable that he should have all the glory of his own work, and I should have nothing to boast of, but that in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.

I am now learning to glory only in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me; to be content to be nothing, that he may be All in All (2 Corinthians 12:7–13).

But I find this a hard lesson; and when I seem to have made some proficiency, a slight turn in my spirit throws me back, and I have to begin all again.

In conclusion, what have you learned that you can share with us from your own experience in the valley?

First: There is an inseparable connection between causes and effects. Indwelling sin is an active cause; and therefore, while it remains in our nature, it will produce effects according to its strength.

So why should I wonder that I can feel no lively exercise of grace, no power to raise my heart to God, any farther than he is pleased to work in me mightily; any more than wonder that I do not find fire in the bottom of a well, or that it should not be day when the sun is withdrawn from the earth?

Second: Humbled I ought to be to find I am so totally depraved—but not discouraged, since Jesus is appointed to me of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; and since I find that, in the midst of all this darkness and deadness, he keeps alive the principle of grace which he has implanted in my heart.

These are wonderful reminders of God’s sustaining grace. Thank you Rev. Newton. May our valleys remind us of our absolute dependence upon Christ’s power, blood, pardon, and intercession.

And for further insight on these important topics, see C.J.’s practical post: “The Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment of Spiritual Dehydration.”

Tony Reinke serves as the editorial and research assistant to C.J. Mahaney. Reading Newton’s Mail is a series of blog posts reflecting on various published letters written by John Newton (1725–1807), the onetime captain of a slave trading ship—a self-described apostate, blasphemer, and infidel, who was eventually converted by grace. Newton is most famous for authoring the hymn “Amazing Grace,” or maybe for helping William Wilberforce put an end to the African slave trade in Britain. Less legendarily, Newton faithfully pastored two churches for 43 years, a fruitful period of his life when a majority of his letters were written. Reading Newton’s Mail is published on Fridays here on the Cheap Seats blog.

Primary source: The Works of John Newton (London: 1820), 1:253–261.

 

The Pastor and Personal Criticism (ebook)

By Tony Reinke

Spanning a little over two months on the blog, C.J.’s eleven-part series on the pastor and personal criticism has come to an end. Via email many of you requested that the series be provided as a single document to make it easier to print and read. And today we are making this entire series available as a single PDF, which you can download here (0.2 MB):

For anyone interested in reading the series online, I’ve included a final index of the original posts (see below).

Thanks for reading!

The Pastor and Personal Criticism

The Pastor and Personal Criticism
The Pastor’s Temptations when Criticism Arrives
Learning Wisdom by Embracing Criticism
A Kind and Painful Bruising
The Pastor’s Wife and Her Role When Criticism Arrives
Adding a Few Smudges to My Moral Portrait
Deal Gently with Your Critics
Why Faithful Pastors Will Be Criticized
Too High an Estimation
Distinguishing Criticism
How to Criticize Your Pastor (And Honor God)

What No Sacred River, Speedboat, or Platinum Credit Card Can Offer

By Tony Reinke

The following excerpt is taken from Stephen Altrogge's new book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence (Crossway, 2011), pages 65–66:

In the gospel we have full, free, open access to God. This isn’t “come once a year, kill a lamb, and hope you don’t die” access to God. We don’t need to whip ourselves into a twirling religious frenzy or to light sticks of incense. There’s no need to walk ten miles with broken glass in our shoes or wash ourselves clean in a sacred river. We can come into the presence of God at all times and at all places.

This is the greatest benefit of the gospel. Forgiveness of sins, a new heart, and eternal life are only a means to this magnificent end. Jesus Christ ushers us into the presence of God, and it’s in the presence of God that we find our soul’s deepest satisfaction. Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

A speedboat, job promotion, or beautiful, loving spouse who likes long walks on the beach can’t bring fullness of joy. Eternal pleasures can’t be purchased with a platinum credit card. Full, overflowing, eternal joy and pleasure are found only in the presence of God, and in the gospel we have access to his joyful presence....

If we’re not consistently spending time in the presence of God, we won’t be content.

Period.

Nicely said.

For more background on The Greener Grass Conspiracy, watch the trailer here: