Monday, June 25,
2018
Now these are
the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do
his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until
we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will
be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of
Christ. Then we will no longer be
immature like children. We won’t be
tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to
trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Ephesians 4:11-14(NLT)
There was a pastor who had
earned his doctorate in seminary, and was well-known for his doctrinal sermons,
taking the exposition of Scripture through the great life-giving themes of
salvation, baptism, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ incarnation, and so-on. He had just been extended the invitation to
serve as pastor by the elders of a very evangelistic congregation.
Not everyone on the elder
board was in total agreement, however.
One cantankerous old-timer was overheard in the parking lot expressing
his dismay over the decision to call this seminary-trained preacher: I just ain’t sure this-un’s the preacher fer
us; I don’t want none o’ that doctor-in-all preachin’. Jus’ gimmie some Bible is all! If’n I get sick I’ll a-go see me a doctor.
It’s not easy to get past
hard-headedness. Perhaps the seminary word
would be obtuse!
Another stumbling block to
understanding and communication is squirrel-headedness. A few weeks ago, I was travelling to church
on a Sunday morning and, in the space of a mile or so, I had to swerve twice to
miss squirrels.
One thing is certain – you can
never be certain about which way a squirrel will turn…left, right, forward,
back, or zig-zag like a gnat in a fire storm; the only thing you can count on
is that it won’t be boring!
I once counselled someone
who had the squirrel thing down pat. She
would ask me a question; I would answer with a suggestion as to how the
Scriptural approach would take some time, but be better in the long run, and
she would leave all smiles, determined that her life was going to change. The next week she would be in shambles
because she had tried to do the Biblical thing (for six minutes) and become
disillusioned at how it didn’t work. Zig, zag, left, right, forward one step,
backwards two!
Grrrr.
Pastors do not know
everything, whether they’ve been to seminary, or if they fell off the turnip
truck one morning, bumped their head, and took it as a sign to go into the
ministry that day.
But one thing is true – when
God gives a gift is isn’t lacking; pastors, may I say, are no exception. And when it comes to the Scriptural principles
we find in the church’s doctrines, a pastor worth any Biblical salt at all will
show you the parallel between what Scripture says, and what’s going on in your
life. And it would pay to give it more
than six minutes of try-out time.
Barring that, you could be in danger of squirrel theology,
bouncing in the wind from this acorn of teaching to that twig of promise,
without a shred of doctrinal reality.
If God gave you a pastor who teaches
sound doctrine, thank God, and keep measuring his or her teaching by
Scripture.
If you have a pastor that makes you
wonder if the Bible has anything certain, true, and life-building to say about the
way to live your life, maybe the nut has fallen a little too far from the tree!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
