A Success Story Involving An 80-Year-Old Pastor and His Wife

The little town of Warrensburg, New York, has to be one of the prettiest towns in the Adirondack Mountains, even though located three hours drive east and north from Syracuse, it is in a sense off the beaten track. But for a small but growing Free Methodist congregation there, it is a center of exciting growth and development.

This story begins in 1997, 12 years ago. Living 40 miles away, retired superintendent, Dick Leonard, and his wife, Ruth, were completing their second year of retirement after superintending the Centenary Conference (now the New England Conference) of the Free Methodist Church for 27 years – a record in the denomination.

One day a concerned lay person phoned to ask retired superintendent Leonard if he could come and give a hand to the Warrensburg church. It was down to 8 in attendance, several projects of previous years were unfinished, and the church was on the verge of closing its doors for good.

The pull was instant. It was Ruth’s home church and the Leonards had been married in that church now 61 years ago. For sure there was sentimental attraction.

But the Leonards saw the challenge as divine marching orders. They began driving the 80-mile round trip each Sunday and sometimes during the week to encourage the small company of discouraged believers. The numbers began to grow slowly and soon the revived congregation began talking about finishing projects – remodel the fellowship hall downstairs, complete the refurbishing of the foyer, re-roof the church building, pave the parking lots on both sides of the church, erect better signage, etc. When one task was completed they made sure it was paid for before starting another, but the funds came in quickly and with a measure of excitement.

Building a parsonage was a bigger challenge. But they found the lot one mile from the church and now a commodious parsonage valued at $200,000 is a home for the Leonards. This project was completely paid for in four years.

I visited the church twice early on in this story when a congregation might number 10 or 15. So, I naturally ask, has the number of worshipers matched the development of the church property? Worship attendance has gone as high as 150 to fill the church, and this past September the average attendance for the month was 90. That’s some increase over the original 8!

Looking toward continuing ministry to the community and continuing growth, the congregation’s latest project is the recent purchase of the four-bedroom house next door to the church which gives them 10.5 acres of land for development, with 1100 feet of the property on the Schroon River. The series of providences are amazing that made this purchase available at a cost the congregation can reach. Now they can provide the parking needed for the growing congregation. Several other options for the property are under consideration.

Six-foot-five Pastor Leonard and his wife Ruth are modest about their part in the rebirth of this congregation. But the growing congregation knows that their dedication and skilled leadership has given the congregation courage to stretch and achieve beyond expectations. Their easy love for people draws others to them and the gospel. And the congregation’s working together on this string of projects has enriched the fellowship of the developing body, and their stretching to meet the financial demands has deepened their faith.

Meanwhile, this 80-year-old pastor and his wife are open to the future. They’re not laying further retirement plans but are living with the challenge of growing along with the congregation, all the while staying open to whatever marching orders the Lord of the Church may give. Pastor Leonard writes, “We are just thankful to be doing what we enjoy the most. The church people are the best anywhere, and it is a joy to serve here for the past 12 years.”

Living Together Unmarried – Is there a Word from God?

It’s easy these days to gather arguments to justify the practice of living together unmarried. Consider: the practice has almost become mainstream; society no longer attaches much of a stigma to the arrangement; because of “the pill” it’s less risky than it used to be; urban life is more anonymous so people don’t care; the custom to marry later in life makes the period of waiting for full sexual gratification too long; no one should enter a lifetime relationship like marriage without a trial run.

Against all these arguments, the major Christian response is God’s inspired and authoritative word. To be sure, there are supplemental arguments that bear out the trustworthiness of the Scriptures on this matter. But at core and in the moment God’s word speaks with finality. Consider a verse written to early Christians that fits the present situation.

“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterers and the sexually immoral” (Heb. 13:4). Ponder five nuggets of truth embedded in this verse.

First, “marriage” can be defined. The word stands for a singular covenanted relationship between one man and one woman which the Scriptures assume from beginning to end to be ordained by God. Of the union of Adam and Eve they say, “The two shall be one.” (Gen. 2:24). In support, Jesus said, “Therefore, what God has joined together let man not separate” (Mark 10:9).

The Bible from the start holds this to be a sacred truth, however much it was attacked throughout Bible history by bigamy, polygamy, divorce, prostitution, etc.

Second, our verse says that within this union the marriage bed should be kept pure. Here’s how Eugene Peterson paraphrases that in THE MESSAGE: “… guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband.” The intimacy of which the verse speaks is to be restricted. It was not to be defiled before or during marriage by illicit relations.

Third, there are two words that label such intimacy sinful if experienced outside a covenanted marriage. The first is “adultery.” This word stands for sexual sin against a marriage by the intrusion of a third party. The damage it exacts can be seen everywhere in our broken society – it sparks distrust, recurring rages, family breakups, divorce, and violence even to the extent of murder.

Fourth, the writer adds, “sexual immorality” (fornication) as an offence. This word stands for sexual relations between unmarried persons of the opposite sex. Thus, what is blessed by God within marriage is strongly forbidden as sinful outside of that bond.

Finally, the verse looks beyond the passion of the moment. It says men and women who choose to live together unmarried with someone single or already married may escape the judgment of society but will suffer the judgment of God. It may be judgment in this life through self-acting moral laws (Gal. 6:7,8). Or it is certain to be judgment at the Great White Throne judgment at the close of history (Rev. 20: 11-15).

How seriously should we take such words from the Scriptures? In the closing words of the Bible Our Lord speaks of the Eternal City into which his righteous ones will be invited. But, he says, “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Rev. 22:15).

But these sobering words are followed by a great invitation to be saved from such judgment: “The Spirit and the bride say ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 22: 17).

God’s Super City

“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2 RSV).

The city is neither St. Louis nor Sodom. It doesn’t belong to the ancient world buried beneath sand dunes nor to the modern world clouded by the haze of pollution. It isn’t marked by human genius nor scarred by human depravity. It’s splendor owes nothing to man; it is the city of God.

Humans, wherever they have gone, have organized into communities. Their skills in social structures have come to a peak in the building of cities. Babylon, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Atlanta, and these highly developed communities have witnessed across history to the genius of their creators. Yet cities have fallen one-by-one, sacked by enemies, corrupted by inhabitants, or emptied by the vagaries of history.

The Bible has a dual attitude toward cities. Jesus loved Jerusalem and wept over it in great tenderness, then pronounced destruction upon it. It was his city, the place of the patriarchs and prophets, and it had known great moments. But it distinguished itself for its stoning of the prophets. Then the city God had uniquely honored had swelled with pride and rejected his Son.

Yet the Bible begins its story of man in a garden and ends it in a city, “the New Jerusalem coming down our of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2). The vision of this city, given to John on Patmos, is rapturous, and the Book of Revelation records it with splendor.

This last book of the Bible speaks throughout in what some have called cartoon language. It has been pointed out that a cartoonist today wanting to show tensions between Russia and China, for example, simply pictures a bear being eyed menacingly by a red dragon. We would get the message. The Revelation is filled with verbal pictures – four-headed beasts, angels with vials, and cities like the New Jerusalem – from all of which we are intended to get a message too.

The message is that in his time, God will provide the perfect community for those who belong to him. Paul calls it “the Jerusalem which is above” (Gal. 4:26), and “our commonwealth . . . in heaven” (Php. 3:20) RSV). It is the city toward which Abraham was headed, “the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10 NEB), the eternal dwelling place of God and His people.

Today, many of the cities of man are under a cloud, if not a cloud heavy with sulphur dioxide, a threatening cloud from a dirty bomb. It’s a place of physical decay and human despair to many forgotten people, a seeming hell without flames. Yet, their leaders keep a proud silence about God and grope only on the horizontal plane for solutions to their troubles.

Even so, Christ wept over a city ruled by such attitudes, and he healed people in its dirty streets. Can God’s people do less? In every sector there are needs which compassionate Christians can meet, despair they can work to relieve, boredom they can help to replace with meaning. In many decaying cities, small corps of Christians join to help relive such problems.

But, here’s the paradox. We can serve with compassion in the city of man only if we are convinced at every level of our beings that our true destination is the New Jerusalem, the eternal city of God.

This Week’s Visit to the Seminary

Kathleen and I are just back from a visit to Northeastern Seminary in North Chili, NY. We go there once a semester to meet with a four-hour evening class. The class has a collection of my materials on practical pastoral issues and from them Professor Gerhardt gives me freedom to deal with subjects of my choosing.

Northeastern seminary is on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan College. From Brampton we travel westward around the western end of Lake Ontario, then east along its southern shore, crossing the Niagara River and driving 75 miles further east to the edge of Rochester, New York.

This semester the class was smaller than usual, but with a cross-section of Christian traditions – 12 students from Lutheran, Free Methodist, Pentecostal, nondenominational, Baptist and others. There were African Americans and Caucasians in almost equal numbers. But color or traditions were scarcely noticeable, veiled by the warm evangelical spirit that seemed to tie classmates together.

It was a mature group. There were ordained ministers, two or three already assigned to serve a congregation; others were on the way to ordination; yet others were lay church workers. One young woman introduced herself to me as a laid-off mechanical engineer who showed strong interest in the subject of the course.

First, we discussed the Christian funeral with its ramifications. I recalled that when I was in seminary more than fifty years ago the professor gave one lecture on the subject. That was valuable, but the first funeral after seminary can be daunting. Facing death with a family, empathizing with them, and then putting their loss into Christian perspective in a service of worship and consolation is a significant task.

Last night the subject of weddings and marriage raised interesting questions. One asked: Should a minister marry unbelievers? Answer: Marriage is an institution ordered by God for the blessing of all mankind, not merely a provision for Christians. We derive this viewpoint from the matchless story of Adam and Eve. The story is rooted in creation. Christians say marriage is the covenanted union of one man and one woman intended until death. But whether a man and woman present themselves as believers or nonbelievers, it is the duty of pastors to show due diligence in proceeding in accordance with the rules and regulations set down by the body whose ordination they hold.

The question whether a minister should marry a believer to an unbeliever was raised. The Scriptures clearly declare that Christians are to avoid the “unequal yoke” because, “What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor. 6: 14-18). Pastors need to have this question resolved in their minds and to have reached a good understanding with their church board before the matter comes up.

We have visited Northeastern happily in this role for several years. Each time, the fact that Kathleen is with me seems to mean a lot to the class. It gives us both opportunity to share with an oncoming generation of pastors and other church workers some things we know about the pastoral life from long experience. Passing the torch like this also makes us feel like an ongoing part of the church of Jesus Christ, who himself was “that great shepherd (pastor) of the sheep” (Heb. 13:20). Of equal blessing to us is this: each time we visit, a sense of collegiality develops quickly and age differences don’t seem to matter.

What Really Makes the Church Grow?

I have believed for many years that the local church grows — when its growth is genuine — from the pulpit outward.

That does not mean that all a church needs is good preaching and the rest will care for itself. A local church is a complex body and there are many other standards that must be met for the church to increase both in spiritual depth and numerical strength.

Nor does it mean that the whole burden for the growth of a church is upon the pastors and if their performance in the pulpit is exceptional the church will thrive in every other respect. The growing church must also have a core of lay workers who bear the spiritual burden for growth and outreach along with the pastor.

It does not even mean that brilliant preaching is necessary for the church to grow. As G. Campbell Morgan so clearly summarized, real preaching must only meet three basic criteria: it must be true, clear and anointed.

What it does mean is that the center for spiritual nourishment for the congregation is the pulpit, and if the pulpit lacks authenticity either in content, clarity or unction, even an increase in numbers of people will not equal genuine congregational growth.

We have all seen hummingbirds hover in air, wings ablur, while they sip from feeders filled with a red liquid — sugar and water. I’m told that if the mixture is made up of saccharin and water they will continue to come and feed with equal thirst, but gradually they will become weak and unable to fly. The taste of saccharin is sweet enough to fool them, but it lacks the calories they need.

In a similar way, what is delivered from the pulpit must not only appeal to the ear of the listener; it must nourish the spirit. That is, it must speak the word of God to the deep hunger for soul-food that God puts in his people.

What can move pastors everywhere to come before their people with a well formed word from the Lord? I know of nothing but the commands of the Scriptures, and the best place to seek that prompting is in the Pastoral Epistles — 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. These were first century pastors who were assigned to oversee young established congregations. And what did the Apostle Paul say to them in writing?

“…the overseer must be…able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2)” “Command and teach these things” (4:11). “Until I come, devote yourself…to preaching and teaching. Do not neglect your gift” (4:13,14). “Watch your life and doctrine closely” (4:16).

Also in Paul’s second letter to Timothy he writes, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:2). And, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2:15). We take such exhortations as Spirit-inspired also for us today.

I cannot write this way without remembering that on many occasions I have fallen far short of doing what I believe is so needed. But God is merciful. He forgives and keeps the passion alive. So, “forgetting what is behind,” I call any pastor who reads this to join me in seeking renewal in Spirit — anointed preaching to the pressing needs and hungers of today — for the edification of the Lord’s people and the genuine growth of Christ’s church everywhere.

Further Thoughts About Truthfulness in the Pulpit

I have written previously about the importance of authenticity in the pulpit, and here are some further thoughts.

In a preaching class in seminary several decades ago, a classmate preached a trial sermon that had unusually good order and a fine treatment of the Greek text. Two weeks later his former college Greek professor came to campus and in chapel preached the identical sermon. There was a low buzz among his classmates.

What that seminarian did is called plagiarism. “To plagiarize,” according to Webster, is “to steal or purloin and pass off as one’s own (ideas, writings, etc., of another).” For sure, a pastor may preach another preacher’s sermon or use his illustrations if he gives credit to the source. But if he presents it in silence, as though it were his work, that’s regarded as below standard.

Not only churches take plagiarism seriously; universities do too. Here’s a doctoral student who hands in a final draft of her dissertation. Her faculty advisor discovers several portions of it are copied from another source but not credited. This is serious and the student may be denied the degree. The issue is truthfulness.

If something like this offence is committed in the pulpit during a Sunday morning worship service, should it be taken any less seriously?

It’s not that preachers must consider the sermons of others completely off limits. We read them, listen to them on CDs and DVDs, analyse them, discuss them, even imitate their style. We preachers learn from one another. But if we set forth someone else’s work as if it were our own, that puts our truthfulness under question.

So, in preaching truthfulness is a cardinal issue. But in addition, consider three other reasons why this sort of pretence has no place in the pulpit.

First, leaning so completely on the work of another for sermon content dampens the prophetic spirit. “Thus saith the Lord” should be evident in every sermon in the Protestant tradition. A real sermon is more than a lecture or an essay or even a religious talk. As Donald G. Miller once wrote, “Preaching is not a mere speech; it is an event.” It is an event in which the preacher delivers to the people a word from God received through diligent study and prayer.

This sermon may come forth like “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” or it may be uttered with tears like the messages of the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, or it may be given as a passionately reasoned discourse such as the Apostle Paul gave in Jewish synagogues he visited.

Whatever the style, a sermon plagiarized from a book or the Internet or a CD can never have such a prophetic ring, and in our hearts we will know that to be true.

Second, plagiarizing in the pulpit very quickly dampens the passion to study the Scriptures in depth and to keep a growing edge on our understanding of the Bible. In the plagiarized sermon, someone else has already done the work and this becomes a convenient substitute for our exertion.

There’s a cost for such shortcuts in any creative work. The artist who decides to paint by numbers will dull her creative edge and her keen eye for blending colors. Or the cabinet maker who decides to make life easier by assembling do-it-yourself cabinets from Ikea will gradually blunt the fine mastery of lathe and plane.

Pastors who begin to trust pre-packaged material as their source can’t help but lose the impulses to pray and study required in getting a word from the Lord. They will quickly succumb to something equivalent to painting-by-numbers.

But the third reason is that some people in the congregations will detect what we are doing. Like the seminary class above there may be a buzz without any open challenge. Or worse still, there may be a conspiracy of silence between pulpit and pew, a sure sign that something is missing in the life of the congregation. In either case the pastor will lose the trust of the congregation – a serious loss!

In the free church tradition, we have never had towering cathedrals or colorful vestments or awesome liturgies to rely on. But in our best hours we have believed our calling is to offer our people fresh, impassioned, Bible-wrought preaching. Is not the morally soft era we are now living through an excellent time to renew the preaching commitments of Protestantism’s better days?

When Our Prayers Get Serious

John Baillie, the Scottish scholar of an earlier day wrote: “Prayer is for Jesus not nearly so much connected with resignation as it is with rebellion…. (P)ractically all that is said in the New Testament about prayer is said not in the interest of being reconciled to things as they are but in the interest of getting things changed.”

A Fresh Wrinkle on Child-Rearing

Now here’s a fresh wrinkle on child-rearing, well worth posting in the literature.

Our friend and former parishioner, Melli, has spent much of her adult life in Burundi, Africa, along with her husband Ken. Together they’ve seen the enormous need of children left orphaned in great numbers there, and out of the compassion of their hearts have taken ten such children and are in the process of adopting the last six of them.

At the present, Melli is living in Lakeland, Florida with this little brood. They are in the United States principally for long term speech therapy for Samuel.

Melli writes that earlier that morning two of the children were squabbling over a little toy car and she was sure the whole neighborhood could hear the goings-on, So she commanded, STOP EVERYTHING AND QUOTE KING DAVID: “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14)

She doesn’t report the results but I can guess that they were electric. And from the perspective of a great-grandfather, I can commend the solution to the literature and to the use of harried parents anywhere when their little ones squabble. Except that the children must be helped to memorize the prayer in advance of the strife.

Reading the Bible in Church — and Elsewhere

One Sunday morning we drove to a Presbyterian church in Fergus, Ontario, where our son’s Wesley Chapel Free Methodist Church choir was to sing. At the appointed time, the sexton entered from a door behind the pulpit bearing a large Bible and, with deliberation, opened it on the pulpit. This was a sign that the service could now begin. When the benediction was pronounced, the sexton went to the pulpit, closed the Bible and, carrying it chest high in front of him so all could see, preceded the minister down the aisle to the door. The symbolism was clear: this service was conducted from beginning to end under the authority of God’s word.

As I watched, I thought of a trend I and others have witnessed in evangelical churches over the past decade. I have seen the Bible given a less important place than it deserves in public worship. For example, my wife attended a service in the Midwest in which no Bible reading of any kind was a part of worship and the preacher himself made casual mention of Scripture only a couple of minutes before the end of his sermon. My wife wondered if anyone else had noticed this glaring omission.

An isolated case? A minister friend on vacation attended a church which advertised itself on the front lawn as a “Bible Church.” He was surprised that at no time was the Bible read except for a few verses before the pastor preached. Consider also, that this very week, while speaking to a denominationally diverse class at Northeastern Seminary, Rochester, NY, I asked, “How many of you lead or attend a church where there is no separate Scripture reading as an act of worship?” Nine of the 19 raised their hands.

How radically different this is from the longstanding practice of having the Bible read, a portion from each Testament, as a separate act of worship. This custom traces back through the church historically even to the practice of the synagogue when our Lord was called upon to read.

The first time I heard this trend explained several years ago I was told that our worship services should be designed with seekers in mind. Unchurched people have neither the attention span nor the interest to give to the reading of Bible passages. The idea was that you had to give them a service that was contemporary and, above all, relevant!

The reason for deleting Scripture reading from worship, however, may be more serious than merely modern man’s short attention span. The omission may expose to the light a great reduction in the authority we grant the Bible, an authority such as the sexton enacted in the Presbyterian church.

No one can question that there is an authority crisis in homes and schools of this country. The daily news trumpets the results — battered parents battered children, battered teachers. But in damaging ways this crisis may be showing itself in the church as well.

Since the authority of the Scriptures has been passionately asserted by classical Protestantism, what but a reduction of that authority can be suspected when the word of God is both diminished and diluted in public worship in favor of a greater outpouring of the words of man?

This is no mere issue of taste in public worship. A Barna nationwide survey reports that 86% of teenagers in America claim that they are Christians. Three out of five teenagers say that they believe the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches. Yet, 2/3 stated that Satan is not a living being but merely a symbol of evil; six out of ten said that a good person can earn eternal salvation through good deeds; and a majority (53%) said that Jesus committed sins while he was on earth.

In all candor, this is serious error. Reading the Bible in church at least once a week may not by itself correct it. But the erosion of an emphasis on the authority of God’s word and the drift into obvious heresy on the part of young professed Christians should ring alarm bells and cause pastors and church boards together to look at whether or not the Bible has both professed and actual authority in their worship.

Churches may not want to copy the early Presbyterian way of symbolizing the authority of Scriptures in worship, but the evident slippage may prompt us to ask questions. For example, if the slippage can go so easily unnoticed in public worship, what place is Bible reading getting these days in the family life of Christians? Is Bible content really being addressed in Sunday Schools? Are children led to memorize Scripture? Do Pastors show evidence of wrestling with Scripture in preparation for preaching? The omission of the reading of the Bible as an act of worship may be symptomatic of a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

One of Life’s Neglected Words

My wife recently had a cataract removed from her left eye. As planned, a week after the surgery, she went back to the surgeon’s office. He examined the eye and told her that everything was as it should be. She then said to him, “It’s wonderful what you doctors can do these days. I want to thank you very much for this service.” There was a moment of awkward silence, she says, as if he didn’t quite know what to say, and then with a smile he replied, “Well, that’s what we are here to do.” He held the smile but there were no more words. My wife reported that this seemed awkward for both of them, as if he wasn’t used to handling generous words of appreciation.

When she told me about this exchange I remembered that a few weeks earlier I had had a complicated problem with my computer. It was a matter of getting the modem and router to talk to one another and relay their message to the computer. Three different companies were involved. I spent the equivalent of one whole day working with technicians by telephone. One of the technicians worked faithfully for a long period of time before admitting defeat and referring me on to another service. I acknowledged his patient effort and thanked him, which brought a reply I wasn’t expecting. He said, “I can answer a thousand calls and not hear a word like that.”

Is it possible that in our high-tech culture the wonders of modern technology that bless us in all sorts of ways, at the same time make us less thankful for these blessings?

The Bible has a great deal more to say to us about thanking God than it does about thanking our fellows. Unless, that is, the idea is subsumed in the Second Commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, or in Jesus’ instruction to treat others as we want to be treated. Who does not appreciate a simple word of thanks?

And who can forget St. Luke’s story of ten lepers who cried out to Jesus from a distance for healing. He sent them to the priests, ostensibly to be cleared for entrance back into society. In this case, Luke tells us, “… as they went, they were cleansed.” Luke is also quick to report Jesus’ perplexity that of the ten, only one returned and “…threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him.” And he was a foreigner to God’s chosen people (Luke 17:11-20).

Little words of thankfulness dropped here and there add color and warmth to life. When they are withheld or neglected life can be grey or even painful. Shakespeare’s King Lear laments about the ingratitude of his daughters in these words: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / to have a thankless child.”

Which reminds me that it’s good to express thanks to a surgeon or computer technician but the best place to release long overdue words of appreciation first of all is in the home where primary family connections are either oiled by such words or left to creak painfully through the days.