They shall renew their strength - growing old in the ministry

Two summers ago I attended the OPC General Assembly at Calvin College. One agenda item was the church-planting work of their home missions committee - there had been some 28 new works in the preceding year. Church-plant pastors attending the assembly were invited to stand and be identified. I was startled by the number of men in their late middle age or even past retirement age.

A week ago we had the pleasure of the company of a delightful couple from Lancaster County, PA. We treated them to some home-cooked stir-fry and other delights (it's subjective, I know) and then sat down to chat, mainly about them. He is almost 60, a former Lutheran pastor now estranged from that denomination after embracing Reformed Theology and standing up for the sanctity of life. He and his wife, a Maths teacher, are in fellowship with the PCA.

It was just humbling to hear about their spiritual journey, how he was 'fired' for making his pro-life stand, and how they intend to use their remaining years to work as missionaries in the UK. How personally challenging and encouraging to meet up with Christians from one's own age-group who continue to bear fruit into old age (sorry about that Tom)! Who said that missions work is only for the young?

Examining candidates for the ministry

I lifted this from 'Katekomen'the GPTS online journal.

Elena Kagan and Presbytery Exams; Or, the Presbytery Exam Considered as a Confirmation Hearing
By Benjamin Shaw, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Hebrew & OT
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

In the May 11, 2010 issue of The Wall Street Journal, Neomi Rao, a law professor at George Mason School of Law, quotes a 1995 book review by Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in which she calls the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of prospective judges “a vapid and hollow charade.” In other words, since the 1987 “Borking” of Ronald Reagan's nominee Robert Bork, the Senate has largely been satisfied with the candidates mouthing legal platitudes without any real examination of their understanding of law, the Constitution, or how the candidate might actually approach dealing with a particular sort of case.

What has this to do with presbytery exams? It seems to be the case that presbytery exams are often treated as confirmation hearings. Those in the presbytery, like the senators, merely wish to hear “incantations of the right formulas without an examination of their actual beliefs” (Rao column, concluding paragraph). So what if a man doesn’t quite understand or cannot quite articulate the doctrine of sanctification? He’s a really nice guy. He has a seminary degree. He seems to be really sincere. Let’s approve him and move on with the work of the day.

We as presbyters need to be reminded that the solemn task given to the presbytery is much more significant than that given to the senators in the confirmation hearings. Their choices have only temporal consequences. The approval or disapproval of a ministerial candidate has eternal consequences. The men who come to presbytery for examination are responding to a high and holy calling—the shepherding of the souls of the congregation entrusted to them. If they do not believe the Bible and the constitution of their church; or if they do not understand the Bible and the constitutional documents; or if they are unable to articulate in an adequate fashion the doctrines taught in the Bible, they are simply unfit to be the shepherds of men’s souls. An inability to articulate the doctrine of sanctification can do serious spiritual damage to the church member coming for counsel regarding a struggle with indwelling sin. An inability to articulate the doctrine of justification can leave people at sea regarding what the gospel really is and what our hope is. An inability to carefully expound any particular text of Scripture can leave the people in the pews convinced that the postmoderns are right—the Scripture simply means whatever we want it to mean.

Gentlemen, let us not “bork” our ministerial candidates as a way of getting at those in the presbytery with whom we disagree. On the other hand, let us not simply wave them through with a pat on the back and a shake of the hand and a comment on their wonderful sincerity. The task to which they have been called is far too important.
Posted by Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary at 2:09 PM

The presbytery & pastoralia

Talking with a brother from the RCNZ the following question came up - 'Does the presbytery have a pastoral role?' Discuss

Mediate Regeneration

Stuart Olyott's article on the subject of mediate regeneration in the December 2009 issue of the Banner of truth Magazine, sounds a timely warning to those of us who think that our 'performance' is what counts. Onee of the most precious times for me as a preacher is the pre-service prayer meeting where the church presents my weaknesses to God and petitions the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts.

I wonder, however, if in arguing for a distinction between the influence of the Spirit and the influence of the word, he over-exegetes the Greek of Acts 16:14, by writing "in Greek this verse reads like this: 'And a certain woman named Lydia ... was hearing us, whose heart the Lord opened by a single act, with the result that she heeded to the things being spoken by Paul.' I see nothing wrong with it as a possible translation but wonder if Luke intended us to analyse him so closely. He tells us nothing about the opening of her heart, whether it was a single short act or a single long act (she was it would seem a God-fearer) beyond that the Lord did it. I am also reminded that from the beginning God accomplished his work by his word ' By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of his mouth.' (Psalm 33.6)>

Calvin and worship

‘Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a God according to its own capacity …’ (Inst. 1.11.18)

‘The depravity of the human mind is such that it obscures the divine majesty, and places above it those things which ought to have been subject to God.’(Isaiah III. 221)

Worship and Doctrine

In The Worship of God: Reformed Concepts of Biblical Worship Terry Johnson points to the absence of biblical content from many contemporary ‘praise’ songs. He cites a comparison by David Wells of Songs of the Vineyard and Maranatha! Music Praise Chorus Book with the 662 hymns of the Covenant Hymnal. He found that 58.9% offered no doctrinal grounding or explanation of the praise and that many important biblical themes (the church, sin, penitence, longing for holiness and the holiness of God) were largely ignored

David Robertson on cross-cultural missions

I found this informative and helpful. Read it at www.stpeters-dundee.org.uk