Reintroducing Josh Maurer, our new pastoral resident

Josh Maurer It should come as no surprise that Josh Maurer majored in Bible and ministry with a music minor at Cornerstone University (Grand Rapids, MI), and he has put his education to good use at College Church. Josh is finishing up his PhD in New Testament and biblical theology at Wheaton College with Doug Moo as he begins his pastoral residency. Josh and Caitlin, his wife of thirteen years, have three daughters Natalie, Celia and Annabelle and a son on the way (due September 30).

Lorraine Triggs talked with Josh about serving, his dissertation and his residency.

Tell us your story of faith. How did you come to Christ?

My spiritual journey began in my strong Christian home. My parents were actively involved in our church, remarkably consistent in attendance and diligent in family devotions at home. A favorite memory of Christmas mornings is my dad reading the birth narrative from Luke 2 (before presents) and reminding us of its ultimate significance, that Jesus was born to die as the Savior of the world as Luke 2:11 declares. I grew up with the grammar of Christianity and the example of imperfect, yet faithful Christian parents.

I have faint memories of my conversion. I was seven years old. My mom, however, remembers every detail and tells me the story. We had attended an Easter musical on a Sunday evening at a large church about 30 minutes from where we lived. At the end of the production, the pastor came out, explained the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection and called for people to repent of their sins and receive the gift of forgiveness and new life in Jesus. According to my mom, I turned to her and said I wanted to be saved. I wanted to know Jesus. So, right there, she led me in a prayer (this part I vaguely remember) in which I confessed my sin and asked to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

How did you end up at College Church?

When Caitlin and I decided we were coming to Wheaton College to pursue my PhD in New Testament and Biblical Theology, we began asking friends who had lived in the Chicago area if they had any churches they would recommend. Rod and Libby VanSolkema were among those we talked with and they recommended the church where Rod had served as high school pastor years ago: College Church. This was also the church of my doctoral mentor and advisor, Doug Moo. When we arrived in Wheaton, College Church was the first church we visited. We did visit other churches but decided to make College Church our home.

Going out on a limb here, but music seems to play a big part in your life and ministries. How did that come about?

We both have always had a love for music. We grew up with it in our families and, interestingly, each of us pursued it academically as well. Before college, we were involved with music ensembles in high school quite extensively, be it choirs, bands, youth group worship bands and so on. When it came time for college, I began my undergraduate study at Cornerstone University as a music major, with an emphasis on guitar performance. Though I shifted gears to Bible and theology, I did finish with more than enough credits for a minor in music.

My wife, on the other hand, completed her bachelor’s degree with a double major emphasis on vocal performance and education, and has been teaching and singing in some capacity ever since graduating college (she also has since completed a master’s in education). Music has always been a natural avenue for us to do ministry together. We have known each other for seventeen years, and I think I can honestly say that we have been doing ministry together through music for all those years and counting.

But you’re more than your music ministry. What other ministries have you been involved in, both at College Church and other places.

Before coming to College Church, I served as an associate pastor at Hastings Baptist Church (Hastings, MI) for nearly four years, preaching, leading worship and leading the college student ministry. I also served as the youth pastor for two years at the church. Here at College Church I have served in a handful of ministries as a ministry associate with visitation, College Group, music, HYACKs, preaching on a few occasions and even officiating at a funeral.

In the Meet Your Leaders feature, we ask the elected leaders, why they serve. So, why do you serve? What motivates you to serve the church?

Even before serving the church specifically, the motivation is to serve the Lord, most fundamentally. Deuteronomy 10:12 asks, “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul?” God has graciously called me to be among his people, and the fruit of such calling is a desire to serve him with my entire life.

What motivates me to serve the church is, in no particular order of importance, love for the church, a desire to see the church flourish in manifold ways, it’s part of God’s calling on my life and the desire to not waste my life. Paul refers to the pastoral office as a “noble task” (1 Tim. 3:1), worthy of aspiration. I can be an instrument in God’s mighty work as he transforms people’s lives by his Spirit through his Word. I can walk with people in life’s greatest joys and sorrows, pray that God is magnified in my life (Phil 1:20; 1 Pet 4:10). I resonate with the Apostle Paul, who, reflecting on his own motivation for his ministry, said, “The love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor 5:14).

What advice do you have for people who want to serve, but just aren’t sure about it?

To be sure, the advice would depend on the nature of the uncertainty, but here are a few things to consider. First, to be a Christian means we are already servants of Christ; we belong to him (1 Cor 6:19-20). And to be a servant of Christ means we are servants of his body, the church. Each of us already has a calling on our lives to be engaged with our local church, offering our gifts, time and resources for the edification of Christ’s body.

Second, though it is important to assess how God has gifted you individually, to look for ways to use that gift, you can’t allow “gift to ministry matching” unnecessarily limit you. Some of the most important ministry with people does not require extraordinary ability, but simply a humble and willing spirit. God loves to use us precisely when we are, and think we are, weak and insufficient (2 Cor 2:16; 12:9).

Third, when Peter says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace,” he assumes you have by God’s grace an important gift to offer the church (1 Pet 4:10). See yourself as a vital ingredient to the health of the church. And then, rest in the awesome truth that God will empower you for service. Peter goes on to say in that same passage, “whoever serves, [let him/her] serve by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 4:11). The aim of your service is the glory of God. And God ensures that this will be accomplished by giving you the strength to do it. Be encouraged. God will strengthen you for your service.

And you’re also working on your dissertation? What’s your topic?

My focus of study is on Paul’s teaching in his letters concerning adoption.

So, a dissertation about adoption. When we met our son’s birth mom, we told her that adoption was a Bible word. Briefly, how do you see adoption played out in the Bible?

Since I am writing a dissertation on the subject, being brief here is a bit of a challenge—albeit a good one. So here it goes. Adoption is, indeed, a Bible word. The Apostle Paul is the only author to use the term, and in only five places (Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). But here is a good example of the principle that significance is not measured merely by occurrence. The significance of adoption far surpasses what might at first be imagined by the few times it occurs.

The late J.I. Packer, in his best-selling and massively influential book, Knowing God, highlights this idea with these words: “You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. . . Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”

Packer goes on to say, “Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification . . . To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.” One of the reasons for this sentiment, with which I completely agree, is that when Paul uses “adoption” he uses it in a most breathtaking and expansive way, rooting it in the purposes of God before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:5), reveling in its present effects (Gal 4:5; Rom 8:15), and seeing its culmination in our bodily resurrection in the age to come (Rom 8:23).

In one sense, then, salvation itself, from beginning to end, can be conceived as adoption. Or, in other words, we could say that adoption consists in “being conformed to the image of his son, so that he [Jesus] might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom 8:29). Because of our adoption as sons (and daughters) of God, we, like Jesus the Son, enjoy intimacy with the Father. Like Jesus, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead us in loving obedience to the Father. Like Jesus, we endure suffering on the way to glory. Like Jesus, this glory consists in bodily resurrection, the right to rule with him over God’s new creation, and the inheritance of all things. This is what it means to “be conformed to the image of his son.” And all these benefits come to us precisely and only because we are adopted sons and daughters of God.

A Bible word indeed. Thanks, Josh. As you begin your pastoral residency, what are some of your goals and expectations for it? Who will you be working with during your residency?

My primary area of responsibility will be with Pastor Moody. I will also be working with Pastors Erik Dewar and Ben Panner in music and college ministry. Also, as part of my role in college ministry I will also be teaching a class at Wheaton College in the fall as an adjunct professor.

I’m really looking forward to meeting more people and continuing to serve the church in this new role. I think I would sum up my goals for this residency in these two categories: first, gaining more experience navigating some of the unique challenges in a large church in comparison to a small church (since my previous ministry experience was in a small church) and, second, growing in every way as a shepherd, taking my cue from 1 Pet 5:2-3: “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”

And finally, two questions just for fun: What three words best describe you?

Patient, Passionate, Versatile (chosen by my wife)

What is your favorite hang-out space?

At least at the moment, any space outside.