MY BROTHERS, WHEN YOU MEET
FOR YOU KNOW THAT THE TESTING OF YOUR FAITH PRODUCES
n all my time of pastoring and leading in a seminary context, I believe I have heard more in the past three years about ministry burnout than ever before. In fact, a recent Barna poll showed that almost forty percent of pastors have recently considered leaving the ministry. We commonly learn of pastors who’ve left the ministry for secular employment. While my point is not to critique those who decided to step back, my desire in this magazine is to remind ministers everywhere of the joy of the ministry and that being a minister of the gospel is worth it.
In our ministerial context, we need to hear afresh that “if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task” (1 Tim 3:1). It is a good and noble thing to not only desire the ministry but to endure in the ministry. Of course, it isn’t always easy. There are hard days filled with difficulties and sadness. And of course, the sheep are often wayward. Yet, dear reader, being a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is worth every pain, every worry, and every tear. Not only that, but there is also great joy to be had in serving the Church.
I am afraid that in the midst of the difficulty, we can frequently forget about the great privilege and joy that is ours. And that is why we have dedicated this issue of the Midwestern Magazine to The Joy of Serving the Local Church. It is my hope that this issue will renew and encourage pastors, ministry leaders, and church members to find joy in the Lord and the ministry calling He’s given His people. It is, indeed, a noble task to lead God’s people. But it is also a joyous task. I pray this will be the case for you and that this issue will remind you of these important truths.
Sincerely,
JASON K. ALLEN, P h .D. President
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Jason K. Allen
PRESIDENT
Jason G. Duesing
PROVOST
James J. Kragenbring
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONALADMINISTRATION
Charles W. Smith, Jr.
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONALRELATIONS
EDITORIAL
Lucas Hahn
CHIEF EDITOR
Brett Fredenberg
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Grace Pike
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Abby Currence
PROJECT MANAGER
Kody Gibson
VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS
ART
Hyacin DeBusk
Logan Wade
LAYOUT & DESIGN
Kaden Classen
Josh Redd
PHOTOGRAPHERS
With all of the heartaches, hardships, and headwinds Christians ministers face in a post-Christian world, along with the growing reality of ministry burnout, this magazine issue seeks to renew and encourage pastors, ministry leaders, and saints alike to find joy in the Lord.
That’s why I’m excited to see our Spring issue of The Midwestern Magazine come to fruition this year. This issue’s theme, Count It All Joy: The Joy of Serving the Local Church, unpacks the importance of finding joy in ministry and the calling the Lord has given His people.
I’d like to express my genuine appreciation for the contributing authors in this issue: Dr. Jason Allen, Dr. Todd Chipman, Dr. Jason Dees, David Mathis, Jared Wilson, and Haylee Williams. Each article offers a unique view of joy and ministry that I hope stirs your heart towards Christ.
Lastly, this issue represents the exceptional work of a team of authors, editors, photographers, and designers who worked diligently to put it together. In particular, the work of Hyacin DeBusk, Logan Wade, and Brett Fredenberg contributed significantly to this issue with their creative direction, beautiful designs, and editorial efforts. We hope that this issue on joy may serve as a timely reminder of why we can have joy in ministry and in the Christian life.
For the Church and For the Kingdom,
Lucas Hahn Chief Editor, Midwestern Magazine Managing Editor, For The Church Director of Marketing & Content Strategy© 2023 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.
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anuary 1, 2023. A Lord’s Day— not a better way to begin the New Year. This date marked the twenty-second time I have preached a New Year’s message to my congregation. My joy-ometer was in the clouds.
But joy in ministry can plummet in a moment. Sin tends not to announce its presence when it attacks the congregation, turning joy into grief for the flock and her leaders. Unbelievers pervert Noah’s rainbow. Pluralism strangles believers in corporate America. On many days, believers have to search for reasons to smile. Yet pastors who have had a hand to the plow for very long confess that joy in God and the missions of divine persons compels joy in the church and its mission regardless of the circumstances of our lives.
Joy iterates throughout the economy of salvation. The persons of the Godhead rejoice in one another, and those who know God experience the overflow of joy in the acts of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Joy in God is the basis of any joy in ministry.
Election. When Jesus sent out the seventy in Luke 10, He warned them that they would encounter dangerous circumstances and be rejected. They were, after all, representing Him. They returned
with joy because even demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name. Jesus replied that He knew of the demonic world; He had seen Satan fall from heaven. Jesus recalibrated the spiritual compass of the seventy, charging them to find their joy in God’s election of them to be in His kingdom. Their names were written in heaven (Luke 10:18-20)!
At that time, Jesus rejoiced in God’s sovereign administrative authority and His personal mission in the Trinity. Jesus, full of joy in the Holy Spirit, praised the Father for disclosing His kingdom to the seventy through the Son while excluding the wise and learned from experiencing the kingdom’s blessings (Luke 10:21-22). Their names were not written in heaven.
Regeneration. Jesus’ resurrection elicits joy in believers even beyond this life. In 1 Peter 1:3-9, Peter states that Jesus’ resurrection and the subsequent ministry of the Spirit give us new life on earth and hope of an eternal inheritance. In this we rejoice despite present suffering for Christ. We are progressing toward this eternal salvation each day, compelled by joy in what is to come. Peter’s presentation of joy in 1 Peter 1:3-9 shares points of contact with Paul’s in Galatians 5:22-23. For both apostles, where the Spirit is, joy follows.
Union. The Gospel of John provides believers with a relational-theological framework for
our faith. Here we see the deity and personal mission of each person of the Trinity. One feature of John’s Christology is the joy that Jesus shares with the disciples. Jesus articulates His joy-sharing in John 15:11, 16:24, and 17:13 during the Farewell Discourse and His intercessory prayer. In John 15, Jesus uses garden imagery to portray the spiritual union believers will enjoy with God in light of the Son’s mission. Jesus obeyed the Father in making Him known to humanity, and thus remained in the Father’s love (John 15:10). And the disciples were the direct beneficiaries: Jesus promised that they would have His joy fulfilled in them as they obeyed the Father (John 15:11). Throughout John 13-17, Jesus presents the blessings believers enjoy because of His incarnation. The disciples’ joy surfaces again in John 16:24, this time concerning their participation in prayer. Because of Jesus’ mission as the incarnate Son, the disciples can pray with understanding and confidence in Jesus’ name, experiencing His joy. Jesus’ mission as the incarnate Son progressed in revelatory stages. Throughout John 13-17, as in the whole narrative of John’s Gospel, Jesus states that His incarnation, death, resurrection, and return need to be understood as one unbreakable sequence. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:13, Jesus tells the eleven that His joy would be fulfilled in them as they grasped that sequence as God’s glorious redemptive revelation.
Resurrection. Just as Jesus rejoiced in the Father in Luke 10, Peter and Paul note that after Jesus was resurrected, He experienced joy in God’s presence. In their first sermons recorded in Acts, Peter
and Paul cite Psalm 16:8-11, interpreting David’s poem as a prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection. In Psalm 16, David rejoices in God’s covenantal favor, confident that it would extend beyond his earthly life. David closes the psalm anticipating eternal joy in God’s presence (Psalm 16:11).
In Acts 2, when the Spirit descended upon the crowd gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, Peter stood to proclaim that the presence of the Spirit confirmed that the last days had begun at the resurrection of Jesus. After quoting Psalm 16:8-11 (Acts 2:25-28), Peter states that David was dead and buried. David was thus speaking not of himself but of one of his descendants whom God would raise to sit on David’s throne. In Peter’s interpretation of Psalm 16:8-11, Jesus ascended and was filled with joy in God’s presence, sending the Spirit to confirm that the last days had begun (Acts 2:32-33).
Paul’s first recorded sermon in Acts took place during his initial mission to the region of Galatia (Acts 13-14). On a Sabbath day stop in Antioch of Pisidia, the synagogue leaders asked Paul and company if they had a message to share (can you imagine Paul’s joy!). Paul did. He preached a survey of God’s work in history from the exodus to David’s reign (Acts 13:16-22). Paul proclaimed that Jesus is the Savior whom God promised would descend from David’s line—and confirmed Jesus as Savior by raising Him from the dead (Acts 13:26-31). Jesus’ resurrection, Paul announced, was according to God’s Word in passages like Psalm 16:11, “You will not let Your Holy One see decay” (Acts 13:35, CSB). Therefore, Paul concludes in Acts 13:36-39 forgiveness of sin is available in Jesus alone.
“Because of Jesus’ mission as the incarnate Son, the disciples can pray with understanding and confidence in Jesus’ name, experiencing His Joy.”
Because God is joy in Himself and produces it in His people, it follows that believers would have joy in the church and its mission. Stated differently, pastors partner with the people of God to display the gospel in the world, marked by joy despite opposition. This is one way to summarize Paul’s portrait of his relationship with the Philippians. Philippians is a missionary thank-you letter from Paul in prison to the church for the financial support they supplied for his needs while he was in prison (Acts 28:30-31). Paul’s logic in Philippians provides a framework for us to reflect on a pastor’s joy in the local church and its mission.
Empowerment. Like Paul toward the Philippians, pastors swell with joy when they look back at all God has done and ahead to all God will do in their local church. Paul wrote in Philippians
1:3-6 that he viewed his partnership with the Philippians in light of God’s work in them from the day of God’s first work among them until the day of Christ’s return. Pastors can take joy in partnering with God and His people in the local church. Rejoice, pastor; it’s not up to us alone.
Proclamation. Pastors can rejoice in God as He works ministry trials and opposition for the promulgation of the gospel. While Paul was in prison and preaching the gospel, some proclaimed Christ because they wanted to mock Paul. Paul could not have been happier. “What does it matter?” Paul asks rhetorically in Philippians 1:18, “Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.” Rejoice, church leaders, the message is more potent than any messenger opposing you and your church.
Gathering. Pastors and churches filled with joyful confidence will overflow with joy when
they meet to speak of the Lord’s work among them. In Philippians 2:17-18, Paul describes the back-and-forth joy he shared with the church as they proclaimed the gospel in their separate spheres. This you-be faithful-where-you are, and I’ll-be faithful-where-I am mindset sparks joy when believers meet. The Philippians sent Timothy and Epaphroditus to carry their financial support to Paul in Rome. Paul sent Epaphroditus back, bringing the epistle with him. Paul knew that the Philippians would rejoice in seeing Epaphroditus—who had risked his life to get the church’s financial contribution to Paul in Rome (Philippians 2:2829). Gathered on the Lord’s Day or at meetings throughout the week, face-to-face, we rejoice as we share God’s blessings, the challenges before us, and the power of the faith.
Doxology. Paul stitches the final two chapters of Philippians by urging the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 3:1; 4:4). In each reference, Paul emphasizes the ongoing, continuous manner of the church’s disposition toward Jesus. Paul establishes a model for pastors. Our job is to remind the congregation of the wonder of their relationship with Christ and all of the glory and privilege they enjoy, even in suffering for Him. Pastors, remind the church that no greater joy can humans find than the Lord.
TODD R. CHIPMAN | Dean of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor of Biblical Studiesoney and joy. Across the passages in the New Testament that speak to Christian leadership, these are the two most repeated themes. We might see them as two sides of one motivational coin. That is, what gain or benefit are pastor-elders to seek (and not seek) in becoming and enduring as local-church leaders? Why pastors serve really matters.
The Apostle Paul worked with his own hands, making and mending tents—which made him a good man to make the case for “double honor” (respect and remuneration) for pastor-elders who give themselves to church-work as their breadwinning vocation (1 Corinthians 9; 1 Timothy 5:17–18). However, as necessary and good as it is for staff pastors to receive pay, Paul would not have greedy men (whether paid or unpaid) in either the pastoral or diaconal office. A pastor must not be, as he writes in 1 Timothy 3:3, “a lover of money” (memorable in the King James Version as “not greedy of filthy lucre”). For deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8, the same applies—they must not be “greedy for dishonest gain.”
It’s no wonder why the final chapter of Hebrews moves seamlessly from “Keep your life free from love of money” in verses 5–6 to “Remember your leaders” in verse 7. They go hand in hand. So too at the heart of Peter’s passage for elders: “Shepherd the flock . . not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly” (1 Peter 5:2). The apostles would have us speak in the same
breath of lives free from love of money and localchurch leaders who exemplify that lifestyle.
The other side of the coin, then, is the positive motivation. If Christian leaders must not be driven by money, what should motivate them? Paul begins 1 Timothy 3 by not only condoning but requiring the holy pursuit of joy in ministry: “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” Pastor-elders must aspire to the work—that is, want it, desire it, anticipating that such labor will, in some important sense, make them happy. They should not have their arms twisted to serve, but genuinely desire such work from the heart. Even though prospective church leaders hear (and may have observed or even experienced) that this line of labor can be especially taxing emotionally and spiritually, they can’t seem to shake a settled desire and aspiration for the work. They desire it, from and for joy.
Peter succinctly captures the two sides (not for money, but for joy) of our motivation coin: “not for shameful gain, but eagerly.” Notice he doesn’t say “not for gain.” Rather, he says “not for shameful gain,” meaning that there is a gain without shame that he is not excluding. And in fact, he requires it. “Eagerly” presumes some motivation to gain—just that this gain is not “shameful.”
What then might be honorable gain in Christian leadership? We wouldn’t be right to rule out any financial remuneration (which would require ignor-
ing Paul’s case in 1 Corinthians 9). But we would be correct to rule out money as the driving motivation. What gain are pastors to seek then? We might say it like this: honorable gain in Christian ministry is benefit that befits the work. In other words, it is gain that is commensurate with the work. We might ask the current or candidating pastor, “Do you have joy in the work, and receive joy from the work, that strengthens the work itself? Or does the gain you seek from the work of Christian ministry pull your heart away from the work?”
In other words, is the gain you seek from ministry in, or apart from, the good of the flock?
Hebrews is particularly striking in that it puts the pursuit of joy at the heart of the work of pastors, both for the pastors and for their people. Addressing the congregation, Hebrews 13:17 says,
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
In the healthiest of churches, the pastor-elders aspire to the work and do it willingly and eagerly (1 Peter 5:2), and (now we add) the people do their part to “let them [labor] with joy.” Which makes for a kind of holy conspiracy of joy in three critical stages.
1. The Leaders Aspire First, the leaders aspire to the work, as we’ve seen, and joyfully undertake it. Good pastors want to do the work of pastoral ministry, from joy and for joy.
“Let them [labor] with joy” assumes that the pastors are starting out with joy; they are operating from and for holy joy in Christ, and in His people. Let’s be honest, pastors don’t get into this line of work for the money; the pay is modest at best in the vast majority of churches. Rather, pastors pursue this
calling because God moved on them, whether over time or seemingly in some particular moment, to give them an unusual desire to give more of themselves for the good of the church. They came into the work with a particular joy-fed and joy-led desire to love and serve the church through diligent teaching and humble governance.
Unlike other vocations, mere willingness is not enough in pastoral work. We all have our happier and harder seasons, our ups and downs, our honeymoon period and dark times, but for pastors, just putting food on the table will not due as long-term motivation. Christ appoints and provides a kind of eagerness in pastors for the calling, not just to make a living, but to give of themselves beyond what can be fully reckoned and remunerated for others’ progress and joy in the faith.
2. The Church Cooperates The people then, encourages Hebrews, “let them do this with joy.” That is, the people try not to disrupt or derail that happiness by turning pastoral joy into groaning. Healthy congregants don’t want to interrupt happy labor with needless and sinful complaining and grumbling.
Note well, the church is not charged to make the pastors’ work joyful, but to let them labor with joy. The church is not responsible to make their pastors happy, but to do their part not to make happy pastors miserable. In other words, “Church, your pastors are working with joy. Don’t make their job miserable or unnecessarily difficult. Your miseries might want company, but for your own good, don’t seek to make your pastors groan.” It’s not the church’s job to make the pastors happy; neither is it the church’s job to make them miserable.
Now, to be sure, there’s a word here for pastors too: labor with gladness, not groaning, even when ministry gets hard, for both your own joy and the church’s, which is the third and final part.
3. The Church Gains Finally, ongoing, resilient, joyful labor by the pastors brings about the joyful
gain of the congregation. That’s the explicit reason Hebrews gives: “Let [your leaders labor] with joy and not with groaning,” he says, “for that would be of no advantage to you.” When the pastors labor with joy, and the people don’t unnecessarily interrupt that joy, the people themselves benefit. Those who undermine the joy of their pastors do so to their own disadvantage.
And the pastors, who have been aiming all along at the holy and enduring joy of their people, have their own joy made complete in seeing the advantage and gain of the flock. Feeling the warmth of the radiance of our people’s joy feeds our joy as pastors. So there are complementary callings on the pastors and their people, a kind of holy conspiracy of joy. The leaders aspire to the work and joyfully do it. The people “let them do this with joy,” striving to not give their pastors reasons to groan. And the pastors’ joyful labor then brings about a greater joy, advantage, and benefit to the whole church.
In it all, why is joy so central to the work of pastoral ministry? Because Christ is most glorified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him. Joy in Christ in the heart, radiating out in audible and visual expressions, and life together in the church, magnifies its source and focus. So if pastors want Jesus to be glorified in their work, then one major, even central, reality to take into account is joy—the pastors’ joy in the people’s joy in Christ.
Which, coming back to 1 Peter 5:2, is why God himself wants to make Christ’s undershepherds joyful. Embattled pastors, take heart—God is not against your joy, but deeply, unshakably for it. He wants pastors who serve “not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have them” (1 Peter 5:2). And not just “as God would have you” because He’s requiring something of us that is different than His own character and actions. But “as God would have you” meaning “as God Himself is” and does—literally “according to God” (Greek: kata theon ).
It says something about our God that He would have it this way. He is the infinitely happy “blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11) who acts from the boundless, immeasurable bliss of the eternal Godhead. He wants pastors to work with joy because He works this way. He acts from fullness of joy. He is a God most glorified not by heartless duty, but by our eagerness and enjoyment, and He himself cares for His people willingly, eagerly, and happily.
And happy pastors and elders, not groaning and dutiful clergy, make for happy churches, and a glorified Savior
DAVID MATHIS | Executive Editor, Desiring God; Pastor at Cities Church in Saint Paul, MNIf pastors want Jesus to be glorified in their work, then one major, even central, reality to take into account is joy.by JASON DEES
love being a pastor. There is no other job where you can serve the Church of our Lord so personally and with so much focus than as a vocational local church pastor. But as wonderful as this calling is, I have seen many brothers leave pastoral ministry over the last couple of years. Some were called to other vocations. Some were more or less running away from the pressures of pastoral ministry. Many were a combination of these. While I genuinely understand and support new callings, I hope to persuade struggling pastors to endure the trenches until the Lord restores the great joy of serving Christ’s Church. To do this, I’d like to offer a few words of encouragement and a few warnings.
The call of local church ministry is to personally and vocationally love and serve the local church.
My job every day is to give myself to the precious members of our church, Christ Covenant, a people whom Jesus loves deeply and whom He has kindly called me to shepherd. I have the opportunity to give my full effort to help these members know God more fully, love one another more deeply, and use the gifts that God has given them for His purposes more faithfully. The further I get into this work, the more I see Jesus and His love for His people, which is indescribably rewarding.
The call of local church ministry is to serve God’s people in a variety of ways. I am struck by the fact that I can serve as a teacher, counselor, strategist, small business operator, creative, ambassador, and more, all in the same day! The pastor is the modern-day renaissance man as he serves in such diverse ways daily. Therefore, I see the whole church body working together in various ways. The more I see the different parts of the body of
Christ at work, the more of Christ I see, and the more I understand His wisdom, love, and beauty.
The call of local church pastoral ministry is an invitation to intimate and sacred moments. I remember one such moment while performing a wedding early in my ministry. Before we went out to have the ceremony, it hit me that I was standing with a father and son during their last moment together before the son was to be married. It was one of those moments where the intimacy and sacredness of the moment hit so hard that I almost felt out of place. Why did I get to be a part of this moment?
But this calling to the sacred moments of life is an incredible part of pastoral ministry. You are invited to deathbeds, difficult marriages, and heartache and loss, but you are also invited to engagements, weddings, the birth of children, graduations, love stories, and moments in a person’s life in which they are radically changed. It’s in these moments that the presence of Jesus is tangible. You can truly understand the glories of His mercy and compassion and wonders of His love and joy.
The call of pastoral ministry is a call into the hearts of people in your community. As a local church pastor, even in a secular place like Midtown Atlanta, I am regularly asked by people for prayer, advice in marriage, or what I think God thinks about this or that. All Christians represent Jesus in their communities, but pastors have more unique opportunities to give people spiritual advice and pastoral care. There are many people that I work out with, that my kids go to school with, and that live in my neighborhood who don’t know the Lord and to whom I get to “pastor.”
God places different vocational callings on all His people. I admire people who are called to business, medicine, service, education, engineering, and so many other vocations. The church is strongest when its men and women serve in all sorts of vocational ways. Personally though, I can’t imagine a better and more rewarding calling than vocational pastoral ministry.
While I love this call, I recognize that there are certain idols that may pull me and many others away from the call to ministry. I have seen these idols derail faithful brothers and sisters; and while they aren’t scandalous, they are more insidious and subtle. They are idols that we need to be warned of if we desire longevity in vocational pastoral ministry.
The first idol is the obvious idol of wealth. You probably aren’t going to make as much money as your friends if you are called to pastoral ministry. Next to my desk hangs a picture of my pledge class from my college fraternity. Even though I made better grades and had more student involvement than most of them in college, they all make more money than I do now. I love my calling and feel no jealousy or bitterness, but wealth is an idol we all face in a wealth-driven culture. The call to pastoral ministry is not a call to poverty, but it is a call to not finding your identity in wealth.
The second idol is the idol of ease. Local church pastoral ministry is complex. In pastoral ministry, someone will always be disappointed in you. In local church ministry, you often enter into broken, painful, and difficult situations. You not only need to be aware of this reality, but you also need to know that amidst all the pain and complexity of pastoral ministry, there is beauty and hope because of the power of the resurrection. Oftentimes, the disappointments and pains of life can lead us closest to Jesus, but it’s also where an idol can emerge—the idol of ease.
The Christian life is not simple. Our Lord did not lead a simple life. He rested, took time to be with His Father, and was fully aware of the neediest around Him, but He certainly didn’t eliminate hurry. His life was full. John tells us that if everything He did was written down, the whole world couldn’t contain all the books (John 21:25). In Luke 7:21, the disciples of John visit Jesus and we are told, “In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil
spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.” This is one hour of Jesus’ life. He was gritty, He was busy, and He entered complex situations with real people. The normal meter of His ministry wasn’t to distance himself from people but to come close. He certainly didn’t leave His pastoral work so that He could focus on His podcast.
In your ministry—especially if you are successful— you may be tempted by the allure of comfort to make ministry simplistic, ultimately leading you away from biblical faithfulness. At the other extreme, there are pastors who never stop working and never take time to commune with the Lord, as He has commanded. Still, there is a growing idol of simplicity that is robbing pastors of intimacy and dependence on the Lord along with some of the greatest joys that ministry can bring.
The final idol is the idol of identity. Your calling is not your identity. If you don’t understand who you are as a son or daughter of God before you understand who you are as a minister of the gospel, you will never make it. The work of pastoral ministry was never meant to satisfy you; only the Lord can satisfy you. Only your communion with Him makes you whole and complete. When you know Him and abide in Him, the possibilities of fruit that He can produce through you are endless. Apart from Him though, you can truly do nothing. When you as a minister begin to find your identity more in your ministry than in the Lord, you may produce ministry results, but the fruit of the Spirit will be far from you. Rather than having love for others, you will only have a love for yourself and your ministry. Your joy will turn to angst. Your peace will turn to fear. Your patience will turn to irritability. Your kindness will turn to sharpness. Your goodness will
turn to manipulation. Your faithfulness will turn into entitlement. Your gentleness will turn into bullying. Your self-control will turn into self-protection.
For the reasons listed above and for so many more, the call to pastoral ministry is a joyful calling and one of the greatest honors I hold, but it is a calling that requires surrender. There was a time not long ago when pastors would talk about “surrendering” to ministry. When I was a child, I often heard this idea from the ministers of my church. They would say, “I surrendered to the ministry in 1974,” or, “He should pray about surrendering to ministry.” I rarely, if ever, hear this sentiment today, and I think that something has been lost as a result. In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us that Jesus “gave” some to the Church to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Jesus would use these that He “gave” to the Church to equip and build up the Church to the fullness of Christ.
One of the questions I often ask prospective pastors is, “Do you sense that you are one of the ones that Jesus is ‘giving’ to the Church?” If you have this call, stay faithful and be fruitful; if you don’t, encourage someone who does. The strength of the Church of our Lord depends on it. For me, this call is very personal; while it didn’t come in some mystical or monumental way, I have this strong sense that God has called me to His Church. I have surrendered to this call, and it is a joyful, wonderful surrender.
JASON DEES | Senior Pastor at Christ Covenant in Atlanta, GA“When you know Him and abide in Him, the possibilities of fruit that He can produce through you are endless. Apart from Him though, you can truly do nothing.”by JARED C. WILSON
am sometimes convicted about the way I am prone to talk about pastoral ministry. I think in a lot of ways what the gospel-centered movement has given us in the recovery of a more biblical ministry is a good corrective to the professionalization of the pastorate and a good repenting from the therapeutic influence on religion. But I fear that too many of us have swung too far in another direction.
It is important for the minister to remember—for all of our concern about making sure congregations know we carry heavy burdens and for all of our concern about making sure we know that our task is special and weighty and serious—that in seeking to do justice to the grave realities of pastoral ministry, we do not drift into a mode of self-pity.
John Newton has captured the glorious irony of ministry well in his classic poem, “A Minister’s Burden, ” which begins:
What contradictions meet In ministers’ employ! It is a bitter sweet, a sorrow full of joy: No other posts afford a place for equal honor or disgrace.
It’s possible, I think, that we dwell too much on the bitter and not the sweet, the
disgrace and not the honor, the sorrow and not the joy. Because above, beneath, and through it all, even a hard ministry can be a joyous occasion.
In John 15:11, when Jesus says that He came to “make our joy complete,” He really meant it, and He did not add, “Except for pastors.”
I cannot get over John 15:11. For all that Jesus says and commands, for all of the theology available to be downloaded in His teaching, He tells us that the point of all of it is happiness in God. “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” He wants the joy that is in Himself to be in us, and that thereby our joy would be full.
If you are a ministry leader of some kind, reflect honestly on this question: Is joy a dominant experience in your ministry? Or is dwelling on what makes you so special keeping you too busy to be happy?
This doesn’t mean, of course, that we slap a smile on our face when experiencing difficulty or “fake it until we make it” when sad things are going on. But in commending His joy to us, Jesus isn’t exactly talking about emotional responses to circumstances. Normal ministers get sad about sad things. What Jesus is talking about in John 15:11—and in the chapter in general—is the reality of our mystical connection with Him through faith becoming the foundation in our heart and soul not
of misery, but of settled, persevering, all-flavoring joy. He is commending a disposition that says, “Life may stink but eternal life is something to be seriously giddy about.”
Because of this gospel promise of Christ Himself, then, there are at least three kinds of joy to be found in hard ministry seasons.
The Joy in Resting in God’s Sovereignty
There is joy in resting in God’s sovereignty over your ministry. In John 15, Jesus tells us that He is the Vine and the Father is the Gardener. This really puts us in our place, doesn’t it? What are you? A branch. Do you give life? No. The Vine does that. Do you control growth? No. The Gardener does that. What do you do? Answer: Make sure you stay connected to the Vine.
I have not come across a doctrine so steadying for life and ministry than the absolute sovereignty of God over it all. I understand why this idea irritates so many people, because it used to irritate me quite a bit. And I can’t speak for anybody else but myself, but what finally helped me turn the corner was realizing what an idiot I am and how idiotic it was to prefer a sense of my being in control rather than the Creator God of the Universe who is not just all-powerful but loves me. He loves me actually more than I love me—at least as real love is counted.
The reality of the sovereignty of God over your ministry is the wellspring of a joyful rest, even as you’re faithfully working hard to do everything He’s commanded you. It makes so much of our ministry anxiety on the one hand and our ministry control issues on the other seem really, really pathetic.
Jesus says in John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.”
There is a wrong way to take this text. We could take it the way of the prosperity gospel and turn Jesus into a vending machine, but we know that’s not what He means. The context bears out that Jesus is referring to fruitfulness. The “whatever you want” is not about health and wealth—not even in terms of ministerial success!—but is inextricably connected to the glory of the Father (John 15:8). In other words, when you are
so aligned with Christ, when you have lined up your “whatever you want” with the sovereign “whatever He wants,” the fruit is guaranteed.
The Lord may not be committed to the expansion of your name, but He will be faithful to ensure the expansion of His. So we rejoice that our names are written not in the Who’s Who of Pastoral Ministry but in the Lamb’s book of life!
There is joy in knowing that a normal ministry will produce fruit.
Now, fruitfulness can’t always be determined by external measurements and growth. If it could, there are a great many biblical scenarios that wouldn’t make much sense at all. Numeric, financial, and cultural growth isn’t always the kind of fruitfulness the Scriptures hold out as the produce of the Spirit’s work. In fact, many times the biblical dynamic is such that outwardly things look bleak and yet inwardly there is a great renewal of trust in God. As Paul writes, “Outwardly we are wasting away but inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Indeed, a church can look fruitful by worldly standards— increasing attendance, accumulating dollars, expanding influence—and yet not be advancing Christ’s Kingdom at all. One of the scariest passages with which I ever wrestled as a pastor is Ezekiel 37. The Lord shows the prophet the valley of very dry bones. And in the midst of the vision, there is a moment where the bones are moving but have no breath in them. It was a reminder to me that something can look alive and yet not be.
If we pair that text with Revelation 3:1—“You have a reputation for being alive but you are dead”—we receive a sobering reminder that sometimes a church can look successful but actually be spiritually dead, not bearing fruit that remains at all, just gathering sticks upon sticks to be burnt up on the last day.
But by contrast, you may be struggling along, stretching every penny, pleading with gracious passion for repentance and belief while not seeing many conversions, or any conversions, and still be fruitful in the
ways that eternally count. In fact, Christ has guaranteed it. Big church or small church, successful pastor or struggling pastor, your fruitfulness is not contingent on your resources but on your Redeemer!
In fact, it is impossible to be united to Christ by faith and not bear fruit:
“The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me . . . My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples” (John 15:5,8).
The point is this: every work done in faith for the glory of Christ will produce the fruit Christ has ordained and is pleased by. Ministry leader, there is no joy in trying to “produce” for Jesus. He’s the One who produces. You can do nothing without Him. And this is liberating.
Too often we envision “successful ministry,” and we pour our energies and affections into seeing that vision become a reality. We assume that once we finally “arrive,” things will be better, easier, and finally and ultimately fulfilling. This is, functionally, idolatry. It is a creation of a false heaven, not simply false in its falling short of the real Paradise but false in its inclusion of talent, acquired skills, and grit to reach.
But a simple, plodding, faithful ministry to King Jesus, however meager or visibly lacking, is producing a spiritual fruit that resonates in eternity.
In the midst of hardship, in the midst of difficulty, the baseline joy of the beleaguered and burdened minister is that come what may, he gets to participate in the Spiritual life of Christ and actually be friends with Jesus. There is joy in the simple privilege of knowing Christ and being His friend.
I’ve learned a lot about pastoral ministry over the last nearly three decades. But what I’ve
learned best has little to do with leadership techniques or missional strategies or administrative management. All of those things are good things, of course. What I learned of first importance is how necessary it is for the shepherd of God’s people to be friends with God.
Jesus says, “I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father” (John 15:15).
The hardship of pastoral ministry ought to drive us constantly into the position of re-centering on the gospel every day. In a sense, we must re-convert every day to the loving closeness of Jesus. By virtue of our union with Him, we can enjoy real communion with Him.
Pastor, don’t forget to meditate on the gospel with which you’re feeding other people. Don’t forget that you are not earning your keep. Don’t forget that, as much as a congregation may want you to be, you are not a hired hand.
Without closeness to Christ, ministry is just religious machinery. Draw near to him, and you will discover a wellspring of unassailable joy that, come hell or high water, will empower and equip you for the endurance you will need for years on end. He in fact will be your eternal joy.
There is joy in the simple privilege of knowing Christ and being His friend.
JARED C. WILSON | Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry, Author in Residence
artyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century. He pastored the Westminster Chapel in the heart of London for nearly three decades, and by the end of his ministry, he was one of the most influential ministers on earth. But before Lloyd-Jones was a great preacher, he was an accomplished physician. After earning his medical degree, he came under the tutelage of Lord Horder, caregiver to His Majesty, King George V, and enjoyed one of the most promising medical careers in all of England.
In considering God’s call to ministry, Lloyd-Jones wrestled with his “physician’s dilemma”—giving up medicine to pursue preaching. Ultimately, it was a war of desire, and his desire for ministry won out: “We spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their sin! I want to heal souls. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is all right to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a distressed soul is all right for sixty years or so and then he has to face eternity in Hell.”
Lloyd-Jones well understood how God channeled the minister’s desires toward confirmation of calling. He reflected:
I would say that the only man who is called to preach is the man who cannot do anything else, in the sense that he is not satisfied with anything else. This call to preach is so put upon him, and such pressure comes to bear upon him that he says, “I can do nothing else, I must preach.
If ever a young man resonated with LloydJones’ description it was me, circa 1997. I felt an unanticipated, unintended desire for ministry, and I did not know what to do with it. That desire—and whether or not it was even appropriate—dominated my life.
I did not know where to turn or what to do, but, thankfully, God drew me to the Pastoral Epistles. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are often called the Pastoral Epistles because they reflect most directly on pastoral service. In them, Paul sets forth how the church is to minister and who should lead that ministry. When I was discerning my call, I read through
“I would say that the only man who is called to preach is the man who cannot do anything else. This call to preach is so put upon him, and such pressure comes to bear upon him that he says, “I can do nothing else, I must preach.”
—MARTIN LLOYD–JONES
these letters daily to better grasp what a life of ministry entails, how one is to serve the church, and, especially, to clarify God’s will for my life. They were like road signs and streetlights, both pointing and illuminating the way forward.
The most helpful passage in the Pastoral Epistles for one sensing God’s call to the ministry and for those who are in the ministry is 1 Timothy 3:1–7, as it states plainly the qualifications for the office of pastor.
In 3:1 Paul writes, “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.” This singular verse is pregnant with meaning and is key to discerning your call to ministry. Let’s unpack it piece by piece.
It is a trustworthy statement. On five occasions in the Pastoral Epistles Paul says, “It is a trustworthy statement.” Each time, he does it to draw particular attention to a word or phrase of special importance. Here, he uses it to introduce the qualifications for ministry, reminding us that they are essential for both the church and the would-be minister. In other words, we should sit up and pay careful attention to what follows!
Aspires. This is an uncommon New Testament word. It means “to reach out after” or “grasp for.” We can think of this as the practical act of seeking the office of overseer. Common expressions of this in our day are applying for a ministry position, seeking mentorship from a pastor or elder, enrolling in seminary, or entering a ministry training program.
Office of overseer. This is the subject of verses 1–7, and it refers to both a title and task, or form and function. By form and function, I mean the correspondence between what someone is called and what they do. Those who are pastors in title (form) must do what pastors, biblically defined, do (function).
Conversely, if a person is not qualified to exercise authority in the church (function), you don’t get around it by downgrading their title to “minister” or “director” (form). They are still positioned to exercise authority in the church, thus functioning as a pastor or elder. The term overseer refers to one who exercises spiritual leadership over a congregation.
As we will see, this office also carries with it pastoral care responsibilities, a duty to preach or teach Scripture, and a requirement to meet certain character qualifications. Scripture also says that those who labor well in it are worth double honor—that is, full-time elders (pastors) should be supported financially by their church (1 Tim. 5:17).
Depending on your Bible translation, “overseer” may also be translated “bishop.” In the New Testament, overseer, bishop, elder, and pastor are used interchangeably. For example, here in 1 Timothy 3:1 the word overseer is the Greek word episkopos, which is sometimes translated “bishop,” and from which the Episcopal Church gets its name. It is synonymous with the Greek word presbyteros, meaning “elder,” and from which the Presbyterian Church gets its name. We see these terms, and the word pastor (Greek poimen), used interchangeably in places like Acts 20:17–38, 1 Peter 5:1–2, and Titus 1:5–7. The same scenario occurs in 1 Timothy 5:17 when Paul calls the overseers “elders.”
Fine. The work of ministry is a fine work. Fine means “noble,” “honorable,” or “excellent.” This means that yearning for ministry is a good thing. Be encouraged, if you find yourself aspiring to the ministry, that the work is not only worthwhile but exceedingly glorious, and it is worthy of your full effort and pursuit.
Desire. This word refers to the inward compulsion, or passion, for ministry. It is what’s taking place in your inner person that leads you to “aspire,” or pursue practically, ministerial service. These two
words—aspire and desire—must go together. If you desire the ministry, you will aspire to it.
To do. With this phrase, Paul puts the minister’s task on an active, energetic footing. Again, the wording is subtle but important. The office of the pastor is not merely a position to be occupied; it is a work to be done. For a number of years, I had the privilege of pastoring near Fort Knox, Kentucky. Nearly half of my church was military, and I enjoyed spending many days on post. One day while eating lunch with a group of soldiers, I noticed that officers wore their ranks on their shoulders, whereas the enlisted soldiers’ chevrons were positioned on their arms. When I asked about it, I learned that the placement of an officer’s rank on his shoulder signified the burden of leadership he carried. Conversely, the enlisted soldier’s rank on the arms indicates the brawny nature of his work, serving his country with strength and arms.
We should think of the pastoral office similarly, except that a pastor wears his ranks on both his shoulders and his arms. There is no such thing as a pastor who knows only the burden of leadership or only the sweat of service. He who desires the ministry must aspire to both, since the ministry necessarily includes both. A pastor serves the people of God and carries out his responsibilities as assigned by Scripture and God’s people.
My concern is that there are many ministers who initially aspire to the ministry and who enter the ministry only to have that desire diminish during difficult seasons. While difficulties are real and while the ministry is certainly not always glamorous, we must continually remind ourselves about the glorious calling that is ours and the privilege of what we have been called to do.
God has made us His ambassadors, and He is using us to reconcile the world to Himself (2 Cor.
5:20). God has made us His undershepherds, and we have the privilege of tending His sheep and leading His people to Him (1 Pet. 5:1-4). There is no higher calling. There is no higher joy. So, I want to ask you, “Do you still desire the ministry?”
If not, search your heart and ask God to rekindle your vision and desire for the ministry. On that Great Day when you see your Overshepherd face to face, the difficulties of ministry will melt away in His presence. Take comfort and remember that that Day is coming soon.
* This article is an excerpt from Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know For Sure and What to Do About It. To purchase the book, please visit: jasonkallen.com.
JASON K. ALLEN | President, Professor ofPreaching and Pastoral Minstry
“God has made us His undershepherds, and we have the privlege of tending His sheep and leading His people to Him.”by HAYLEE WILLIAMS
efore I became a mother, I thought I would be like a fish in water when it came to parenting. But the long days and unexpected sorrows of motherhood have often left me floundering, feeling lost and inadequate. More than that, many days of motherhood have felt void of joy. These feelings of dashed hopes and uncomfortability are par for the course in the Christian life, but I didn't plan to feel so discontent. In some way or another, you have probably felt this lack of joy too. Whether it's a life-changing diagnosis or a Chick-fil-A closure on Sunday, life is full of disappointment.
I have a friend who is older and much wiser than me. Her family has experienced intense suffering through cancer, brain tumors, and a myriad of other life-threatening health conditions. My suffering seems like child’s play to what she
has endured. But she is kind and hears my hardship with a heart of tenderness. A few months ago she said something that has rattled around in my mind ever since.
She said that it was easier to cling to Christ and have joy in the major sufferings of her life than in the mundane, regular moments of motherhood.
It's profound. A biblical theology of suffering should prepare our hearts for deep suffering—persecution, death, health issues, loss, broken relationships, and more—but my theology of suffering and my theology of joy did not prepare me for the ways my heart would groan from the regular, everyday things. I didn't expect to have such disappointment in the constant dishes, dirty diapers, and never-ending loads of laundry. This idea applies across seasons of life and professions. Creation groans—we all groan!—at what is considered normal life in a broken world. Cars break down, the
power goes out, we drop our coffee on the way to work. Although I'd like to say my response to these small troubles would be one of continuous rejoicing and trust in the Lord, my heart is usually not joyous at the prospect of paying an ever increasing gas bill.
Our lives may not contain a flood of stressors, but they all contain some sort of dripping. That's why it's so important that we do the hard work of understanding what it means to be content and to have immovable joy whether our spouse has cancer or our kids left their bikes in the middle of the driveway again. We may be spiritually prepared for the flood of suffering, but are we prepared for the drip? The drip has the ability to erode our joy just as much as the flood does. It may take longer, but the resulting damage still ends with discontentment. How do we prepare for the drip? How can we be beacons of joy in a life that can seem bent on keeping us from rejoicing?
To pursue godly joy, we must start with a good definition of contentment. We need to understand what we're pursuing before we set out on the path to obtain it. Jeremiah Burroughs describes contentment as "the inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God's disposal in every condition." I have found that much of my grumbling and joylessness comes from my fighting and thrashing against what God has deemed good for me. Rather than submitting to the gracious will of our Father, I strive against His hand of grace and try to plow my own path. But as Burroughs suggests, true contentment is a frame of spirit that welcomes whatever God has ordained. Charles Spurgeon said it this way, "I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages."
Spurgeon's heart posture is one that welcomes whatever God ordains for the purpose of drawing us closer to Him. The first step to having joy in everyday life is to freely submit to whatever God has for your good and His glory.
But Burroughs was not satisfied with a definition that only included free submission to God's will. A free submission to God's will could give us the opportunity to feel like we are victims of our circumstances, but a heart that takes pleasure in God's will is one that exemplifies Christian joy. Our contentment finds its fullness in the pleasure we obtain from God's perfect will. Imagine how our hearts would rejoice if we welcomed every hardship or inconvenience with a posture of submission and of pleasure. With this understanding of contentment and joy, we see the possibility for joy in every circumstance.
This sort of trust in the will of God is wholly contingent upon His character. Because God is loving, perfect, sovereign, and concerned with His own glory, His active role in our lives gives us the foundation for our joy. When we don’t have joy, we need only meditate on our Lord and be renewed once again to embrace freely and with pleasure what He places before us. He who is in control of our futures ensures our highest good and His highest glory. He is worth trusting and that alone is reason to rejoice.
Burroughs finishes his definition with this small phrase, "in every condition." This may be the hardest aspect of having unwavering joy. Our condition often directly impacts how we feel and our emotions can shake the way we understand our joy. That is why we must remember that joy is not based on how we feel; it is based on the sureness of our Savior. Paul says in Philippians
“He who is in control of our futures ensures our highest good and His highest glory. He is worth trusting and that alone is reason to rejoice.”
4:11-13 that he has learned to be content in every circumstance, meaning it is possible to have joy no matter what we are enduring. Joy is not a feeling. It is a gracious frame of spirit. It is the resolve or commitment that does not falter in the face of things that don’t make us feel happy or fulfilled. Christian joy is something that cannot be stripped from our hands. We can experience discouragement, hardship, sadness, and pestilence, but our joy is not contingent upon our circumstances. Our joy cannot be stolen from us. It is available every moment of the Christian life because we have an eternal King who reigns and He is for us.
So why spend so much time on a definition? Because this is how humans are hardwired—our minds impact our affections which then impact our will. In other words, what we know informs what we love, which causes us to act. True affection for Christ and an understanding of the joy we have in Him affects every facet of our lives. But I'd like to put forth just three ways we can exercise the joy we now know is immovable.
First, true joy keeps us content with an ordinary life. The concept of "an ordinary life" has become more popular in Christian circles in the last few years. The Apostle Paul even speaks to this in passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:11. In the United States especially, the ideas of the American dream, fame, fortune, and notoriety are so prevalent. Our lives are permeated by an expectation that we should maximize our potential and become movie stars, athletes, influencers, lawyers, doctors, and more. Part of the reason we struggle with contentment is this mentality. True joy freely welcomes the ordinary facets of a life that may never include fame, fortune, or influence. An ordinary life of a regular job, church service, a small home, and an old beater car becomes not just tolerable
but a ripe harvest for ministry, discipleship, and joy when we are occupied with Christ.
Second, true joy is the antithesis of grumbling. If our hearts are filled up with the unchanging grace of the Lord in a way that reflects through our joy, we cannot help but rejoice in whatever comes our way. We may feel sad or angry, but our frame of spirit keeps us from cursing God or our circumstances. Instead, we do as Spurgeon says, we kiss the wave.
Finally, true joy makes us immovable Christians. We cannot be stripped of our joy. When we live in the frame of spirit that focuses on the joy of Christ, then we cannot be moved. We are not shaken by the crumbling of our world. We do not lose hope in the face of death and loss. Our joy abounds.
The flood of intense suffering is a reality of the Christian life, but so are the things that grind our gears. The small things constitute the steady drip that could erode us into discontentment. The way to catch that drip and have consistent and full biblical joy in our lives is by clinging tightly to our sovereign God, and with a gracious frame of spirit, freely welcoming with pleasure all that He has perfectly ordained for us.
HAYLEE WILLIAMS | Haylee is a wife, mother of two, and author of God of Forever. She is currently pursuing her M.Div. at Midwestern Seminary.
A REFLECTION ON SUFFERING
by LUCAS HAHN
can still remember the tears as they came washing over me when the first note of “Come Thou Fount” began to play that Sunday morning in April. It was a few weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic halted society, and our church, like most, had moved to online services. In our little apartment in Louisville, my wife and I turned on our church’s livestream and wept throughout the service, but especially as we struggled to sing the words of the song:
Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy Grace Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise
In the early hours of that Sunday morning, we received the news that no one wants to hear— doctors in the emergency room of a local hospital located a tumor in my mother’s brain. Seemingly healthy, my mother had been dealing with severe headaches, vomiting, and fogginess that week, so my mom and dad decided to go to the emergency room the night before.
My mother was transported that morning to a hospital in St. Louis and began her (and our) journey with cancer. What ensued was a series of doctors’ appointments, testing and lab work, conversations about treatment plans and survival
rates, radiation, and more. Initial testing provided an even more concerning diagnosis, an aggressive cancer had metastasized throughout my mother’s body—affecting her brain, lungs, and uterus.
The next few weeks were a whirlwind. My mom returned home and began treatment. We took each day one at a time as a family and initially saw her body respond well. Her energy and functionality returned and there was hope. The next weekend we celebrated Easter together with our whole family—her parents and sisters, my mom and dad, siblings, and their kids. It was a sweet time spent crying with one another, encouraging my mother, and celebrating our risen Savior. What we didn’t know was that this Easter would be our last one together.
In the following days, my mom’s treatment became less effective and by the weekend she was in serious pain and lost nearly all motor functionality. On Monday morning, we made the decision to take my mother to the hospital for what turned out to be the last time. I drove home to Illinois early that morning and helped my dad and sisters pack up the car. Bound by a wheelchair, she left her home as I pushed her out to the car. I buckled her in, and she faintly said her last, “I love you, Luke.”
My mom spent the next four days in the hospital alone due to the pandemic while my family stayed in a local hotel tethered to our phones for any
FOR THOSE THAT ARE WALKING THROUGH TRIALS AND TRAGEDY, THERE IS JOY TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST. HOPE CENTERED ON GOD, HIS GOODNESS, AND HIS PROMISES THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE BUILD THE FOUNDATION FOR JOY.
chance to FaceTime with her with the help of her nurses. As she deteriorated and after doctors gave their last prognosis, she spent her final four days in hospice care as my family huddled outside her window; while my siblings and I spent one night each inside with her.
My mother, Linda Kay Hahn, passed away from endometrial stromal sarcoma (uterine cancer) eight days later on April 28, 2020, with a peaceful smile on her face. Twenty-three days after we discovered a tumor, her battle with cancer ended as she entered the presence of the Lord.
In less than a month, the very real and tangible effects of sin and our fallen world made its presence known in our lives. Unfortunately, so many of us have experienced similar stories marred with tragedy and devastating loss. Whether you’ve battled cancer or a miscarriage, mental distress or the loss of a job, life is bound to make the effects of sin known to you.
Within that first week of discovering the tumor, my mother was resolved and at peace with any possible outcome of her diagnosis. She frequently would say, “God is in control,” and this new battle did not deter her from reiterating this belief. In fact, it seemingly strengthened her trust in Him. She maintained her kind demeanor, joyful disposition, and smile up until she began to lose her ability to speak to us and function on her own.
How can a woman facing an end stage cancer diagnosis do that? How could she go from normal life to holding her radiation mask with a smile?
Only by the power of God and a steadfast hope in the promises of God.
For my mom, her joy was not tethered to her circumstances. Her joy was not affected by the fact that outwardly she was wasting away. Her joy was rooted in the hope of God.
In a sermon on Romans 5:1-8, John Piper said, “The chief cause of joy in the Christian life is the eager expectation that we will see and share in the glory of God. Hope for God’s glory is the heart of our gladness.”
Though her suffering and trial was short, she understood that hope in God was reason enough for her to rejoice. She was able to embody the truths found in passages like Romans 5, Romans 12, and 2 Corinthians 4, where hope and joy are closely intertwined. The affliction and suffering she encountered could be tackled head-on with joy because she trusted in the promises of God and His plan for her life.
In my mother’s cancer journey, she discipled me on how to find joy amidst sorrow. I hope the lessons I learned can be helpful to you if you’ve walked through a similar season or whenever you do. So, what have I learned from her example?
She taught me to place my hope in eternal things. Much like what Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Or in his letter to the Colossians, “Set your minds on things
that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Amidst trial, it is hard to look above the cancer, the loss of life, or the struggle with sin, but Scripture continually points our focus upward. In seasons
“In seasons of suffering and sorrow when hope seems absent, we hope in not what is earthly and temporary, but in what is eternal and certain. "
of suffering and sorrow when hope seems absent, we hope in not what is earthly and temporary, but in what is eternal and certain. We should seek to rejoice in our sufferings because we know what it produces—even more hope (Romans 5:2-5).
She also taught me to hope in the finished work of Christ. Seeking things above without the finished work of Christ could result in a spiritualism that’s dead and a hope that is still hopeless. But Jesus is alive, and He is making all things new. As her body was wasting away, my mother knew of her new life to come in Christ. In Christ, she was a blood-bought new creation, even as cancer spread rampantly throughout her body. In the face of trial, we can find hope in the finished work of Christ because in and through Christ we overcome death. He is still good, and His plan is for our good.
She taught me to pursue joy in Christ by tuning my heart. Whether it was for special music in church or just around the house, my mother loved to sing. She had an alto voice that was simply beautiful. Some of my earliest memories of her, as well as some of my last, are of her singing. During our last Easter together, I can still remember her faint voice singing of our risen Savior. For my mom, she embodied the scriptural calls to “sing for joy” (Psalm 95:1, Psalm 98:4) and “worship with gladness” (Psalm 100:1).
My mother’s example has been so instructive and helpful for me in the years since she passed, and I think it could be for you too. As I’ve reflected on losing my mom, making sense of what happened and how to respond, I realized that her consistent habit of singing fueled her joy. When she was worried, she sang. When she was stressed, she sang. When she was happy, she sang. When she was dying, she sang. Oftentimes, habits can remind our hearts of what is true. Like my mom, I’ve learned to pursue joy through song.
The lyrics of "Come Thou Fount" could only have been sovereignly placed in my life that Sunday morning in April.
Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy Grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
I’ve discovered what it means to be sorrowful, yet always singing. I’ve found that tuning my heart to sing thy grace has a way of centering my hope in Christ and restoring my joy. Even in death, His promises are still true. His streams of mercy never really cease.
For those that are walking through trials and tragedy, there is joy to be found in Christ. Hope centered on God, His goodness, and His promises throughout Scripture build the foundation for joy.
If hope is the anxious anticipation of a promise fulfilled by God, then joy should be our response when God fulfills His promises. This joy is not necessarily a feeling or outward expression, but an internal gladness and contentment rooted in Jesus. It is a posture that can be displayed outwardly but is truly reflective of inward stability and hope.
In every season, even in the darkest nights this world has to offer, Christians who are rooted in hope can still sing with joy.
"What joy there is in the church of God when sinners are converted!"
“Is your heart a holy heart? Do you desire holiness? Do you find your pleasure in it?”
“He is great and glorious, whatever we may be; and it is for our joy, our safety, our everlasting happiness, that we should become his servants. It is necessary, for the right ordering of our lives, that our hearts may be in tune to yield the music of joy, that we should be tuned by obedience to his will, and that we should learn to serve him.”
"It is not to sorrow but to joy that the great King invites his subjects, when he glorifies his Son Jesus."
"We must have God or we are of all men most miserable."
Thou canst not tell what showers of mercy, what streams of benediction, what mountains of joy, and hills of happiness, shall be thine when Jesus comes and reigns in thy soul.
“No joy ever visits my soul like that of knowing that Jesus is highly exalted, and that to him ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
“My brethren, it is in proportion as you get near to God that you enter into the full enjoyment of life — that life which Jesus Christ gives you, and which Jesus Christ preserves in you.”
"I do not think the church rejoices enough. We all grumble enough and groan enough: but very few of us rejoice enough."
“Our joy is that we have to deal to-day with lost souls who are not yet hopelessly lost.”
FOR THE CHURCH COHORTS is a one-year program designed to equip like-minded residential seminary students through enhanced discipleship, focused study, and intentional community. Cohort participants will gather weekly with members of their cohort to fellowship, discuss topics related to their subject, and learn from world-class faculty and ministry leaders.
At the beginning of 2023, President Jason Allen announced a new institutional initiative, Midwestern Seminary’s Missions Moonshot. Specifically, the seminary aims to produce 100 new missionaries annually in the years ahead. In light of this new initiative, we want to introduce two of these missionaries to you—Heath and Jessica McClure. The McClure’s graduated from Midwestern Seminary in 2022 with their Master of Divinity degrees and are now being sent by their church to Poland to serve as missionaries with the International Mission Board in the Journeyman Program.
MBTS Can you briefly share how the Lord called you to the mission field? What does everyday life look like as a missionary?
JESSICA I went overseas for the first time as a sophomore in high school. I was able to see the church in another language, context, and culture for the first time, and I became enthralled by the fact that God is the God of the nations. I became burdened for the peoples and places that have never heard the
name of Jesus. Every time I found myself in another country, I just felt a sense of peace in knowing this is what the Lord has called me to do. Overseas, we’ll be working mostly with university students. Our days will consist of language learning, building relationships with students, and helping the local church with ministry opportunities. Life will look like doing ordinary things each day with the hope of building relationships with students that they might know Jesus.
HEATH Growing up, I never really thought about missions and only saw mission trips as something that other people did. However, when I started dating Jessica, she encouraged me to go on a trip to Nepal. Doing so exposed me to lostness like never before. The Lord got a hold of my heart through the For The Church National Conference in 2019. I heard J.D. Greear speak of the need for people to go to the nations and to give up just 2 years of their lives through the Journeyman Program. Danny Akin spoke in chapel a few weeks later and echoed the same idea that we should consider giving 2 years of our lives to missions. The Holy Spirit used these two men to make me ask myself the question, “Why would I not go?”
MBTS What’s one thing you would want everyone to know about the task of missions?
JESSICA I want everyone to know that the task of missions is for everyone. God has not just called some to the task of missions, but all of us as the Church. We all are called in some way to partake in what God is doing among the nations. We are called to missions because God is worthy of the praise of every tribe and tongue.
HEATH Whether you’re in Poland or Kansas City, the missionary task is for every believer and the Great Commission applies in every context. The Lord Jesus Christ has directed each of us to make disciples and play our part in planting churches. Since lostness remains the pressing problem of our day, we have much work to do in seeing the Great Commission realized.
MBTS How did your time at Midwestern Seminary help prepare you for the mission field?
JESSICA Midwestern Seminary helped prepare me through deepening my love of God and love of Scripture. I grew to see just how precious the gospel is, making it a worthwhile calling to serve overseas, and how essential Scripture is in all things. The community at Midwestern also helped prepare us. We were
so supported and encouraged by those around us at every step of the process. To be for the Church is to be for the nations. The Church is the vehicle through which God has chosen to expand His Kingdom, and my time at Midwestern Seminary helped me to cherish the Church whether it is in Kansas City or another country.
HEATH Midwestern Seminary prepared me for the mission field in a variety of ways. I learned to love the local church through Midwestern’s vision for the Church. I learned to appreciate the work of the Church and to always love it, support it, and pray for it, as it is God’s global plan to reach the lost. Midwestern also prepared me by giving me a framework for understanding and worshipping our God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. The community that exists at Midwestern engages in routine dialogue around our lost neighbors and friends. I had countless conversations on how I was sharing the gospel and praying for the lost around me.
MBTS What advice would you give to current students who have a heart for the nations?
JESSICA My advice would be to go! Life just gets more complicated as time goes on, so do whatever you can to step out in obedience if you know the Lord has called you. A big question we kept asking was, “Why not us?” to which we simply did not have a good answer. I would challenge anyone with a heart for the nations to ask what would keep him or her from taking a step in obedience.
HEATH I would encourage anyone with a heart for the nations to seek out opportunities to live missionally now. At your church, if there are evangelism groups, jump in; if there are mission trips, do it; if there is an avenue to share the gospel, take part. If your heart is for the nations, find the nations around you. Our Lord has commanded all of us to make disciples and has called some of us to specifically go to the nations. If that’s you, don’t wait—push on whatever door necessary to make it happen!
Though its main campus is in Kansas City, Midwestern Seminary also offers classes in St. Louis, MO. Whether students are interested in undergraduate or masters classes, they can study residentially at the St. Louis Campus, located at First Baptist Church O’Fallon. FBC O’Fallon was planted more than 60 years ago with a vision to reach the community and the world with the gospel. This partnership with Midwestern Seminary, led by Senior Pastor Michael Atherton (D.Min. Expository Preaching, 2009; Ph.D. Biblical Ministries, 2020), helps the church to biblically train God-called men and women for ministry. For these reasons and more, it is a delight to include First Baptist Church O’Fallon as our church highlight in this edition of the Midwestern Magazine.
MBTS Can you tell us about the history of First Baptist Church O’Fallon?
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH O'FALLON First Baptist Church of O’Fallon is a 60+ year old ministry. We are dedicated to helping reach our community with the gospel. All our Life Groups have a community mission project that they work on monthly/quarterly. We support a local food bank, have partnerships with area elementary schools, and serve as chaplains for the local police and high school football team. We run a Christian Academy on our campus, serving around 250
preschool through 8th grade students. We continue to make ground towards a multi-year strategy and goal to have a gospel conversation on the doorstep of 20,000 homes within our zip code. Our missional strategy suggests that the light which shines the furthest, must shine the brightest at home.
Beyond our immediate community, we have committed many resources and much time to taking the gospel to the world. We have active missional partnerships and projects in Colorado, Kansas City, Arkansas, Illinois, Ohio, Mexico, Israel, Scotland, the
Netherlands, and Zambia. This past year, we sent out more than 350 people on short term missions, ranging from 8 years old to 80+ years old, and from 1 day to 10 weeks. We have given more than $500,000 toward missional causes this past year.
At First O’Fallon we have four core values that motivate our ministry: (1) Declaring God’s Glory through Worship, (2) Discovering God’s Purpose through Bible Study, (3) Delivering God’s Message through Gospel Proclamation, and (4) Developing Godly Relationships through Biblical Community.
This results in having very focused objectives. For example, our value toward worship has resulted in creating a multi-generational weekly worship service and the production of a four-month devotional guide for families that correlates with the service. Our commitment to discipleship results in a Life Group/Sunday School ministry wherein 70-75% of our Sunday morning worship attendance engages in weekly life groups. Further, we have a robust slate of stand-alone classes to help disciple folks in specific areas. For example, we have a one-year leadership development program and a yearlong worldview curriculum (wherein participants learn how to develop a Biblical worldview). In addition, we offer classes in parenting, personal finance, dealing with divorce, marriage, handling grief, etc.
MBTS FBC O’Fallon has a unique partnership with Midwestern Seminary. Can you share a little about this partnership and how Midwestern’s vision extends to your church?
FBCO Our partnership with Midwestern Seminary helps us to develop new vocational ministry leaders that will go forth and continue to plant, replant, and revitalize local churches to continue to fulfill the Great Commission. Many of our students at this location now serve as interns within FBCO. As a result, we have students who are not just learning in the classroom, but are getting on-the-job experience as worship leaders, student ministry leaders, women’s ministry leaders, men’s ministry leaders, deacons, etc. So far, we have seen three of our students move on to church staff positions and are
awaiting multiple others who should be called to positions in the coming months.
MBTS With your experience in training many young men and women for ministry, what advice would you give to those aspiring to ministry in the Church?
FBCO Don’t wait! There is a shortage of people in the life of the Church who are willing to give everything they have to helping the Church be all that God has created her to be. We need more biblically sound and convictionally strong leaders. I have found that oftentimes a pastor may become convinced they don’t have time to pour into a new generation of church leaders. Nothing will inspire or energize your ministry more than reproducing new leaders and launching them out to strengthen God’s Church and grow God’s Kingdom.
MBTS The theme for this edition of the magazine is the joy of serving the local church. How would you encourage pastors and ministry leaders to continue to pursue joy when life and ministry are difficult?
FBCO There is no greater joy than serving the local church! Can ministry be tough? Sure, ministry can be tough. Ministry is people and people are sinful. We shouldn’t be surprised when we encounter difficulties with people. They will say things that are unfair and do things that are unwarranted. Was Jesus’ ministry any different? In many respects, we walk in His footsteps. How could He find joy? It certainly was not in what all the people said or did. It was in the reality that He was doing the will of His Father. Our joy in ministry should not be found in the affirmation of people or lack thereof. Our joy must be rooted and grounded in our fulfilling God’s call and will.
Yet even still, when times get tough, let’s remember Paul’s admonition to consider it joy when we walk through trials of many kinds, knowing that trials produce endurance, character, and hope. God always has a plan when we walk through a trial. Thus, the trials of today quite literally become tomorrow’s testimonies to the goodness of a God who walks with us through our day-to-day struggles.
In 2022, Midwestern Seminary’s faculty approved revisions to the Ph.D. in Systematic Theology degree emphasis, giving doctoral students added specialization in the great doctrines of the Christian faith. Lance English, a current Ph.D. student in Systematic Theology, is a great example of what it means to study for the Church. Along with his wife and three kids, Lance is in the process of helping plant a new church in South Kansas City—Trinity Church KC. In addition to his studies and ministry pursuits, Lance serves as an editor at Credo Magazine, and a Home Inspector in the Kansas City area.
MBTS What initially drew you to Midwestern Seminary?
LANCE My wife and I moved to Kansas City to study at Midwestern Seminary in July of 2019. Being from Nebraska, the draw of attending a seminary in the Midwest was appealing, and it was apparent to us at the time that Midwestern was an institution that was gaining momentum. We also were intrigued by the prospects of becoming members at one of the many strong churches with close connections to the seminary
that offered a pastoral residency. In the end it was an easy decision for us to move here and benefit from the great work that the Lord is doing through Midwestern and the many churches that benefit from it.
LANCE Two big things stand out to me. The first is that our faculty is truly a team, which is indispensable for theology. By that I mean they
value cross-disciplinary interaction and though each has their own area of expertise, they really value and even implement the work of their colleagues who study in different areas. The faculty understands how they work together to benefit students and we experience this benefit in the classroom. To study theology, one must be able to systematize, which can be difficult if you are studying the parts and your professor has no interest in how they fit into the whole. This has not been my experience, as my language, history, and ministry professors have always clearly articulated the task of theology and made the connections within their classes.
The second is the methodology of the theology program. Recent controversies have exposed the different ways of doing evangelical theology. I’m thankful to be studying here, where classical theology and retrieval are valued and encouraged. It’s been a joy to study classical doctrines from primary sources, such as the Church Fathers, Medieval Scholastics, Protestant Reformers, and Protestant Orthodoxy. This vast heritage shows that doing theology for the Church is best done when doing theology with the Church throughout history.
MBTS In this magazine edition, we are focusing on the joy of serving the local church. How is joy related to the task of theology?
LANCE The task of theology involves contemplating God and all things in relation to God. Since He is the creator of all things, God is the very fount of all joy and therefore, seeking Him is our highest good. This means that theology, rightly done, leads to joy and delight in God, but it also allows the theologian to take great joy in God’s creation. This joy is multiplied when theology is done in its natural context, the church. As many have said before, everyone is a theologian, but the task of the Christian is to be a good one. One of our responsibilities as Christians is to help each other become good theologians so that we can worship and live rightly.
Teaching theology in the local church through counseling, teaching, and preaching invites church members to partake in the joy of knowing God.
Furthermore, reading theology with the universal church invites us to share in the joy of knowing God with Christians from different centuries and continents as we look forward to the day when the saints from every tribe, tongue, and nation will no longer know God partially as through a veil, but fully as we see Him face to face. What a joyous day that will be!
MBTS Can you tell us more about Trinity Church and your experience in the planting process?
LANCE Trinity is an outflow of the abundant blessings that God has bestowed on our sending church, Emmaus, which is in many ways a direct outflow of the ministry of Midwestern. A few years ago, our pastoral residency cohort started praying about planting a church in Kansas City, which was something that Emmaus had wanted to do for a long time. We watched Emmaus send out many dear brothers and sisters to churches and ministries across the globe, but never was there any momentum to plant locally. That led to our initial discussions and the Lord started to impress upon us a love for South Kansas City. Here we are a few years later, and several families have moved down south and found jobs to help support a fledgling church plant.
Far from being a hindrance to my studies, the church planting process has been the wood that fuels the intellectual fires. To be clear, there are sacrifices of time and money, but being a part of a church plant has given me opportunities to utilize what I’m learning in the classroom by doing real ministry. More importantly, it has given me a covenant community to walk alongside me and my family that loves us and points us to Jesus.
MBTS What are your aspirations in life and ministry after you graduate?
LANCE I aspire to be an elder in a local church. I’d also love to be a pastor-theologian who leans more on the “pastor” side of the spectrum, ideally serving primarily in a local church context. Maybe someday that will include full-time vocational ministry or a teaching job, but for the time being, I am happy serving as a Home Inspector here in Kansas City, which allows me the flexibility to support a growing family while studying and planting a church.
Dr. Andrew M. King serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Midwestern Seminary and Assistant Dean of Spurgeon College. His research interests include Prophetic Literature, theological interpretation, Old Testament social ethics, and biblical theology. He serves as a co-director of Every Voice: A Center for Kingdom Diversity in Christian Theological Education, which exists to promote the work of ethnic minority/Majority World scholars for a broader audience as well as provide resources for students and institutions. He is known around campus as a faculty member marked by joy, so it is an honor to include Dr. King as our faculty highlight in this edition of the Midwestern Magazine.
MBTS What does life as a professor look like behind the scenes and how does your work in scholarship/writing fit in with your other responsibilities?
ANDREW KING It is an absolute joy and privilege to serve here at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. As with any ministry, there is always much more that goes on behind the scenes than what people may see. My academic ministry primarily focuses on two
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Assistant Dean of Spurgeon College
areas: institutional service and scholarship. A couple of days a week I teach courses such as Old Testament Survey and Hebrew. My goal for every class is to help my students behold the Triune God and be shaped by His Word. Other aspects of institutional service include supervising Ph.D. students, developing and refining degree programs and curriculum at Spurgeon College, visiting with students and ministry leaders, ensuring our academic policies and processes best serve our students and promote student success, working with our residential adjunct instructors, serving on various committees, and overseeing our dual credit and dual enrollment programs. With these various institutional responsibilities, no two weeks look alike.
In addition to my ministry at the institutional level, I also serve in various ways in the publishing and academic community. Some days I may be engaged with academic writing and editing projects. This generally involves praying, reading, pacing in circles, writing, and rewriting.
On both these levels, I view everything I do as for the Church. I am grateful for my many colleagues who provide an excellent model for faithfulness in academic ministry.
MBTS This edition of the magazine focuses on the joy of serving the local church. Can you speak to the importance of joy in the Christian life?
AK Joy is a theme woven throughout Scripture. In one sense, being in right relationship with our Triune God in the gospel means that we are tethered to the ultimate source of joy (Psalm 16:11). Yet more than just a personal experience, genuine joy in God will be missional. John Piper notes that “All joy has in it an impulse to demonstrate the beauty and value of its object.” If we truly treasure the God of our salvation, we cannot help but rejoice in Him; and if we rejoice in Him, we cannot help but tell others about Him. As Christians let their lives illuminate the way to King Jesus, joy will result for those the Lord draws to Himself (John 4:36).
The call to joy, however, does not minimize suffering and hardship. Seasons of joylessness should not produce guilt in believers, but foster a continued dependence and longing for God. The pursuit of joy in darkness is not a burden, but instead a stumbling towards the One whose yoke is easy. We can come to God, by the Spirit, and say with the Psalmist, “Restore
me to the joy of your salvation” (Psalm 51:12). For the God who saved us is eternally present with us (Hebrews 13:5). And when the cares of our hearts are many, His consolations cheer our souls (Psalm 94:19).
MBTS How do the seminary and the Church benefit each other?
AK The relationship between the seminary and the Church is symbiotic: local churches send us students with a love for the gospel and we return students to local churches with tools for continued gospel faithfulness. As our students gain competencies in biblical languages, theological and historical study, and other academic disciplines, we seek to instill in them a deep appreciation for and partnership with the local church. More than just a tagline, our for the Church mission directs everything we do: from degree program offerings to student life events, from organizational partnerships to athletics. Although experts in their respective academic disciplines, our faculty is without exception engaged in the life of local churches. We preach what we practice and practice what we preach. We are humbled that local churches around the world entrust their members to equipping at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. Every semester, we strive to honor that stewardship by fulfilling the mission for which we exist.
MBTS Why should future college students consider Spurgeon College for their studies?
AK There are seasons in the life of institutions that history remembers as unique. I truly believe that Spurgeon College is in just such a season. The combination of mission-clarity, various degree pathways, an exemplary faculty, and a thriving campus culture all roll up to the kind of college experience I want for my kids. Spurgeon College, both inside and outside the classroom, engages the mind, heart, and hands of students for the Kingdom. For those who are not able to relocate, our Global Campus brings what God is doing in Kansas City to wherever you live and serve. All this to say that Spurgeon College is experiencing God’s blessing in a distinct way. If you don’t believe me, I would simply invite you to attend Preview Day. If you come and see what God is doing, I assure you that you will not be disappointed. And high school students don’t even have to wait! Our Dual Enrollment program allows high schools students to get a jump start on their college careers right now.
The latest news and events from Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College
OCTOBER 11, 2022 Midwestern Seminary has experienced over a decade of consecutive enrollment growth, with 4,917 total students attending in the 2021-2022 academic year. That is up from 4,700 total students in the 2020-2021 academic year and 1,182 students in 2010-2011 academic year, prior to Allen’s arrival at Midwestern Seminary.
OCTOBER 27, 2022 In chapel, Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber addressed students on the Baptist distinctive of regenerate church membership, explaining how this conviction reserves church membership only for those who profess faith in Christ and show evidence of salvation.
OCTOBER 28, 2022 Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College’s Fall Festival drew more than 1,000 students, staff, faculty, and community members to campus for free food and fun. This year’s Fall Festival featured attractions for all ages, with additional festivities in honor of President Jason Allen’s 10-year anniversary.
OCTOBER 6, 2022 Following the recent launch of a new partnership in Korean studies, members of the faculty visited ministry partners in Seoul for mutual encouragement and to explore how the seminary can expand partnerships to equip the next generation of pastors and ministry leaders. While in Korea, Midwestern Seminary Provost Jason Duesing preached at Global Mission Church, the largest Baptist church in the world.
NOVEMBER 7, 2022 Fall Preview Day welcomed a record-breaking number of prospective students and guests on its Kansas City campus. During the day, attendees met seminary leaders and faculty members, experienced student life through mock lectures and campus tours, and enjoyed one of Kansas City’s most beloved barbecue restaurants at a catered Preview Day luncheon.
NOVEMBER 23, 2022 During Pastor Appreciation Month, Midwestern Seminary expressed their gratitude to the many pastors who faithfully serve their local church by providing encouraging resources, daily prayer guides, and a $10,000 giveaway package to one pastor, half of which was dedicated to a family vacation and the other half to a church need. Throughout the month, church members from across the country completed interest forms to refer their pastors for the giveaway. Over 5,000 pastors and church members participated.
Pastor McYoung Yang (pictured to the right), who serves Covenant City Church in the Twin Cities area, won this year’s giveaway. Yang received over 200 referrals from church members, each including notes sharing their love and appreciation for their pastor.
NOVEMBER 18, 2022 Thomas S. Kidd’s latest book, Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh (Yale University Press, 2022), was recently named WORLD’s Best Book of the Year. Kidd, who serves as research professor of Church History at Midwestern Seminary, said of the recent announcement, “I was so pleased to learn about the WORLD best book of the year award. It is a testimony to how many readers are interested in the vital but contested role that faith played in the American founding.”
DECEMBER 9, 2022 This December’s graduating class is our largest December graduating class in the history of this seminary,” President Allen said. “Today, all of us are joy-filled over these men and women, not only for who they are but who they represent, and what they are poised to do in serving on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ.
JANUARY 25, 2023 Midwestern Seminary announced a $2,500,000 gift to the missions program in honor of Wayne Lee and launched a new institutional initiative in partnership with the International Mission Board, ‘Midwestern Seminary’s Missions Moonshot.’ Specifically, Midwestern Seminary aims to produce 100 new missionaries annually in the years ahead.
FEBRUARY 9, 2023 Midwestern Seminary partnered with 9Marks to host “a conference on evangelism,” with speakers and panels focused on providing a biblical understanding of the discipline of evangelism. Keynote speakers Jason K. Allen, Geoff Chang, Mark Dever, Brian McKanna, Zach Schlegel, Mack Stiles, and Brad Wheeler delivered messages surrounding the practice of evangelism in the life of the local church.
FEBRUARY 21, 2023 Midwestern Seminary has announced For The Church Cohorts, a new one-year training program designed to equip like-minded residential seminary students through enhanced discipleship, focused study, and intentional community. FTC Cohorts exist for first year graduatelevel students who desire to enhance their academic studies through hands-on ministry experience in one of five areas of focus: Timothy Track, Biblical Counseling, Fusion Masters, Women in Scholarship, and Spurgeon Fellows. All cohort participants receive a 50% tuition scholarship.
FOR THE CHURCH NATIONAL CONFERENCE
LONG NIGHT AGAINST PROCRASTINATION
I know beauty when I see it. I am now out-of-doors in the morning on a spring day, drinking coffee with the right kind of cup, a light breeze flowing over my shoulder, the prospect of a useful day (which is the best day for me) and a sense of God’s hand planning all events. It is the convergence of likable things made even more desirable by all the days not so perfect.
I have had other days, strung tight with tension, pending doom, sadness and huge loss, conflict at every turn, dreaded
obligations. Like you, I’ve experienced my share of anxiety. I have also seen a lot. My Christianity puts me into the lives of people with sometimes overwhelming addictions and rancor in their lifestyles. I delve into their lives and seek to help, but what I’m dealing with is certainly ugly and distasteful. I have also done my share of truly ugly things.
Within me is the longing for beauty, and the repulsion of non-beauty. I am convinced that I have the normal longings of all of us. We are made for beauty.
Our concept of beauty will vary, distorted by what theologians call “the Fall.” That is a way of speaking of the evil present within us permeating all aspects of our person. This causes one woman to long for an illicit affair and call it beautiful, or another man to crave a power over others and brag about it. The person has a way of working on his mind so that the thing pursued is reclassified as “beautiful.” He knows it is not; at least a thinking person knows it is not. But his sense of beauty is twisted according to indwelling sin.
In a sense, the fallen individual (and that is all of us apart from Christ) sees beauty from a distance. It looms there, over the horizon, in a mist—an order, simplicity, true love and caring, heaven, forgiveness, reconciliation, God Himself. He has to say he loves what is leftover, for all the really good aspects of life are taken by God. God is the originator of them, and as long as the individual chooses to reject God on his terms, he has to play with the leftovers and call them good or beautiful. He will labor to convince himself of their beauty.
To go further, consider that we are one with our desires. We are, in fact, hopelessly bound to them. We cannot love what we do not love. That strange sentence is a way of saying that we do not have the power of contrary choice—of choosing against what we love or choosing what we do not love. If then our concept of beauty is distorted and we will not love Christ, we are locked into an insurmountable difficulty.
In a powerful way this is where true Christianity makes a profound difference. Man finds himself in this miasma of desires distorted by the
Fall. He chooses against God. Christ is not lovely to him. In some cases he may become a bit religious, but mere religion may be just another way of projecting himself as different than he really is. The other word for this is pride, and that is hardly the point. Or he reengineers God to be his errand boy so that he can, again, be his own God. Man is born with this kind of disinclination to God and Christ and the way of true Christianity. “No one seeks God,” said Paul in Romans 3: 11. So man’s natural desires are tragically pro-ego and anti-God.
Authentic Christianity involves this radical, and I must say, supernatural, reversion of the bondage to our egoism. The true Christian has experienced a change in desires. How can a person be made to love what he did not love? It is not possible humanly. That is why I say it is supernatural. The Bible asserts the impossibility of this when we read the words, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you also [if that impossible thing were possible] do good who are accustomed to do evil” (Jer. 13: 23).
The sum of Christianity is this. On the outside it is the saving objective work of Christ in living a perfect life as God on earth, dying as a substitute for sinful people like you and me, and then rising again in history (on a real day just like today), conquering the power of sin and death on the behalf of those He came to deliver. We are told to come to Christ, not on the basis of our “fallen” works as if salvation were our job, but to put our trust in Christ and to follow Him out of love. Our following is not the means of our salvation, but the result and the evidence.
But in terms of the individual, the desire for a coming to Christ is not there without a change in the pursuit of true beauty versus the artificial. And though your friend tries to make you love Christ, it does not happen unless there is something quite supernatural transpiring. The desires must change, and beauty must be redefined for you.
You are a true Christian then, if you love what you once thought little of, and supremely value what is true beauty, the highest form of beauty, Christ Himself. There are the particulars to think of as you grow in Christ, the shaping of the thinking about beauty in the smaller matters. But the big thing, the true difference between a genuine Christian and a non-Christian, whether that one is acting religious or not, is that there is a love for Christ as the most beautiful One. We may correctly ask ourselves, “Has the change occurred?”
And the living out of the Christian life, on the basis of that love of true beauty, is to love what Christ loves. Loving Christ and loving what He loves, then, become the distinguishing marks of a true Christian.
Christ is pure beauty. If you see Him that way, then you will not hold out for any more substitutions.
JIM ELLIFF | Jim Elliff is the president of Christian Communicators Worldwide. Through this ministry, Jim, and a team of communicators train leaders, teach the Bible, and evangelize, both overseas and throughout the United States. He is the author of several books, and writes regularly. Jim is also one of several pastors of Christ Fellowship of Kansas City.
I can remember the first time I heard of the doctrine of union with Christ. I was sitting in a classroom in north Texas listening to Dr. Sinclair Ferguson lecture on the doctrine of salvation. He had us turn to Ephesians 1 and asked a student to read it out loud to the class. Every time the student read the phrase “in Him,” he said in his deep Scottish voice: “IN HIM.” When the student finished reading, he launched into 45 minutes on the beauty of the doctrine of union with Christ. I sat in the back of the room, with tears in my eyes. I had been a Christian for 22 years and the gospel was surprising me yet again.
After class, in the student commons, Dr. Ferguson was chatting with students and I began to pepper him with questions about this doctrine. At one point, after what must have been my tenth question, Dr. Ferguson turned to me and said, “Young Mr. Worley, it’s all in Christ. Every blessing God has for His people. They are all in Christ. Where else would they be?”
He walked back into class, but I didn’t. I walked out of the building in a daze and walked around the neighborhood for the next two hours. All I could think
about was what Dr. Ferguson had said: “Every blessing God has for His people. They are all in Christ. Where else would they be?”
The doctrine of union with Christ changed my life. It changed the way I conceive of my relationship with God. It changed the way I read the Bible. It changed the way I pray. It changed the way I pastor. It changed everything. But, what is it?
IN 500 WORDS OR LESS, HERE’S HOW I WOULD EXPLAIN THE DOCTRINE OF UNION WITH CHRIST:
Louis Berkhof defined union with Christ as that “intimate, vital, and spiritual union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation.” That’s a really wonderful way of stating it. This union is intimate in that it takes God’s people and places them into divine fellowship by placing them into the identity and under the covenant headship of the Son of God. It’s vital in that it is necessary for salvation. As John Calvin says concerning salvation, “We are deprived of this utterly incomparable good until Christ is made ours.” It is spiritual in that it is a “mystical” union, it isn’t some tangible thing we can see, but it is real nonetheless.
The doctrine of union with Christ lives in the prepositions of the New Testament and is often overlooked because of its subtlety. But like one of those optical illusions and brain teasers, once you see it...it’s all you can see. Let me just point to a few places (emphasis added below to spotlight the doctrine):
• Romans 6:5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
• Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ ...”
• Ephesians 1:4, “...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world...”
And there are dozens more too! In Paul’s writings alone we get a total of over 73 uses of the phrase “in (with, into, or through) Christ”, with 24 of those times occurring in Ephesians.
John Frame said, “In Christ, is the most general thing that can be said about us as God’s people.”
I have often stressed that the doctrine of union with Christ is not primarily about me in Jesus, but about we in Jesus. The witness of Scripture is consistently pointing to the reality that when we are pulled into identification with Jesus, we are incorporated into His body, that is, all those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. In Christ Jesus, we find all the promises and blessings of God for His people. Nowhere else.
The doctrine of union with Christ is an invitation to make our home with God in Christ Jesus. It is an unbreakable fellowship. Not because we strive to keep the faith, but because God the
Father keeps His people in His forever love in the Son of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Brother or sister, whether you have been a Christian for a year or a decade, I appeal to you: Meditate upon this doctrine, let it anchor your soul, and may the gospel surprise you all over again.
Hey kiddos! Imagine you are playing outside and all of a sudden a storm shows up. The rain is pouring down, there is lightning and thunder; would it be better to stay outside the house or to go inside? Of course it would be better to go inside the house, that way you have protection from the storm.
When God created the world, He created it good. But when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God’s good world was broken and all of a sudden everybody was caught up in a storm.
But guess what? God invited people to step out of the storm, by stepping into a relationship with God.
God invites us to make our home with Him by placing our trust in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the home where God invites us to live with Him, safe from the storm, free from the penalty of sin.
Do you want to live at home with God? You can! In Jesus Christ, we are invited to live with God forever.
KYLE WORLEY | Kyle is Lead Pastor of Mosaic Church Richardson in Richardson, TX; and Cohost of the Knowing Faith podcast.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 2:4-5
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. – 1 John 5:21
This August, I began my third year of seminary. So many things about my life have changed since endeavoring to complete a theological master’s degree over two years ago. The last two years of my life pursuing seminary have been the most sanctifying yet. God has made me a weaker Christian, or at least I now recognize how weak I am more than I did two years ago; and gladly so. The Christian life is about increasing in weakness so that we might know that any strength we have is a gift from God.
In other ways, so many things about my life are still the same. In the classroom and the online discussion forum, I struggle to put to death my desire to prove myself over and above my male peers because of my gender, to remember that the Holy Scriptures are God’s gift to His people to be thoughtfully cherished, not a collection of texts to be academically conquered. Even now as I immerse myself in year three of my theological education as a weaker, more sober Christian, I find myself asking the questions I realize I should have been asking a long time ago. Why am I really here? Who am I even doing this for? Brothers and sisters in seminary, I invite you to consider these questions alongside me. Should our answer be anything except, “for the church of God, which he obtained with His own blood,” then we have missed everything (Acts 20:28).
Pursuing theological education is no small task. It requires our time, demands our financial resources, consumes our mental and emotional energy, and commands a growing realization of how little we truly know. Yet, I know that I am guilty of relishing thoughts of my own perceived intellectual superiority, forgetting far too often that the theological education I am receiving is not mine by right, but as a gift. It is just as much about shaping my affections as it is about equipping my mind. Theological education should cause in us a desire to submit ourselves to God as those approved, workers who have no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Even still, we too often plaster 2 Timothy 2:15 on the walls of our classrooms and common spaces and fail to write it on our hearts, bind it as a sign on our hands, let it be as a frontlet between our eyes (Deuteronomy 6:6, 8).
Are we really submitting ourselves to God when we seek to conquer our brother or sister in the discussion post forum over a tertiary theological issue? Do we truly find ourselves as workers who have no need to be ashamed when we fail to be doers of the same divine Word we hear each week in our Old and New Testament Survey classes? Are we really rightly handling the Word of truth when we treat the Bible as a collection of proof texts for the sake of winning the ever-evolving culture war arguments in the Twitter comment thread?
While claiming to fulfill Paul’s command in 2 Timothy 2:15, we have neglected all the other commands that come with it: to not quarrel about words, to avoid irreverent babble, to be vessels for honorable use, to flee youthful passions, to pursue righteousness, to not be quarrelsome, to be kind, to be able to teach, to patiently endure evil, to correct our opponents with gentleness (2 Timothy 2:14, 16, 22-25). When did God’s people let the gift of theological education become such an idol? How have we become a people bereft of wisdom and gentleness, quick to speak and to anger while being so slow to hear? When we make theological education an idol—when we make it about ourselves and pursue it for our own interests—we become like the man who looks at himself in the mirror, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. The Church does not need mere hearers of the Word; she needs doers of the Word (James 1:22-25).
Brothers and sisters, our theological education is not for us; it is for the local church. She needs our integrity just as much as she needs our theological aptitude. She needs men and women set on pursuing the deep things of God for her interests and the glory of the Triune God over and above their own interests (Philippians 2:4). Is this not what 2 Timothy 2 is really about? Is this not what it means to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5)?
So as we engage in the deep work of theological education, let us remember the Church. Lifelong service to her and for her is why you and I are really here. With the hearts and souls of God’s people on the line, the stakes are far too high for us to forget her.
HAVE ITS FULL EFFECT, THAT YOU MAY BE
LACKING IN NOTHING James 1:2-4
