I recently finished reading in the Name of God, a book by O.S. Hawkins about two early twentieth- century pastors, J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett. Norris pastored the First Baptist Church of Fort Wayne, Texas, and Truett pastored First Baptist Church of Dallas. Their ministries were more-or- les simultaneous, and the two men were often at odds with each other. There is a lot to admire – and to censure- in both Norris and Truett. Together, these men represent the best and worst of Baptist fundamentalism and Baptist denominationalism.
Dr. Hawkins wrote a sequel to In the Name of God called Criswell: His Life and Times. After the 47- year ministry of George Truett, young preacher named W.A. Criswell was called to be the pastor of First Baptist, Dallas. Criswell’s ministry there lasted over 50 years. It’s been said that Criswell combined the best characteristics of both J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett: a fervent commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture and passionate preaching of the Gospel, blended with a winsome spirit and a statesmanlike demeanor.
You may be thinking, “You left out the part about why I should care about any of this?” It’s a fair question. Why should anybody care about three Baptist preachers from the 20th century? Actually, it goes back even farther than that. Both Norris and Truett began their ministries in the final decade of the 19th century. And that brings us to a fourth Baptist preacher, one I mention often: Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Spurgeon ministered across the Atlantic in London, England, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle (formerly New Park Street Baptist Church). He pastored that congregation for 38 years.
I have heard about all four of these men for nearly all of my ministry. I’ve read accounts of their lives and ministries, especially those of Criswell and Spurgeon. I have three biographies of W.A. Criswell, and ten biographies of Charles Spurgeon. But reading about men like Spurgeon, Truett, Norris and Criswell is a two-edged sword. Their stories are thrilling, especially when you begin to understand how God used them in such incredible ways. But their stories are also discouraging, because what they experienced is so far removed from my own experience in ministry, and from the experience of hosts of other ministries of the Gospel.
Charles Spurgeon began his ministry in London in the year 1854, at the tender age of 19, preaching to less than 200 people in a sanctuary that would seat 1,200. In a year’s time the congregation had grown so exponentially that plans were made for a new building, to be known as the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The new Tabernacle seated 6,000 people, and every Sunday hundreds of people were turned away because there was no more room inside.
George Truett was called to First Baptist Church of Dallas in 1897. They had 80 members and were $ 12,000 in debt. But the crowds swelled, the debt was paid, and by 1919 the church’s membership was just over 3,000 people. Eventually the membership under Truett’s ministry would reach nearly 8,000.
J. Frank Norris began his ministry at First Baptist Church of Fort Wayne in 1909. By the third year of his pastorate, the church was averaging 100 new members every week, and by 1920 it had become the largest church in the world at that time, with a membership of 12,000 people.
W.A. Criswell became pastor of First Baptist, Dallas in 1944, after the death of Geoge Truett due to cancer. Truett had been in ill health for some time, and the congregation had declined during his final years. When Criswell was called to the church, at first, he said he felt like he was “preaching to wood,” because there were so many empty pews. But in the first year of Criswell’s ministry the church added nearly 1,000 new members, and eventually reached a membership of more than 28,000 people.
These accounts are phenomenal, and I’m thrilled to know that God still works like that in our world. But such things are almost entirely foreign to my experience in the ministry, and the same can be said of the countless other pastors in our country and around the world.
I shared some of what I just told you with my friend Scott Kallem, pastor of New Life Baptist Church in Greencastle, Indiana. He responded, “David, it was a different time.”
Joe Stowell, longtime pastor and one-time President of Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute once told a gathering of pastors (of which I was a part). “God chooses to use a handful of men in every generation in extraordinary ways. For the rest of us, our parts are far less prominent, but they are no less important.”
Wes Hensley was a faithful deacon of our church who felt God’s call into the ministry, He pastored churches for many years in Worthington and Spencer. When I met him in 1997, he had retired from the pastorate. But he and his wife Ann became dear friends who encouraged me and my family greatly. Wes died in 2010. A little more than a year later, on October 2nd,2011, Ann Hensley gave me a note for Pastor Appreciation Sunday. In part, it said…” Wes and I found that most of our ministry was caring for sad, ill, lonely, hurting people. The greater our own care and concern, the greater our hurt and disappointment… if I am in the ministry to see souls saved, I will die of a broken heart. My motive must be because I am in love with Jesus.” Wise words from a faithful pastor’s wife.
Did you know that the average size of most churches in North America is between 75-80 people? That means that God is at work in most places, not in mega- churches, but in churches of 100 people or less. We dare not say that what God is doing inn those churches is unimportant.
I had imagined what our church would be like after I’d been here 20 years. To say that things unfolded far differently than I’d hoped would be a major understatement. Many is the time I have prayed, “Oh God, don’t let the church die on my watch!”
Now after 27 years here, I have new hope for the future of our church. It is a hope that has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with what God has been doing in our midst these last handful of years. At this point, with all of my heart, I want nothing more than to see the church poised and ready to go on into the future to reach and serve the next generation in this place with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And my prayer for myself these days is manly this: “God help me to be faithful to do what You called me to do, for as long as You want me to do it” And I add this P.S.: And help me not to mess up by sinning!”
That’s all we really have to do. It’s all we’re really responsible for: just be faithful. And don’t sin.
To that end, let me leave you with two Scriptures:
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2)
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)
And always, only…
Soli Deo Gloria! (For God’s glory alone!)
Pastor David