I’m part of a book club. A two person book club, along with the student ministries pastor at The Bridge, Nate. We’re always reading through a book together, usually to do with pastoral ministry, spiritual formation, leadership, or something else related to our calling as pastors. A couple of weeks ago, we got ambitious and went old school: “The Reformed Pastor” by Richard Baxter. Baxter was a 17th century English minister who experienced the highs and lows like few have. On the one hand, he preached for kings and royalty, but on the other, he spent years in prison. I get the sense that the tumult of our own times are nothing compared to the upheaval in times like 17th century England.
You can’t read Baxter as a pastor, or a church leader, and not come away convicted. You can’t come away without a sense of the high calling of pastors and the responsibility we have for souls. But there’s stuff here that’s relevant for anyone who would want to lead others into a relationship with Jesus: parents, friends, co-workers, neighbours, and so on.
Here’s one image from the section we read this week (excuse the old English): “If one bid you run for your lives, because a bear, or an enemy is at your backs, and yet do not mend his own pace, you will be tempted to think that he is but in jest, and that there is really no such danger as he alleges.”
Forget for a moment that Baxter apparently was ill-informed about what to do with bears, unlike us wisened North Vancouverites. You get what he’s saying, right? If we say that sin leads to death, and yet we seem quite willing to enter into it ourselves, why would anyone listen to us? If we say that Jesus alone is our hope, and yet we look to all kinds of secondary things for comfort and are filled with anxiety, with no attempt to turn our eyes to him, why would anyone listen? If we actually believe that there is eternal condemnation for those who have not turned from sin and received God’s grace, but we don’t have any urgency in our prayers or in our lives to see people know Jesus, why would people respond to us?
It is crucial that what we say we believe about the Gospel penetrates and permeates our hearts to the deepest parts. It is crucial that our witness is authentic to what the Lord has actually done in our hearts. And if it’s not, what’s keeping you and I from getting on our knees in prayer until it is? Our desperate need is for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and ensure we have an authentic witness. The world will not respond to our message or be persuaded if we speak empty words, unsupported by transformed lives. The world will see through inauthenticity.
Bears are not to be jested about.
