Charles Spurgeon had his Pastor’s College. D. L. Moody has his Chicago Evangelization Society. John Calvin had his Venerable Company of Pastors in Geneva. John Wesley had his Methodist Societies. Martin Luther gathered men around his dinner table. The Apostle Paul gathered in the Hall of Tyrannus. Every great movement of the church must stoke the fires kindled by God’s ministers. Kindling may fuel a fire from an ember to a flame, but without continuous stoking and additional fuel, the fire will die.
Every one of these leaders – Spurgeon, Moody, Calvin, Wesley, Luther, and Paul – looked far beyond their own ministries to the greater movement of the Church. They each knew that for the gospel to go forward there is a need for workers to be sent out (Mt 9:37-38). Paul understood that God has seen fit to use men as the means for His will to be accomplished, so that gospel proclaimers are needed to take the message to our hopeless world: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching [kerusso]?” (Ro 10:14).
But Paul’s exhortation begs the question, where do these heralds (kerux) of truth come from? Who is responsible to develop and disciple the next generation of spiritual leaders: teachers, pastors, evangelists, missionaries, elders, and deacons? Historically the church has understood that the factory for creating the steely men upon which the future of the church would be built upon was the church itself. When London pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones was asked why churches in England were producing so few men to lead, he replied, “That is because there are so many old ladies in the pulpits.” [1] That may have been a harsh answer, but it is often true. The Church is in desperate need of a virulent, manliness in its leadership. This isn’t to say that we don’t need godly women in the Church, because we do. But there is a major need for male leadership, and it is here that we must start, or we are headed for disaster.
When addressing this issue of leader reproduction, Paul wrote to Timothy, “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness” (2Ti 3:10). We gravitate to Paul’s desire to reproduce faithful preachers and teachers by focusing on biblical doctrine–which is key! But there is more to reproducing leaders than simply getting the right Bible content into their brains. Timothy was to follow Paul’s conduct, or manner of life. The doctrinal lessons led Timothy to the example of Paul’s way of living. Paul practiced what he preached, and Timothy was to practice what Paul preached. When his training was cut short due to Paul’s impending death, Timothy would need to continue practicing the same conduct as he had seen in Paul throughout his training. Paul from the beginning was working to secure the future of the church by making sure that he reproduced himself in other young men that would faithfully carry on the work long after he was gone. Timothy was only one example. Many others walked the earth as clones of Paul’s ministry.
This was the way apprenticeship worked in the ancient world. It wasn’t so much that a father would sit his son down and give him a lesson, but that the son pursued watching his father. He would watch his teacher and then when given the opportunity, repeat his actions. As he mastered one skill, he built upon that skill by watching how his father tackled greater obstacles. Timothy had been with Paul for years. He had seen him in many different situations. Of course, he had heard his teaching, which is foundational, but he had tried to put into practice what he saw in Paul’s life. We can learn a lot from this methodology. Silently watching and then practicing what we see in the godly.
In Acts 20:18, Paul said this to the elders from Ephesus, ”…You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia,” (Acts 20:18). Paul was confident that his example was rooted in his doctrine. He wasn’t perfect, but he was faithful. The men he worked with knew this and they could follow his example. In fact, Paul was so confident that when he was standing before Festus and Agrippa, he said, ”My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews” (Acts 26:4). Paul knew that even before his enemies there was no worry that they could point to hypocrisy in his life.
Although we might be uncomfortable with telling others to follow our example as we follow Christ, we need to remember that people are watching us already and some are following, for good or bad. Just as we can point to the errors in the lives and doctrines of Spurgeon, Moody, Calvin, Wesley, Luther, and Paul, we know that God used these men and many others as a mighty force in the world for His glory. God can and does use crooked sticks to draw straight lines. We don’t need to try to be a perfect example because we know that even in our failures God is able to teach other by our example.
But there are other roadblocks that hinder training up men for the Church. Some have given up on training men because have been betrayed, others have found that those they train eventually leave for greener pastures. Some have never done it because it is so much work that only adds to an already burdened schedule, while others say they are unable to attract anyone to the work of the ministry. But there is also another reality–sometimes we fail to develop leaders because it is too much work. We would rather let someone else raise up leaders and then call them to our church once the investment has been made by someone else. Pastor-brothers, let us examine our hearts. Is there anything greater that is worth giving our lives for than the work of Christ and His Church? The world around us sacrifices and pushes to promote their values. What are we doing to promote the cause of Christ? Paul was poured out as a drink offering upon the altar of God (2Ti 4:6), having given everything for the sake of Christ.
The alternative is unthinkable–the light of the truth will dim as false teachers abound, churches are forced to be led by unqualified people, mission outposts dry up, and churches stagnate and die. This is what has already begun in some places, and it can be directly tied to the lack of biblical leadership when the church fails to train up men of God. If the IFCA is to once again become a great movement to be used by God, then it will be incumbent upon all of us to prepare the way by training up a massive army of Christian workers for these last days who will faithfully hold forth the Word of Life in this dark hour.
[1] Steve Martin, “Train Other Men,” in Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry, ed. Tom Ascol (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2004), 305.
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