Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

31 January, 2008   comments: (0) Classic Devotion   A Role Model For Today's Pastors Upon surveying the contemporary landscape of church leaders, it's not difficult to become jaded. Websites like this one sometimes come under the same criticism as the daily secular news, for reporting too much doom and gloom of what's happening out there. We often talk about pastors who are crowd-pleasers and not God-pleasers, some who irreverently refer to the Holy God as a 'dude', the many pastors who value creativity more than doctrine, and who live personal lives that are indistinguishable from that of the world. In this post however, we'll make a departure from negative examples, and focus instead on the life of one of the great American pastors. He's a man that hardly any of today's popular pastors have ever heard of. Hopefully that will change however, as the internet affords them the opportunity to read true stories like this one. May it be our ongoing prayer for church leaders to aim higher than today's most popular role models looking instead to examples like this pastor. In the summer of 1828, the young newlywed pastor - Dr. Ichabod Spencer received and accepted a call from the Congregational church in Northampton, Massachusetts. He began his ministry there, sharing the pulpit with another pastor, and in fact - this was the very same pulpit that Jonathan Edwards preached from a century earlier. Years later Dr. Spencer went on to pastor a large church in New York, where he became known affectionately as The Bunyan of Brooklyn. One of my family's favorite books is a collection of short salvation stories, compiled from the real life experiences of Ichabod Spencer, as he traveled around his area talking with people about their need for Christ. If you don't have that book, buy it and read it to your family, especially your teenage children. What follows is a short excerpt from the introduction to his life, found in the the 3 volume collection of sermons of Ichabod Spencer. Having taken on the pulpit in a large city - his great fruitfulness and distinguished reputation - the gathering of fashionable churches about him, whose pulpits were filled with popular preachers - and the rivalry and emulation among churches and pastors which are a part of city life - did not in the least change the characteristics of his preaching. He remained to the last what he was [when he served as pastor of Jonathan Edwards church] - free from worldly ambition - knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified - preaching the great doctrines of [Reformed Christianity], with great boldness and fidelity, and without the least compromise with the spirit of a liberal and fastidious age or the demands of a flippant philosophy; content to preach Divine sovereignty, election, total depravity, the vicarious death of Christ, the duty of all men to repent and obey the Gospel, the necessity of the Holy Spirit's influences, faith and holiness, and the eternal punishment of the wicked. No temptation, no pressure from any quarter, could ever draw him aside from these topics: they formed the staple of his ministry. We fully believe that since Jonathan Edwards exercised his ministry at Northampton, no man has preached more real divinity, or preached it with more clearness, thoroughness, and unction, than he preached from the pulpit of the Second Church in Brooklyn, during the like period of time. The number and character of his sermons; the ability and thoughtfulness with which the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel are discussed and vindicated in them: the range of topics, the scope and depth of his investigations, and the vast amount of Biblical science and instruction embodied in them, will surprise anyone who will be at the pains to examine them as we have done. His preaching was never popular, in the modern sense of that term. There was too much weighty thought, too much doctrine, too much of God and duty, too much Edwardian plainness, honesty, and scripturalness, too much of the humility of the Cross in it, to be popular with the multitude, who love excitement and novelty, and seek after "wisdom" and a "sign." Neither his taste nor conscience would allow him to bring the glorious gospel of the blessed God down to the level of modern taste, and superficiality, and sentiment, or philosophy and science (falsely so called). He held all such preaching in lofty contempt. He soared above it. His mind had no sympathy with the littleness or frivolities of fashionable preaching. But while not popular with, or sought after by the masses, he drew around him many thinking minds - men of intelligence, character, and influence. And no minister was ever more appreciated and loved than was Dr. Spencer by the congregation which attended statedly on his preaching. And the Lord left not himself without a witness to his servant's fidelity. His ministry here was not more distinguished by the ability and self-devotion, than it was by the highest of all tests of excellence - the conversions of souls. The Holy Spirit which had given him so many seals in Northampton, gave him many more in Brooklyn. Many hundreds of souls were added to the Lord as fruits of his labor. Several precious revivals of religion cheered his heart. He loved and prayed for, and was never more happy than when in the midst of such seasons of special interest. His preaching was adapted to arose, to convict, to bring sinners to immediate repentance. He aimed at this. It was hard to be careless and unfeeling under such habitual preaching. A church could not well be cold, inactive, lifeless, under such faithful exhibition of the truth. Always engaged himself; never idle; his heart full of the love and tenderness of Christ; and his pulpit uttering, Sabbath after Sabbath, such doctrines as the Spirit has ever most honored in the conversion of souls, and the growth of the church - it is not surprising that his ministry was almost one continued revival; that conversions should be all the while occurring; not a year without considerable accession to his church from the world; scarcely a month at a time in which he found not some new inquirer after the way of salvation. More Ichabod Spencer posts and links: 'Seekers' Are Poor Judges of Their Own Needs True Christianity Resistant To Fads, Fascinations A Warning Against Mixing Faith and Superstition The Arrow Driven Deeper Fasting and Prayer More biographical information about Ichabod Spencer Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.937   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism