Few things....if anything....brings a smile to my face in taking the mail from the mailbox than a letter from this former pastor of ours. I had posted on him so many times over the past fourteen years of these posts. If you remember my writing of how there was a pastor who when he concluded his sermon...a few of us could hardly move...let alone stand up and leave the pew....such was the magnificence of Christ proclaimed that we had just heard....that was him. In Fact I wrote of him in a post....fourteen posts back I believe....that I titled....Practice....If You Want To Be A Golfer....Glean....If You Want To Preach The Glories Of Christ.
Well I received such a letter about.....fifteen minutes ago....and had to laugh right from the beginning. Let me explain. First of all he writes with very small letters to save paper. Before I even opened the letter I grabbed a magnifying glass. There it was...one sheet of used paper....the back side....from a notepad of the church that he just retired from. He has never had email....and I doubt if he even knows how to boot-up a computer. He had retired....as we knew was coming....and moved down to North Carolina to be near his daughters and their families.
I had mentioned in our Christmas card to him that I knew that he could never retire....as retirement is so often viewed today....and he has found a fine church to attend....and is looking to see how his ministry could continue....that being his preaching.
This man is a Puritan....in the finest sense of the word. I'll have to ask him if he completed his book on the Puritan Thomas Boston. Lord willing....and nothing is certain today....we have a trip scheduled in early summer that will take us past his new home....and I so look forward to seeing him and his wife again.
He doesn't know that I write on the Internet. As good of friends as we are...I never told him....for he didn't need my scribblings to add to his ministry. If I see him while on vacation....I may tell him....as we leave....but as I mentioned....he has no way of accessing them anyway. I would be shocked speechless if he had a smart phone.
He is only about a year older than I am. He has never been pastor of a big church. When we attended for ten years....before he moved....it was an evangelical church...with a few sound men on the session....but most in that church never knew what they had available to them....for they were more into music. I'll give this one anecdote that I had given before. A particularly wonderful sermon had just ended. A friend and I were glued to our seats. In the back of the church....just beyond the open doors to the sanctuary....I could hear a couple of the elders talking loudly about the big college football game. Well....enough said on that.
As wonderfully as this man preached....there are many other faithful pastors all around this country of ours. They may not resemble our former pastor in method or personality....but they live only to preach Christ. Our pastor today....lives only to preach Christ. If you are fortunate....not everyone is....there may be someone like this near you. It may be a small church....with nothing on the outside that the world would call successful. If your desire is such....to hear Christ glorified....over whatever modern churches may offer....you can surely put in the time to find such a church. If not you can pray for your pastor....which you should be doing already. Pray that God might have mercy on these many pastors dotting our landscape....and bless them with a powerful unction to proclaim the glories of Christ....that they in turn might bless us in the pews!
The title of this post is the concluding words from this man's letter.
Addendum: We in our family had often been blessed with wonderful pastors. I would be remiss if I did not mention a more recent one...of whom I posted this paragraph a few years ago. May God bless these many men who had remained faithful to their calling!
"I once had a pastor who died from Lou Gehrig's Disease....who made every effort for as long as humanly possible to enter that pulpit as a shepherd to his congregation....and when ALS confined him to a chair in his home....he tried his hand reaching people through the Internet...and when he could no longer even speak....or make any movements at all.....other than movement of his eyes....through the wonder of modern technology....he eye-pecked out encouragements and wisdom on his special computer for those around him."
