Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission

13:12.

The Man

A good minister that has the presence of God with him in his work is the very greatest blessing that ever God bestows upon a people, next to himself. (Jonathan Edwards)¹

A man must himself be cleansed, before cleansing others: himself become wise, that he may make others wise; become light, and then give light: draw near to God, and so bring others near; be hallowed, then hallow them. (Gregory of Nazianzus)²

Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a Savior, your own hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish, while you call upon others to take heed of perishing; and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare food for them. (Richard Baxter)³

Conversion is the sine qua non in a minister. Ye aspirants to our pulpits, ye must be born again. Nor is the possession of this first qualification a thing to be taken for granted by any man, for there is very great possibility of our being mistaken as to whether we are converted or not. Believe me, it is no child’s play to make your calling and election sure. (Charles Spurgeon)⁴

¹Jonathan Edwards, The Salvation of Souls (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002), 140.

²Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratorian 2.71, quoted in Andrew Purves, Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 9.

³Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001), 53.

⁴Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 9. Sin qua non is a Latin phrase that means without which not; i.e., that which is a necessary precondition.

1

A Rescued Man

No one, no matter how skilled an orator, how gifted a leader, or how extensive the theological pedigree, should endeavor to shepherd the church of Jesus without first having experienced the saving power of the Shepherd who is full of grace. While a pastor/church planter may be a good man or a talented man or a clever man, he must be, first and foremost, a rescued man. He must be a man who has been rescued from the slavery and foolishness of his own sin and saved by the freedom and foolishness of a God who displayed his perfect justice and love by laying down his life on behalf of the very ones who wronged him. The mandatory requirement and primary qualification for a man who desires to serve and lead in the name of Jesus is to have personally experienced forgiveness and acceptance from Jesus.

Unfortunately, you don’t need extraordinary discernment to realize that many churches have a pastor who is trying to lead people to a Savior he has yet to personally encounter.

Many people make a tragic assumption that pastors and church planters must certainly be Christians. This assumption, however, overlooks the fact that it is possible, and for some remarkably easy, to fake the requisite gifts for ministry. A person can be a very gifted communicator, counselor, and leader without ever truly knowing Christ. In fact, Christ addressed this issue in Matthew 7:21–23 when he said:

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

This is an amazing declaration. If it is possible to prophesy, cast out demons, and do many miracles in Christ’s name without ever truly knowing him, then certainly it is possible to plant or lead a church without a saving relationship with him. If spiritual gifting is no proof of authentic faith, then certainly a job title isn’t either. The Puritan pastor and theologian Richard Baxter writes about this reality very vividly:

O sirs, how many have preached Christ, and yet have perished for want of a saving interest in Him! How many, who are now in hell, have told their people of the torments of hell, and warned them to escape from it! How many have preached of the wrath of God against sinners, who are now enduring it! O what sadder case can there be in the world, than for a man, who made it his very trade and calling to proclaim salvation, and to help others to heaven, yet after all to be himself shut out!⁵

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Over the years, I have known several pastors who seemed to lack saving faith.⁶ I remember how one youth pastor with whom I was friends in college disclosed to me that he was in ministry primarily because he belonged to a great youth ministry in high school. He said that even though he doubted his own salvation, he was already committed to professional ministry. Another guy I know planted a church largely, in his own words, to impress his dad. In a coaching appointment with me, he confessed that he was concerned that the counselor he was seeing was going to unearth the stunning reality that he had planted the church to gain not only his dad’s favor but God’s favor as well.

I could tell many similar stories. The point, for now, is that many people who involve themselves in helping professions (social work, counseling, and others) do so in order to solve some of their own problems. Such people use their service to others to gain healing for themselves. Many men do the same with the pastorate. This may sound noble in some regard; the more we serve others, the more we realize that they are actually serving us. I get it. The major difference in the pastorate, however, is that such men are seeking not only to help themselves but to save themselves.

One of my first mentors, Wayne Barber, whom God used to confirm my sense of calling into ministry, confessed in one of his sermons that he was not a Christian during the first few years of his ministry. He said that he became a pastor so he could earn God’s favor. Wayne, like many others, was using ministry as a way to cover and atone for his own sin. He was trusting in what he was doing for God instead of trusting in what Christ had done for him.

Unfortunately, churches are often so desperate for leadership that they are willing to overlook character flaws in a leader, especially in a gifted one. People may think, He may not exhibit godly character, but he can preach the paint off of the wall . . . he is a wonderful counselor . . . he can inspire people to follow him! With the vast majority of churches declining or in plateau, gifted but unregenerate men become a prized commodity in the professional Christian economy.

Other churches simply aren’t equipped to discern between a regenerate and an unregenerate leader. Sometimes a church’s view of the pastorate has been so influenced by the bottom-line, grow-at-all-costs American business model that there is little or no emphasis on finding someone who has been called by God. In the past few years I have been asked to consult for several evangelical denominations and networks, as well as a few mainline denominations, regarding hiring, firing, and recruiting decisions. I have found that the main question both liberals and conservatives often start with is not, Is this man a Christian? but rather, Can this man grow the church? This lead question is revealing and alerts us to one reason why there are so many men who are planting and leading churches, yet who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Certainly there is an ethical concern when a man deceives the church about his own credentials for ministry. But it is more than just an ethical issue. The well-being of the church (and its pastor) is at stake. Consider what happens to a man who tries to lead or plant a church without first having been rescued from his sins. He will either feel beat up (condemned, insecure, and inadequate) or blown up (puffed up, arrogant, and proud), depending on whether the church is declining or growing. In either case the pastor/church planter who seeks to lead the church without first being rescued from his sins sets himself up for idolatry, heartache, and ultimate failure because he is using the church and his ministry as a means to save himself. Only the rescued man can truly serve Christ’s church, because only the rescued man has an identity and motive for ministry outside of ministry itself.

However sad the final state of an unregenerate⁷ pastor may be, the final state of a church led by such a man is even worse. Though God sometimes mercifully uses preachers with false motives,⁸ the church under such a pastor generally suffers spiritually, communally, and missionally, and it eventually withers and dies. Most churches do not grow beyond the spiritual health of their leadership. Spurgeon’s metaphors are helpful:

A graceless pastor is a blind man elected to a professorship of optics, philosophizing upon light and vision, discoursing upon and distinguishing to others the nice shades and delicate blendings of the prismatic colours, while he himself is absolutely in the dark! He is a dumb man elevated to the chair of music; a deaf man fluent upon symphonies and harmonies! He is a mole professing to educate eaglets; a limpet elected to preside over angels.⁹

Simply put, a man who is a stranger to the things of God will be totally unable to teach them to others. Yet many pastors enter the ministry with serious doubts about their own salvation! Could this be one reason why thousands of churches will close their doors this year in North America and why the vast majority of North American churches are in plateau or decline?

Since being a rescued man is the foundational qualification for any aspiring pastor/church planter, and since no man can succeed in ministry without it, it is necessary to carefully consider what it means to be a rescued man before we rush on to discuss other qualifications.

What does it mean to be rescued? The Bible uses many words to describe the miracle of salvation: adoption, justification, redemption, reconciliation, etc. One picture that the Bible uses to describe this reality is that of new birth. Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). The term theologians often use to describe this new birth is regeneration. Regeneration refers to the in-planting of new spiritual life into the heart of a sinner, causing him or her to love God and others. J. I. Packer describes regeneration in this way: The new birth or regeneration is an inner recreating of fallen human nature by the Holy Spirit. It changes the disposition from lawless, godless self-seeking into one of trust and love, of repentance for past rebelliousness and unbelief, and loving compliance with God’s law henceforth. It enlightens the blinded mind to discern spiritual realities and liberates and energizes the enslaved will for free obedience to God.¹⁰ A rescued man has been reborn into this new spiritual life, which enables him to repent of his sin and trust in Christ’s work on his behalf. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.¹¹

It is also possible to describe what it means to be rescued by looking at what God does in the life of someone who has been truly rescued from his or her sins. In Matthew 22:37–40 Jesus taught that the entire Old Testament hangs on two short commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. A rescued man not only believes this truth at the heart and core of Christianity, but actually does love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and as a result he seeks to love his neighbor as himself. A rescued man is a man whose love for God is growing holistically—in his affections, in his thoughts, in his motives, in his passions, in his duties, and in every area of his life. He is also a man who demonstrates a growing love for other people by sacrificing himself for others and laying down his life for their good. In short, a rescued man is growing in genuine love for God and neighbor.¹²

A rescued man is also a man in whom the Holy Spirit is at work, producing the fruit of righteousness. In Galatians 5:22–24 the apostle Paul wrote, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In the original Greek, the word fruit in verse 22 is singular. Paul is not listing a kind of spiritual menu by which some people choose love, others choose peace, others choose patience, and so on. Rather, all these qualities together constitute the fruit that a Christian man produces. A rescued man is a man who increasingly displays all of these qualities in his life—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.¹³

If you aspire to pastoral ministry, you must begin with an honest examination of your own salvation, your own rescue. Do not assume that you are a Christian just because you are or want to be a pastor. Jesus said that "many" who cast out demons in his name will not be saved (Matthew 7:22). Make sure you know for yourself the salvation you are proclaiming to others. Be willing to question your motives for ministry, and make sure you are not trying to earn God’s favor. Salvation is the first and most important qualification for Christian ministry. Without it, nothing else is possible, and if you go into ministry without it, you will ruin yourself and those you seek to serve.

In the next chapter we will examine what a man who is qualified to lead the church looks like. Before that, however, please consider the following questions designed to help readers revisit their belief in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

1) Are you genuinely and currently trusting Christ to be both the forgiver of your sins and your only hope for eternal relationship with God?

2) Imagine standing before God, the righteous Judge of all people. In your mind, are you tempted to list your good deeds in defense of your salvation or are you aware that you are dependent on the work of Christ—his obedient life, sacrificial death, and powerful resurrection—for salvation?

3) Is there evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life and character?

a. Do you have a general sense that you are a true child of God? (See Romans 8:15-16; 1 John 4:13.)

b. Read Galatians 5:22-23. Are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control characteristics that are being developed in you? Would those closest to you say they regularly see these traits in your life?

c. Read Matthew 7:16-20. Does your ministry bear good fruit? Are people and the church being built up, or is dissension and divisiveness a characteristic of your ministry?

4) If you are currently a pastor or church planter secure in your rescued man status, are you confident that those leading with you are believers in the true gospel of grace?

⁵Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, 72.

⁶Since only God knows a person’s heart, we can never be the final judge of another person’s salvation. At the same time, Scripture calls us to be discerning about the character of those around us. Warning about false prophets, Jesus says, you will recognize them by their fruits (Matthew 7:20).

⁷As Wayne Grudem notes, the word unregenerate literally means one who is not renewed in heart and mind or reborn in spirit. It is contrasted with one who is regenerate. It is important to remember that a regenerated spirit is not something a person can achieve. Rather it is like being born—it is something that happens to a person outside of his power. See Grudem’s Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 699–700. See also Ezekiel 36:26–27; John 3:3–8; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:3.

⁸See Philippians 1:15–18.

⁹Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 9–10.

¹⁰James Packer, Your Father Loves You: Daily Insights for Knowing God (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986), January 22.

¹¹2 Corinthians 5:17.

¹²First John 2:9–10 says, "Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for