Benefits and Liabilities of a Lengthy Pastorate

Introduction: The Necessity of Addressing Lengthy Pastorates

0:03 Now, having completed our lectures on pastoral theology, what I want to do, pastoral theology, I should say, on pastoral counseling, what I want to do in this final session with you, brethren, this morning, is to speak to you on the subject of the benefits and the liabilities of a lengthy pastorate. The benefits and the liabilities of a lengthy pastorate. Perhaps there was a time when addressing this issue was relatively unnecessary, however, in our day, given the widespread abandonment of many biblical norms relative to the pastoral office and function, addressing this issue is, in my judgment, necessary.

0:49 Now, to underscore that point, I want you to listen to the very perceptive and historically accurate words of Professor David Wells, found in the book, No God But God, Chapter 9, entitled, The Demons. The Demonization of the Ministry. And some of you know what is behind that demonization of the ministry. He's demonstrating why the demon degree has become the in-thing among modern clergy.

1:18 And he writes on page 177 of his excellent book, Churches in Puritan New England, for example, took time to establish a steady pattern in the relation between pastors and churches. This was, however, largely achieved by the year 1670. Among Presbyterians and Congregationalists in New Hampshire, the average pastor stayed with the church 20 years. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that the pastoral duration fell below this level.

1:52 In fact, it was 1808 when the serious decline set in and spread throughout New England. By 1810, the pastor's time at a church fell to 15 years, by 1830 to 5 years, and by 1860 to just less than 4 years. In some regions today, the pastor's tenure at one church averages only about 2 years and seldom above 3. In the 18th century, a church and its minister typically entered into a compact that was moral and sometimes legal in character to the last duration of the minister's life.

2:32 The church and the minister, I mean, two last to the duration of a minister's life. The church and minister would become united to one another as in a marriage contract. At the beginning of the 19th century, the minister still held a socially important office. He did not simply offer spiritual service for a fee.

2:53 Permanence was important because the church was the center of the social order. A premature departure of the minister, could very well disrupt a town's life. Many churches actually clung to their ministers, in some cases despite appallingly inept preaching, preferring spiritual deprivation rather than losing their minister. And many churches hired an assistant to prop up an aging or irascible minister to preserve continuity, which was preferable to dismissing the disagreeable or elderly gentleman.

3:31 There were exceptions, to the permanent pastor, of course. For example, the famous circuit writers of the Methodist church. But today, the exception has become the rule. The binding marriage contract between pastor and church no longer exists.

3:48 The contract has been reduced from life to a matter of only a few brief years. The pastor is linked only tenuously to the church, because of an expected short tenure. The final and most exaggerated expression, of this fleeting, impermanent link can be seen among televangelists. They, quote, serve a flock whom they never see, whose troubles are unknown to them, among whom there are no opportunities for service.

4:16 Many ministers now wander from church to church, seldom finding secure or lasting lodging. As a result, they have to define their ministry in terms of its marketability. Because the market dominates how their ministry is exercised, their internal calling and even their spirituality may be submerged. What were once the central interests of ministers, brokering God's truth, caring for the sick and ailing, building up Christian character and understanding, have been displaced by a whole new line of responsibilities in response to, quote, the market need.

4:57 A multiplicity of felt needs exist, few of which are central to a biblically ordered ministry. In fact, these new interests may even entirely eclipse the minister's foundational responsibilities, end quote. Well, brethren, that, to me, forms a very foundational perspective with which to address this vital subject of the benefits and the liabilities of lengthy pastorates. And I have, as usual, three headings.

Presuppositions for a Lengthy Pastorate

5:32 Number one, the presuppositions of the case for lengthy pastorates. And then, secondly, the primary benefits of a lengthy pastorate. And then, finally, the potential liabilities of a lengthy pastorate and the antidotes to those liabilities. And as I indicated earlier, I'll give you full notes, God willing, in printed form next week, sometime during your exam week.

5:56 First of all, then, when I speak of the benefits of a lengthy pastorate, I'm speaking from the standpoint of several foundational presuppositions. Where these presuppositions are not in place, then all that is said about a lengthy pastorate is up for grabs. And those presuppositions that form the case for a lengthy pastorate are these. Number one, that the man envisioned in this lengthy pastorate is equipped and called by the Lord Jesus Christ to the specific pastoral office, which he has assumed.

6:32 That's my foundational presupposition. The man envisioned is equipped and called by the Lord Jesus Christ to the specific pastoral office, which he has assumed. And here we go back to our watershed text, Ephesians 4.11.

6:47 The Christ who ascends on high gives gifts unto men, among them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And while we recognize the uniqueness of the apostolic gift and the prophetic gift, and we leave open the moot question of evangelists, we do understand that pastors and teachers are those designated in other scriptures as elders, as overseers, those who rule over the people of God. And when we bring to bear upon that understanding Acts 20 and verse 28,

7:29 we see that those who are charged with taking heed to the flock to shepherd it are those described as the ones whom the Holy Spirit has constituted overseers of those specific sheep. Take heed to the flock of God to shepherd that church in the which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops or overseers. So they are in that pastoral charge not as Jonas running from the call of God to another charge, but as those who in the will of God by the means ordained of God

8:13 have been placed by the Spirit of God within that particular flock purchased by the blood of God incarnate himself. In some cases, men are in a pastoral situation where deep and thorough dealings with God will result in leaving where they are and going where they ought to be. They may be there as a renegade Jonah. The belly of the fish for them may be their present pastoral charge to which they ran out of fear of a previous situation or out of the pursuit of earthly gain or the next wrong in the corporate ladder of the denomination.

8:52 So when I speak for the case for lengthy pastorates, I am presupposing a man who is equipped and called by the Lord Jesus Christ to that specific pastoral office that he has assumed in the will and providence of God. The second thing I'm assuming it's a foundational presupposition is that the church in which the man labors proves to be and remains a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can present no case for a lengthy pastorate in which a man comes into a situation believing that he's coming into a true church of the Lord Jesus

9:36 and after the passing of a little time it proves it is no true church or that to which he came was a true church but it ceased to be that. When I speak of the case for a lengthy pastorate, my second presupposition is that the church in which this man labors proves to be and remains a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to the teaching of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 it is possible for churches to decline in grace and holiness and to be judicially removed from those churches among which Christ dwells. That's the clear teaching.

10:18 Revelation 2.5 Remember from whence you are fallen and repent and do the first works or I will come and remove your candles. And Christ dwells in the midst of the candlesticks if he's removed the candlesticks that is an ecclesiastical organization it is no true church. And that's a frightening thing.

10:42 It's possible for Christ to become an enemy of a specific church rather than the honored guest. Chapter 2.14-16 You've done this, you've tolerated this. He said I will war against you with the sword of my mouth.

10:57 Is that Christ dwelling in grace in the midst of a people when he says I'll war against you? No. So we've got to recognize and Revelation 2 and 3 are watershed passages on an ongoing realistic ecclesiology for a man who's been deceived thinking he's coming to a true church and after a period of time he finds that the marks of a true church a prevailing submission to the word of Christ in its objective revelation of truth and in its subjective application to life this is no true church of Christ. It is a religious club.

11:34 Christ's word does not rule the judgment of people nor the ethics and the morals of people. Rather than be a disgrace to leave that it may be a man's honor to leave it with solemn words of judgment upon its head for calling itself a church of the Lord Jesus. It's no disgrace to leave a church that proves to be something less than a church or that drifts into a condition where it ceases to be what it once was. But brethren, that reality must always be balanced by the presence of First and Second Corinthians in our Bibles.

12:11 We better be very sure that this or that abnormality constitutes a church and no true church. If you'd walked in a total stranger to that Corinthian bunch and been around long enough to have been part of one of their charismatic free-for-all sharing meetings and then to have heard the common report and the people bragging that they had such unconditional love they could tolerate this guy living with his stepmother and when you heard that Brother Jones and Brother Smith had their court date set to go in and go before a heathen judge to settle a litigious matter and then you found out that people were leaving their wives and their husbands because one got converted and the other didn't. And the need I go on?

12:54 I mean that church had some real sure enough bad stuff in it. You weren't there long before you found a certain group always gathering and you got close to them they're always talking about Paul. Another group always talking about Peter and others always talking about Apollos. But Paul addresses that's the church of God in Corinth and calls them a temple and that the Spirit of God dwells in them.

13:17 May I say it reverently? The Spirit of God is not nervous and doesn't leave at the first twitch of something that displeases Him. So we've got to be careful. But nonetheless bringing the total witness of Scripture to bear when I speak of a lengthy pastorate I am presupposing that the church in which the man labors proves to be and remains a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

13:43 And then my third presupposition is this that there can be circumstances in which the interest of the kingdom of Christ may warrant the honorable mutually accepted severance of a pastor from that church after a relatively short time. There may be circumstances when the interest of the kingdom of Christ may warrant the honorable mutually accepted severance of the pastor-flock relationship after a relatively short time. Ultimately Christ is the Lord of His church and the governor of all the gifts

14:27 that He gives to His church. And there are examples of this sovereign activity in the disposition and placement of the servants of Christ among the churches. You remember in Acts chapter 11 you have, though it isn't a strict pastor-flock relationship it is the principle of this movement of the servants of Christ. Barnabas leaves his place of usefulness in the church of Jerusalem and he was obviously a prominent man and he goes up look over what God is doing in the work of the Spirit of God up in Antioch.

15:08 So Barnabas leaves Jerusalem in his place and then after he is there for a while you remember he sends to Tarsus for Saul. Now obviously Saul wasn't sitting around looking at the stars. Immediately after his conversion he went into Damascus began to speak boldly. He had had some experience speaking in Jerusalem and was obviously involved in a certain ministry and he was lifted out of that ministry brought into a different sphere of ministry.

15:37 We find the same thing in Acts 16 1-5 with regard to Timothy. He is well reported of among the brethren both in Lystra and Derbe and obviously that good report didn't come from a nice resume but he was actively ministering. And Paul comes along and makes the assessment that he would be a good companion. And then of course Acts 13 another one such passage there were five at least five prophets and teachers there at Antioch and the Spirit of God says separate me Saul and Barnabas.

16:14 Granted it had been made plain to Paul at the very outset in his conversion that his ultimate ministry was to carry the name of Christ to the Gentiles. So it was not the best resident pastor leaving to go to the mission field. That's how the passage is sometimes pressed. I don't believe that's a warrantable use but the broader category of the sovereignty of the Spirit of God in the placement of the servants of God is the principle that is there.

16:42 Now that could include an experienced pastor going to another pastorate or to a mission field. Keep it though in that broader category. Alright, you see the distinction that I'm making. I believe it's a more accurate responsible handling of the passage.

16:57 And we had that happen here in 1988. Pastor Sarver was settling in to a real comfortable relationship in this eldership. And there was great need in Albany. And overtures went out.

17:11 But he did not leave here unilaterally by his own impulse or unilaterally by the decision of the church in Albany to call him. He was released with the consent of the body of Christ here that the head of the church had marked him out for a sphere of service up in Albany. That's why I've used the terminology that there are circumstances when the interest of the kingdom of Christ may warrant the honorable mutually accepted severance of the pastor-flock relationship. So that no one here has ever suspected that Albany stole Mark Sarver from us.

17:55 We counted a privilege that we had a part in what we now realize was his post-graduate preparation for the place that God had for him. The God who knew he was going to take his eminent service. His servant early. God knew that.

18:12 We didn't. But we were convinced that we ought to release him to that ministry. That's an example of it. Remember Spurgeon?

18:20 He was there at Water Beach for how long? Two years. And the teenage preacher went from Water Beach to New Park Street and then the rest of the story you know. Was that dishonorable for Spurgeon to leave Water Beach after two years?

18:36 Are you prepared to charge him with being a hireling who left the flock? I'm not. And obviously the Holy Ghost wasn't. So I take that contemporary example.

18:48 I take that historical example. And we must remember in all of these things to his own master a servant stands or falls. Remember the principles pertaining to Christian liberty in Romans 14. Who are you to judge another man's servant?

19:04 If one of you should eventually go somewhere for two to three years and then be released, don't judge one another. Didn't they hear this lecture on lengthy pastorates? Yes, maybe they did hear it well. Maybe they did hear it well.

19:18 And the facts are that Christ has made it plain and there's been mutual consent and recognition that that rather short pastorate was another dimension of God's preparation of man for a differing sphere of labor. Notice I said differing, not necessarily larger, but differing. Maybe larger, maybe smaller, maybe comparable. But the issue is the head of the church, by a combination of principles and his sovereign activity, has the right to dispose of his servants.

Benefit 1: Reflecting the True Origin and Nature of the Pastor-Flock Relationship

19:49 Well, those are the three presuppositions, brethren, that undergird all that I want to say to you this morning on the benefits and the liabilities of a lengthy pastorate. All right? We come now, having looked at the presupposition, to the primary benefits of a lengthy pastorate. And I have the number of perfection.

20:08 I have seven benefits. And I hope you know this is not theoretical with me. I landed in this area in July of 1962. Some of you weren't even a-twinkling your pappy's eye back then.

20:25 And here we are. And these things, I believe, I can attest from experience. And the first is this. A lengthy pastorate most accurately underscores and reflects the true origin and nature of the pastor-flock relationship.

20:46 A lengthy pastorate most accurately underscores and reflects the true origin and nature of the pastor-flock relationship. We go back to Acts 20.28. If the Holy Spirit has constituted us overseers in a given flock, He is not an Indian giver.

21:07 You know what the term Indian giver means? It's no slur upon anyone who has Native American blood. And I refuse to let political correctness rob me of all my figures of speech and all of my metaphors and the rest. An Indian giver is the man who gives and then takes back.

21:23 When the Holy Ghost gives a flock a true under-shepherd, he's not an Indian giver. The burden of proof rests upon that man and that flock that what he gave he's taking away. The true nature of that relationship. It's not that I decided that this is a nice place to serve Christ or that the people decided this is a nice young man or a nice young reverend let's take him as our pastor.

21:47 No. The true origin of the pastor-flock relationship is the activity of God the Holy Ghost the very administrator of the will of the risen Christ in heaven. He's the executor of the will of Christ. That's the origin of the pastoral relationship.

22:05 And I say it's a lengthy pastoral relationship that most accurately underscores and reflects that origin and also the nature of that relationship. What does Jesus say about the man who says he's a shepherd but when trouble comes he runs. He says he's the hireling he doesn't love the sheep. And when there's danger he flees.

22:30 Whereas the good shepherd who knows and loves his sheep he sees the lion or the bear and says there's either going to be dead shepherd or dead bear if they come toward these sheep. And it's that commitment to a lengthy pastorate that reflects the nature of that pastor flock relationship as well as its origin. So that's one of the great benefits. And how many times I have had with total pagans as well as with Christians opportunity to speak about the origin and nature of that relationship triggered by the question and how long have you been there?

23:08 Just in the bank the other day. The woman was amazed when I'm having to say this. And she said you know a collective bank swallowed up the the the summits swallowed up collected that swallowed up Seder Grove savings. And and when you're filling out these forms and she said in place of employment and length I said 35 years.

23:32 She looked at me and I thought her eyeballs were going to fall out on her cheek. She said haven't you run out of things to say? Oh what a wide open door. Ten lives, I couldn't begin to say all I wanted to say.

23:45 And she looked at me and said, because we try to open up the scriptures line by line, verse by verse. Oh, that's very interesting. I'm not hurt. I mean, she just walked in wide open, arms down, chin out, and said, go after me.

23:58 Just a wonderful opportunity. And many opportunities come like that to be able to say, look, this isn't a business. This ain't a job. This is not my career.

Benefit 2: Providing Stability and Security to the People of God

24:07 This is the people of God. And I've given myself to them in that sacred relationship. Well, then, second benefit of a lengthy pastorate is this. A lengthy pastorate gives stability and security to the people of God.

24:22 A lengthy pastorate gives stability and security to the people of God. Think of all the things required of God's people toward their overseers. It is not an easy litany of imperatives. Know them that are over you.

24:41 You in the Lord.

24:43 That's a high requirement. And esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.

24:53 So their love and esteem is to grow out of their work for a year, two years. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them.

25:05 Mark them that so walk as you have us for an example and imitate them. Think of all the requirements God lays upon church members. And ask yourself this question. Will they more easily and readily and joyfully be obeyed if they increasingly know someone over the long haul?

25:25 Or if just when they begin to know, so that trust and following are much more natural and delightful, they have to rip all the raw nerve endings of that relationship and try to attach them to some new kid on the block every five years. What does that create in the congregation? The opposite of stability and security.

25:51 I liken it to a good family physician. We had the same family physician in Cedar Grove for 25 years. He knew my physiology inside and out.

26:02 He knew. He'd always take my blood pressure after he'd examine me. And I'd go in his little consulting office and I'd sit by his desk. He'd say, well, Rev, roll up your sleeve.

26:12 And he'd put the cuff on. He'd take it the first time. He'd say, all right, two good blows. And I'd go.

26:18 He'd come down 10 points. And he'd be. He'd write 120 over 80. He always ignored the first reading.

26:25 It was off the charts in terms of where it ought to be. A couple good blows, Rev. He would never call me by my first name, though he was 10, 12 years older. I was always Reverend Al to him.

26:38 He saw my kids from the time we stopped taking them to the pediatrician. He knew their whole medical history. What a delight it was to go in with any specific problem, knowing he had all that backlog of medical knowledge, plus the interpersonal relationship. And I tell you, we felt like we'd lost a relative when he retired a few years ago.

27:00 And then we said, at this stage in our lives, we gotta start all over again. It was rough. It really was rough. Well, if that's true with the care of your body, what about the care of your soul?

27:12 To open up the deepest recesses of your eternal, never-dying soul to someone that you got to get to re-know every few years? It's unfair to the people of God. A lengthy pastorate gives stability and security. Security to the people of God.

Benefit 3: Building Fruitful and Rewarding Relationships

27:31 Thirdly, a lengthy pastorate gives the best opportunity for building the kinds of relationship that are both fruitful and rewarding. A lengthy pastorate gives the best opportunity for building the kinds of relationships that are both fruitful and rewarding. You accept the challenge that I'm in this for life in principle, and therefore, I want to build a relationship. I want to build a relationship that will withstand all of the unknown pressures that life together will bring.

28:08 It's like people that marry and divorce. Most divorces become repeat divorces. People don't hang in there long enough to work through the problems that bring the enrichment of a lengthy marriage. That's another area.

28:23 I get all kinds of opportunities to talk to people when they have to fill out the forms and they say married? Yes. How long? 42 years?

28:31 Happened in the bank the other day. He said, you must be a very lucky man. When I called my wife and kidded with her like a teenager, she said, well, you obviously are two or two in love, aren't you? I said, very much so.

28:42 But I said, it's not due to anything in us. Well, it isn't, but there you go. Chin out, hands out of the side. And then you magnify the grace of God.

28:50 But you see, the parallels with a marriage. It's when you're committed for life, you have the opportunity for building the kind of relationship that is fruitful and rewarding. You begin increasingly to be respected not only for your office out of principled obedience to the word, but for what they actually know you to be. As they see you pass through the stages of life, as they see you modeling by the grace of God how a Christian man responds to grief and to tragedy and to disappointment.

29:25 I know that my stock in the hearts of many of God's people has never been higher. Than it has been in the past six weeks.

29:35 Why? Because we've passed through our greatest trial together and God's helped us by some measure of his grace to act a part of a Christian man and not get skittish and nervous and go around like Luther's wife did when she came in with her mourning clothes. I've seen people look at me and the moment they apprehensive, they see the smile in my face, the smile is on their face. I've had men call me on the phone almost as though my wife were dying.

30:03 How are you doing, brother? I said, if I were doing any better, nobody could live with me. Oh, it's so good to hear that. What are you doing?

30:12 You're building long-term relationships that are both fruitful and rewarding. You increasingly become endeared for your person and your ministry takes on the cumulative weight of all the stuff of that lengthy relationship. Remember Stalker's words? We are so complicated.

30:33 We are so constituted that what we hear depends very much for its effect on how we are disposed to him who speaks. The regular hearers of a minister gradually form in their minds, almost unawares, an image of what he is into which they put everything which they themselves remember about him and everything they've heard of his record. And when he rises on Sunday in the pulpit, it's not the man visible there at the moment they listen to, but this image which stands behind him and determines, determines the precise weight and effect of every sentence which he utters. So you see when the rumors float, and they have, the pastor and Mrs. Martin are covering up

31:15 the sin of one of their children. There are people here who remember when we disclosed our discovery of the double life of our son many years ago, and in less than three days, cast the first vote for his excommunication. That lie doesn't shh on my people. Only on strangers who don't know me.

31:40 Only on strangers who don't know me. It's one of the benefits of a lengthy pastorate. People know the man who he is. They've seen you struggling with the peculiar problems of three little ones all under five years of age, trying to juggle your pastoral roles of being a sensitive, caring husband and a hands-on father.

32:02 And then they've seen you go through the peculiar traumas of teenagers. And then they've seen you give your kids up to marriage. And they've seen, they've seen all of this. And what does it do?

Benefit 4: Seeing the Fruit of Labor

32:13 It binds you in those relationships so that there is a fruitful input to them. And brethren, it's rewarding. You are around long enough, as we'll see in the next head, to reap some rewards. And that leads us to the fourth benefit.

32:27 A lengthy pastorate affords the opportunity to see some of the fruit of your labors in a way impossible in a short pastorate. This is one of the happiest times in my pastoral experience. To see these young men, such as Shehzad, and Jason, and David, and some of the young women, I could name them. They were not even conceived when I came here.

32:59 Mom and dad weren't even married. And then to have seen the parents rejoice when the little ones came along, and then see them come up through the various stages and at times wonder is anything going to take hold. I can think in my mind's eye, the history runs through my mind. It runs by in these quick snapshots.

33:19 And I can think of my concerns for all three of those young men. Four weeks ago, they show up in my doorstep, come in my house, and sit down with their Bibles, and have a prayer meeting, surround me with their love and affection. You talk about the rewards of a lengthy pastorate, brethren. That makes me want to say, let the slanders roll.

33:48 Let the liars concoct their lies. The place I have in the affection and esteem of those three young men, and the fruit of the input of godly parenting, other influences, and their testimony that we had no little part in all of that. Is there a sanctified selfishness? If ever there is, it's here.

34:09 Hang around long enough to have that experience before you die. To have that experience before God takes you home. Remember what John could say in Third John four. He said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

34:24 John, I'm going to do a one-upmanship. I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in the truth. It's wonderful to hear it. But when you see it with your own eyeballs, you see that husband, you wonder if this dumb klutz will ever learn to be sensitive to his wife.

34:40 You went over the issue in the premarital counseling. You've had pastoral visits with them. You wonder, is that character ever going to learn? And then in mysterious ways, God pushes the buttons.

34:52 And you see this guy being sensitive and tender. And you say, Lord, I'm so glad I didn't bail out before I saw the fruit of your working in this life. And it's the lengthy pastorate that puts you in that position. You see, Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 4.15,

35:09 Though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers. For I in Christ begot you through the gospel. And when those you've begotten grow to full stature, and often they go through the stages where you wonder if you're going to lose them to meningitis at age five. And then you wonder if you're going to lose them to meningitis at age five.

35:26 Or if you're going to lose them to the world's seducing power at age 13. And then God gets hold of them. And they become full-grown men and women in Christ. And you say, I wouldn't trade this for anything.

35:37 Yeah, you may have to go through birth pangs more than once. Paul did. He did something no mother ever had to do. Galatians 4.19,

35:44 My little children of whom I travail again in birth, that Christ be formed in you. And you may have to travail again and again. But when God births his people through a crisis of spiritual need and arrestment, what a joy to be around long enough to see people grow old gracefully and die nobly.

36:09 And I think of the deaths of some of God's noble saints in this place. And it's hard to keep back the tears. They died nobly. To see a Pastor Dixon step down from his office and carry himself with nobility and dignity.

36:25 He set a standard. If I'm privileged to live long enough where I can no longer publicly minister, I've told him to his face, Mr. Dixon, Don, by the grace of God, I want to be the kind of loyal churchman you've been. You've set a standard for me and for everyone who comes in your train.

36:42 Now, I always told people it was a lot of baloney, this evangelical canon. If you've ever been an elder or a pastor, when you step down from your office, leave the area or you'll be a troublemaker. I've defied that nonsense. I said, I don't believe it.

36:56 And here's why I don't believe it. Well, you're an idealist with your simplistic biblicism, but I'd never seen it. Now I can say I not only believe it because it's in my Bible, I've seen it with my eyeballs. And I looked in his eyeballs this past week, Monday to be exact, and told him to his face how thankful I am that I've lived to see it.

37:19 Ministering to others, yeah, he still has a pastoral ministry, but in such a way that he does not undermine our pastoral ministry one iota. He only strengthens it. Only strengthens it. You've seen it now, man.

37:33 Don't people tell on that? Tell them, sorry, can't buy it. Cannot but speak the things we've seen and heard. The lengthy pastorate affords that opportunity to see some of the fruit of your labors in a way impossible in a short pastorate.

Benefit 5: Exposure to the Broad Range of Christian Experience

37:49 Am I convincing you? All right, reason number five. A lengthy pastorate gives you exposure to the broad range of Christian experience normally not seen in a short pastorate. A lengthy pastorate gives you exposure to the broad range of Christian experience normally not seen in a short pastorate.

38:16 Dave Bunyan's Christians is Pilgrim's Progress. What do you see in it? You see a range of Christian experience that can only be known in the long haul.

38:30 The parable of the soil and the seeds. The biblical doctrine of backsliding, apostasy, restoration. Many of those things that you can understand by reading books and reading your Bible, you can't really fine-tune them apart from the involvement of the lengthy pastorate.

38:50 What's the difference between serious backsliding and apostasy? Only time sorts that out. And there are people that I was convinced were apostates. Time proved they had just seriously backslidden.

39:04 There seemed to be no grace left in them, but God saw what he put in them that I couldn't see. And time showed that what he put in them, he revived.

39:14 You see, and there's one of the best benefits of the lengthy pastorate. It makes you very, very suspicious. Some of the emphases I gave in your lectures on pastoral counseling. The inexplicable ways of God.

39:29 You've laid out all the truths. You've pushed all the buttons that Bible warns you to push and nothing happens. And you don't despair, but you say, nothing more I can do. Lord, it's in your hands.

39:41 And lo and behold, two, three, four years later, the person takes hold. They internalize everything. And when you ask them, they can't even at times trace out what was the thing that made the difference, except God did it. God did it.

39:54 And the lengthy pastorate gives you that exposure to the broad range of Christian experience normally not seen in a short pastorate and therefore makes you a wiser servant of God, a more patient servant of God. All of those graces that God says should mark the Lord's servants. Reason number six. A lengthy pastorate forces us into breaking new ground and keeping fresh in our preaching.

Benefit 6: Breaking New Ground and Staying Fresh in Preaching

40:25 A lengthy pastorate forces us into breaking new ground and keeping fresh in our preaching. Though the words are particularly addressed to Timothy as a young man, I believe in principle they are true of all men, 1 Timothy 4, 15 and 16. Excuse me.

40:43 Paul says to Timothy, Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching. Neglect not the gift that is in you, give yourself wholly to these things. Why? That your progress may be manifest unto all.

40:58 Take heed to yourself and to your teaching, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those that hear you. I'm convinced that whatever a man may lose in physical energy and even sharp mental alacrity with the passing of years, whatever he may lose, there is no excuse for losing in overall spiritual vigor. The path of the righteous is, what is like what?

41:24 Shines brighter and brighter to the perfect day. If a man's 80, his progress ought to be manifest unto all. He may be declining in physical health, he may get, what's the word, forgetful,

41:43 but amidst all of that, that you can identify as the declining powers of nature, there ought to be the continual flowering and progress in grace.

41:53 And one of the challenges, of a lengthy pastorate, is in this area. I'm not so spiritual that I wouldn't have re-preached a lot of series that I jumped ship from Trinity Church.

42:03 It took me a long while to muster up the courage to preach through one of the Gospels. I'm convinced, had I left here after 15 years, I never would have preached through one of the Gospels. Taking a long while to get up courage to sort out the Greek of 1 Peter. Had I hadn't been here 30 plus years, I doubt I'd be preaching through 1 Peter right now.

42:22 And it's that realization that you've got to keep fresh, you've got people that have been here the long haul, you have to go over the new ground, but you've got to keep breaking fresh ground. And it's a lengthy pastorate that forces you into breaking new ground and keeping fresh in your preaching, continually trying to be a better preacher. Because you're old hat now, you see. Get some degree of earned confidence among the Christian community after 10 years, and if you switch pastorates, that reputation will continue in the broader community, but you can reach a dead end point in your own development.

42:57 But stay with the same people where you're old hat. And you've got to labor to be a better preacher to even keep both eyes awake for an hour. You go out in outside ministries and people drive 3 or 4 hours and think they've died and gone half to heaven to listen to you.

43:12 And that's not the real world. It's in that situation where you're old hat, where these kids have grown up, they've never known anything but you. So you're nothing special to them. Whatever you may be to people out there, you're just old Pastor Smith.

43:25 You're just old Pastor Robertson. And you're just old Pastor Martin. That's all. Well, if old Pastor Martin ain't producing the goods and keeping freshness, laboring at having unpredictable introductions.

43:36 I mean, how much more could it be after 31 years? There's just so many things you can do. But that's the challenge. When I sit at my desk on Saturday, how can I get that opening sentence that'll grab ears?

43:48 And people will say, oh yeah, I heard that. No, that's...

Benefit 7: Crucible for Character Growth

43:51 That's the challenge. Keeps you on what is the interim today, on the cutting edge of integrity and pressing on in these areas. And then the seventh advantage of a lengthy pastorate, a lengthy pastorate forms the crucible for growth in your own character. A lengthy pastorate forms the crucible for growth in your own character.

44:16 If 2 Corinthians 1 is true, and it is, God who comforts us in all our tribulation, in order that we may be able to comfort those by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. If you're carrying on that, being comforted, that you may comfort syndrome in the one place over many years. Can you imagine what the ordinary framework is going to be? God's going to have to keep beating up on you to take you into new classrooms of comfort that you might have fresh comfort to minister to the people of God.

44:49 And that does wonders for your character. I thought when I had back surgery in 76 and went into spasms after surgery that I knew the most excruciating pain on this side. Of hell itself. I can remember lying there in tears and saying, Oh God, I thank you.

45:08 I'm not in hell. If weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth are caused by this, God, I thank you. So I've drawn on that stock for 20 years. And when people have said I was in such pain I couldn't pray, I said, I know what it is.

45:26 But I got my postgraduate school less than a year ago after that surgery. When my intestines shut down and I was bleeding and blowing up and wondered if I was going to explode like a balloon and all I could do was lie in the fetal position hour after hour with tears streaming down my face saying, Lord Jesus, Son of David.

45:50 That's all.

45:53 Why God do you do that? Because I want you to be able to comfort others by the comfort wherewith yourselves are comforted by God. I've been able to say all around the world, not bragging, but to attest to the fact that when you're ministering in a true church with the true people of God who obey the word of God, you need to be able to say, You need to be able to say, You need to be able to say, You need to be able to say, You need to be able to say, You need not fear that straight, right-angled preaching is going to cause splits. I've been able to say for 30 years we've never had anything that could be called a split in Trinity Church.

46:22 Have I tried to emphasize and empathize and enter in with those? Yes. I never said it in a way that, well, you,

46:29 God who comforts us in all our tribulation? I can't say that anymore. What's happened in recent days by all ordinary meaning of terminology, Trinity Baptist Church has had its first supposed to be church. Close to 20% of the membership has jumped ship.

46:49 It's a church split where all the ugly connotations of those words,

46:56 God who comforts us in all our tribulation, in order that. Will I be able to enter in to my fellow servants in a way I never could before? You bet your boots. Now, I can't tell what God would have done had I jumped ship and been elsewhere.

47:10 But you see the principle. If you're in a lengthy pastorate, you're asking God to multiply the classrooms of tribulation. That you might continue to minister new dimensions of consolation to the people of God. When I've had to deal with the inscrutable wisdom of God in the trials he's allowed to come upon me through my own children, one of the strands of comfort has been, Lord, is this the price of paying what I'm paying for praying?

47:38 Give me a heart that can empathize with the full range of your people's suffering. Only God knows the answer to that. But I think it lies somewhere in this orbit of concern. New trials, but thank God, the flip side of it is new triumphs.

47:55 I can testify now as never before that in the midst of a cold church split, you don't need to become despondent. You don't need to become despairing. You don't need to pick up the sword of carnal antagonism. You don't need to enter the joust of verbal wars.

48:14 I can say that. And I can have it register in the theater of my conscience that that is true. Not only because I know it's taught in principle, it's taught in the word of God, but we've proven it in our experience.

48:27 This is after 35 years in one place. And I said, how kind of the Lord. Had he dumped this on me earlier? Who knows?

48:36 I might be looking for a different way to provide bread and pay the rent and not the rent, but pay my taxes on my house that is paid for. But you see, the lengthy pastorate forms the crucible for growth in our own character. And remember, at the end of the day, above all else, Christ died to make you like himself. And that's always number one priority, even over what he will do through you in the lives of others.

49:01 And he's relentless in that. That's why there's going to be a resurrection. Because he's going to be relentless until he sees us resplendent with his own image, body and soul, in the glorified state. Well, let's take a break there, brethren.

Liability 1: Churches Taking on the Pastor's Character

49:16 I hope... All right, brethren.

49:18 We now come to the third head of our consideration of this subject, having looked at the precepts and propositions that undergird all that I desired to say on the benefits and liabilities of a lengthy pastorate, that we then looked at the particular benefits. Now, we come thirdly to the potential liabilities of a lengthy pastorate and the antidotes to those liabilities. I struggle with the language. I don't think you have an antidote to a liability.

49:47 You have an antidote to something that can make you sick. But I didn't know what other word to use, so you get the idea. You catch my drift in the old 60s language. And I want to take up three of the potential liabilities, and that's all they are.

50:03 They may be actual, one or more or all, but they are potential liabilities of a lengthy pastorate and what we can do to neutralize those liabilities. And the first is this. All churches tend to take on the character of their most prominent and vocal leaders. All churches tend to take on the character of their most prominent and vocal leaders.

50:34 Now this reality is not bad in and of itself. It simply reflects the biblical principle of imitation.

50:43 The apostle could say to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1, you became imitators, literally mimics of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. And then of course the command to imitate and even to follow those who minister the word to us. Hebrews 13 and verse 7. Remember them who were over you, men who spoke unto you the word of God and considering the issue of their lives imitate their faith.

51:15 But now the problem with that is that sometimes the chaff gets imitated along with the wheat. And what may not be chaff or moral defects are just quirks and matters that are just what we might call dominant personality characteristics.

51:34 Now that's one of the potential liabilities of a lengthy pastorate. If you have been put in a place of prominent and vocal leadership, the church will tend over years to take on the delineations of your Christian character. Now, what is the antidote to that? The antidote is to constantly warn your people that they are to follow you only insofar as you follow Christ.

52:04 Warn your people not every week, harp on it, but periodically remind them that they are not your friends nor friends of truth and of Christ if they seek to imitate all that you are and all that any other prominent vocal leader may be. The second part of the antidote is to pray that God will raise up around you other strong Christian men that you will not be the only prominent though you may be the most vocal leader because then they will see other men with distinct Christian character with their peculiar strengths and weaknesses and that will tend

52:48 to neutralize your own. Now, the problem is and I've seen this over the years often, tragically, often men who are brought into some place of prominent and vocal leadership are either so filled with unmortified jealousy or insecurity that they don't gather strong men around them. They're threatened by strong men. And I pray God that none of you men will ever be in that posture where unmortified envy or pride or insecurity would make you reluctant to have other prominent men of stature around you.

53:30 All things being equal one of the greatest most telling tests of your spiritual leadership is the quality of strong men you gather and keep around you. Not gather for a time but can keep around you. Because strong men who are men of conviction, men of independent judgment, men with a sense of their calling to lead will not stay long with someone who will not let them exercise that stewardship God has given to them. And over the years I've applied that test to men that I regard as men of tremendous stature and almost without exception they have gathered around them other men

54:14 of real stature and they keep them over the long haul. So there's the antidote. Another antidote is expose your people to other preachers of equal or greater gift than yourself.

54:30 They may think you're everything from Edwards and Whitfield and Spurgeon and Payson and Brainerd rolled into one until they hear somebody else. And then they'll realize you're just a good nuts and bolts foot soldier of Christ and that will help to break what otherwise might be a semi-idolatrous attachment to you and to your gifts. So if you're conscious of this potential liability then you will take these practical steps to neutralize it. Now you'll never do it to the satisfaction of everyone and because other people are jealous and envious of you what is a legitimate attachment and imitation of you will be considered as quote

55:15 blind loyalty. You know what you do with that? You apply Spurgeon's bequeathment to his students in the college. Remember he said as you leave this place I bequeath you three precious commodities a blind eye a deaf ear and a pocket with a hole in it.

55:32 And many things that you see look at them with your blind eye hear them with your deaf ear and if you can't avoid taking them put them in your pocket with a hole in it. God has used that three-fold bequeathment in my life hundreds of times. I said all right Lord blind eye doesn't see it deaf ear doesn't hear it put it in the pocket with a hole in it. Don't get in bondage to people who don't understand the legitimate expressions of that commitment and loyalty and imitation.

Liability 2: Carelessness in Secure Relationships

56:03 But make sure you're doing everything in your power to neutralize the real liabilities of it and have a good conscience before God you're doing that. All right? Second potential liability of a lengthy pastorage is this all of us tend to grow careless and comfortable in secure relationships. All of us tend to grow careless and we could put carnally comfortable in secure relationships.

56:30 What do I mean by that? Well let me ask you you're all married men here who's the easiest person in your life to hurt the most?

56:41 Through being careless it's your wife. Why? Because you know she ain't going to leave you. If you speak sharply to her on Monday where you might be very careful not to speak sharply to your boss on Monday because you know do that once you may be out on your ear.

57:01 The less secure the relationship is and the more self-interest we have in it the more carefully we guard it. The more secure the relationship the more careless we can grow. Right? That's why you can hurt your wife more than anybody else because you're confident in that relationship and you don't exercise the same care that we ought to exercise over our passions over our temper etc.

57:25 Now what happens when you're in a lengthy pastorate? Your people love you and their love is not going to be dislodged easily. They're quote loyal to you in a proper biblical sense. You can then grow careless and take that relationship for granted.

57:42 And then you begin to erode there begins to be an erosion in your being very very careful as the scripture says in nothing giving offense that the ministry be not blamed. To keep the same sensitivity you had when you came as the guy still wet behind the ears the new kid on the block you had all the liabilities of your inexperience in your youth and I mean you walk carefully not in a carnal way but you wanted to win the confidence and the esteem and the affection of the people still walk that way when you've been with them for 30 years. They still deserve that and God deserves it. And that's one of the liabilities.

58:19 People see your faults against the backdrop of your virtues and you know that they have developed the love that covers a multitude of sins. You can begin to take advantage of that and get careless. Don't. Don't.

58:33 Don't. Don't do that. Remember. Remember this principle.

58:37 Here's the major antidote. The confidence and trust built up over years can go down the tubes in a very short period of time. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12 Wherefore let him who thinks he stands take the truth heath lest he fall. You've built up such a relationship with your people they're confident your moral integrity you get careless one indiscreet touch of the hand you could send it all down the tubes.

59:09 One or two careless glances of the eye you could send it all down the tubes.

59:16 Allowing the secure relationship with your fellow leaders to cross the line the kind of secure relationship we have that we could jest this way and I knew that I could play the buffoon in front of you and not erode your confidence that puts you in a dangerous area. The very blessing puts you in a dangerous area. You can then cross the line where if you didn't have that secure relationship if I didn't know how Ken knows that I don't have to my knowledge a gram of racism in my heart I wouldn't have felt free to make that joke about am I saying this like a proper slave I wouldn't have dared do that but that came out why? Because we've got all this but you see that can put us close to the edge of indiscretion.

Liability 3: Pet Truths and Doctrinal Imbalances

59:56 Because we are so secure in it. You see where I'm going with this so the antidote under God is to remember that that confidence built up over years can go down the tubes in a relative short period of time and we need to be watchful and prayerful lest we enter into temptation take heed lest we fall. Then the third liability of a lengthy pastorate is this all of us each one of us perhaps is better that singularizes each one of us have pet 輪 and imbalances in our grasp upon the truth and those imbalances can become downright distortions with the passing of time

60:41 and did I have a whiteboard here what I would show you is this that if we have a triangle or an angle at the vortex of that angle the distance between the two angles may only be a quarter of an inch but trace the lines out it can be ten inches as you move out on both lines of that angle alright so the imbalances and the distortions here early in your ministry the lines between the balance of truth may be relatively close but extend them out over years and you get a chasm and that's one of the dangers of a lengthy pastorate no matter how much we try both to have a grasp upon and to reflect in our ministries

61:26 a balanced presentation of the whole counsel of God as long as remaining sin in sin is affecting our mental and our moral faculties we will never be perfectly balanced now I'm not talking about willfully distorting the truth or willfully rejecting truth just like we will never perfectly love God or love one another because of remaining sin we will not perfectly with complete balance and equality grasp all of God's truth till we know even as we are known and that will be growth in perfection right now we are growing into perfection then when we know as we are known we will grow within perfection there will be no distortion

62:10 but there will be growth right now we grow but we grow with the built-in distortions it's just part of our present existence in the overlapping of the ages well what can we do as an antidote to this potential liability and here I sound like one note Charlie don't budge from the systematic prayerful assimilation of your whole bible in your own devotional life there are a number of things at this stage in my life that I look back and say if I were 30 again one of the men put in that request for the pastor's conference Pastor Martin would you please take part of one of the

62:55 workshop sessions and speak on the subject if I were 30 again I would blank well I'm afraid it would take more than one workshop session probably take a week of them but there's one I would never change and that is the commitment to read through this book systematically as the baseline of my Christian duty before God that's the thing that brought me into many of the truths that I hold dear was constantly seeing them turn up no matter I was reading in my bible so though I didn't understand them couldn't hang them together I couldn't dismiss them I saw them in my bible and then when God began to pull them together it wasn't because

63:40 I read some book and I swallowed a cistern it was because my bible began to bring them together with the help of those over my shoulder helping me to feel comfortable with my bible so the best antidote to this potential danger of a lengthy pastorate is that commitment to systematic assimilation of the word of God as a Christian man and then of course the systematic reading of the scriptures in the public worship how many times that reading has brought me up short saying man that's a truth that we've just not emphasized as we ought that's an aspect of God's truth and then it gives you a chance to underscore it by way of comment and then you tuck it away and say look when we're mapping out the preaching

64:24 maybe that it's one of the means that can keep you from those pet truths dominating and the imbalances becoming gross distortions and then of course a commitment to some measure of systematic covering of the whole council of God periodically reviewing before God and with your fellow elders what truths have been preached what have not been preached what major portions of the word of God have been expounded what have not been expounded and then of course a fourth very helpful antidote is regularly having visiting speakers who have under God a proven competence to emphasize aspects of truth that are not your strength

65:08 over the years we have found this to be a wonderful means when we I'm constantly got my ear to the truth to the ground listening to the scuttlebutt about who preached at what conference and at what retreat and what their theme was and when I hear something and I say man that's a vital aspect of God's truth in the providence of God I've never really examined that to where I would feel I could begin to handle it then you tuck that away and you say to your fellow elders when the discussion comes up who's going to speak at the next men's retreat women's retreat often I get asked who's about the men whose churches organize these family conferences what do you think about this person what do you think about this person what do you think about this subject and then you seek to supplement that area of your own non-strength it may not be a culpable weakness it's just

65:52 no man can have a fully competent grasp upon the whole of God's truth be realistic in your own assessment of your strength and your development and you can use this antidote of having a visiting speaker who will in a unique way give a concentrated injection of that truth I liken it to what happens with with vitamin therapy I mean if your blood test shows up shows that I mean you are way down in your in your folic acid in your B12 I mean you get that inch and a half needle stuck in your butt with I don't know how many cc's of the B12 in a very short time it shoots it right up now you don't need to continue to get that well the visiting speaker can be like a B12 shot and can bring the whole system up to par and then that becomes incorporated and then

66:37 you just make sure you have a multivitamin that's got enough B12 to sustain it then you having heard that truth are have a more heightened awareness then you seek to incorporate it into your own steady state ministry as part of the ongoing diet of the Lord's people