Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

Greetings All,

     Yesterday I received a book in the mail sent to me by a wise old friend. As one who loves to climb mountains, the title captured my attention when I opened the package: "Canoeing the Mountains," by Tod Bolsinger. Yet, the secondary title clued me into the fact that it probably was not what I initially thought - "Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory."

     As I read the first chapter I felt like the author had been a fly on the wall in many of my conversations in recent years!  He even mouthed some of the exact phrases I had used!  So, today, I let you in on an issue that has been weighing on me (and many others in ministry) for at least the past decade or longer - trying to minister in a post-Christian (often anti-Christian) culture.  This selection below is just to give you a taste of what he will address in the rest of his book -- offering hope for a breakthrough where many seem to have run into what FEELS like an impenetrable wall we were not trained or equipped to break through. Enjoy.

     "One night after a long day of meetings, an older pastor let out a heavy sigh. He was nearing retirement, and we were working together on a project that was supposed to reorganize our entire denomination in order to help our church better minister in a changing world. And that changing world weighed on him.  He remembered well how not that long ago life was different. He stirred his drink and said to me, 'You know, when I began my ministry in a church in Alabama, I never worried about church growth or worship attendance or evangelism. Back then, if a man didn't come to church on Sunday, his boss asked him about it at work on Monday.'

     Sociologists and theologians refer to this recently passed period as 'Christendom.' The seventeen-hundred-year-long era with Christianity at the privileged center of western cultural life. Christendom gave us 'blue laws' and the Ten Commandments in school [and prayer in schools]. It gave us 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance and exhortations to Bible reading in the national newspapers. (I have a copy of the Los Angeles Times from December 1963 that has stories on the Warren Commission (investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy), the nine-thousand-member Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and a list of daily Bible readings for the upcoming week.  Can you even imagine the Los Angeles Times exhorting people to read their Bibles today?) It was the day every "city father" laid out the town square with the courthouse, the library, and a First Church of _______ within the center of the city.  For most of us these days are long gone. (For some of us, that is good news indeed. Did you notice the reference to 'man' in my friends statement?)

     In our day (unlike then) cities are now considering using eminent domain laws to replace churches with tax-revenue generating big-box stores, Sundays are more about soccer and Starbucks than about Sabbath, Christian student groups are getting derecognized on university campuses, the fastest growing religious affiliation among young adults is 'none,' there is no moral consensus built on Christian tradition (even among Christians), and even a funeral in a conservative beach town is more likely to be a Hawaiian style 'paddle out' than a gathering in a sanctuary.  As we see all this we know that Christendom as a marker of society has passed.

     Over the last ten years I have had one church leader after another whisper to me the same frustrated confession: 'Seminary didn't prepare me for this. I don't know if I can do it. I just don't know...'  A number of pastors are ready to throw in the towel. Studies show that if given the chance to do something else, most pastors would jump at it. Reportedly, upwards of fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry EVERY MONTH  [Every year more than 4000 churches in the U.S. close their doors, almost double the number from 20 years ago.] 

     A couple years ago I learned that three of my pastor friends around the country had resigned  -- on the same day. There were no affairs, no scandals, and no one was renouncing the faith. But three good, experienced pastors turned in resignations and walked away. One left church ministry altogether.  The details are as different as the pastors themselves, but the common thread is that they finally got worn down by trying to bring change to a church that was stuck and didn't know what to do. Their churches were stuck and declining, stuck and clinging to the past, stuck and lurching to quick fixes, trying to find an easy answer for what were clearly bigger challenges. What all three churches had in common was that they were mostly blaming the pastor for how bad it felt to be stuck.

'If only you could preach better.' 

'If only you were more pastoral and caring.' 

'If only our worship was more dynamic.' 

'Please, pastor, do something!'  (That is what we pay you for, isn't it?)

     And to make matters worse, the pastors don't know what to do either. As a seminary vice-president I am now charged with confronting this reality head-on. Our graduates were not trained for this day. When I went to seminary, we were trained in the skills that were necessary for supporting faith in Christendom.  When churches functioned primarily as vendors of religious services for a Christian culture, the primary leadership toolbox was:  1. TEACHING (for providing Christian education).  2. LITURGICS (for leading Christian services).  3. PASTORAL CARE (for offering Christian counsel and support).  In this changing world we need to add a new set of leadership tools..." 

     If you would like to know what those new and necessary tools are, you will need to purchase his book for yourself!  As a pastor who has lived long enough to see Christendom progressively and purposefully deconstructed, and replaced at almost every turn with secularized and post-Christian alternatives, it has been stretching.  I'm not one of the pastoral casualties he lists, but in all honesty there have been times I have come pretty close. In fact, given those statistics it may be time to start a "pastor support group" for those who feel they are on the verge of being one of those 1500 pastors every month who leave the ministry.

     I haven't had time to read far into his book, but I wanted to share the introductory chapter so people can know there is a voice of encouragement from someone who has his ear to the ground, and has himself been a pastor ministering in our post-Christian culture.   A culture where traditional styles of leadership and ministry (which garnered much fruit in the not-so-distant past) can actually be a hindrance and obstacle in the present. His word to pastors - "Start with conviction, stay calm, stay connected, and stay the course - even when navigating loss."

     Ministry has always required people to, "run the race with perseverance"  (Hebrews 12:1-2).  Yet today is one of those cultural seasons or times when like a runner in a marathon on a hot and humid day, people in ministry are encountering what in the Boston Marathon is called, "Heartbreak Hill" -- a long gradual incline at the 20 mile mark.  It's a "grueling test of endurance" as one writer puts it, which drives many to give up before the finish line.  A place where one must be mentally prepared, make adjustments, and persevere, or become a casualty.  If you happen to be at that place, maybe you might want to see what Bolsinger has to say.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

The Mystery of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After two weeks away I am back from a relaxing vacation! Time spent in nature, in the woods and mountains of New England, has its benefits in refreshing the soul!
     This morning a friend asked a question about prayer.  It was a question many ask, since prayer is something that takes time to understand, even though we will never fully comprehend the mystery of it. After all, there are so  many different views and opinions and approaches people have toward praying.  Therefore, I decided I would send out this "thought" on prayer by Gary Thomas, entitled: "The Mystery of Prayer."  It is found in his book, "Sacred Pathways."  It does not address the question asked this morning, but given the fact that most all people struggle at one time or another in their prayer life, I thought some might find it helpful and encouraging -- especially those who have encountered the often confusing dilemma called "unanswered prayer."  Enjoy.

The Mystery of Prayer

     "Is there anything more mysterious than prayer? Prayer moves us to call on a Being we cannot see and ask him to altar that which we can see.  Formulas do not work; rituals cannot guarantee success. Neither the length nor the form of prayer makes the prayer potent. This is why we need to create pockets of prayer in our lives, learning to trust God to come through in unexpected ways. There is an element of mystery, however, against which we sometimes rebel -- the mystery of unanswered prayer, or, perhaps more appropriately stated, prayers that receive the answer "no." 

     Because God sometimes answers our prayers with a yes, it can become intoxicating, and this intoxication can become so addicting that we begin to demand that God answer every prayer with a yes When a prayer doesn't get answered in the way we want it to be, we may mistakenly assume there must be hidden sin, lack of faith, or some other buried obstruction, which then sends us into hours of fruitless introspection.  But to demand that God answer all our prayers with a yes is to ask for his omnipotence (power) without having the benefit of his omniscience (knowledge).

     Looking back, I'm thankful that God said no to some of my prayers. The mystery of faith calls us to love and serve a God whom we can't always understand. We love this when the result satisfies us and God answers in ways that make our knees weak. It is much less exciting, however, when the mystery leads us to believe that God is silent, indifferent, or even cruel. Mystery is mystery. It has its exhilarating elements as well as frustrating ones, and we can't expect one without the other.

     The pursuit if maturity will lead virtually every one of us through this canyon of unanswered prayer, where expectancy runs dry and the only mystery seems to be where God is hiding. Understand that this is a necessary avenue on the destination to holiness and that it usually has an end -- in God's timing however."

     Some thoroughly enjoy prayer.  Some struggle with snags and disappointments in prayer.  And some have dispensed with prayer -- at least in the more formal sense -- though I do not believe it's possible for the true believer to dispense completely with conversational interaction with God. Few will go an entire lifetime without the "why's" of both answered and unanswered prayer, yet there is blessing in persevering. Just as a child passes through phases of equilibrium and disequilibrium in their trek to maturity, so also the person maturing in prayer goes through such phases. The key, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, is to, "Never, never, never give up." 

     With you in what is often the struggle to find God, and the pathway to the throne of His grace, in prayer, Pastor Jeff

The Blessings of Marriage

Greetings All!

     Today I want to share a selection having to do with marriage -- though I must stress it's a helpful thought to consider whether one is married or not!  I do not know the title or publisher of the book I originally took it from years ago, though I did write down the author's name - Theodore Parker.
     I have used this quote numerous times at weddings and people have expressed their appreciation for it, and most all their complete agreement with it -- especially those who have been married for any length of time!  It is, in my humble opinion, worthy of your focused, thoughtful, and discerning consideration, since it contains much truth and wisdom. Enjoy.

“It takes years to marry two hearts completely, even of the most loving and tender type.  Every happy marriage is a long falling in love. Young people think love belongs only to the silken-haired and crimson-cheeked.  And it does in its beginnings.

But the golden marriage is a part of love about which the Bridal day knows nothing.  A mature and complete marriage, where wedlock is everything one could desire, where the ideal becomes actual, is not a common thing.  It is perhaps as rare as perfect personal beauty.

Men and women are married fractionally — a small fraction here, followed by a larger fraction there.  Very few are ever married totally, and those that are, only achieve it after some forty or fifty years of gradual growth, adjustment, perseverance and experimentation.

When a man and woman are successfully in love, their whole activity is energized and victorious.  They walk better, their metabolism improves, they think more clearly, their secret worries drop away, the world is fresh and interesting, and they can do more than they ever dreamed of doing.

In love of this kind, sexual intimacy in not the dead end of desire, as it is in purely romantic or promiscuous love. It is the periodic affirmation of inward delight in each other, and the crown of an active, intentional and well-lived life.  Knit together by the bonds of friendship and mutual affection, their love is as interesting as it is enduring — able to withstand the winds of adversity and change, bear hardships, build upon the mistakes of the past, and use them as opportunities for forgiveness and growth.”

     In a society which sees less and less reason for marriage (4 out of 10 thirty-and-under-people now see no need for it at all), this "thought" gives us a better insight into the blessings of marriage, how one should view it, and what it might take to improve it.

     The health of the family unit is key to the preservation of any civil society, and the health of marriages is key to the health of that family unit.  We must, therefore -- especially in a society like ours which is decidedly not "marriage-friendly" -- always be praying for those who have entered into this, "bond and covenant of marriage (which) was established by God in creation."  This relationship of committed love received Jesus' stamp of approval by, "His presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee."   After all, it's a way of life which, "signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and His Church, and Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people"  (from The Celebration of Marriage, Book of Common Prayer).

May you be encouraged to persevere in this God-ordained relationship, and partake of the blessings God intended through it, Pastor Jeff

Finish Strong

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from a book entitled, "Finish Strong" by Dan Green.
     It is a book of true stories about people who have overcome immense obstacles, through faith, and have "finished strong."  I found this entry particularly inspiring. I offer it to you with the hope that it might inspire you in the same way.  Enjoy.

A Spirit Forged in Steel

     "On June 23, 1940, Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born prematurely, weighing only four and a half pounds. Wilma was the twentieth of Ed and Blanche Rudolph's twenty-two children. The Rudolph's were African Americans living in a time of segregation. Since the local hospital was for whites only, and since the Rudolph's had little money, Mrs. Rudolph was forced to care for Wilma herself. The early years were rough. Wilma's mother nursed her through one illness after another -- measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox, and double pneumonia.

     A few years after Wilma's birth, her parents discovered that her left leg and foot were not developing normally and, consequently, were becoming deformed. Doctors told Blanche that Wilma had polio, and that she would have to wear steel braces on her legs. Refusing to accept this diagnosis, Mrs. Rudolph set out to find a cure. She discovered that Wilma could receive treatment at Meharry Hospital in Nashville.

     The Rudolphs also relied on their faith in God, the Great Physician. When young Wilma would ask if she would ever walk, her parents pointed her to her good God: "Honey, you only have to believe. You have to trust in God because with God all things are possible" (Luke 1:37).

     For the next two years, Mrs. Rudolph drove Wilma fifty miles each way to physical therapy appointments. Eventually, the hospital staff taught Mrs. Rudolph how to do the exercises at home. Everyone in the family worked with Wilma, providing her with encouragement to be strong and get better. Thanks to the patience, support, effort, and the love she received from her family, at the age of twelve Wilma could walk normally without the assistance of crutches, braces, or corrective shoes.

     Having spent a great deal of her life limited by illnesses, Wilma felt a freedom she had never felt before. It was then that Wilma decided to become an athlete. She chose to pursue basketball first, just as her older sister had. For three years she rode the bench, not playing in a single game.  But Wilma's spirit had been forged of steel, and she continued to practice hard, refusing to give up. In her sophomore year she became the starting guard for the team and subsequently led the team to a state championship.

     But Wilma's first love was running. At the age of sixteen (barely four years free of braces) Wilma participated in track at the 1956 Olympics and won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay. However, it was at the state basketball tournament that she was first spotted by Ed Temple, the coach for the women's track team at Tennessee State University. Ed recruited Wilma on a track scholarship and changed the course of her athletic pursuits.

     Wilma's most famous athletic accomplishments happened during the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. The little girl who could hardly walk without the assistance of crutches or braces had completely overcome her physical limitations. At the age of 20, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. (The 100 meter dash in 11.0 seconds, the 200 meter dash in 24.0 seconds, and the 4 x 100 Relay in 44.5 seconds.)"

     Sometimes it helps us in our own struggles to hear the stories of people who had to endure great hardships and overcome great obstacles, by faith, and with the inner strength and determination God provides. Many times we become too quickly discouraged. We give up too easily. We don't persevere and fight on until victory comes.

     A high school student in Honduras once said the following quotes inspired him. I do not know his name, but I'm sure he has pressed on! The first, by Don Juan, states: "The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while the ordinary man takes everything as either a blessing or a curse."

     The second, by Ralph Parlette, says: "Strength and struggle go together. The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things make men weak. It is following the lines of least resistance that makes rivers and men crooked."

     In the Christian life it's not about pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. It's about looking in faith to 'God our Helper' (Psalm 118:7) for that which is necessary to overcome the many obstacles in life.  Sometimes He graciously does miraculous things for us.  But more often what He gives us is increased strength and resolve and determination to press on. After all, were He to do everything for us all the time, He would do us a great disservice by robbing us of the life lessons learned through perseverance, struggle and hardships overcome.

Blessings upon your day, Pastor Jeff

Sermons Are Not For Liking

Greetings All,

www.challies.com

     I've been on vacation for a few weeks ("holiday" for my British friends!) so I haven't sent out a 'thought' for a while. Yet, during my time away I received this post from Tim Challies and have been intending to share it with you.
     It deals with how listeners should view sermons. As such, it's a message every preacher wishes his people would read and take to heart. Anyone who has ever stood behind a pulpit, or lectern, or sought to convey the truth of God's Word to a group of people, understands exactly what Challis means and would want all who listen to their messages to understand it as well. So here it is... from one who preaches to many who listen.  Enjoy!

Sermons Are Not For Liking

     I did not set out to be a preacher. Ten years ago I would have laughed out loud if someone had told me that a decade hence I would be a regular in the pulpit. As I've slowly acclimated to preaching, I have found myself thinking very differently about sermons. I've been listening to sermons all of my life, but only now do I see preaching from the other side of the pulpit, so to speak. It has been very good for me.

     Today I want to share a lesson I've learned that applies primarily to those of us who listen to preaching (as I do, most Sundays, since I am not an every-Sunday kind of preacher). Here’s the lesson: Sermons are not for liking.

     Sermons are for listening, they are for discerning, they are for applying, but they are not for liking. You don’t get to like or dislike a sermon. We tend to ask questions like, “So how did you enjoy the sermon today?” It is just the wrong question to ask.

     I guess that isn't always true. If a sermon is outright unbiblical—if the preacher butchers his text, misses the point, teaches nonsense or outright error, then I guess you are well within your rights to dislike it because God dislikes it and is dishonored by it. And maybe if it is clear the preacher put little or no thought into his text, if he is delivering a sermon only out of a sense of duty or the overflow of pride, maybe then you can dislike it because, again, it dishonors God. But I suspect few of us find ourselves in that situation on a regular basis.

     Back to my point: Sermons are not for liking. There are at least two reasons for this: it dishonors preaching and it dishonors the preacher.

     1.) To ask, “How did you like the sermon?” dishonors preaching. It dishonors the very form, the God-given medium. We trust that when the Word is preached, the Spirit works. He is present in the preaching, present in the speaker, and in the hearer, shaping words, molding hearts, applying truth. We preach because God tells us to, and we preach trusting that God uses this form of communication instead of another form. We preach even though preaching seems so foolish. When we ask, “How did you like the sermon?” we make the sermon something we consume rather than something that consumes us. We judge it like we judge the custom-crafted latte at Starbucks or the new iDevice we saved up for.

     2.) To ask, “How did you like the sermon?” dishonors the preacher. The sermon you hear on Sunday morning may look like it just flows out of the preacher’s mouth. It may seem so easy, so natural, that you think the preacher hardly had to work at it. Yet the more effortless it appears, the more work it represents. When you see Albert Pujols swing a bat or Phil Mickelson drive a ball, you are not seeing people simply taking advantage of innate talent. You are seeing the result of practice and preparation. These are people who have dedicated thousands of hours to honing their craft; they have become so skilled that they make it appear easy.

     This is true of preachers as well. The sermon that is smooth and easy, that moves seamlessly from one point to the next, that delivers bang-on application—this is the sermon that displays more practice, more skill, more time in preparation.

     Don’t confuse hard-earned skill with easy preparation. And then there is the delivery, where a man has to stand before a hundred or two hundred or a thousand people and deliver that sermon, hoping he connects with his listeners, trusting his interpretation is sound, longing for the application to fit. It dishonors the man to then ask, “How did you like it?”

Don’t like it! Instead, ponder it, meditate upon it, and apply it.

     At the end of it all, “How did you enjoy the sermon?” is simply the wrong question to ask. Far better is, “What did you learn from the sermon?” or “How did the Holy Spirit speak to you through the sermon?” These are questions that elevate the form or medium far above our preferences, and call upon us to submit to the Spirit as he is present in preaching."

     If we are caught up in some particular sin, the best sermon for us is not one that we like, or one that makes us feel good, but one that cuts us to the core and unsettles us so deeply that it moves us to repentance. If we are struggling with doubt and feel like giving up, its the one that helps us to see God's promises anew, infuses us with hope, and moves us to a renewed determination to persevere. If we are filled with guilt and despair of ever sensing God's affirmation and love, its the one that convinces us no sin is beyond the reach of the grace and forgiveness Christ secured for us on the cross.

     A sermon is not to be measured by how it makes us feel, but by how it reveals God, His redemptive will for our lives, and by what it moves us to DO in response to the truth conveyed through it.

     Michael Horton put it well in his book, "A Place for Weakness." Discussing his wife's experience with "a severe hormone-induced depression" related to her pregnancy he states:

     "Lisa realized that she could not preach the Word to herself; she needed a herald sent from God himself to proclaim externally something different from what she felt internally. In times of crisis, the most important thing we can do is go to church. Chiefly, this is where God's herald (the preacher) announces that 'external Word' that contradicts our private judgments. Working against the tide of our inner experience and thoughts, this announcement comes rushing toward us like water from the Himalayas: 'You are forgiven, go in peace.'" (Luke 7:36-50)

     The last two weeks of my vacation I was privileged to sit and listen to two sermons by two of the gentlemen who filled my pulpit in my absence.  The first was Bob Moyer on, "Leaving What's Behind, Behind,"  and Ted Rabenold on,  "Your Husband Is Your Maker". They were sermons that instructed me, served as a good reminder, and moved me to do something in response to them.

     I didn't just "like" them (a dishonor to both preaching and the preacher) I was challenged and changed by them. That's preaching and I'm somehow different for having been there to hear it.

May we all, "submit to the Spirit as he is present in preaching."  Pastor Jeff

Don't Give Up!

       Greetings All,

       This week's 'thought' comes from John Piper in a book entitled: "The Roots of Endurance."  In the book Piper looks at the uncanny commitment, perseverance and endurance demonstrated in the lives of three great men:

       1.) John Newton, former slave trader and author of the beloved song, "Amazing Grace." 

       2.) William Wilberforce, the man almost single-handedly responsible for abolishing slavery in the British empire.  He worked relentlessly for 46 years in the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade (against tremendous opposition, insults, and threats), even though his legislation was defeated eleven times between 1787 and 1807.  His battle to abolish it entirely throughout every colony did not pass until three days before his death in 1833. He was a man of immense fortitude and strength of resolve.

       3.) Charles Simeon, who pastored of Trinity Church at Cambridge University in England for 54 years (1782-1836). 
 

       Our quote for today is in reference to Simeon.  It contrasts him and us.  Piper's initial cultural critique (I believe) is right on the mark for many -- uncomfortably so.  Enjoy! 

       "I know I am" (says Piper of himself), "in great measure, a child of my times.  And one of the pervasive marks of our times is emotional fragility.  It hangs in the air we breathe.  We break easily.  Our marriages break easily.  Our faith breaks easily.  Our happiness breaks easily.  And our commitment to the church breaks easily.  We are easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition.

      

       A typical emotional response to trouble in the church is to think, 'If that's the way they feel about me, then I'll just find another church.'  We see very few healthy, happy examples today whose lives spell out in flesh and blood the rugged words, 'Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds' (James 1:2). 

       When historians list the character traits of America in the last third of the twentieth century, commitment, constancy, tenacity, endurance, patience, resolve, and perseverance will not be on the list. The list will begin with an all-consuming interest in self-esteem.  It will be followed by the subheadings of self-assertiveness, self-enhancement, and self-realization.  And if we think that we are not children of our times, let us simply test ourselves to see how we respond when people reject our ideas or spurn our good efforts or misconstrue our best intentions.  We all need some help here.

       We are surrounded by, and are part of, a society of emotionally fragile quitters.  The spirit of the age is too much in us.  We need to spend time with the kind of people -- people whether dead or alive -- whose lives prove there is another way to live.  Scripture says, 'be imitators of those who by faith and patience inherit the promises' (Hebrews 6:12).  So I want to hold up for us the faith and patient endurance of Charles Simeon for our inspiration and imitation."

       What did Simeon endure?

       He turned down a fortune from a family member in order to be able to preach the Gospel. He was at Cambridge University for three years before he found even one other believer on campus! 

       He so desired to preach the Gospel at Cambridge, and be an evangelical witness in that place, that he worked as an assistant at the church for five years hoping to be appointed lecturer (pastor/preacher). Yet after those first five years, he was passed over for another, and had to wait another seven years before he was chosen to be lecturer -- a position which gave him the opportunity to practice what he believed was the threefold purpose of preaching: "To humble the sinner, To exalt the Saviour, To promote holiness."   

       When he was finally assigned the pastorate, he endured years of cruel treatment from his congregation, "for his biblical preaching and uncompromising stand as an evangelical."   Because of resistance from members,"he started an evening service for the townspeople, but the church wardens locked the doors while the people stood waiting in the street.  Once he had the doors opened by a locksmith, but when it happened again, he dropped the service." 

       The members of the church, "locked their pews on Sunday mornings.  They refused to come, and refused to let others sit in their pews.  When Simeon set up chairs in the aisles, nooks and corners at his own expense, the wardens took them out and threw them into the church yard...  When he tried to visit from house to house, hardly a door would open to him. This situation lasted 10 years."

       Even after he'd been there 30 years (at age 53) people still gave him trouble.

     He was slandered. People intentionally, repeatedly and rudely disrupted the services.   And on several occasions, "stones were thrown at the windows.... On one occasion a band of students waited by his usual exit to assault him, but providentially he took another way home that day.... Students who were awakened and converted by his preaching were soon ostracized and ridiculed."

       Yet he persevered with a smile. He was gentle and full of grace, never harsh or rude.  Said Wilberforce,  "How full he is of love, and of the desire to promote the spiritual benefit of others. Oh that I might copy him, as he Christ."  

       Long after most people today would have given up and moved on, he pressed on -- for the sake of the Gospel.  And the fruit of his years of patient perseverance were students and townsfolk converted to Christ and discipled in Christ, as well as others who headed into the ministry, and others off to the mission field.  Henry Martyn, the great missionary to India, was converted and mentored by Simeon, and within five years of arriving on the field had translated the New Testament into Urdu, Persian, and supervised its translation into Arabic.

        If you are going through rough waters, and are thinking of giving up, you might want to pick up Piper's book.  It's an inspiring read to say the least! 

        In the Service of Christ, who left us the example of enduring great opposition from sinful men (Heb. 12:3),  Pastor Jeff