If you are thinking about what the Bible teaches about the leadership of the church, or if you have upcoming officer elections and you are wanting to inform both the candidates and the congregation of the qualifications of biblical eldership, then Thabit Anyabwile has a treasure trove of useful information nd wise counsel, here:

A friend of mine, and a faithful pastor, Tom Myers, recently read these words of Spurgeon to me by way of encouragement. No, I'm not discouraged! Nor am I in a season of trial (though I've seen my share and have so far lived to tell it). But these thoughts were encouraging to meditate on nevertheless. So, I pass along Spurgeon's wise, pastoral words for your edification and encouragement - something that all Gospel ministers need!

"I know that, whenever God chooses a man for the ministry, and means to make him useful, if that man hopes to have an easy life of it, he will be the most disappointed mortal in the world. From the day when God calls him to be one of his captains, and says to him, “See I have made thee to be a leader of the hosts of Israel,” he must accept all that his commission includes, even if that involves a sevenfold measure of abuse, misrepresentation, and slander. We need greater soul-exercise than any of our flock, or else we shall not keep ahead of them. We shall not be able to teach others unless God thus teaches us. We must have fellowship with Christ in suffering as well as fellowship in faith. Still, with all its drawbacks, it is a blessed service, and we would not retire from it. Did we not accept all this with our commission? Then we should be cowards and deserters if we were to turn back. These castings down of the spirit are part of our calling. If you are to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, you must endure hardness. You will have to lie in the trenches, sometimes, with a bullet lodged here or there, with a sabre-cut on your forehead, or an arm or a leg shot away; where there is war, there must be wounds, and there must be war where there is to be victory.” (C. H. Spurgeon)

SWEET STIMULANTS FOR THE FAINTING SOUL

Sermon No. 2798 - AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL,
Lord’s Day Evening, Winter 1860

Those of you who think that Mark, Al and I think that CJ is average, I've got a great deal on some prime real estate just a few miles east of Miami that I'd like to talk to you about!

Indeed, CJ teaches me every time I'm around him, and that's just one reason I love to spend time with him. But - notwithstanding his claims re: my alleged world-classness (I do agree with him about Mark and Al!) and his alleged averageness - CJ raises a number of important points that I want to "amen." Just two quick thoughts here, and then I'll wait with you to read CJ's follow-up post to "Inspired or Discouraged?"

First, I do not want to discourage any minister with these posts on reading. My aim is to encourage and inspire. I don't want to give any pastor the idea that he has to try to keep up with Mark's and Al's prodigious pace of reading. But I do want to commend their judgment as to what to read and their discipline in reading. So, amen to CJ's remarks on this count, and forgive me if I've been discouraging to any of you brothers in anything I've said.

Second, the important thing is that we read good books deeply and wisely, not that we read more than anyone else! All of us can aspire to the former, even if we shouldn't to the latter. None of us can read everything, but we can read more good books than we perhaps have been in the habit of reading in the past.

Thanks, CJ, for the perspective you've put on this discussion - yet another indication of your pastoral wisdom and discernment.

Tell me this hasn't been some great material from Mark, Al and Lig on reading! And Lig informs me that he still has 4 more posts on this topic for us. We should also commend whoever had the idea to ask these men the question about their practice of reading and study.

As we read about how these men devour books each day, I find it both inspiring and discouraging. I am inspired to read more and discouraged as I consider how little I've read and how much there is to read. And in order to protect you from the discouraging part, I thought it might help if I encouraged you to create a plan for your reading and study.

So here is my recommendation. First, don't compare yourself to Al, Mark and Lig. These men play in a different league than most of us, and they have gifting we simply don't have. I know, it doesn't seem fair, but you will have to take that up with God. So let us admire and be inspired by these men, but not aspire to be exactly like them. They have world-class gifting, and most of us, well, most of us aren't really world-class anything -- except world-class sinners, and this should leave us amazed by grace as we survey the wondrous cross.

But don't despair: I am here for you, representing all those who are just average. Average intellectually, average in gifting -- come to think of it, average in just about everything. And that's on a good day. However, this disparity in gifting is no excuse for the absence of discipline in our lives. And where there is a neglect of reading in the life of the pastor, there is often the presence of laziness and pride. I don't doubt that you are busy and that your to-do list appears endless. But it is possible to be very busy and yet very lazy, because we aren't busy doing that which is most important. There is a difference between busyness and effectiveness. The real question is: are you busy with various responsibilities of secondary importance, or are you attending each day to that which is most important? Much more could be said about this and if you want to read more on this topic just click here.

My friend Don Whitney makes a discerning observation in his excellent chapter, "Pursuing a Passion for God Through the Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards," in the book, A God Entranced Vision of All Things (edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor; I highly recommend both the chapter and the book). Let Don's insightful statement challenge and encourage you:

"We've not been given Edwards' gifts. It's useless to encourage anyone to imitate Edwards' mental ability. We can, however, regardless of our own intellectual capacity, imitate his discipline. We do not have to possess Edwards' intelligence to adopt his diligence. Regardless of how great or small our gifts and talents, our responsibility for 1 Timothy 4:7 remains: 'Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.' "

So let's accept the fact that we haven't been given Edwards' gifts, or Mohler's, or Dever's, or Duncan's. And even if you are a continuationist like me, you shouldn't pray for their gifts. If you don't already have them, you won't be getting them, anymore than Al or Mark will suddenly become athletically gifted. Not gonna happen, even if there is revival. Miracles like these await the new heavens and the new earth, my friend.

But just because we aren't as gifted, doesn't mean we can't imitate their discipline. And this should give us all hope. And this post has gone on too long, so we will continue this discussion in part 2.