Thursday, March 06, 2008

Double Honor (resurrected from 2007)

"...He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' And [Peter] said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Tend My sheep..'" - John 21:17

An Introduction

To put things in moderate terms, there has been a persistent desire in my heart ever since the Shepherds' Conference (I will explain what that is) to write this post and express not only my appreciation for pastors in general but also touch on the enormous weight of ministry that I felt just by participating in two of the night sessions as a layperson who aspires to be in ministry. After being tempted during many late nights to abandon sleep just so i can write about this topic... here I am, 3 weeks after the fact, finally scratching that itch in my mind/heart that I've displaced deep within that cloudy blurb called....finals. ah, but the events and the sentiments are so fresh that they almost seem to have occurred just last night.

It has always been a treasured tradition for Grace Community Church to sponsor Shepherds' Conference every year. The purpose of the conference is to build up the men who have spent their lives building up the churches in which they serve: through offering the pastors and their staff a wide variety of ministry-related seminars; supplying them with theological resources for their studies at a low/no cost; encouraging them with a strong dosage of their own medicine, the Word of God, taught by America's most faithful and renown expositors- John MacArthur, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, R.C. Sproul, and many other men throughout the years. You can imagine the magnitude of the conference not only in the sheer number of its attendees, but the awe for the Word of God this type of conference draws from both the shepherds and the laity of God's true church.


Why I LOVE the Shepherds' Conference

I have to be honest. I would MUCH rather hear 3000 men sing praises and hymns than to hear 3000 women do the same. Not to say women do not have beautiful voices, but I think there is some unexplainable affinity that human ears have towards the masculine-human-sound portion of the audible frequencies. I believe it's the same reason why the cello is such a popular instrument for a wide range of audiences who generally don't have much knowledge of music, because the cello performs at a similar range as the male human voice. Furthermore, if you've studied biology, you might know that the audible sounds to the human ear ranges from 20 Hz to 20 kHz; but did you know that the human ear is most inclined or most "tuned" to the frequency of the human voice? In other words, if there were a bunch of sounds withing 20-20k Hz playing next to your ear, you would hear the human voice most clearly. I think that's amazing.

Anyway, the reason i bring up this point is not to discourage all female vocalists, but to express my love for the part of Shepherds' Conference where the whole worship center of men sing in unison as an act of worship. I will explain why the corporate singing time is my favorite part Shepherds' Conference. Ok fine, besides the preaching.... As a curteous act of hosts, the non-attendees are asked to view the conference through closed-circuit TV in other rooms on the church campus, so in all three of my Shepherds' Conference experiences, I was only able to watch a digital projection of the pastors singing and hear the melodies of their heart filtered by artificial speakers. But even still, every hymn and every song was an exhilarating experience of worship to me. No, it is not simply based on my forementioned acoustico-aesthetic appreciation of the male voice, but it is because I think that outside of heaven, there is probably no other congregation who can sing with such deep conviction of the truth in their lives, who can utter humbling words with such a clear view of their own sin, who can echo along in their hearts the resounding greatness of grace, than a group of pastors.

My ears perceived 3000 voices that evening, but in my mind I can only imagine all the sin-revealing/grace-abounding events from 3000 hard-laboring lives that might stimulate such magnificent praise. I am sure that the pastors cherished those sweet moments of ministerial comradery: these men share the same desire to deepen their church members' love for Christ while they trained themselves to preach the written Word by loving the incarnate Word; these men yearn for the same experience of worship and sanctification; perhaps they share the same tears and scars earned from ministry, many sleepless nights over a soul or a convicting verse; they share the joy derived from answered prayers and repentent hearts; they share the understanding of God's command to love their families above their ministries; they share the same aching back and dry eyes from long hours of studying; they share the same temptations that comes through ministry; they share in the gravitas of the call to ministry; they share in struggling to be ready in and out of season; they share the same spiritual armor in the good fight. (I appreciate the conversation that Sarah Kang and I had in the car on the way to the conference. As a fellow PK, she has a very disillusioned but positive outlook on pastoral ministry. I must acknowledge her input into my thinking as well)

When a pastor who has shepherded a church for 20 years sings these words below (a hymn sung at the 2007 Shepherds' Conference), he expresses praise, thankfulness, and committment in a completely different context as you and I (the laity) might ever be able to sing. Think about it.

  1. Take my life and let it be
    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
    Take my hands and let them move
    At the impulse of Thy love.
  2. Take my feet and let them be
    Swift and beautiful for Thee;
    Take my voice and let me sing,
    Always, only for my King.
  3. Take my lips and let them be
    Filled with messages from Thee;
    Take my silver and my gold,
    Not a mite would I withhold.
  4. Take my moments and my days,
    Let them flow in endless praise;
    Take my intellect and use
    Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
  5. Take my will and make it Thine,
    It shall be no longer mine;
    Take my heart, it is Thine own,
    It shall be Thy royal throne.
  6. Take my love, my Lord, I pour
    At Thy feet its treasure store;
    Take myself and I will be
    Ever, only, all for Thee.
My friends, pastors are NOT ordinary people. Pastors are NOT simply Christians who score better on some imaginary ministry aptitude test. Pastors are NOT in ministry primarily because they are incompetent in the secular work force. They are NOT necessarily godlier people, but they DO deserve double the honor you should give to any human being, as it is commanded in Scripture (1 Timothy 5:17). So, take a moment and think of a pastor you know and love, and pray for him! If you go to Grace On Campus, the next time you see Justin McKitterick, tell him you appreciate him! If you are a girl, give Juli a hug when you see her and tell her you appreciate her support for Justin!

I hope we all want to get recordings of the Shepherds' Conference singing now. haha.
Maybe now you understand why I love Shepherds' Conference so much! (I'll let you in on a little secret dream I have. One day, I hope to stand at the first row of the worship center during the Shepherds' Conference as an attendee and let the live singing of 3000 men behind me blast me into exuberating worship!!)

Extrabiblical Pastor Stereotype/Qualifications(?)

on a less serious note... from growing up as a pastor's son, interacting with a lot of my dad's pastor friends, observing the men at the Shepherd's Conference, and just knowing my own pastors, it seems to me that ALL pastors have certain intangible traits about them. Wouldn't you agree?? So here's my attempt to make the intangible tangible. It obviously isn't going to fit 100% of your pastors... but I think it quite accurate to a very comical extent.
  1. All pastors wear cologne- Good-smelling cologne. You would be convinced of this if you were standing outside of the worship center with 3000 men around you.
  2. All pastors can sing well- perhaps this is some special gift. You would be convinced of this if you stood next to any singing pastor. He is either has an amazing voice, is harmonizing, or just sounds like the manliest man you've ever known.
  3. All pastors have a great sense of humor- have you ever met a pastor who doesn't crack jokes?? I mean, the jokes actually turning out to be funny is a different thing but, all pastors can either crack great jokes or can take jokes real well. If he can't, he probably hasn't been a pastor for very long.
  4. All pastors marry amazing women- This is perhaps the truest item on the list. Behind every hard working pastor who is respected by his flock there is an even harder working pastor's wife who actually helps him keep his life together. She serves tirelessly at church potlucks and attracts the praise and respect of all the women in the church. Maybe being a pastor's wife causes the woman to be amazing. either way, she is amazing.
  5. All pastors have great smiles- Ministry deals with people, and when dealing with people, the Bible commands us to love. Experienced pastors are never depressed, but they always seem to have a constant and calm smile on their face. It must be because they have learned to love people when they are most unlovable. The smile has gotta be a sign of this "God-taught love" written in 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
  6. All pastors are/were athletes- Except for maybe John Piper. How many times have you challenged your pastor to a friendly game of whatever... and he thoroughly dominated you? I'm not saying it has to be a very popular sport, but somehow at the end of the day you will hear stories of how he was once the state champ of this and that in his youth. it could be anything like football, basketball, wrestling, badminton, ping pong, chess, etc.
  7. All pastors have 10 million ties- this is because they pretty much only receive ties for gifts... some of them are straight up ugly and you know it. So if you want your pastor to look good, buy him nicer ties!
Thinking about becoming a pastor now? : )



"It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." - 1 Timothy 3:1