January 25, 2012 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: News
What follows is the letter I wrote in response to today's announcement from the Sovereign Grace Ministries Board.
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Dear Friends,
The only appropriate place to begin this letter is by expressing my gratefulness. My heart is filled with gratitude to God for all who are involved in Sovereign Grace Ministries, who have trusted God and patiently endured a difficult season in our history. First, I want to thank the interim board. These men were handed a most unexpected and unappealing assignment, and for the past six months they have served and sacrificed on behalf of all of us in Sovereign Grace. I simply cannot thank these men enough. Many thanks are also due to the wives and children of the board members for supporting them during this challenging time. And I want to thank the panelists who accepted a most unenviable assignment requiring countless hours of complex and concentrated work. Finally, I want to thank each of the pastors and each of the members of Sovereign Grace churches for your patience and trust in God during this process. I know it has been a difficult and confusing time for many of you. And I am sorry for the challenge it has presented to our pastors—the men I respect the most—and the members of our churches—precious ones for whom Christ died and for whom we have the great privilege to serve. I deeply regret where my mistakes, leadership deficiencies, and sins contributed to the relational conflicts detailed in these reports. And I am truly grateful for your support throughout this trying time. So with all my heart I want to say thank you.
Over the last six months I’ve spent many hours reflecting upon Sovereign Grace, our history together, and our purpose and mission. I’ve also taken time to think and pray about my calling and how I might best serve Sovereign Grace in this new season before us. I have sought counsel from friends and leaders within SGM and in the broader evangelical church. There is much work for SGM to do in the years ahead, and I want to do all I can to make this work fruitful. The opportunities for church planting in this country and throughout the world are numerous. The requests we receive for help exceed our resources. And one can’t help but be excited about the immediate future given the present Pastors College class and the church planting ventures we have planned for the next few years.
In light of all of this, here is how I think I can best serve you in the days ahead: as I step back into the role as president, I will do so only temporarily. I think it would be wise for SGM to have a new president who has gifts better suited to serve Sovereign Grace in this next season. I love SGM and I want the best for SGM. Lord willing, I look forward to serving SGM more effectively in a different role. So my return will be temporary and with a few important intentions. Let me briefly explain what they are. First, I want to give immediate attention to helping the interim board transfer governance to their successors. In 2010 we began considering how to expand the SGM board and better define their role in evaluating and overseeing the president. Now that the interim board has served its purpose, it is time for us to complete the transition to a more permanent expanded board. I look forward to seeing this process through and benefitting from the leadership that an expanded board will provide for Sovereign Grace. Despite the many evidences of grace in our midst, I’m aware of a number of present weaknesses in SGM and some past failings; as our president, I take full responsibility for these and I am grateful that with a new board in place we can together continue to address these issues. Second, once the new board is formed I want to assist them however I can in identifying and installing my successor as president, although that decision will be for the board to make. There are a few other matters I want to address in my remaining time as president, all of which is subject to the priorities that the board establishes for me. But I hope these primary goals can be accomplished within the next few months.
After supporting the board through these important transitions, I hope to return to what I believe is my primary calling from God – pastoral ministry and the pulpit. This plays a significant role in why my return as president is temporary. Let me explain. I think preaching and pastoral ministry are where grace is most evident in my life and where my leadership is most effectively expressed. Others seem to agree. And I think I have neglected this call to preach for a number of years as I have endeavored to serve as president. Over the past five years many faithful friends have brought this concern to my attention and impressed upon me the importance of preaching as a primary means of my serving and leading. However moved I was by their concerns and encouragement, the many responsibilities of the presidential role would quickly preoccupy me again and the effect of their counsel would subside. Over the past six months I have seen more clearly than ever the wisdom of their counsel. So I think the most effective way I can serve Sovereign Grace is by planting a church and leading a local congregation through faithful expository preaching and teaching, as well as serving Sovereign Grace in other tasks and roles the board might recommend for me. I also hope to continue to serve the broader church where strategic opportunity and invitation present themselves, as I have with my good friends in Together for the Gospel. I simply can’t wait to get started. And I can proceed into this future confidently when our new board and president are in place. So that is what I am returning to do and why my return as president will be temporary. I would be most grateful for your support in prayer in this season of transition.
For the past 30 years God has been merciful to Sovereign Grace Ministries. This is the theological explanation for any fruitfulness in SGM. And He has not ceased to be merciful to us during this challenging season. His mercy has been evident in countless ways. I wish there was space to rehearse them for you. In God’s gracious providence I believe much good and growth will come from this season that will serve us as we move forward, as well as serve a future generation we won’t live to see. God is sovereign, good and wise, and His good purpose for His church and for our small contribution to the advance of the gospel cannot ultimately be frustrated. And now I look forward to a new season where we give ourselves to proclaiming the gospel, planting and supporting churches, and caring for pastors in the 22 countries where we presently serve, as well as the different parts of the world God may call us to serve in the days ahead. So let me conclude where I began, by expressing my gratefulness to you. Thank you for making this mission possible by the way you serve in your local church and support SGM. Thank you. It is an unspeakable honor and joy to serve the Savior with you and be numbered among you.
With my gratefulness for each of you,
C.J.
Many of you have kindly inquired about my leave of absence and how I will be spending my time during this season. Before I give you an update, I want to take this moment to thank each of you who have expressed your encouragement and your support in prayer.
Some of you have asked where I will be attending church during my leave. That’s a good question, as it’s not uncommon for pastors to take a leave in a church that is away from their home congregations, and this seems wise. During my leave of absence I will be attending Capitol Hill Baptist Church where Mark Dever is the senior pastor. After seeking counsel about this decision, I’ve concluded that this is the best place for Carolyn and me to receive care and counsel, to examine my life and leadership, and to consider my future during this season of reflection. I want to learn all I can during this season, and I pray that this time will benefit not only me but Sovereign Grace as well.
Mark and I have a rich history of friendship. I met Mark thirteen years ago and since then we have become very close friends. Mark has been not only a unique friend but also a mentor to me. I want to continue to take advantage of our friendship and his mentoring as much as possible during this time, benefiting from Mark’s unique pastoral wisdom and his gift of leadership. I am deeply grateful for his kindness and this opportunity. Actually, other than my wife Carolyn and those with whom I have served closely in Sovereign Grace Ministries, no one has had more influence on my life in the last ten years than Mark.
This leave of absence from my role as president of SGM will allow me the time necessary to process the valuable feedback I have received (and continue to receive), and to devote time to consider how I can best serve Sovereign Grace Ministries in the future. I’m seeking and benefiting from the advice of the SGM board and a number of leaders in the broader church—men I admire and who have become my friends over the years. I am approaching this task without making any assumptions or presuming upon any particular outcome. By God’s grace and the kindness of these men I am not lacking wise counsel as I seek to discern the will of God about how I might most effectively serve when this leave of absence concludes.
So for those who have kindly asked, I hope this information is helpful. I deeply appreciate the encouragement and support of so many at this time. I simply do not know how to adequately express this, but I trust you feel my deep gratefulness for your support. And I would appreciate your prayers, given the importance of the decisions before me and their impact on Sovereign Grace Ministries, the pastors I respect the most and the people of our churches for whom I have the deepest affection.
Finally, many of you know that this spring Dave Harvey, Jeff Purswell, and I were invited to speak at a pastors conference in the Dominican Republic. We are currently in Santo Domingo and the conference (Por Su Causa 2011) begins tomorrow morning. Please pray for us and for this very strategic conference. Earlier, during this same trip Jeff and I, along with Al Pino, visited the pastors that Sovereign Grace Ministries are honored to serve in Cuba. I was deeply humbled by the men and women I met, all of whom display remarkable joy and trust in God. I believe we will be sharing more about this trip on the Plant & Build blog later. In the meantime, please pray for our friends in Cuba and the Dominican Republic and for our friend Al Pino, who represents Sovereign Grace in our work with these remarkable saints. Please pray that Christ would be glorified in their midst and the gospel would go forth in these countries.
With gratefulness,
C.J.
July 6, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: News
From from Dave Harvey: Please see "A note about online confessions" for an explanation of why I removed the original content of this blog post.
June 23, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Gender
As promised, here's an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung’s message “Who Am I? Humanity in the Eyes of the World and the Christian” from the 2011 Next conference. Here’s the first excerpt, on gender roles, personal identity, and why husbands must not be dictators or doormats:
The world says you are free to create yourself. God says, “You are created to reflect my image.”
What does it mean to be in God’s image? It means we have a certain resemblance to God with our intelligence, our appreciation for beauty, our rationality, and in our capacity for worship and language. It means we represent God, that we have dominion over creation as rulers, as stewards, as those called to cultivate. It means that we are relational beings, interacting with God and with each other so that the image of God consists in these relational virtues of knowledge and righteousness and holiness.
Listen to Colossians 3:9–10: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Likewise, Ephesians 4:24 says, “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” So the restored image of God shows us what sort of image bearers we are. We are those who have the righteousness and holiness that is characteristic of God himself.
Now the world says, “You are not created for divine exaltation. You are here for self-exploration. You are not made to be stamped with a divine impression, but you are here to spend your life on self-expression.”
So we have all these commercials.
Cingular at least used to say, “Express yourself.”
Dr. Pepper, “Be you.”
I am thankful for the Army, but the Army got in on it with, “An army of one.” I don’t know a lot, but what I learned from playing Risk is that even if you have your army of one Kamchatka—you’re gone. You need more.
Our world tells us you are a blank slate. Whatever you choose to paint on the canvas of your life will be beautiful because you painted it. That is what the world says.
Now common sense tells us this does not work in any other area of life. Try it when you have a job selling refrigerators and you don’t sell a single one, and you get fired and you tell your boss, “But I believe in myself.” And he is going to tell you, “Believe in yourself and get somebody else to pay you for it.”
One of the most dangerous areas where we see this self-exploration and self-creation is in the area of gender. In the world’s eyes there is no male/female, masculine/feminine gender. Gender is just cultural, social constructs, antiquated concepts better to be just disregarded, relics of an oppressive, less enlightened past.
But I hope you see how patently unbiblical this is.
“From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6).
And we see already in Genesis before the fall that there were distinct, yet complimentary, roles for men and women. Man was given as the name of the human race and he was the one to whom God gave the command. He was the one to be accountable.
Have you ever noticed that after Eve sins by taking a bite of the fruit, who does God first address? Adam. He was to be responsible. And yet he abdicated the very authority that he was supposed to lovingly exercise. And Eve, contrary to design, usurped her husband’s authority.
When you come to Ephesians 5:25 you find the overarching command for the husband to love his wife. The women may think, “Well, that is lame. The husband just gets kind of a freebie. I mean, we have all got to love. I have got to respect and submit.”
No, there is a reason that the husband is told to love in this unique way as the head of his household. It is because the male propensity to sin is to either be a dictator or a doormat. And both are abdications of our responsibility to love. And the woman, her overarching command is to submit to her husband or to respect her husband because, twisted by the fall, her point of sinful inclination is to usurp her husband’s authority.
God has designed us male and female and it is not simply God’s design as his image bearers, but it is actually the way in which the world works best.…
I must stop, but Kevin continues to develop this point in his message, which you can listen to here.
June 22, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Conferences | Sermons
I appreciated and benefitted from all the messages at the Next 2011 conference in Orlando. I would encourage you to set aside some time to listen to all of the messages (you’ll find the main sessions here and the breakout sessions here). But if listening to all these messages is not possible, I would particularly commend Kevin DeYoung’s message, “Who Am I? Humanity in the Eyes of the World and the Christian.”
Kevin structured his message to answer five important questions about ourselves:
- Are we here by chance or by design?
- Are we free to create ourselves or to reflect God's image?
- Are we basically good or fundamentally flawed?
- Are we ethically excusable or morally culpable?
- Are we destined for a happy heaven or a blessed extinction, or are we on the way to heaven or hell?
Kevin summarized his conclusions to these questions like this:
Here are two views of the human person:
According to the world we are here by chance, free to create our own self, basically good, ethically excusable, and destined for a happy heaven or a blessed extinction.
According to God we are here by design, created to reflect God’s image, fundamentally flawed, morally culpable, and destined to worship God in heaven or face his wrath in hell.
You can listen to the whole message here.
Over the next couple of days on the blog I plan to post a few choice excerpts from Kevin’s message.
June 8, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 12 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
On the last day there will be a parade of ordinary men, whose names you have never heard, who will hear the following from the Savior: “Well done, good and faithful pastor.”
This parade will include men like Tom Carson.
At the conclusion to the biography of his father, Don Carson writes these words:
Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.
When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.
But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.*
Pastor, if you find yourself weary and discouraged, meditate on that day. Ponder Paul’s description of the day that is coming for all ordinary pastors who love Christ’s appearing. God himself, with countless reasons to condemn us, will instead commend us—all because of the perfect life and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ.
That is extraordinary grace for ordinary pastors.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, 147–148.
June 7, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 11 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
At the outset of this passage (2 Timothy 4:1–5), Paul informs Timothy that he gives this charge in the presence of God (“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus”) and in light of the final Day of Judgment (“who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom”). Paul wants Timothy to be motivated by an eternal perspective.
During a recent NCAA college basketball tournament, I read the following excerpt from a press conference with Bob Huggins, coach of the West Virginia University basketball team:
Predictably, the first question Huggins was asked after his team’s victory had to do with how he felt about being one step from the Final Four so many years after his first—and only—trip to college basketball’s promised land.
“I never look back,” he said, deadpan as always. “I’ve just never been that way.”
Then he told a story. “When I was a kid growing up in West Virginia, I went to play one day,” he said. “I got in a pickup truck in Midvale with a guy and I noticed that he didn’t have a rearview mirror. I said to the guy, ‘Hey, there’s no rearview mirror.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Boy, we ain’t goin’ backwards.’ That’s the way I’ve lived my life."*
There is no rearview mirror in this passage, either. Paul draws Timothy’s attention to the future.
Paul had fulfilled this charge, and he eagerly anticipated his reward: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day” (v. 8). Those are truly remarkable words. Paul is absolutely certain that he will receive a crown of righteousness.
The Last Day
Pastor, when you imagine the last day, what do you picture? When you contemplate a once-for-all evaluation of your life’s work, do you feel sufficient? Or as you imagine that day, do your failures rise up and accuse you?
It’s easy for us to imagine Paul being commended by the Savior. And it’s easy for us to imagine the extraordinary pastors we know of being commended on the last day. But for us ordinary pastors, what easily comes to mind is a long list of failures, shortcomings, and sin. So often I don’t expect to hear “Well done”—I expect to hear "Nice try."
Ordinary pastor, here’s what you can expect on the last day: a crown of righteousness. You—yes, you—can expect a commendation from the Savior.
Paul will undoubtedly receive commendation. But he writes, “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” I am so glad he says “not only to me, but also to all.” If he had just said “I will receive a reward,” I would have understood that. Of course Paul will be commended by the Savior! But the good news for ordinary pastors is this: the reward is not unique to Paul. All who have been faithful to this charge will receive their reward. If we are faithful to preach the Word, faithful to fulfill our ministry, and faithful to the Savior, we too can look forward to receiving the Savior’s commendation on the last day.
How can this be? How is it possible that I—who have sinned and so often fallen short—will receive this crown? So much in my life is unworthy of him.
This is where the shadow of the cross falls across this passage. This reward is only possible because of the cross, where sins are forgiven and the service of ordinary pastors is sanctified.
Stop for a moment and think about that day. On that last day there will be a parade of ordinary men, whose names you have never heard, who will hear the following from the Savior: “Well done, good and faithful pastor.”
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* John Feinstein, “Bob Huggins Leads West Virginia to a Big Victory in the Sweet 16,” Washington Post, March 26, 2010.
June 3, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 10 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
As Paul begins to summarize the pastoral call, he paints the picture this way: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). The pastor’s biography should be a simple one:
- he was sober-minded,
- endured suffering,
- did the work of an evangelist,
- fulfilled his ministry.
He is sober-minded, not like those described in verses 3 and 4 who are vulnerable to fads and trends. He is not seduced by novelty or religious innovation.
He also endures suffering. He understands that suffering isn’t rare; it’s the norm. He is not going to avoid it. If you are a faithful pastor, it’s going to happen: you’ll be the target of criticism from within the church and slander from without. You’ll be opposed by the world when you preach the gospel. And you won’t be exempt from the personal suffering that’s part of living in a fallen world—suffering that God will use to accomplish his purposes in your life. God wants you to be confident that he is at work through your suffering, so that you can endure it with a solid, not superficial, joy.
The pastor is to do the work of an evangelist. Even though Timothy is serving in an area where evangelism and church planting are taking place, Paul wants evangelism to remain a passion in his life. This is all too easy for pastors to neglect in their preaching and personal life.
These imperatives combine to make one point: fulfill your ministry. Be faithful. Discharge the full range of your responsibilities. Persevere until the task is complete. Regardless of opposition or apathy, regardless of apparent success or lack thereof, regardless of church size, regardless of suffering—fulfill your ministry.
For the duration of our lives and ministries, we are called to relentless faithfulness. Today, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Tomorrow, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Do it today and do it all again tomorrow, and do it all again the day after tomorrow. Keep doing the same things.
In a culture where innovation is paramount, and the calls to produce something new seduce not just the world but also the church, this is wisdom from above: pastor, just keep doing the same thing. No innovation needed. This is what Paul is charging Timothy, and God is charging us, to do: be faithful. Do the same thing. Don’t be distracted by what’s new. Fulfill your charge. And do it all again tomorrow.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
Part 9 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
So what are your expectations of those you serve?
Let me recommend a few realistic expectations.
First, I think you should be amazed that those who heard you preach last Sunday come back—and even at times bring guests. No one should be more amazed than the ordinary pastor when people return. Why should I be amazed? Because I preached last Sunday! “If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons,” Spurgeon said, “it would be a righteous judgment upon them, and they would soon cry out with Cain, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear.’”* Keep that in mind when you think about your church. We should be grateful they come back.
Second, we should be grateful they stay awake while we are preaching! Here’s something I find great encouragement in: Jonathan Edwards had to address people who were falling asleep in his church. J.I. Packer describes it this way:
In a sermon weightily titled “When the Spirit of God Has Been Remarkably Poured out on a People, a Thorough Reformation of Those Things That Were Before Amiss Amongst Them Ought to Be the Effect of It,” Edwards speaks against sleeping in church and urges that “persons would avoid laying down their bodies in their seats in the midst of public worship."**
I cannot imagine the sight. Edwards looks out during public worship and there is nothing subtle about it: people are stretched out. Edwards did not deserve this. I deserved Northampton; Edwards deserved Covenant Life Church. I can find more than sufficient reason for gratitude in the fact that those in my church—most of them, anyway—stay awake while I am preaching.
If I have realistic expectations of my church, it will be easy for me to be patient even when they (like me) grow slowly.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* C.H. Spurgeon, “The Necessity of Ministerial Progress,” in Lectures to My Students, vol. 2, Lectures, Second Series (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1881; Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1990), 28.
** J.I. Packer, “The Glory of God and the Reviving of Religion: A Study in the Mind of Jonathan Edwards,” in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, ed. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 84n9.
June 1, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 8 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
Sanctification is a process—an extremely slow process—for us all. Comprehending truth, applying truth, mortifying indwelling sin, cultivating the fruit of the Spirit—it’s a process that usually takes place by small increments over a lifetime. Normally, people don’t grow dramatically as the result of a single sermon or sermon series. And neither do you. Look at it this way: for ordinary pastors, the slow process of sanctification is a form of job security.
Too often I expect those I serve to comprehend and apply God’s Word quickly when it has taken me many years. I easily forget how much time my theological journey has taken. I am glad John Newton didn’t forget. As a wise and a patient pastor, he recognized this truth. He wrote,
I have been thirty years forming my own views; and, in the course of this time, some of my hills have sunk, and some of my valleys have risen: but, how unreasonable would it be to expect all this should take place in another person; and that, in the course of a year or two.*
So let me ask you: ordinary pastor, what are your expectations of those you serve? Are you patient with them? Or do you expect them to comprehend quickly what took you years to grasp? Understanding truth takes place slowly and gradually. And applying it takes place slowly and gradually. That is why our preaching must be accompanied with “complete patience” (2 Timothy 4:2).
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Author: And General Remarks on His Life, Connections, and Character, in The Works of the Rev. John Newton, 3rd ed. (London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1820; Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985), 1:101.