March 25, 2011 by Tony Reinke
Categories: Newton | Pastoral ministry
March was an important month in the life of John Newton but not because of basketball. It was on March 21, 1748, that Newton and his ship encountered a massive storm on the open sea. It was the day he nearly drowned.
His survival was a miracle and Newton knew it. That terrifying experience awakened Newton to the wretchedness of his sin and began a process that would result in his eventual conversion.
God had saved a wretch, saved him first from the raging seas and then from God’s own righteous wrath. Each year on March 21 Newton celebrated God’s kindness, a practice he maintained for the remaining 59 years of his life.
For the six years following his near drowning at sea, Newton was an eagerly growing Christian but he was also, according to one biographer, a “solitary Christian,” trying to figure out the Christian life on his own. [1] That solitary experience ended during his final voyage in a most unlikely place: a four-week stop in the Caribbean islands. There he met another ship captain, Captain Alexander Clunie, an older man and a mature Christian. Clunie discipled Newton and later introduced him to a pastor and a church family in London.
Clunie and Newton, with a shared life at sea and a shared interest in the Savior, remained “inseparable soul mates” for the remainder of their lives. [2] It was to Captain Clunie that Newton turned to express the challenges and pressures of pastoral ministry, which brings me to the point of today’s blog post.
In a letter dated July 26, 1776, Newton writes the following in a letter to him:
How fast the weeks return! We are again upon the eve of a sabbath. May the Lord give us much of his own Spirit on his own day. I trust I have a remembrance in your prayers. I need them much: my service is great.
It is, indeed, no small thing to stand between God and the people, to divide the word of truth aright, to give every one portion, to withstand the counter tides of opposition and popularity, and to press those truths upon others, the power of which, I, at times, feel so little of in my own soul. A cold, corrupt heart is uncomfortable company in the pulpit.
Yet in the midst of all my fears and unworthiness, I am enabled to cleave to the promise, and to rely on the power of the great Redeemer. I know I am engaged in the cause against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. If He died and rose again, if He ever lives to make intercession, there must be safety under the shadow of his wings: there would I lie.
In his name I would lift up my banner; in his strength I would go forth, do what He enables me, then take shame to myself that I can do no better, and put my hand upon my mouth, confessing that I am dust and ashes—less than the least of all his mercies.
Those honest words from Newton offer a glimpse into the struggle of a pastor’s soul.
Pastors…
- face a relentless repetition of pastoral responsibilities that come each week and culminate on Sunday
- struggle to rightly divide Scripture with every sermon
- strive to withstand the temptations that accompany opposition
- struggle against the temptations that accompany popularity and success
- earnestly long to see the truth of the gospel affect cold hearts
- themselves face the reality that they often carry a cold heart of their own into the pulpit with them
In this brief letter we see a glimpse of the pastoral task. It’s a glimpse that should humble us, make us thankful to God for the pastors who serve our souls each week, and remind us to pray for them.
Tony Reinke serves as the editorial and research assistant to C.J. Mahaney. Reading Newton’s Mail is a series of blog posts reflecting on various published letters written by John Newton (1725–1807), the onetime captain of a slave trading ship—a self-described apostate, blasphemer, and infidel, who was eventually converted by grace. Newton is most famous for authoring the hymn “Amazing Grace,” or maybe for helping William Wilberforce put an end to the African slave trade in Britain. Less legendarily, Newton faithfully pastored two churches for 43 years, a fruitful period of his life when a majority of his letters were written. Reading Newton’s Mail is published on Fridays here on the Cheap Seats blog.
Primary source letter: Letters of John Newton (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth: 1869, 2007), 60–61. Secondary sources: [1] Jonathan Aitken, John Newton (Crossway, 2008), 123. [2] Ibid, 124.