The Bible and only the Bible is the ultimate and infallible spiritual authority in the lives of believers. We have fought a series of skirmishes over the infallibility of Scripture.

But, who today believes as Calvin did? Who today treats the Bible as Calvin did? Who today thinks that the Bible opened in the pulpit is a lit stick of dynamite, one that mere mortals are ordained to just throw out into the world? How many preachers have sermons on file that they would not dare to preach without purchasing some extra life insurance first?

More preachers ought to ascend into the pulpit with the look that Wylie Coyote had on his face when he was just handed the anvil.

Spurgeon used to walk up the stairs to his pulpit, and every step he would say “I believe in the Holy Spirit”, “I believe in the Holy Spirit”…Now why was this? Is this because Spurgeon had butterflies? Why is Saint Paul after many years in ministry asking believers of his day to pray for boldness so that he could preach the Word? Why his he praying for boldness? It is not because Paul struggled with stage fright. That’s not why. He knew what happened when he preached the Word.

There was an Anglican cleric who said famously, “you know wherever the Apostle Paul went, there was either a revival or a riot. Everywhere I go they serve tea.”

-Douglas Wilson, From his talk, The Sacred Script in the Theater of God, given at the 2009 Desiring God National Conference.

With so much talk about who Southern Baptists really are historically and what theological stream we fall into (or are birthed from), I am inclined to remind us all that we are neither Calvinist nor Arminian nor even are we all somewhere in between. Emir Caner’s recent essay that can be found in the Christian Index on Daniel Marshall and Kiokee Baptist Church (which I have visited) traces the Sandy Creek tradition from North Carolina into Georgia and essentially makes the argument that from the beginning, Southern Baptists have been descendants of Anabaptists and have been a theological hybrid who’s only ardent theological perspective was the perseverance of the believer.

Though well written and done so specifically for the Georgia Baptist Convention, all (including Caner I have no doubt) know and agree that Southern Baptists are and have been formed not only from the Sandy Creek tradition, but from the Charleston tradition as well.  The fact remains that we as Southern Baptists are an eclectic blend of staunchly reformed stiffs and free wheeling almost Arminians.  We cannot be packaged into a neat theological box, but we must find the things upon which we can agree, and that must be evangelical faith.

To be Southern Baptist is to be more than our Theological perspectives, but it must never be less. Certainly, there is room in our tradition for varying theological convictions, but must there continue to be room for theological wars. There is room for Baptist churches who extend an alter call and there are multitudes of people who have been saved in this kind of tradition, but there is also room for churches who have no alter call. After all, tons of people have come to know Christ without an alter call as well.

Timothy George’s presentation from the Union University Baptist Identity Conference in 2007 has been referenced on this site before and I will point to it again as a great place to begin a conversation for reconciliation in SBC circles.

Further, I wonder what could be accomplished if we of different theological stripes spoke to one another rather than about one another or if we could focus on our agreements rather than our differences.

Spurgeon is always a safe model to look to. He was an ardent evangelist, a strict biblicist, an advocate for church autonomy, a scholar, and (gasp) a Calvinist. Spurgeon didn’t practice an alter call, he prepared his sermons on Saturday nights (and didn’t preach through books of the Bible), he smoked cigars, and impacted the world with the gospel. Spurgeon was the Prince of Preachers, yet his reformed theology did not some how make him less evangelical, nor did it cause him to separate from godly preachers who held to different theological convictions–he even opened his pulpit to D.L. Moody and had a great friendship with the fiery evangelist.

Could Spurgeon have been a Southern Baptist? I hope so, but I’m not sure he would be welcomed in many circles–Small church pastors would be weary b/c the Tabernacle is too big, traditionalists would be offended because he is too animated, academics would call him crass, non-Calvinists would have called him unevangelical, and many Calvinists would question his passionate pleading to lost sinners (we better not even speak of the cigars). Seriously folks, if Spurgeon wouldn’t fit in, are we really where we ought to be?

May we come together for the sake of the gospel and in so doing let us not be arrogant about what the gospel is (see Bill Streger’s blog, Gospel-Centered Legalism). The gospel is a historical fact and event that we can all agree upon. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, was killed by evil sinful men and suffered that death for our sin, was buried in a borrowed tomb, rose on the third day, and ascended to the right hand of the Father where he sits as our advocate today. The world is lost and dying and the SBC is not making an impact. Let’s wake up and rally around the gospel for the sake of the lost world around us. Spurgeon did, and the world is better for it.

Many hearers lose much blessing through criticizing too much, and meditating too little; and many more incur great sin by calumniating those who live for the good of others. True pastors have enough of care and travail without being burdened by undeserved and useless fault-finding. We have something better to do than to be for ever answering every malignant or frivolous slander which is set afloat to injure us…there are tender, loving spirits who feel the trial very keenly, and are sadly hindered in brave service by cruel assaults. The rougher and stronger among us laugh at those who ridicule us, but upon others the effect is very sorrowful…

As ministers we are very far from being perfect, but many of us are doing our best, and we are grieved that the minds of our people should be more directed to our personal imperfections than to our divine message…

Filled with the same spirit of contrariety, the men of this world still depreciate the ministers whom God sends them and profess that they would gladly listen if different preachers could be found. Nothing can please them, their cavils are dealt out with heedless universality. Cephas is too blunt, Apollos is too flowery, Paul is too argumentative, Timothy is too young, James is too severe, John is too gentle…

Well then, let each servant of God tell his message in his own way. To his own Master he shall stand or fall…Judge the preacher if you like, but do remember that there is something better to be done than that, namely, to get all the good you can out of him, and pray his Master put more good into him.

-C.H. Spurgeon, quoted in Mark Driscoll, Religion Saves.

I’d like to think that reading is truly a spiritual discipline. We certainly know that’s the truth when we think of the Bible. As preachers and teachers of God’s Word, we should constantly be reading, studying, and applying the Bible to our lives and within our ministries. But, we don’t just read the Bible, do we? Today’s generation has more books, articles, blogs , tweets, reviews (such as this one), updates, etc. than any other previous generation. Unfortunately, I think that this plethora of information keeps us continually focused on reading new books, looking for new ideas, and listening to new people. Sometimes we may just need to reread and apply a book we’ve read before. That’s the experience I recently had with Spiritual Leadership, from J. Oswald Sanders. This book is among John Maxwell’s favorites, so it can’t be a miss. I had a chance to read it seven or eight years ago and decided recently to reread it. I’m glad I did. The leadership principles and truths have been intensely relevant and convicting to my understanding and practice of leadership . Let me share a few with you.  

• “Example is much more potent than precept” (page 41).
• “True leadership is always from the top down, never from the bottom up. It was leadership from the rear that led Israel back into the wilderness” (page 113).
• “Wesley told the younger ministers of the Methodist societies to read or get out of the ministry” (page 102). “’One reason why people are unable to understand great Christian classics is that they are trying to understand without any intention of obeying them’” (from A.W. Tozer page 102-3). “’In reading let your motto be “much, not many”’” (from Spurgeon page 106).
• “In most decisions the key is not so much knowing what to do, but in living with the results” (page 59).
• “If done ‘as God wants,’ then leadership will surely include intercessory prayer” (page. 49).

Maybe it would be a good idea for you to read or reread a book. One on your reading list ought to be Spiritual Leadership.

Even in little things the minister should take care that his life is consistent with his ministry.  He should be especially careful never to fall short of his word.  This should be pushed even to scrupulosity; we cannot be too careful; truth must not only be in us, but shine from us.

-C.H. Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1954), 20.

I recently finished Preaching Christ, by Charles P. McIlvaine, who was a pastor and eventually the chaplain at West Point, in addition to a variety of other accomplishments.  This book was filled with quotable quotes from McIlvaine, who authored this initially as a charge delivered to the clergy of the Diocese of Ohio in June 1863. 

Though many nuggets of wisdom and truth abound in this small volume (just Search McIlvaine on this site and you will discover many quotes), I found it a dreadfully slow read and at times difficult to follow.  However, it was not all bad.  Take for instance the jewels that are the quotes below:

It is very possible to preach a great deal of important religious truth, and so that there shall be no admixture of imporant error in doctrine or precept–yea, truth having an important relation to Christ and his office–and yet not to preach Christ…Religious truths are not the gospel, except as, like John the Baptist, they point to the Lamb of God.

The best chapter in the book was actually not written by McIlvaine, but was the first sermon preached by C.H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle included in this volume by the good people at Banner of Truth.  As one considers the subject of Preaching Christ, there may not be a better teacher outside of Holy writ than Spurgeon himself, and in his first sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he lays a foundation and vision for the ministry of the building that will revolve solely in, on, and around the person of Jesus Christ.  Spurgeon warns against doctrinal preaching that is neither experimental (experiential in our own day would probably be a better word) nor practical:

Must I not, if I preach Christ personally, preach his doctrines?  I believe they are nothing but the natural outgrowht of that great root thought, or root substance rather, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He who will preach Christ fully will never be lax in doctrine…And what better experience can you preach than in preaching Christ…And what better practice can be preached than preaching Christ…He cannot fail, then, to be a good doctrinal, experimental, practical preacher who preaches Christ.

Spurgeon also takes a pot-shot at those of his day (and some in our own) who ride their particular doctrinal hobby horse to death while neglecting the whole counsel of God and specifically the crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected Lord who sits today at the right hand of the Father:

The only variety some ministers give, is one Sunday to have depravity, election, and perseverance and the next Sunday, election, perseverance, and depravity.  There are many strings tot he harp of the gospel.  Tehre are some brethren who are so rightly charmed with five strings, which certainly have very rich music in them, that they never meddle with any of the other strings; cobwebs hang on the rest while these five are pretty worn out. 

We will do well to preach Christ and to remember that preaching Christ is not bound up in the preaching of the gospels.  Christ is preached from Genesis to Revelation and, as Spurgeon once said, there is always a road in the Word that leads to Christ.  It is the responsibility of the gospel preacher to always point men and women to Christ and him crucified.

Charles Spurgeon is one of the best preachers in the history of the church and is arguably the best preacher of the last two centuries.  However, his expositional legacy is not the only thing that Spurgeon taught and left behind.  Larry J. Michael shows in Spurgeon on Leadership, that many of the leadership principles practiced by Spurgeon in growing a monumental ministry can and should be replicated and practiced today.

Spurgeon had an incredible work ethic and an uncanny ability to multi-task.  In addition to leading his family well (they had family devotions nightly), Spurgeon was the “father” to hundreds of children who came through the orphanage he founded, he was regularly involved in the pastors college, he preached constantly, and was known to write as many as 500 letters per week (hand-written with a quill).  Spurgeon was also a visionary pastor who’s vision revolved around the purposes of God:

If we do not see souls saved today or tomorrow, we will still work on…We are laboring for eternity, and we count not our work by each day’s advance, as men measure theirs; it is God’s work, and must be measured by His standard.  Be ye well assured that, when time, and things created, and all that oppose themselves to the Lord’s truth, shall be gone, every earnest sermon preached, and every importunate prayer offered, and every form of Christian service honestly rendered, shall remain embedded in the might structure which God from all eternity has resolved to raise to His own honor.

A great leader and organizer was Spurgeon without a doubt, but his ultimate goal in all of his endeavors was not to lead well, but to see sinners saved and God glorified.  I am concerned that some Christian leaders of today have gotten so consumed with “leadership,” that they have missed the ultimate goal of God’s glory.  Spurgeon was never over impressed with his leadership because he knew that leading was not the end game, it was merely the means to an end at accomplishing his goal.

According to Michael, Spurgeon held as his personal motto et teneo et teneor–”I hold and am held.”   Charles Spurgeon never forgot who he was or who’s he was. 

Larry Michael does a great job of showing how Spurgeon led others and led himself, even in very difficult times.  The lessons of Spurgeon are worthwhile for any student of Scripture and leader of God’s people.  Michael, however, does not stop with Spurgeon, he goes on to show how some modern leadership techniques and ideas can supplement even the abilities of Spurgeon and gives proper criticism to Spurgeon’s greatest failure:

Spurgeon’s care, or rather the lack thereof, of his own physical well-being might have contributed to his suffering.  He was a habitual smoker, as were many men in his day.  He smoked cigars regularly and shared even from the pulpit that they brought him solace in his pain.  He also became quite portly and was referred to as “the apostle of roast beef and racy religion.”  Food might have been a comfort, but Spurgeon’s excess weight no doubt exacerbated his physical illness.  In addition, he did not exercise regularly…All leaders would do well to follow disciplined regimens in these most important areas.  Spurgeon’s example should be a warning to us all to do everything possible to care for the temple that God has given to us.

Michael stark reminder is that we must work to lead well in every area of our lives for even great leaders are susceptible to great weaknesses.

Micahel’s book is a great read for anyone interested in growing in their leadership ability and/or learning furher about the Prince of Preachers.  I encourage it and if I were giving it a star rating, it would get a three out of five from me.

As suggested in recent weeks, I’ve been reading some old books and one that I recently completed is The Soul Winner by C.H. Spurgeon. Spurgeon is of course recognized as the prince of preachers, but he was also a fiercly evangelistic man. Spurgeon of all people shows that strict reformed theology is not at odds with evangelistic fervor. Though he believed wholeheartedly in God’s sovereign control over humanity, he did not shirk from spreading wide the invitation to respond to the gospel. In this regard, we can all learn from Spurgeon.

In his book, The Soul Winner which is really a collection of lectures and sermons that focus on the task of evangelism, Spurgeon does a wonderful job of spurring Christians forward in their evangelistic efforts and of carefully showing how and why it should be done. Spurgeon’s evangelism was not pithy Second Great Awakening gimmicks and his message was not “have your best life now.” Spurgeon writes about the majesty, holiness, and sovereignty of God as well as the total depravity of humanity and then beckons Christians to go forth with the gospel and sinners to respond to its invitation.

This book will challenge and convict you as you mine it’s pages for the wisdom of it’s author. The soul-winner according to Spurgeon, must be more than a slick salesman. The soul-winner should live the gospel! Further, he writes:

The soul-winner must be a master of the art of prayer. You cannot bring souls to God if you go not to God yourself. You must get your battle-axe, and your weapons of war, from the armoury of sacred communion with Christ.

Of course, Spurgeon does more than tell how to share the gospel and even why the gospel should be shared. Spurgeon writes with conviction at the guilt that rests upon the heads of those who would not share the gospel.

Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the Judge, and if still, “Depart, ye cursed,” shall be his portion? Blood-red with the murder of men’s souls will be the skirts of professing Christians, unles the drift, and end, and aim of all their work has been to “save some.”

This book is filled with ageless wisdom and practical advice as well as convicting words that every Christian needs to hear. I encourage it to pastors and lay people alike who desire to be soul-winners.

The kind of sermon which is likely to break the hearer’s heart is that which first has broken the preacher’s heart, and the sermon which is likely to reach the heart of the hearer is the one which has come straight from the heart of the preacher.

-Charles Spurgeon

“I know of no surer way of a people’s perishing than by being led by one who does not speak out straight and honestly denounce evil. If the minister halts between two opinions, do you wonder that the congregation is undecided? If the preacher trims and twists to please all parties, can you expect his people to be honest? If I wink at your inconsistencies will you not soon be hardened in them? Like priest, like people. A cowardly preacher suits hardened sinners. Those who are afraid to rebuke sin, or to probe the conscience, will have much to answer for. May God save you from being led into the ditch by a blind guide.”

Charles Spurgeon, Unknown