Reflections of some of my influences and “heroes” in Pastoral Ministry
By Pastor Kenny Burchard email me
A necessary season of mentoring…
The first three years of my Christian experience were tumultuous. I was raised (and saved at age 17) in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was not allowed to go to church for the first year that I became a Christian (that’s another story worth telling another time). I joined the Navy at age 18, and for the next 18 months I was shipped from here-to-there by the Navy, and found it hard to gain stability in my Spiritual growth. I had collected a few books by then, developed an appetite for reading, listened to quite a few taped teachings by Derek Prince, and listened faithfully to Walter Martin’s “Bible Answer Man” radio program every week-day just so that I could survive. But I had very weak roots in some key areas.
In 1989 I was stationed in Lemoore California at the Naval Hospital, and began to attend a church called Koinonia Christian Fellowship. The first 8 months were a bit spotty for me in commitment and attendance, but about 18 months before I left Lemoore, I dug in at Koinonia and God began to move in some necessary ways.
Three things happened for me at Koinonia that were helpful: (1) I began to be taught the word of God with clarity and consistency by the then-pastor, David Tolladay, (2) I began to be mentored and helped with basic things (prayer, Bible Study, forgiveness, giving, relationships) through a relationship with one of the men in the church named Doug Davis, and (3) thanks to Doug, I began to listen to, read, and absorb the teaching ministry of my second primary influence…
Primary Influence #2 – Pastor John MacArthur, Jr.
Teaching-Shepherd (Eph. 4:11)
My friend Doug gave me my first Bible Commentary. It was J. Vernon McGhee’s “Thru the Bible” commentary. And he also lent me a six-volume set of teaching tapes through the book of Ephesians by a man that I had never heard of – Dr. John MacArthur, Jr., pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA.
Those who are part of our fellowship know that I have a value for teaching through the Bible book-by-book, not hurrying through, and being as thorough as I can possibly be. In the plainest terms that I can communicate, I got that value from listening to John MacArthur.
I listened to over 70 hours of teaching through Ephesians in 1989. When I got stationed on Okinawa in 1990, I bought my own copy of the Epesians study, and went through it twice more during my three-year-tenure on Okinawa. On top of that, I bought every John MacArthur book I could get my hands on, and ordered 3-4 MacArthur tapes every month while I was on the island. I have about 300 John MacArthur sermon tapes in my personal library. They are the spiritual food that I ate and drank during my first years as a disciple.
Recently, a friend of mine came by my office to visit me, and as he was casually looking through my books he remarked, “Looks like you have more books by John MacArthur than any other author up here.” He was right. I buy every John MacArthur book and Bible resource tool that is published. I consider these resources of the highest value among all of the tools in my library.
A bit of a theological train wreck coming…
But something happened in 1991 that set me on a difficult course that took about 2 years to resolve. This set of events has actually been foundational to the way that I lead and teach about Spiritual Gifts in the church I pastor today (you knew the topic of spiritual gifts was going to come up when I mentioned MacArthur, right?).
Two things were happening in my life in 1991 that were completely incongruent and incompatible.
FIRST – I was attending a pentecostal church on Okinawa that was not a teaching church, and frankly, there were people in that church who were (and are – even today) most easily categorized as spiritually bizarre and even abusive.
SECOND – I was reading John MacArthur’s book, Charismatic Chaos, and it felt like I was reading about the church I was attending on the island.
Confusion set into my mind at that time, and I began to question my theology and experiences. My respect for John MacArthur, and my disappointment with my church-brethren created a toxic combination that resulted in me basically putting my charismatic gifts on ice for about 2 years.
For those of you who don’t know (and to give the nod to those who do), John MacArthur – one of the most prolific and consistent Bible Teachers that you can find anywhere, does not believe in the present-day manifestations of the Holy Spirit through (particularly) the gift of tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, miracles, or healing.
He is a “Dispensational Cessationist” (one who believes that the charismatic gifts were really just “confirming manifestations of apostolic authority” – and once the Bible was completed, the need for such confirmation ceased. That “dispensation” has passed – so say the dispensational-cessationists).
As I said, I buy every book MacArthur writes. I excitedly bought my copy of “Charismatic Chaos” in 1991. I read and high-lighted scores of quotes and did my best to memorize MacArthur’s rationale about the “fact” that there were no more gifts like this either available or present in the contemporary church. According to him, they had ceased and anyone who said they had not was (1) a bad theologian, and (2) not to be trusted.
The problem for me was this: (1) I had personally experienced several manifestations of spiritual gifts, (2) I had been edified by these manifestations (not forsaking the cooky things I saw in the church I attended), and (3) I could not find anything in the Bible that plainly stated that the gifts were going to pass away when the Bible was completed and canonized. But I felt loyal to MacArthur, and I felt disappointed by my experiences with gift-manifestations in the church I was attending at the time (plus, MacArthur’s book was filled with gobs of far-fringe expressions of charismania – so who’d want to be affiliated with that?). I decided to move away from my Charismatic roots for a season (more on that later) because of MacArthur’s influence in my life.
Feet of Clay, Remember?
I still buy everything MacArthur puts out – but I don’t “buy everything” if you get what I mean.
I have learned to be a student of the Bible because of his influence on my life… the very influence that causes me to doubt his conclusions with respect (especially) to his theology of the present-day ministry of the Holy Spirit. On this issue, I believe him to be stubbornly attached to a prejudice more than he is firmly rooted in the plain teaching of scripture.
But remember – this is my tribute to men with “feet of clay.” All of us have blind spots and we’re all under construction. That does not mean we can’t learn from each other.
There are people who believe that because of MacArthur’s theological prejudice against the charismatic gifts, Pentecostals should not listen to him. To that I say, “Give me a break!” Pentecostals have much to learn about a firm commitment to biblical teaching and a strong hermeneutic. MacArthur is the best example around for this. He is a voice to our generation. That does not make him perfect or fail-proof (as many of his disciples believe him to be).
It’s funny to me to meet people who see my love for MacArthur’s ministry while they see my commitment to present-day availability of ALL THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. I think it’s a bit humorous when they say, “Don’t you know how negative he is toward the gifts?” or “How can you tolerate his negativity toward the gifts and still listen to him?” Well, the answer is… I have learned to study the Bible for myself BECAUSE of him, and my own commitment to the scriptures (which I gained from him) leads me to dismiss his conclusions on this point. But I don’t write him off because of a blind spot.
On the other hand, his capacity to find and catalog the descriptions of totally cooky behavior in the name of “gifts” should be seen as a gift to Pentecostals – in the form of a warning to avoid these unbiblical behaviors. They are stumbling blocks for men like John MacArthur who is a lover of the scriptures. His mistake is to throw out the good with the bad. For that, I’m sad.
I don’t know. I just love his heart of gold – even though I know he has feet of clay. I hope to attain even a small grain of the impact and excellence that Dr. MacArthur has attained during his ministry. He is an excellent servant of Jesus, and a strong (the strongest around) Bible teacher to the Church of Jesus Christ.
May many tongue-speaking, healing, prophetic Bible Teachers rise up to emulate his powerful example (minus the theological baggage about Pentecostals, of course).
More later,
Pastor Kenny
