MY GREATEST INFLUENCERS (Part 2)

Around my twentieth anniversary as the pastor of Legana Christian Church, I reflected on my three biggest paradigm shifts. Looking back, I can see that with every stage of growth in my soul there has been a corresponding change in perspective. When I was an Assemblies of God minister I enjoyed tremendous fraternity with my fellow pastors. There are many advantages to being a part of a larger denomination. The AOG in Australia, now known as The Australian Christian Churches (ACC), has some wonderful strengths – excellently run conferences, a highly professional head office with diligent administration, a drive to reach the unchurched, a passion for excellence, a striving for relevance. I can honestly say that I have never met an ACC minister who did not love God and have a commitment to serve Christ. But as I was undergoing my paradigm shifts, I was gaining a different perspective on church and pastoral ministry that put me out of sync with the ACC.

And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Ephesians 4:11-12

A pastor’s main responsibility is to shepherd the sheep entrusted to him by the Great Shepherd. This is done by presenting Christ as clearly and attractively as possible through their example of devotion to Christ, how they raise their family, how they treat others, and, how diligently they study, preach, and teach, God’s Word. All of these aspects are informed by how the Word of God is understood. This is why I mention the influence of two significant people at this point which shaped the way I understood God’s Word. Just after I had developed my understanding of eschatology I was having a discussion about creation theology when Pastor Ron Wilson recommended that I read a book called, A Matter Of Days by Dr. Hugh Ross. I have now read nearly all of Dr. Ross’s books and have benefited greatly from them. I have also had the privilege of becoming acquainted with Dr. Ross and have enjoyed getting to know him over meals and even bushwalks. I will ever be grateful to Pastor Ron Wilson for introducing me to the works of Hugh Ross and helping me to see that “taking the Bible literally” doesn’t mean that we take it in a wooden literal way, but rather, we take it as it was intended to be taken. By doing this we soon see that words in the Bible are used in different ways throughout the Bible. This particularly applies to the word “day”. It has 4 literal meanings in Scripture – (i) an unspecified period of time (Gen. 2:4), (ii) daylight hours (John 11:9), (iii) twenty-four hours (Acts 10:9), (iv) an era (particularly, a lifetime, note Matt. 2:1; 7:22, eg. ‘Back in my Grandfather’s day’).

So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men,
Philippians 2:29

Trevor Chandler preaching at Legana

Before I conclude with a tribute to my greatest influencer, I should mention that around this time I was introduced to John Piper with the gift of a book from my pastoral predecessor, Philip Morgan, called, The Godward Life. Dr. Piper contributed to the formation of my hermeneutic by helping me to accept God’s sovereignty, deepening my understanding of His grace, and seeing the ultimate purpose of God (and therefore all that He has created) as His glory. I also became reacquainted with Trevor Chandler at this time. He became an annual visitor to our church and a regular phone-caller in-between. Trevor became one of the most encouraging men in life. He flattered me by describing my explanation of the Book of Revelation, The Most Embarrassing Book In The Bible, as “One of the best explanations of the Book of Revelation that I have ever read!”

As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep,
Ezekiel 34:8

THE HUMANITY OF MY INFLUENCERS

Each of the people I have referred to have had flaws. I think of David Cartledge. Many people couldn’t handle David’s ‘alpha-male’ personality. But I really appreciated David. He once said something privately to me which was one of the most encouraging things anyone has ever said to me. Some of my influencers were great pastors, yet not great parents. I still learned from them. Trevor Chandler was a gruff man who offended people. I could see why. But I loved the man. He had a heart of gold coloured marshmallow beneath a veneer of toughness. Other influencers have had problems which only became evident as I got to know them. I had learned to overlook these and receive the grace of God into my life that God had placed on them. Even my greatest influencer had strengths and flaws. I have learned that God’s teaching moments can come from positive and negative examples even when they occur in the same person! And before I introduce and conclude with a tribute to my greatest influencer, it should go without saying that the bigger the leader the bigger the criticism. Of all my influencers, my greatest influencer was easily the most criticised. The way he handled that criticism has been one of the most extraordinary lessons I have ever received.  

MY GREATEST INFLUENCER

This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Polonius to Hamlet, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3

There is an ancient Oriental saying – When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I was ready. I had reached a point where I had a clear vision of what I wasn’t. I had a clearer vision of what I needed to become. I had grown disinterested in being the C.E.O. type of pastor I was being encouraged to be. I knew that the Biblical model of a pastor was one who equipped believers to do the work of the ministry rather than one who promoted the divide between ‘clergy’ and ‘laity’ where the pastor did it all. I was convinced from the Scriptures that God expected shepherds to gather and not scatter and this involved reaching people well outside the walls of the ‘sheep-fold’. 

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Acts 18:9-11

Judith Brain, the daughter of a veteran Methodist Minister, introduced me to my most influential influencer when she invited me around to have some of her late father’s library. Among those precious books I came away with that day was, I Forgot To Say. That book sat on my office shelves for months until one day I picked it up and my world changed from that moment. This was the day I met Frank William Boreham. Reading that book was like sitting on a verandah with the grandfather I didn’t know I had and having him give me the benefit of six decades of successful pastoral experience. The opening chapter of this book, called “Wet Paint”, was exactly what I needed to hear at that time in my life. The day that I met F.W. Boreham was the day I met a man called to be a pastor but engaged in a deep struggle to fulfil that call effectively. His first pastorate was a small church outside of Dunedin, New Zealand, where he arrived in 1895. Having sat under the ministry of Charles Spurgeon and having been the beneficiary of Spurgeon’s generosity which enabled him to attend Spurgeon’s Pastors College, Boreham was ready to preach. 

But he soon realised that pastoring involved far more than giving nice sermons. Twenty-four years of age, half-way around the world, and bearing the legacy of a painful disability he kept a secret from all, Boreham felt bankrupt after arriving in Mosgiel and realising his total inadequacy for the task he was now responsible for. The old Scottish immigrants of Mosgiel, whom he described as having faces like granite, soon scolded him over his cold preaching style. The women of Mosgiel tore shreds off him for not being able to make small-talk whenever he visited. FWB knew he had to learn how to pastor people. 

He knew that the pulpit had to be his greatest strength. He would travel to Dunedin and sit in the law courts and learn from criminal barristers who attempted to persuade a jury of their client’s innocence. 

Boreham would go on to discover that there is a great romance to be enjoyed between a pastor and his congregation. In 1906 he moved to Hobart, Tasmania, where he would emerge as one of the world’s finest preachers and Christian essayists. By 1924 he was being described as “the most influential preacher in the world”. Yet all the while he considered himself to be just a local church pastor. 

"One day he tossed over to me a tart letter from a woman commanding him to preach the Gospel. She was apparently misled by one of his intriguing titles. All who heard Frank Boreham knew full well that, however far away on the circumference he began, he always came to the very heart of the Gospel. The letter hurt him and I advised him to consign it to the waste-paper basket and forget it. ‘I have, already answered it,’ he said. ‘I wrote and told her that I appreciated her concern for the preaching of Christ’s Gospel and asked her to pray for me that I may be a faithful minister of the Word.’" - Sir Clarence Irving Benson 

(Dr. C. Irving Benson was a friend of Frank Boreham, a leading church leader in Melbourne and pastor of the Wesley Church, Melbourne.) 

There’s a lot more I could say about how F.W. Boreham has influenced me as a pastor to see every person as precious, and the local church as the hope of the world. And if you’re really interested to know what that is then you can check out the documentary I made about it by clicking here.
  

Pastor Andrew 

MY GREATEST INFLUENCERS, Part 1

MY GREATEST INFLUENCERS (Episode 1)

But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.
Luke 22:26

When I converted to Christianity in my teen years, I soon began to tell as many people as I could about the amazing offer of forgiveness and eternal life that God was offering. I was hungry to learn as much as I could about the God of the Bible who had just rescued me. Someone at Life Centre Geelong introduced me to Christian teaching on audio cassettes from a private lending library in Sydney. I listened to hundreds and hundreds of Christian teaching cassettes in my teen years. Among the most influential teachers I regularly listened to was Winkie Pratney. It is difficult for me to overstate how influential Winkie was in my formative spiritual years. He helped to develop my love for Christ, my hatred of sin, and my pursuit of the Spirit of Holiness. But over the last 40 or so years since then, God has used several other key influencers who have been used to shape me. Through this time of shaping I have learned some valuable lessons about how to get the most out of an influential person. Let me share some of those things.

Winkie Pratney with Andrew Corbett

THE MELBOURNE YEARS

Dr. Richard Winter preaching at Legana

¶ Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7

It was Richard Winter, who now lives and pastors in Huntington Beach, California, who introduced me to the formal study of theology, through ICI University, when I lived in Geelong. He also introduced me to the art and science of hermeneutics. By the way, just up the road from Geelong in Richmond (Melbourne) there was a pastor seeing his church grow with explosive growth with dozens of people each month coming to know Christ. This pastor had sent out over hundred young men to plant more churches across Melbourne. The pastor was Philip Hills, and before we went to Williamstown to pioneer a church, we sat under Pastor Hills ministry for a season. 

Around the time I met Kim I had already moved to Melbourne where I was serving in a church where Bob Smith, one of the most diligent pastors I have ever met, was appointed as the Senior Pastor (after the previous pastor had been removed for sexual indiscretions). Bob was tremendously influential in shaping me as a preacher. He showed me how to anchor a sermon in a text and draw out its context, meaning and application. He also helped me to preach with appropriate pace by explaining that pastoral preaching was necessarily expository (systematically explaining the Scriptures rather than using the Scriptures) and that this was best done in a sequential series of messages, rather than one-off messages. Bob’s input into my life was incalculably beneficial and all too brief.

¶ Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Philippians 3:17

THE TASMANIAN ERA 

After handing the pastorate of our newly planted Williamstown church to my friend Mark Barnard, we moved to Tasmania in 1995 with a word from God. Unknown, unannounced, and uninvited, within two weeks I was appointed as the pastor of Legana where there were 17 members, and where we have now been for these nearly 23 years.

Legana Christian Church, Sunday December 10, 2017

Tasmania is, without doubt, Australia’s most beautiful state. The people are laid-back and easy-going. They enjoy an unprecedented level of prosperity and lifestyle. While many people would rightly regard these things as blessings, they can also be an obstacle for people to recognise their greatest need which is fundamentally spiritual rather than material or financial. Obstacles such as these can be extremely frustrating for any preacher on a mission to open the eyes of the spiritually blinded. I was no exception. As I was commencing my doctorate in pastoral ministry and feeling terribly frustrated at my inability as a preacher I was introduced to my next major influencer by a visiting Englishman. What has made this next influencer so different from the others that I have already mentioned is that I have never heard him speak or teach. I have barely read anything he has written. He was not a pastor (although he often wondered if he should have been). But the most outstanding difference about this man, from each of the other men who have greatly influenced me, is that he has been dead for nearly two hundred years! When I was introduced to him, to his impact on my life was both immediate and enormous! He gave me a vision for pastoring and preaching far bigger and beyond anything I had ever dared dreamed of. Despite Legana Christian Church being in a small semi-rural bush-setting tucked away on the Apple Isle, I began to see how a grand vision of Christ’s Lordship was deserving of far more than our trifling Sunday to Sunday statistics or any of our other pathetic measures of what we delude ourselves by calling success. William Wilberforce showed me that a grand vision of Christ’s Lordship and beauty extended not just to the bounds of the church’s walls on a Sunday – but to every sphere of life on any day ending in ‘y’!

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20

As significant as William Wilberforce was for me, in my next instalment I will of those whom God used to influence me even to greater extents than he did. I also want to share with you what I have learned from each of my influencers (and it may surprise you).

[To be continued]

Pastor Andrew

MY 3 BIGGEST PASTORAL PARADIGM SHIFTS, PART 2

CHANGING PARADIGMS

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
Galatians 3:5

As I reflect on my upcoming pastoral anniversary I've also had cause to reflect on three of my most significant paradigm shifts over my pastoral career. I began to formally prepare for pastoral ministry in 1983 when I undertook my first Theological subject with ICI College. After completing two Advanced Certificates with them, I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies in  1996 with Emmanuel College. I was then invited to undertake Doctoral Studies with Cambridge Graduate School which I completed in 2002.

I found my Doctoral studies both enjoyable and humiliating. I had to undertake a lot of course work and begin a Dissertation. I was so confident that my first complete of my Dissertation was so perfect that I had it hardcopy bound with an expensive blue fabric over card binding by the University of Tasmania print shop. I had to get multiple copies done to be sent to my two supervisors. After my supervisors examined it, a copy was returned to me with the red ink of their corrections, suggestions, and questions on every page! I was gutted. My dissertation would eventually go through another six drafts before it was accepted. The result of this humiliating and painful process was an increased ability for research, clearer thinking, and how dogged determination is always needed to help complete things that matter. This training contributed to my three significant pastoral paradigm-shifts.

¶ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul 
Acts 19:11

Canon John Chapman

After my parents settled in Corio, Geelong, they became members of St. Matthew's Anglican Church in East Geelong. The minister of this church at the time was the Reverend Peter Payne. My recollection of Mr Payne was that he was the real deal. He led me through Confirmation which became a transforming experience for me at the age of 15. While I wasn't aware of the politics behind the scenes at the time, he left shortly after this as apparently too many in the church objected to him continually proclaiming the need to be converted to Christ through the new birth experience. But before he did, he organised for Canon John Chapman to hold a series of meetings. This was revolutionary. He presented the Gospel in a passionate and compelling way. He was humourous and very engaging. He made a huge impression on me and helped me to see that Christianity was not a religion, not just a Sunday deal, not a label for the Census Form, but a life of surrender and devotion to Christ that made every facet of life an act of worship of God. This was revolutionary! From the time of Mr Chapman visiting St Matthew's and calling for everyone to fully surrender to Christ and make Him the centre of our lives not merely the appendage to it, my parents (and therefore me and my brother and sister) became "full Sunday" Christians attending both the Sunday morning and evening services. I have maintained a passionate commitment of this expression of my devotion to Christ ever since then too. 

Mr Chapman introduced me to the previously unknown ministry of an evangelist. But shortly after this, Rev. Payne was compelled to leave St Matthew's and this new spiritual experience of my parents created a desire for a deeper experience with God. At the time their chain of furniture stores was hit by the rise in interest rates in Australia to around 18% (they are around 4% now). Business became difficult and my parents faced the real possibility of losing their home. They looked to God for help. Murray Harkness, who had recently been employed in my parents' business, suggested trying a Pentecostal Church. We went to his Pentecostal Church one Sunday night in Ocean Grove. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen in my life up until that point! But that night marked the beginning of a life-long journey for me. From that time I was introduced to the person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I began to see in the Gospels how Christ spoke about the coming Holy Spirit who would regenerate, sanctify, empower, comfort, gift, lead, the believer.

¶ "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
Matthew 3:11

As I read through the Gospel of John and the Book of Acts, I was struck by the Person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I saw that what Christ said about the Holy Spirit was still relevant for today. As a result I began to seek God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. On a Wednesday night in a small Apostolic Church chapel in Cox Road Norlane in 1979, where a guest preacher from America invited people to come forward for prayer to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I responded. Something very strange happened to me that night. A short time later, I had a Pentecostal experience which has abided with me to the present day.

When I moved from Geelong to Hoppers Crossing for work there was no Apostolic Church there at that time and I joined an Assemblies of God Church. I became the youth leader. It was during this time that I experienced acute loneliness and an unnatural heaviness. I went on a three day fast to try and shake this off my life. Nothing particularly happened during these three days of fasting but within a week or so I had a strange, very vivid series of dreams about a girl. I saw her face, I heard her name, and I heard a part of her recent story. I told some of my non-Christian work colleagues about this dream. It was about a month later that I was at the regular Overseas Christian Fellowship meeting at Deakin University in Geelong, which Pastor Richard Winter had introduced me, to that I first met this girl. In my dream I heard her name was "Ken" and I was thrilled to discover that her actual name was Kim. She and I were the only Australians present in a meeting comprised almost entirely of Malaysians (at that time nearly all my friends were Malaysian). I asked Kim about some of the things I had seen in the dreams and she instantly began to cry and soon slumped to the floor. We talked for a long while and 18 months later we were married.

I cite these notable experiences among the many I enjoyed so that there may be an understanding that I was, am, and will be, ever open to what the Holy Spirit can do. In 1990 I was credentialed with the Assemblies of God as a pastor. This was an amazing time to join a really great movement. The period from 1977 to 1997, under the leadership of Pastors Andrew Evans and Phil Hills, the Assemblies of God in Australia movement had grown from 140 churches to over 800! 

Miracles were central to Assemblies of God ministry at this time. I think it would be fair to say that in every AoG church on any given Sunday during this period, there was prayer and ministry for God to work miracles in people's lives. This was a major thrust by evangelists. It was a major emphasis at the Conferences. There were teaching seminars and courses being taught and offered- How To Hear From God ... How To Heal The Sick ... How To Move In The Prophetic ... How To Be Led By The Holy Spirit. For the most part I didn't question this. But as I continued on in my studies and growth of God's Word I became aware that none of these things were prescribed or practiced in the New Testament. I also became increasingly convinced that the Reformed Theological views of God's Sovereignty and His grace were correct. This challenged me to examine some of my understanding about miracles - especially the miracle of salvation. I became convinced that salvation was by God's grace and not by human effort. This meant that there was nothing - nothing - any person could do to merit their salvation. Putting your hand up in a meeting didn't save you; coming forward in response to an altar call didn't save you; deciding to follow Jesus didn't save you - only the miracle of God's gift of salvation could save a soul!

¶ And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.Acts 6:8

In 2006 I was invited to speak in London. I had been wrestling with how I could harmonise my undoubted Pentecostal experience with my emerging Reformed theology. My visit to England at this time helped to galvanise how this was possible. The Peniel Pentecostal Church held to Reformed theology and yet had a healing and miracles service each Friday in which people travelled from all over the U.K. to attend. The Pastor was clearly gifted. The first Friday night we were there we saw some extraordinary miracles. I still recall them to this day in amazement. The pastor spoke about the grace of God being the source of any miracle. Just as with salvation, there was nothing we could do to merit a miracle. Healing, he argued was not in the Atonement - but was an act of God's grace. I had prior to this began to explore this very notion, but it was now becoming very clear to me. God did not heal anyone because they got the words of the right prayer spoken, or because they had paid their tithes, or because they had fasted - or because they had done anything, except ask in faith (trust) - and even this was the result of God's grace. 

So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
Acts 14:3

This was a huge paradigm shift for me. No longer could I think that God was subject to human efforts. On the contrary, I now realised that any move toward God or seeking Him was the result of God first doing something in that person. That is why we call it grace. 

¶ And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Acts 13:48

This was a tremendous weight off my shoulders as a pastor. No longer did I think that someone's salvation was dependent on how well I did that Altar Call. Now I believed that it was the Holy Spirit who worked in the hearts of the unregenerate through the preaching of the Gospel. My role was simply to be prayerful and faithful to the Text as I discharged my sacred duty as a preacher. I became convinced that the working of miracles, such as healing, was also by God's grace. That is, no one had a "right" to it. If God chose not to grant healing, He was still a good, faithful, adorable God. If God did grant healing to someone, He was gracious to them. 

As with my first pastoral paradigm-shift, this second paradigm-shift magnified my vision of God. In the Creation events, I saw God as careful, methodical, patient, grand, organised, deliberate. The sheer vastness of God's Creation displays a glimpse of His immense glory. Because God saves, heals, delivers, regardless of someone's undeservedness, these miraculous acts are given by God graciously. This magnifies God's limitless love and reveals Him to be impeccably good, compassionate and merciful. I have just now returned from speaking with a large group of Year 11 and 12 students at the local Public College. The question that came up in the Q & A session over and over was, "Why does God allow people to suffer?" After explaining that God Himself has graphically answered this question by sending His Son to the world to suffer after experiencing rejection, humiliation, scorn, and mockery, and then to die the cruelest death, He is well qualified, willing and able to bestow the grace of comfort to all those who are similarly (but to a lesser extent) suffering and hurting. But there are no magical formulas to make God do miracles. And there is no miraculous reward for those who worship longer, louder, deeper. Yet, we are given this amazing promise from God that if we ask of Him anything, we will be granted a hearing. By doing so we are asking in faith because our 'ask' is in itself an act of faith. This is why every Sunday at Legana we will pray with and for people through the laying on of hands as we often seek God for a miracle. And it has been our delight that many times God has indeed been gracious and granted our petitions. And in the meantime, we worship Him as infinitely adorable whether He grants our request or not (Dan. 3:17-18). This paradigm-shift helps me to pastor those God has charged me to care for.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

Next week: 

Ps. Andrew