Editor note: I posted this back in 2015 but updated the link and added a chatGPT summary of the transcript.

What are some strategic ways to prepare and preach through a book of the Bible?

D.A. Carson lectured on 12 points in preaching through a book of the Bible. This is from a conference in 2003 called, “Katoomba Christian Conference Centenary (Sydney, Australia).” You can listen to the audio by downloading the message here (audio link).

(These points assume you’ve already picked the book, though that is an important consideration in how to pick that. No particular order of importance among some of these 12 points.)

1. (1:38 ) – Read and re-read and re-read and re-read and re-read the book. – It’s a mistake to read the book once and then start reading commentaries (Read it in English and the original language).

2. (3:11) – Ideally start the process early. Give time to re-reading, meditation, and saturation.

3. (4:58 ) – Eschew the division of head and heart.

4. (6:14) – Early on attain sufficient grasp of the book that you can succinctly state (a) what the book is about, (b) what this book contributes to the canon that overlaps with what other books bring to the canon, and (c) what distinctive things this book brings to the canon. (All these things need to be thought about simultaneously. This is what brings clarity and precision). Scan biblical theologies on the book to get a large scale picture of the book.

5. (11:10) – At roughly the same time determine (a) the number of sermons you’ll devote to the book and (b) the large scale outline of the book insofar as it impinges on your text boundaries for each sermon (11:10).

6. (19:27) – Start working on individual sermon preparation (either in advance or week by week). Ideally work on the text first.

   • A. (23:26) – Ideally develop note taking techniques. This keeps your tools sharp and keeps your files for resources for future ministry (writing, preaching, evangelism, etc.);

   • B. (29:32) – from these detailed exegetical notes, start writing the sermon. (Note for young preachers: you must determine and discipline yourself to leave stuff out). You need to know what to leave out. The sermon is the best of the material and the highlights of what you learned. The aim is to think through what contributes to the burden of that text;

   • C. Work on the text’s structure. Work on it so that it is fresh and appealing and helpful.

7. (32:27) – Each sermon must simultaneously stand alone and constitute a part of the series.

8. (33:34) – Remember the different contributions of a Paul House (corpus/book) biblical theology and a Charles Scobie (thematic) biblical theology.

9. (38:11) – Recognize that there may be special study and focus necessary for certain books (historical, cultural, literary genre, etc).

10. (42:32) – Ideally try to make your sermon material reflect in some way the genre of the book you are treating.

11. (44:24) – Remember constantly that this is not an exercise in artistic creation. The sermon is not an end in itself, but it is a re-revelation of God to his people. This means that as you prepare you ought to be thinking about the people to whom you are ministering.

12. (50:28 ) – ideally keep revising, praying, preparing so that it is not so much that you have mastered the material as that it has mastered you. There is a way of preaching that projects an image of being an expert and an image of being captured by the text.

Here is a chatGPT summary of the transcript:

Here is a clear outline of Carson’s lecture. I kept his structure but organized it so you can quickly see the flow of his argument. The talk essentially gives 12 principles for preaching through a biblical book.

D. A. Carson — Preaching Through Bible Books(Outline)

Introduction

• Goal: How to expound a biblical book faithfully.

• Most of these principles are intuitive but worth articulating.

• Focus: What to do once you have chosen the book (not how to choose it).

I. Immerse Yourself in the Biblical Book

1. Read the book repeatedly

• Read the text many times before consulting commentaries.

• Read it in:

  • English

  • Original languages (Greek/Hebrew if possible).

• Repeated reading develops:

  • Familiarity

  • Intuition for structure and flow.

• Illustration: William Fitch read a book 100 times before preaching it.

2. Start preparation early

Benefits:

• Allows insights to emerge through reflection.

• Gives time for meditation and prayer.

• Helps gather illustrations from life.

• Encourages praying the text into your own spiritual life.

3. Reject the head–heart dichotomy

• Do not separate:

  • devotional reading (heart)

  • exegetical study (head).

• Instead:

  • Do rigorous exegesis reverently.

  • Do devotional reading thoughtfully.

• Preaching preparation should unite:

  • exegesis

  • theology

  • worship

  • pastoral application.

II. Understand the Book as a Whole

4. Determine the book’s message and canonical contribution

Ask three questions:

1. What is the book about?

2. How does it overlap with the rest of Scripture?

3. What is distinctive about it?

Example:

• Matthew vs Mark:

  • Same events

  • Different arrangement and emphasis

  • Different theological “camera angles.”

Sources for help:

• Biblical theology

• Commentary introductions.

Goal: Develop a bird’s-eye view early.

5. Determine the sermon plan for the book

Decide early:

• Number of sermons

• Text divisions for each sermon

• How each sermon contributes to the whole.

Factors affecting sermon length

• Congregation’s maturity

• Preacher’s skill

• Literary genre

• Overall preaching schedule

• Whether preaching the whole book or selected passages.

Example:

• Revelation can be preached by:

  • selected key passages

  • or the entire book.

Warning

If you do not plan ahead:

• Sermon divisions become accidental

• Structure becomes weak.

III. Prepare Each Sermon Carefully

6. Begin individual sermon preparation

A. Work on the text first

Before commentaries:

• Study the text yourself.

• Examine:

  • structure

  • argument

  • literary features

  • original language.

Then consult commentaries.

Reading commentaries wisely

• Many are unnecessary.

• Focus on a few that:

  • explain the text well

  • grasp theological flow.

Read books at different speeds:

• slow reading

• scanning

• quick consultation.

B. Develop good note-taking systems

Carson’s method:

• verse-by-verse loose-leaf notes

• add pages as needed.

Benefits:

• builds long-term resources

• sharpens exegetical skills

• helps future preaching.

Key advice:

• devote deep study to at least one sermon each week.

C. Leave material out

Especially important for young preachers.

Danger:

• sermons overloaded with research.

Principle:

The sermon should be the cream of the crop of your study.

Goal:

• clarity

• digestibility

• focus on the text’s main burden.

D. Develop the sermon structure

Structure should:

• reflect the text

• be memorable

• avoid gimmicks (e.g., forced alliteration).

Structure also varies by literary genre.

IV. Preach Each Sermon Within the Series

7. Each sermon must both:

• stand alone, and

• contribute to the whole series.

Requirements:

A sermon must have:

• its own coherence

• its own application

• its own message.

But also:

• connect backward and forward in the series.

Goal:

• people grasp the whole book, not just isolated sermons.

V. Preach the Book Within the Whole Bible

8. Practice biblical theology in preaching

Two complementary approaches:

Paul House approach

• Focus on each book’s unique contribution.

Charles Scobie approach

• Trace themes across the entire canon.

Good preaching should do both.

Examples of themes to trace:

• rest

• priesthood

• temple

• exodus

• exile.

Goal:
Help the congregation see how the book:

• connects across Scripture

• ultimately leads to Christ.

VI. Do Specialized Study When Necessary

9. Some books require special background study

Examples:

• Galatians: North vs South Galatian theory.

• Hosea: nature of Hosea’s marriage.

• Apocalyptic literature: interpretive frameworks.

Important principle:

• You may spend hours studying,

• but only give the conclusion briefly in the sermon.

VII. Reflect the Literary Genre in Preaching

10. Let the genre shape the sermon

Avoid making every sermon sound the same.

Different genres require different approaches:

• Narrative → tell the story.

• Wisdom literature → reflect wisdom patterns.

• Apocalypse → communicate its imagery and intensity.

Goal:
Let sermons sound like the genre of the text.

VIII. Preach Pastorally to Real People

11. Remember the sermon is for people

Preaching is not artistic performance.

Purpose:

God re-revealing himself to people through the Word.

Application should consider:

• congregation’s background

• cultural assumptions

• emotional realities

• diversity of life situations.

Application should often be woven throughout the sermon, not just at the end.

IX. Let the Text Master You

12. Be mastered by the text

Final goal:

• not projecting expertise

• but being captured by the Word.

True preaching shows:

• reverence

• humility

• deep love for Christ

• spiritual authenticity.

Carson’s Overall Philosophy (Summary)

Preaching through books requires:

1. Immersion in the text

2. Understanding the book’s big picture

3. Careful weekly exegesis

4. Strategic series planning

5. Canonical (biblical-theological) connections

6. Genre sensitivity

7. Pastoral awareness

8. Spiritual submission to Scripture

Ultimate aim:

“Not that you have mastered the material, but that the material has mastered you.”

One of my mentors passed away on Monday, February 16, 2026. Alan Balatbat, pastor of Watermark Fellowship Church in Chino, was used by God to guide and grow me at two very crucial points of my life.

Here’s what the bio on his church’s website said:

Alan Balatbat has been preaching since 1997 and has been in pastoral ministry for over 26 years in the greater Los Angeles area. He studied at Master’s College and Seminary and is currently attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Pastor Alan has served as Pastor/Elder of Watermark Fellowship Church in Chino, CA since 2010. He and his wife, Olivia, have been married since 2001 and are the proud parents of three children: Caleb, Chloe and Natalie.

My First Mentor

Alan Balatbat was the leader for the Jr. High students from 6th to 8th grade at Christian Fellowship Bible Church (CFBC) in the early 90s. So for about 3 years he was the one teaching us the Bible weekly in our Friday night Bible study. He modeled expository preaching for me. He called me up to lead as a student leader. He even encouraged me to teach the Bible and disciple others. I’ve always had a sense of responsibility to try to disciple or help others grow spiritually because of these days. Alan was the first leader to personally invest in me, encourage me, and hold me to a higher standard than the other kids. When he left CFBC toward the end of my junior high days I felt the absence of his presence while at the same time I was set up to keep learning Jesus and leading others in high school.

Los Angeles or New York?

I was out of touch with Alan for many years. When I came back from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the summer of 2008 to pastor a church, I didn’t know where I was going to go. Bellwood Baptist Church in Bellflower (a church planted by Bellflower Baptist Church in 1957) was looking for a pastor and they were interested in me but were not in a position to make a decision soon enough. Glendale Baptist Church in Queens New York had voted to call me as their pastor. My wife and I could not get on the same page to go out there. We had 2 weeks to make a decision. I asked for a one week extension and prayed, “Lord, if you don’t open a door this week in Los Angeles we’re going to take it that you’re leading us to move to Glendale Baptist Church in Queens.”

That week Alan called me out of nowhere. I hadn’t heard from him for a while. He said, “We got you.” He told me he would get me funding through the Southern Baptists to plant a church in Los Angeles and that his church, Cornerstone Bible Church, would be our sponsoring church. What a blessing that was! That changed our life and family trajectory from east coast to staying on the west coast. We planted CrossView Church LA in August of that year and after teaching the church on congregationalism and eldership the church called me to pastor them. Alan was present at my installation/ordination when CrossView Church and I took oaths for me to be their pastor in February 2009.

If I’ve blessed anyone by being in Los Angeles since 2008, Alan Balatbat has been instrumental in my presence and pastoral ministry in Los Angeles.

Finishing Well

Alan finished well and faithfully. For him, dying was gain (Phil. 1.21). I want to be able to count dying as gain right now, at 46 years old, even while my girls are under 18. As heartbreaking as it would be to not be around my kids growing up, dying right now is still better, it is still gain. To be dead here is to be present with Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5.8)! Alan embodied this desire. He said he wouldn’t trade his cancer for a longer life if this is what God wanted for him to glorify God and bless others. He certainly blessed me.

He wanted to edify me and others as much as he could before he passed away. God used him to really encourage and strengthen my hands not only to the work of ministry, not only to pursue humility, but to trust God that he will sustain me when it’s my time to face the wave of death. Listen to his interview with Francis Chan on his death bed here. I was blessed to see him and I was glad I recorded the conversation on audio (his wife recorded 10 minutes of it on video).

By God’s grace, I will fight the good fight of the faith, having a sincere faith, a good conscience, and a pure heart. I can’t imagine praising and thanking God the way Alan did in his last days. But I can trust that God’s grace will be sufficient for me on that day, and every day until I reach the finish line. It is a privilege to take the baton from my brother Alan and continue the work of pastoral ministry for Christ and his kingdom until he takes me home or until he returns. And then, I’ll get to celebrate with my brother in glory. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

It was a sweet encouragement to connect and resource likeminded pastors in Los Angeles for healthier churches through our Shepherd LA co-op lunch today. We gave each pastor a copy of The Sing! Hymnal and used it to sing “Jesus Strong and Kind” together (praise God for the generosity of Bellflower Baptist Church). We discussed particular burdens and pressures different pastors among us were feeling, pastoring a marriage that is possibly emotionally abusive, and how we were processing and pastoring the church in light of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last Wednesday. We read Scripture and prayed. The slowing down together as pastors who are merely needy and desperate men dependent on the grace of Jesus is a special time in my life each month.

I wanted to share some personal takeaways I’ve had from the lunch today. I read Psalm 95 and one verse says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Another pastor read John 10 that Christ’s sheep know his voice. He then prayed that we pastors would hear, know, and receive the voice of God in our lives.

During the meeting, here are some ways I heard God speaking to me.

“Open your heart.” God reminded me to keep opening my heart to the members I serve. Pastoral ministry is painful and it is part of the work and calling. I’ve felt the pressure to close my heart to others and not share it with them. A pastor-brother read this passage that resonated deeply for me: “We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. I speak as to my children; as a proper response, open your heart to us” (2 Corinthians 6:11–13 ). These words anchor my soul as it is not only a potential or actual pain, but a privilge and honor to keep my heart and affection open for my people. During the conversation a few comments combined essentially said, “As a pastor for many years you can start to see these things coming because you’ve seen them before. Yet you are to open your heart, even if you know it’s going to go in a hurtful direction. It’s a good hurt.” Amen and amen. And in many cases like the ones I’ve experienced, the hurt is not only on my side but the ones I love on the other side feel a hurt as well.

“Boast.” Another pastor-brother read, “And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3–5). The word that hit hard was the word, “boast.” Not merely endure affliction or tolerate affliction or get through affliction or don’t complain in affliction, but boast in your afflictions. God intends to meet us with his mercy as we boast in the afflictions of life on the path of following Jesus. Praise God that these afflictions are not meaningless but endurance-building, character-forming, and hope-filling. I want endurance, godly character, and hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the coming age. I praise God and want to boast in the afflictions that produce these things.

“Perfect.” Another pastor-brother said, “God has the perfect obstacle course for our growth as men and as pastors.” The word “perfect” struck me. God is so good to all of his people in every single one of their trials. Me included. I am in the perfect obstacle course with the exact trials I need for the work God means to do in my heart and soul. We can trust the Lord with these trials. What other choice do we have? What other option would I want? Christ is better than all and he draws us toward him in heart-wrenching, perfect, and glorious ways that we cannot understand now but will when we’re further along.

Grace and ✌🏾

P. J. Tibayan

Bellflower Baptist Church, Bellflower, CA

When is it ok to leave your church? Tom Schreiner answers (transcript below video):

I mean the first thing I'd say is, always be slow to change churches. In our culture we're so consumer driven, we so quickly are disloyal to things we join. I think we ought to be reminded, be slow. If there's a conflict, try to work it out. So we are so quick in our culture to depart from what we promised, to depart from relationships when they get hard. So commitment is important.

However, are there times to change churches? I think so. I think the most important reason is significant doctrinal deviation. When the church begins to teach things that are clearly contrary to the major doctrines of Scripture—when that begins to happen, I think it's a good idea actually to leave.

Now some situations are more difficult. Maybe the church believes what you believe, but they don't actually preach it, they avoid those things. I think that's a more gray area. But I can understand why somebody might leave in that situation.

Then the last thing I'd say is there's really no rule. There's not a formula. We ought to be slow to change churches. Sometimes though, there's no doctrinal deviation, but sometimes you begin to lose trust in the leadership. And maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, but if you start losing significant trust in the leadership, it's probably best for you—it's actually probably best for the leaders as well—if you go somewhere else and you go and join a church where you can plug in and support the doctrine and the leaders and minister to others in the church.

I think when you are considering changing churches, you ought to bring it to the Lord in prayer, you ought to check your motives. Are you trying to run from something? Are you trying to run from something difficult? So ask the Lord to really speak to you through his Word and in prayer, and I'd add to that: ask other people whom you trust. And don't ask people whom you know will just agree with you. Ask people who might disagree with you.

And I think the other thing that's good to do is go to the leaders. If you're gonna leave the church, go to the leaders and have a talk with them, and be open to being corrected and changing. Perhaps you might still decide to leave, but you should go to the leaders as well and talk to them about that.

I’ve been reflecting on the Nicene Creed and its use in my life, my family, my church (Bellflower Baptist Church), and in my discipling ministry. I hope to write and post more thoughts on what I’ve been thinking about. But for now, let me share this translation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381, what I’m calling the Nicene Creed 381 just because the other one is a mouthful. I think the footnotes could be really helpful for those interested in more of the nuances of the creed.

We trust in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the one begotten from the Father before all ages,1 Light from Light,2 true God from true God, begotten, not made, of the same essence3 with the Father, through him all things were made; who for us humans4 and for our salvation he came down from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made a man,5 was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father,6 and is coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there will be no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and the Life-giver,7 who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets. In one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the coming age. Amen.8

Note:

† The phrase “and the Son” (Latin filioque) is not in the original Greek text but clearly implied by (1) the designation of the first person of the Godhead as “Father” implying the Son, (2) the Son sharing the same essence as the Father in the previous paragraph, (3) the following line of the Father and Son worshiped and glorified, and (4) because the Son has an eternal relation with the Holy Spirit.9

For those who would like to see or read it in the Greek version that I translated from, here it is:

Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα ΘΕΟΝ ΠΑΤΕΡΑ παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων.

Καὶ εἰς ἕνα κύριον ἸΗΣΟΥΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων, φῶς ἐκ φωτός, θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα, οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρί· διʼ οὔ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο· τὸν διʼ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ σαρκωθέντα ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ παθόντα καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ κατὰ τὰς γραφάς, καὶ ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανούς, καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ πατρός, καὶ πάλιν ἐρχόμενον μετὰ δόξης κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος.

Καὶ εἰς τὸ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ ΤΟ ἍΓΙΟΝ, τὸ κύριον, (καὶ) τὸ ζωοποιόν10 τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, τὸ σὺν πατρὶ καὶ ὑιῷ συν προσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν· εἰς μίαν, ἁγίαν, καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν· ὁμολογοῦμεν ἓν βάπτισμα εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν· προσδοκῶμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰώνος. Ἀμήν.11

A sermon preached at the Simeon Trust Workshop on Biblical Exposition, January 2024

John MacArthur died on Monday, July 14, at 6:17pm.

My Immediate Reaction to the News

I heard the news of great concern at home while checking YouTube on Sunday July 13, 2025. I saw a clip from Grace Church that MacArthur was in the hospital, had pneumonia, and was not expected to make it.

The next day, Monday, I was on twitter every hour, sometimes every few minutes, refreshing the feed to see when John MacArthur actually passed away. I was listening to a panel discussion on John's 55 years at Grace Church and the family of ministries it led to (Grace to You, The Master's University, The Master's Seminary, and The Master's Academy International). In the mean time I was grieving, thinking of, and texting some of my friends that have become dear to me through my time at The Master's College and The Master's Seminary in large part due to John MacArthur. Then, while talking about John with my wife and 15-year-old daughter I refreshed twitter and got the news while sitting at the dining table.

My immediate reaction was sadness. I felt a deeper sadness that I really couldn't shake. I was sad even as I spent time with my family (I’m on a 3-week vacation). I also felt a little confused on what to think and how to feel given my disagreements with some of MacArthur's leadership initiatives and positions.

I Thank God for John MacArthur

There are so many reasons for me to thank God for JMac. I write and reflect as one who grew up hearing JMac’s voice on 99.5fm at 6:30am preparing for school, as an alumnus of The Master’s University (B.A. in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in Biblical Languages, 2002) and The Master’s Seminary (M.Div., 2006), and as a local church pastor preaching every Sunday.

Through John MacArthur I’ve met friends, experienced his kindness, received and deepened critical convictions, and received training for pastoral ministry.

God used John MacArthur to bring dear friends and mentors into my life. His influence for Scripture extended to my pastors at Christian Fellowship Bible Church and to two of my pastors who went to Master’s, Pastor Alan Balatbat and Pastor Alex Lim. Their expositional preaching and teaching shaped me. I’ve met so many dear friends at The Master’s College (now University) and the seminary that there are too many too count and I will certainly fail to mention all of them. Derek Brown and Ben Borders were groomsmen at my wedding. Derek is still a pastor-colleague that keeps in touch. I met many cherished friends like Andrew Callaway, Brock Mollet, Rick Zaman, Dave Herring, Josiah Grauman, Gunner Gundersen, Dom and Jess Avila, Jon and Andrea Hoglund, Jonathan Holmes, Rusty Webb, Andrew Keuer, Redi Abazi (RIP), David Robison, Nick Orosco, Jason Nenadov, Matt Nicosia, Jason Upchurch, Donovan Drew, Lisa Voth, Bobby Blakey, Ben Gladd, Seth Pollinger, Brian Colmery, Scott Mehl, and staff and faculty like Kent Dresdow, Joe Keller, Mark Spansel, Lisa LaGeorge, Dr. Varner, Dr. Dave Hegg, and Dr. Horner. I met and hit it off with Bobby Scott at a TMS alumni hangout at a Shepherds’ Conference many years ago (and Steve Balentine some time later). Steve Ross, a staff member I met later when preaching at chapel, is a good friend and helped me walk more faithfully with Christ. Alumni Chris and Bethany Valencia, and Jabez Hwang are members and dearly loved friends at Bellflower Baptist Church (BBC). Many other church members (past and present) have become dear friends and partners and joined because I went to TMU and/or TMS. Friendships are the riches of life and God has given me many friendships enriching my life because of the public ministry of John MacArthur.

Secondly, I’ve experienced MacArthur’s kindness as a student. My second year at TMU I went to Grace Church and had my "wowees" (new “Week Of Welcome” TMU students in my small group) sneak up on John MacArthur for a surprise picture after the morning service. John was happy to do it and greeted the new students with love and warmth that dissipated their nervousness and hesitation in meeting “John MacArthur.” John MacArthur was generous with us taking pictures with him. I tried to get a selfie (in 2002) during my graduation after walking the aisle and shaking his hand. He obliged, but the camera didn’t work at that moment! My favorite picture with John is the one I got with him and RC Sproul my senior year.

Senior year I was the ASB chaplain. I found myself wandering into John’s TMU office and saw his bookshelf of new/unused books he wrote, including some special edition ones. Next time I saw MacArthur in chapel I asked about the books on the bookshelf in his office. There was one book I wanted specifically though there were a bunch of other ones I desired too. When I brought it up to him, he told me, go up there and “take whatever you want.” So, I did! John was so kind and generous.

Being part of the chapel planning committee trying to decide what we’d ask John to preach in chapel, I pressed the crew to have him preach Philippians 2:12-13 because I wanted to hear him preach it and see if he would handle the “for” of verse 13 the way I was learning to handle that text and logical connectors like that from John Piper.1 He got up in chapel and said something to the effect of, “Even though I’m the president, someone commanded me to preach Philippians 2:12-13 and I’m a man under authority so open your Bible to that passage.” I enjoyed that little intro (for the record he didn’t preach the “for” but preached the two verses as an antinomy and didn’t explicate the logical relationship between 12 and 13). John was very kind and humble in these and many other ways.

I give glory and praise to the Lord Jesus for giving and deepening a conviction to trust and stand on God’s Word, the Scriptures, through John MacArthur. I still remember my first convocation chapel in the Fall of 1999. John preached that “fortress” in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 could be translated prison or tomb. The opinions, ideas, and perspectives of this world rebelling against Christ are not only fortresses to destroy in our spiritual war, but they are prisons that lock people up and tombs that bury people in their death. The war for ideas and truth to take every thought captive to Christ Jesus is constant, the stakes are eternal, and the way forward is biblical. Those images have stuck with me as a 19-year-old and still inform my life and ministry today.

John MacArthur pressed on me the lifestyle of conviction, confidence in Scripture, fearing God over man, preaching boldly, calling out error and sin as an act of love, and valuing integrity and holiness even when no one else is watching. I remember MacArthur did a chapel series in 1999 on premillennialism and was so bold and clear in denouncing all other interpretations as erroneous. He did this at Shepherds’ Conference a few years later. I’ve seen John MacArthur call out what he saw as dangerous error and he’d even call out the names of those committing the error (Lordship salvation opponents; ECT errors of J. I. Packer and Charles Colson; opponents to biblical inerrancy; psychology and integrationist counseling; charismatics including John Piper during the Strange Fire conference; Amillennialism mentioned above; TGC and T4G going woke;2 Social Justice; Critical Race Theory, COVID compromisers including 9Marks). In my college days he was a hero to me in many ways strengthening and modeling the masculine and pastoral life I aspired to. I give fresh thanks to God this week as I reflect and mourn MacArthur’s passing.

The training I received in biblical languages, exegesis, theology, preaching, leadership, and counseling are still things I use and depend on all the time. Biblical languages and exegesis with Dr. William Varner was probably the greatest gift. Learning how to think biblically about culture through Dr. Grant Horner might be just as great. Reading Cornelius Van Til and Greg Bahnsen while also learning systematic theology and Calvinism gave me the tools to think theologically and critically, even if I ended up using those tools to move from dispensational premillennialism to historic premillennialism and to a Goldsworthian (Graeme Goldsworthy) biblical theology and understanding of how the Bible fits together.

MacArthur’s preaching has shaped my aim in preaching in a significant way. Not only do I feel the need to hit all the particulars of a text, I feel the need to clarify the message of each text so that my hearers can re-read the passage and see it for themselves. John would preach a passage. I’d follow carefully and take notes. I’d write down his outline. He would show me in the text what he was saying and show me with cross-references how the idea is theologically framed. At the end of my sermon I would think to myself, “why did I need John MacArthur to understand this passage? It is so clear and it’s right here on the page for anyone and everyone to see!” I would think this repeatedly such that it has now become one of things I hope my hearers think when I exposit a passage. I praise God for John’s clarity in expository preaching. I thank God for John’s textual and theological framing of concepts while unfolding the meaning and theology in a passage. Some things are better caught than taught. John didn’t teach this to me, by God’s grace he threw it to me and I caught it.

The friendships, training, convictions, and experiences of kindness were all made possible through John MacArthur. I thank God for him. All glory be to Christ!

Complications in My Grieving for John MacArthur

Like many who I’ve seen write tributes, I too have disagreed with John MacArthur on some things. Some things are less heavy on my heart though I think they are important and obedience issues. For example, I think that congregationalism is an obedience issue and not just a different perspective (see Matt. 18.17 and this video). I think it is disobedient to call two or more “services” by one organization a local “church.”3

I have emotionally heavier disagreements that complicate my grieving over MacArthur’s death. His leadership decisions on some publicly reported abuse cases are suspect. I think he should have either led the church to clarify why the reports are false or own the failure and repent. Failing to address the reports or own up to failure hurts those truly abused, disciples other pastors and church leaders to remain silent, and hinders the transferring of biblical discernment on how to address and handle these kinds of cases and accusations. I grieve the unnecessary pain of failing to clarify or take responsibility for some of these reports. (I understand there can be explanations for this that I don’t know which is why I’m calling it at the very least a failure of silence; and at most a double-failure to handle the situation righteously in the past and repent from it humbly in the present).

(What I believe to be) MacArthur’s error on biblically and righteously responding to racialization in America today is also a heavy thing for me to grieve. It is reductionistic and wrong to say “all we need to do is preach the gospel” when Jesus tells us not only to preach the gospel but to teach the nations “to observe all that I command them” (Matt. 28:20). I’ve argued for the existence of ethnocentric oppression in America today and the ethical necessity and for Christians to address it in faithful neighbor-love. I’ve went back and forth with Phil Johnson and others on MacArthur’s articles online. I disagree with MacArthur that “the evangelical social justice agenda” and CRT is “the most dangerous” controversy he has faced in his 50+ year ministry.4 Not only do I think he should have said the inerrancy, the Lordship salvation, or ECT controversies are more dangerous, I think he incorrectly and harmfully discipled people (and pastors) in regard to social justice and racialization.

Mentioning Gratitude and Concerns as a Two-Pronged Approach to Honoring John MacArthur

I rejoice that John preached justification by faith alone, the exclusivity of Christ, the Trinity, the atonement of Christ on the cross, the five points of Calvinism, the inspiration, authority, and inerrancy of Scripture, and more. We agree on so much and I follow him in these and more. At the end of the day I will rejoice in these gospel agreements more than I dwell on the heavy moral disagreements and concerns I have with his ministry and legacy.

I follow the spirit of Thomas Kidd (reflecting on the failures of George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards on slavery) and think God used MacArthur in similar ways against today’s pop Christian culture:

“Christians understand that we are all sinners, and that sin imparts a narrow vision about our own failings. . . . The leading preachers of the Great Awakening put the riches of the Reformed and evangelical tradition in stark relief against the shallowness that all too often marks today’s pop Christian culture. Yet we should never expect perfection from those heroes: we find phenomenal strengths in some areas, and appalling deficiencies in others. Realistic, flawed heroes may be more edifying anyway: If God used “crooked sticks” in the past, then perhaps he can use me, too.”(See how Thabiti Anyabwile, Albert Mohler, Mika Edmonson, John Piper, and Isaac Adams process the moral failings of our historical heroes).5

I want to be faithful to the end and I know that my blind spots and unintentional sins will be clear to many leaving them hurt and angry by the sins I failed to see and repent of when I pass away (Psalm 19:12-14). I grieve over that and pursue the holiness MacArthur and Christ call me to knowing I won’t be perfect. May God have mercy on me and all of us. May we keep growing and learning from those before us as we seek to leave a legacy of faithfulness, imperfect as it may be, to those behind us.

MacArthur taught me to stand on the truth. He taught me to value and protect my integrity. He taught me to keep an honest and clear conscience. He taught me to teach the truth. He taught me to confront error. He taught me to follow Christ and the Scriptures no matter what, as my ultimate allegiance, even over dearly loved friends and heroes. He taught me to call out sin and error courageously and clearly. He taught me to be biblical. He taught me that there are times to use names in order to be faithful, to stand on the truth, to transfer discernment to others, to protect the church, and to glorify our God. He taught me to follow him as he follows Jesus. He taught me to follow Jesus instead of following him if he strayed from Christ on any point.

John showed us a way to be a warrior for the truth. In this, I honor him by both recognizing the impact on me of his life devoted to the truth and by following his courageous example of pointing out specific error and commending what I believe to be biblical truth (and faithful obedience/ethics).6

Thank you, Pastor John MacArthur, for leaving behind a faithful testimony of seeking progressive sanctification in Christ as you sought to preach the Word and pastor a local church.

A prayer: Father in heaven, thank you for the life and ministry of John MacArthur. Thank you for your grace in giving him the gospel, saving him from his sins, sanctifying him to the degree you did, and using him greatly in my life and in the lives of so many people. Thank you for your mercy and patience with us in our sin, failures, and inconsistencies, and for you patience with the unintended consequences of our failings. Help all of us who sin and are sinned against to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, crucified for our sin, risen, and coming again for us and our salvation. I pray for comfort, mercy, strength, and hope in Christ for Patricia, the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as they grieve. I pray that you would guide and shepherd Grace Church through the elders and help them to find their footing for this next season of gospel and great commission local church ministry. May the church continue and grow still more in communing with you, embodying Christ, discipling their neighbors and the nations toward Christ Jesus, and in biblically-discerning love. Bless The Master’s University, The Master’s Seminary, The Master’s Academy International, and Grace to You as they seek to glorify you in their various mission objectives. Help us continue to grieve, process, be grateful, and press on through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of your Holy Spirit. Make your grace overflow to us so that we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in your work, knowing our labor is not in vain through your resurrected Son. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I’ve been reading a bunch of tributes and reflections on John MacArthur. Here are some of my favorite that I commend to you:

• John Piper, “‘Oh How I Love Your Law’: My Tribute to John MacArthur (1939–2025),” Desiring God, July 15, 2025. (Side note: John Piper’s interview with MacArthur in 2022 is gold, especially from 56:26 on).

• Scott Mehl’s 4-set tweet

• Jason of MindSoulAndBodyFitness had a nice instagram tribute

• Daniel Silliman, “Died: John MacArthur, Who Explained the Bible to Millions”Christianity Today, July 14, 2025.

• “Tributes for John MacArthur,” 9Marks, July 15, 2025. There are short tributes by Mark Dever, Lig Duncan, HB Charles, and others.

• R. Albert Mohler Jr., “A lion of the pulpit, now in Christ’s presence,” World, July 15, 2025.

• R. Albert Mohler Jr., “A Straight Line to the Pulpit: The Legacy of John MacArthur,” First Things, July 16, 2025.

• Erwin Lutzer, “John MacArthur: A Tribute,” Moody Church Media, July 15, 2025.

[THE FOLLOWING IS A VERBATIM COPY OF THE PUBLIC STATEMENT DIRECTEDTO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. BY EIGHT ALABAMA CLERGYMEN, WHICH​ OCCASIONED HIS REPLY.]

April 12, 1963

We the undersigned clergymen are among those who in January, issued "An Appeal forLaw and Order and Common Sense," in dealing with racial problems in Alabama. We expressed understanding that honest convictions in racial matters could properly be pursued in the courts but urged that decisions of those courts should in the meantime be peacefully obeyed.

Since that time there had been some evidence of increased forbearance and a willingness to face facts. Responsible citizens have undertaken to work on various problems which caused racial friction and unrest. In Birmingham, recent public events have given indication that we all have opportunity for a new constructive and realistic approach to racial problems.

However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.

We agree rather with certain local Negro leadership which has called for honest and open negotiation of racial issues in our area. And we believe this kind of facing of issues can best be accomplished by citizens of our own metropolitan area white and Negro, meeting with their knowledge and experience of the local situation. All of us need to face that responsibility and find proper channels for its accomplishment.

Just as we formerly pointed out that "hatred and violence have no sanction in our religious and political tradition." We also point out that such actions as incite to hatred and violence, however technically peaceful those actions may be, have not contributed to the resolution of our local problems. We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham.

We commend the community as a whole and the local news media and law enforcement officials in particular, on the calm manner in which these demonstrations have been handled. We urge the public to continue to show restraint should the demonstrations continue, and the law enforcement officials to remain calm and continue to protect our city from violence.

We further strongly urge our own Negro community to withdraw support from these demonstrations, and to unite locally in working peacefully for a better Birmingham.When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets. We appeal to both our white and Negro citizenry to observe the principles of law and order and common sense.

Signed by:

C. C. J. CARPENTER, D.D., LL.D. Bishop of Alabama

JOSEPH A. DURICK, D.D. Auxiliary Bishop. Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham

Rabbi HILTON J. GRAFMAN, Temple Emmanu-El, Birmingham, Alabama

Bishop PAUL HARDIN, Bishop of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the​ Methodist Church.

Bishop HOLAN B. HARMON, Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the​ Methodist Church

GEORGE M. MURRAY, Bishop Coadjutor, Episcopal Diocese of Alabama

EDWARD V. RAMSAGE, Moderator, Synod of the Alabama Presbyterian Church in theUnited States

EARL STALLINGS, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail​" ​by Martin Luther K​ing, Jr.

Note: the bold are editor headings from here. You can listen here as King himself reads the final copy of the letter.

16 April 1963

My Dear Fellow Clergymen: 

King’s circumstances, and the white clergy’s charges that led to this response

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.”

Why he does not usually answer criticism

Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.

Why he is making an exception here, and how he hopes to answer it

But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

Why he’s in Birmingham

I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against “outsiders coming in.”

Organizational reason

I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates.

Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise.

So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.

Religious reason

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Communal reason

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

The protests are unfortunate, but the causes even more so

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

A review of the process of the non-violent protest and the history behind it

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham.

1. Collection of facts to determine if injustice exists

There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case.

2. Negotiation

On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham’s economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants–for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us.

3. Self-purification 

We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?”

4. Direction action

We decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change. 

Then it occurred to us that Birmingham’s mayoral election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.

Answer to the charge that they should have negotiated instead of engaging in direct action

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?”

You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.

In defense of creating “tension”

My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

Answer to the charge that they didn’t give the new city administration time to act

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: “Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?”

The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act.

We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.”

But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;

when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters;

when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;

when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people;

when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”;

when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you;

when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”;

when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”;

when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments;

when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”

—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. 

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

Answer to the charge that they are willing to break the law

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws.

Two types of law: just and unjust

One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?”

The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

The difference between just and unjust laws 

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust?

A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.

An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.

Any law that uplifts human personality is just.

Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

Example #1

All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Example #2

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws.

An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal.

By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Example #3

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state’s segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Example #4

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

Disobeying an unjust law and bearing the consequences expresses the highest respect for law

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Predecessors to this type of civil disobedience

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience.

It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake.

It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire.

To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.

In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.

Two honest confessions

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers.

1. Disappointment with the white moderate

First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

Answer to the charge that their actions, though peaceful, precipitate violence

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence.

But is this a logical assertion?

Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?

Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock?

Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?

We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

Answer to the myth that time will inevitably cure all social ills

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom.

I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.”

Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

Answer to the charge that their activity is extreme

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme.

At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community.

(1) Force of complacency in the Negro community

One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of “somebodiness” that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses.

(2) Force of bitterness and hatred in the Negro community

The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro’s frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible “devil.”

(3) An alternative, or a more excellent way

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the “do nothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood.

And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as “rabble rousers” and “outside agitators” those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies–a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides—and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent.” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.

Were not these men extremists too?

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label.

Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”

Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.”

And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.”

And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.”

And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . .”

The question is: what kind of extremist will we be?

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.

Will we be extremists for hate or for love?

Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?

In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.

Gratitude for those white brothers in the South who have helped

I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some—such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle–have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as “dirty nigger-lovers.” Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful “action” antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

2. Disappointment with the white church and its leadership

Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings [one of the signers of “A Call to Unity”], for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis.

I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies.

Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.

Coming to Birmingham with hope, only to be disappointed

In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: “Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.”

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.

In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.”

And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South’s beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: “What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?”

Tears of love over the body of Christ

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

Remembering a time when the church was powerful

There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.”‘ But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent–and often even vocal–sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world.

Gratitude for those in the church who have helped

But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.

No despair for the future

But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.

Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here.

Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here.

For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation—and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

Concern about the clergy commending the actions of the Birmingham police

Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.”

I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes.

I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail;

if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls;

if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys;

if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together.

I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.

It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather “nonviolently” in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation.

Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

Where is the commendation for the peaceful protester? 

I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation.

One day the South will recognize its real heroes.

They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer.

They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama [Mother Pollard], who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: “My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.”

They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake.

One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Reflections on this letter and how it will be received

Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me.

If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

Hopes for the future

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,

Martin Luther King, Jr.

For my quiet time today I read John 13. It’s the last night before Jesus is crucified. In his last meal with his disciples he surprises them by getting up to wash their dirty feet. He wanted to teach them: “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (13:14). We are blessed if we follow this example (13:17).

Then Jesus drops a bomb in the room, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” The surprise of foot-washing levels up to the shock of treachery. Then Jesus gives the bread to Judas the traitor and Satan enters Judas. Jesus tells Judas to do his thing quickly. Judas leaves immediately. “And it was night” (v. 30).

Night. What a dark moment! Satan scheming and moving. Judas overwhelmed by evil. Jesus moving toward being betrayed, arrested, mocked, tried, beaten, shamed, and killed.

Moving from the surprise of footwashing to the shock of betrayal we’re left feeling the weight of darkness. Into this darkness Jesus gives and encouragement and a directive.

Be encouraged that the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified. The glory shines bright in and because of this darkest of moments. Praise God that even the darkest of moments cannot stifle or hinder God’s glory! All this darkness does is display God’s glory even more.

The directive is the main goal of the text for the reader, I think. In the midst of darkness, discouragement, disillusionment, and waiting for Jesus to come back and reunite with his disciples (John 13:33, 36), Jesus gives a new command. This command is not what one might expect in the darkness of the world and the (physical) absence of the Savior. I might expect Jesus to say, “Be strong.” Or, “Don’t give up hope. I will come again.” Or, “Keep gospelizing the world and hold to the truth.” It’s not that any of those are wrong. They’re not. But Jesus’s directive is a third surprise that we are to linger with in light of the discourse and prayer he is about to share with his disicples and us (chapters 14-17).

Jesus’s directs us to “love one another. As I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (13:34-35). The command to love fellow disciples in verse 34 is similar to the command to “wash one another’s feet” earlier in the evening (v. 14). Do you want to see the glory of God in the darkness? Love one another and wash one another’s feet. And seek out other disciples to love you and wash your feet. Do you want hope when things seem hopeless? Love one another and wash one another’s feet. And seek out other disciples to love you and wash your feet. Do you want strength when the weight of darkness drains your power? Love one another and wash one another’s feet. And seek out other disciples to love you and wash your feet. Do you want to hold onto the truth in a world of lies? Love one another and wash one another’s feet. And seek out other disciples to love you and wash your feet. Do you want the gospel to spread so that the world hears and comes to know Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Treasure? Love one another and wash one another’s feet. And seek out other disciples to love you and wash your feet.

“Even when I go through the darkest valley I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me”(Psalm 23:4)1 Praise God for our good shepherd! He comforts and guides us in the dark valleys in many ways. One of the ways he guides and comforts us and is present with us is through our John 13 two-pronged (1) experience of the glory of his dark death and (2) the experience of loving one another and washing one another’s feet while being loved and having our feet washed by our fellow disciples.

Editor’s note: This post was originally written on March 28, 2011.

I’m thankful for church members who don’t go “Absent With Out a Message” (AWOM). In our church, as it is still small, we’ve tried to cultivate a culture of accountability where members message (email or text) the church or pastor when they won’t be making it to our Sunday gathering. Here are 5 reasons why CrossViewers should never go AWOM.

1. Connection

First, this decreases the disconnect from not seeing a member for 13 days. If you miss a Sunday and you only see another member on Sundays, to miss two weeks is to go 13 days without seeing them and 20 days if they miss two consecutive Sundays. That’s a lot of life, experiences, trials, and things to experience without connecting. When a member misses two or three consecutive Sundays they can feel disconnected from the church, and so messaging the church regarding where God is sending you this coming Sunday and how the church can pray for you keeps you connected and sharing life with the body.

2. Encouragement for (less secure) Pastors

Second, this encourages the pastors. Now for better or worse, some pastors (like me), get discouraged when members don’t come to a Sunday gathering. We have our own issues to work through with pride and misplaced encouragement. My point here is that when members are aware of their pastor’s care and responsibility for them, their message helps pastors to know that the absent member is aware of God’s leadership in their absence. It also helps pastors to know how shepherd them. Maybe they don’t have a good reason for being absent and need guidance on how to better think about it. Even when it is a good reason for absence, the pastors can now be more aware of intentionally encouraging the member since they missed the stirring up to love and good works from the Sunday gathering (Hebrews 10:24-25).

3. Encouragement for Other Members

Third, messaging the church encourages other members. It is an act of love to open yourself to the church members to be known by them. It helps them to hold you accountable. It reminds them that we are connected to each other. Our church covenant is more than words. We actually mean and want to live according to the promise, “We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25).

4. Example

Fourth, it serves as an example to younger and less mature members about staying connected to their church family. Many new members (and some old ones) don’t understand the nature of being committed to a church body as a family. When they read a message from one of the members whom God sent elsewhere, it serves as a model to imitate.

5. Discernment

Fifth, messaging the church helps members assess whether it was a good reason to miss the gathering. Was God really wanting you to miss the Sunday gathering to go where you went? Maybe. Maybe not. Messaging the church and telling them (1) where you think God is sending you this Sunday, (2) why you think he’s sending you there, and (3) how other members can pray for you requires thought and sensitivity to God’s leading. This helps discourage silly or illegitimate absences. It also strengthens gospel intentionality and a spirit of worshipping God as you go elsewhere.

So message the church when you think God is sending you elsewhere telling the church (1) why he’s sending you, (2) where he’s sending you, and (3) how we can pray for you.

REFLECT (please bring back leaving comments on blog posts): Do you think it’s a good idea to email the church and/or pastors when you’ll be absent on a Sunday? Why or why not? How has reading the emails of other members missing Sundays affected you?

So I take up these 6 challenges most regularly:

1. Abortion

2. Ethnocentric oppression

3. Gender, sexual, and marital confusion

4. Loving the poor as we love ourselves

5. Loving the elderly as we love ourselves

6. Loving all immigrants as we love ourselves

Typically (though not exclusively) I take up these 6 issues in 9 different combinations and rotate through them each time I lead our church in our Sunday morning prayer of petition. Here are the combinations:

1. Against abortion and marginalizing the poor

2. Against ethnocentrism and gender/sexual/marital confusion

3. Against the neglect of the elderly in need of constant medical care AND against neglect of immigrants

4. Against abortion and ethnocentrism

5. Against gender/sexual/marital confusion and neglecting and neglect of immigrants

6. Against the elderly in need of constant medical care and marginalizing the poor

7. Against abortion AND neglect of immigrants

8. Against ethnocentrism and neglect of the elderly in constant need of medical care

9. Against marginalizing the poor and gender/sexual/marital confusion

May the Lord help us pray and care and love and shape each other faithfully through our communion with Christ and one another in our local churches in this polarized season in our society.

my calling my goal

But when you bless others

my pride’s on swole

How desperate how broken

my heart and my mind

Wand’ring and wasting

To you Lord please bind

Self-indulgent, self-centered,

a selfishness so deep

I’m drowning real slowly

It’s dark I can’t see

Lord help me, Lord save me

Without you I’m gone

Out wand’ring and wasting

I look to the dawn

Should you go to seminary if you want to be a pastor? Or should you pass on it and just learn as you do ministry? Is seminary strategically important in ministry preparation . . . for you? Ah, yes. A crucial question. Let me give the short answer: it depends.

I know. Not so helpful. I will try to be more helpful, though you should adjust your expectations if you're seeking a final answer by reading this 9Marks article. The fog when trying to answer "should I go to seminary?" is real. We have the church, the Bible, pastors, and a plethora of online resources. And they're free! Is it necessary to go to seminary if I'm pursuing pastoral ministry and not the academy?

To go or not to go? That is the question. I feel the fog you're in. The uncertainty can lead to fear: what if I make the wrong decision here and it ruins my ministry? A lot is at stake in this decision for you and it can be difficult to see your way forward clearly. I get it. The good news is that you can trust God to lead you every step of the way as long as you are not disobeying him step by step in your journey and as you make your decision prayerfully and thoughtfully (Psalm 32:8-9).

I understand the dilemma since I’ve pastored and regularly help aspiring pastors. I've done seminary and have been pastoring for 22 years to perceive more clearly what was more and less beneficial in my experience. We train others through our pastoral internship and our on-campus seminary partnered with Union School of Theology. Let me share with you my story, my reasons for seminary, my ignorance, my warnings, and my advice. I pray these brief thoughts help you move toward clarity as you follow Jesus.

My Story

At the age of 12 I subjectively thought that God was calling me to be a pastor when my pastor gave an altar call asking any in the congregation to come forward if they were willing to give their lives to God in full time vocational ministry. I experienced a certain freedom in willingness to go if (and that was a big if) God was actually leading me to be a pastor. Though I loved God and wanted to follow him wherever he led I fought the idea of being a pastor because I didn't want to be poor. The only pastor I knew at the time wasn't well off financially.

The summer after graduating high school God poured gasoline on my spiritual fire for him. Every quiet time with him was filled with joy in God's goodness. I started to have an overwhelming burden for other high school students to know this joy in God and to see his goodness in the Bible passages I read. The burden was so heavy that my love of money broke. I didn't care how much money I didn't have as long as God stayed this close to me and gave me the opportunity to help others know this joy in him that I was experiencing. All I wanted to do was grow with Christ, read his Bible, explain his Bible, and see others experience that same joy. I wanted to be a pastor.

My Reasons for going to Seminary

I saw a handful of men become pastors at my church and they all went to seminary. So I wanted to go to seminary too if that was the path to being a pastor. I went to seminary to learn. At that time I didn’t know what I needed to learn and so I hoped the seminary would help me out with that. Though I did an undergraduate degree in biblical studies with an emphasis on biblical languages I wanted to learn the Bible better, sharpen my use of Greek and Hebrew, and refine my systematic theology. I needed to learn how to serve others as a pastor. The goal was to serve my church and preach the Word more faithfully and effectively. Those were things I wanted to learn. But there were many things I did not know that I did not know.

My Ignorance Regarding my Seminary Training

I didn’t know how central the local church is to my Christian life, spiritual growth, ministry training, and potential pastoral formation. I did not know training in a church is possible (keep in mind I graduated with my MDiv in 2006 before the online options were viable). Seminary is optional. The local church is essential. I did not know (nor learn in seminary) how important church polity was and did not devote the proper time to learn (1) what a local church is, (2) what makes it healthy, (3) what a member is, (4) what pastors are, and (5) how members and pastors help or hurt a church’s health.

Furthermore, I did not know how strategic my competence in the biblical languages and church history are to my every day pastoral ministry. Now that I’m in the ministry trenches I don’t have the same time and freedom to develop the skill and competency that I did when I was in seminary. I didn’t know theological triage and how it applied to church membership, the eldership, and cooperation with other churches and teachers. Pastoral friendships and networking from the place of doctrinal discernment and deep friendship was not modeled for me in a way that I found compelling. I wish I invested more intentionally in more friendships in those days.

My advice

If you decide to go to seminary then go to grow primarily in biblical/theological conviction and ministerial competence through the languages and theology. Go to seminary to spend concentrated time filling up and setting a foundation and framework for your theology and ministry practice that will guide your subsequent Christian growth and service. Go to seminary to learn how to keep developing theologically and how to watch your teaching (1 Timothy 4:16). Go to seminary to learn the biblical languages so that you use them effectively for the rest of your life. Go to seminary to learn from experts in biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, church history, social ethics, and apologetics/philosophy (not so much practical theology) with other students who are learning and discussing the content in constant conversation with you (that is way better than doing seminary on your own online isolated from regular conversation partners; I advise you against that). Go to seminary to learn the Bible. Go to seminary to make friends and connections with professors. Of course, you can learn many of these things online for free processing what you’re learning with your church and solid pastors.  But if you do go to seminary I advise you go for these purposes.

My Warnings

I know the Bible calls us to grow in knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). But that knowledge is not merely intellectual (or academic) but spiritual (cf. Jeremiah 9:23-24). Character is more important than expert knowledge of the Bible and theology. Paul writes, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). You will grow in knowledge if you keep living. As you grow in knowledge you will either grow in pride or in love. You will inevitably grow in one of the two. So I want to warn you against pride. In all your learning grow in love. Worship Christ in everything. Your local church is more important than seminary so love your fellow church members and your church as a whole. Love your neighbors to the same degree of thoughtful love you have for yourself. Love the nations who need Christ’s Word. Love Christ’s kingdom. And whether you go to seminary or not, always work to tremble at God’s Word (Isaiah 66:2).

Seminary was a special and strategic season for my life and pastoral development from age 22 to 26. I don’t regret going even though there are some things I would do differently if I could go back. God used my season in seminary to refine, challenge, fill, equip, and prepare me for pastoral ministry. God could have used other means for this preparation and he has done so for other pastors I know who are far more effective in pastoral ministry than I am. May the Lord give you a spirit of prayer and dependence on him as you thoughtfully consider whether God would have you go (or recommend another to go) to seminary.

Grace and ✌🏾

. . .

If you’re looking for good theological education that is affordable, local, and God-centered, check out Union School of Theology. We host the Graduate Diploma in Theology (GDip) learning community at Bellflower Baptist Church

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Take a listen and leave a comment.

I have drawn much wisdom and edification from these interviews years ago and share them here for pastors and other church leaders and disciplers who may be edified by them.

CJ Mahaney Interviewed on The Pastor and His Soul.

The Pastor and his Reading.

The Pastor and his Joy.

The Pastor and his Time.

(Began writing this on Saturday morning, March 30, 2024):

Last night one of my co-pastors, Tanner Gish, preached a sermon on 1 Peter 2:18-25. Tanner called  us to “submit and suffer in step with our Savior.” Submission is what enabled Jesus to carry out God’s purpose in the cross. God calls us to submit to those above us in authority, even when they are cruel people (1 Peter 2:18). Tanner reminded us that suffering for good is a gift because through enduring it we receive some form of God’s grace (2:20).

As we considered the suffering of Jesus we were asked to consider how we are to suffer according to the text. We are to suffer without sinning (2:22-23). We are to suffer with self-control, with gentleness. That’s how Jesus suffered and we’re called to “follow in his steps” (2:21). Are you in difficult and unfair suffering? Are you suffering in step with Jesus in your suffering?

Reflecting on the call to suffer in step with Jesus a penetrating question challenged my soul: “Do you want to die now and end all your suffering and problems OR do you want to remain here and suffer while still doing more before you die?”

Death has a way of clarifying life. In this world we will have trouble. But Christ died and suffered to take our condemnation and he secured for us the power we need to walk with him and suffer with him until he takes us home. The most horrific and tragic and evil of Fridays, crucifying Jesus Christ on the cross, has become the very best Friday imaginable. Good Friday.

“Church Planting: A Theological Perspective” is a chapter written by Tim Chester in a book entitled, Multiplying Churches edited by Stephen Timmis (Christian Focus, 2000). Tim Chester’s chapter has 5 major points: (1) The doctrine of the church and church planting, (2) the centrality of the church in the purposes of God, (3) the centrality of the congregation in the mission of God, (4) church planting and the mission of God, (5) a final word.

Tim Chester summarizes this first point by saying:

• A failure to think biblically about the church will stifle church planting

• Good church planting should renew our understanding of the church and the gospel

• There need be no second generation churches if the church is constantly re-configuring itself through church planting

I have a few reflections on this section 1.1 (the impact of ecclesiology on church planting):

First, How one defines a church shapes their approach to church planting. “Pastor, building, sermons, membership role, constitution – implicitly these shape the image of church for many people. But do they define what it means to be church? Here the challenge is not just to do the theological thinking, but to have the imagination to strip away the traditional or denominational baggage from our images of church.” So we have to strip ourselves of baggage and allow the Scriptures to shape what we believe the essence of church to be. I think at CrossView our idea of church began with what we believe, how we agree to live, and covenanting to commit to loving each other in all the ways the Bible tells a church to love each other (like Matt. 18:15-17). The major barriers I had to strip away from what I thought of as functionally fundamental to church is a paid elder/pastor/overseer. CrossView began with a statement of faith and a church covenant. Then we began to work on a church constitution, incorporation, a bank account, a church budget, a website, how to serve the community, etc. Now as we’ve been at it a few months and as we look to see other churches planted, I don’t think incorporation, budget, website, and a bank account may be helpful. Maybe having one corporation as a network (say, CrossView Network of Churches) and then having a bunch of household churches so that there are legal safeguards in place for the churches would be expedient. That sounds like the same set up as The Crowded House in the UK. So at its essence what makes a church a church? How would you define what a church is? This leads to my next thought.

Second, When does a church plant become a church? This is a great question that reveals your functional definition of what a church is. Chester lists a few answers: “Is it when a launch takes place? Is it when a constitution is agreed? Is it when leaders are appointed? Or is it, as Luke’s definition might suggest (referring to Luke 2:42), when the church planting team first gathers?” So it sounds like Chester is saying that when a team first gathers, it is a church. I think that’s on the right track. In the church tradition from which I come, a church is “The church is that collection of people who are hearing the Word of God, responding to it with their lives, and who have obeyed Jesus specific commands to be baptized and proclaim his death in the Lord’s Supper” (Mark Dever). Nestled into that is a commitment to church discipline. I’d define the church as a collection of people committed to the Lord Jesus and his gospel, committed to loving one another in full accountability including church discipline, and working together to make disciples of Jesus Christ. (This is the same in essence as Driscoll’s definition, though even less cumbersome). So at CrossView we didn’t have a launch. We had a constituting of the church where we heard each others’ testimonies of how God saved us with the gospel and clearly communicated that we are committing to love one another as a church and make disciples of Jesus Christ together.

Bottom line: how you define a church effects how you go about planting a church. It also determines how confident people think they are in being able to be part of a pioneer planting team. As a pastor at CrossView I want all our members to have the confidence that they can be part of a small church planting team. But this is almost exclusively dependent on what they think a church is or how a church is defined.

Dear 9Marks,

My husband and I started looking for a new church close to our new home. We have been to Sunday service 4x and Wednesday night Bible study 1x at one Southern Baptist church. We shook hands with the pastor last Sunday after church. He told us we should become members, and that the new members’ class was starting this coming Sunday.

Another elder said the same thing to us a few weeks ago, as have several others. Is this usual for Southern Baptists? We are both fully immersed baptized Christians that have held memberships elsewhere. We believe in church membership, but have never felt pressured to join a church. Our previous church didn’t want you to be a member until you had attended for six months. It’s a nice church with nice people, it seems biblical, but we just feel pressured. Is four weeks a usual length of time? This is our first time at a Southern Baptist church.

Thank you!

—Virginia

Dear Virginia,

Thank you for your question, Virginia. First off, let me say: (1) with 47,000+ churches in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention, I wouldn’t say that there is any “typical” practice among Southern Baptists with regard to membership. Each church will have its own policies and procedures. (2) The length of time necessary to decide on which church to join varies according to circumstance.

It may be that the church you’re attending is a bit aggressive in the way it’s inviting you to join. It may also be that these conversations are independent of one another and don’t necessarily reflect the church’s culture. It’s difficult to judge which is the case. Yes, some churches can be tempted toward self-centeredness and therefore become too pushy in the building of their own kingdom. These churches wrongly pressure attenders to join their church, as if they know God’s will for them.

Whether the church you’re attending is applying inappropriate pressure is impossible for me to discern from afar. At the same time, we should receive—and enthusiastically welcome—biblically warranted invitations to commit to some local congregation.

As you discern whether this congregation should be your new church home, remember to interpret their actions charitably since “love believes all things” (1 Cor 13:7). Because we love and understand that the nature of Christian living is in the context of church community, churches and pastors should serve their Christian guests by helping them find a gospel-preaching church to commit to as soon as possible, even if it isn’t their church. Pastors can’t help a guest toward membership without some biblically warranted pressure in raising the issue.

Ultimately, I can’t give a definitive answer to the question about this particular church because I don’t know it. Continue to value church membership, avoid churches who genuinely pressure you, interpret others’ words with charity, and welcome invitations to join a church.

—P. J. Tibayan