Wednesday Evening Prayer Meeting
April 4, 2012
The Reverend Mr. Sean Lucas
I’ve titled this talk, “Blessed Zion — Lessons from the History of First Pres.
Jackson,” and that’s because the story of First Pres. Jackson is one of God’s
grace, preserving and growing a congregation in a small frontier town, which is
what Jackson was in the 1830’s, into one of the leading churches of evangelical
Presbyterianism. In many ways, the
church’s growth mirrors the demographics of Jackson.
Particularly starting in 1900, Jackson would double in population every
twenty years. The church’s growth
mirrors the demographics and yet demographics alone cannot really explain the
growth or the impact of First Pres. Jackson.
After all, Central Presbyterian Church in Jackson, which at one point in
1930 actually had four times the number of members as First Presbyterian Church
Jackson in the then-fashionable section of town, West Capitol Street, no longer
exists. And so demographics alone
can’t explain how it is that First Presbyterian Church here in Jackson has
continued. In fact, the fact that
Central Presbyterian Church no longer exists actually serves as a sobering
reminder that our congregation’s futures are not guaranteed.
God’s covenant promises extend to the Church universal, both visible and
invisible, but the conditions of the covenant are actually realized in local,
congregational life. And so as First
Presbyterian Church here celebrates its 175th anniversary, I thought
it might be helpful to share a few lessons that I learned writing a history of
the church. I’m sure there are other
lessons that could have been learned.
The lessons that I’m going to mention tonight are the ones that most
impacted me personally, both as a historian by training but also as a pastor by
calling. My eye is constantly on our
people in Hattiesburg and on the life of local churches, and so these five
lessons were things that particularly impacted me as I studied your story.
IT ONLY TAKES ONE GENERATION FOR A CHURCH TO DIE
And the first lesson in simply this.
It takes only one generation for a church to die.
As part of the research for the book, I tracked down a number of churches
that were mentioned in biographic sketches or represented in various events.
And one day working on the chapter on John Reed Miller, who pastored in
the 50’s and 60’s, I tried to find information about several churches — Point
Breeze Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg where Harold Ockenga and Reed Miller
himself ministered, Central Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga where Wilbur
Cousar pastored, United Presbyterian Church in Wheeling, West Virginia where
John Reed Miller served for a time, and Central Presbyterian Church in Jackson.
What do those congregations have in common?
Well, they were all large, thriving, significant congregations pastored
by conservative, talented men, and they no longer exist today.
Now the reasons why these churches no longer exist are as various as the
congregations themselves. Still, as
late as the 1950’s they were thriving congregations and if a congregational
death can happen to those congregations it can happen to any congregation.
God’s mercy has been evident in the life of your church, First Church, a
downtown church, in the fact that your congregation has continued to thrive and
foster in the city of Jackson even as the city has transitioned several times
through the decades. But it would
only take a generation for a congregation to show signs of decay, perhaps a poor
pastoral choice, perhaps a failure to preach God’s Word faithfully, or a
transition in the church’s understanding of mission, or an inability to see and
adapt to the neighborhood around it.
Of course, these reasons suggest that we often think of congregations dying
because of unfaithfulness, either doctrinal laxity on one side or evangelistic
laziness on the other. But often the
reason is not unfaithfulness but simply that the church’s covenant children move
away and they don’t come back. Well
such transitions can happen in the span of thirty or forty years.
One generation may be all that’s necessary for a congregation to begin
the process of dying.
One of the things I know for us at First Pres. Hattiesburg we’ve thought a lot
about over our anniversary celebration, and I would challenge you to think about
it as well, our futures are not guaranteed and though God has shown great
faithfulness in the past, over 175 years, we need to continue to ask Jesus to
preserve His lamp stand here and not to take it away, either through our own
unfaithfulness or for His own good pleasure.
One of the prayers I know I prayer regularly in our pastoral prayer is,
“Jesus, just as You have given us generations here for 130 years, raise us
generations after us that will love the name of Jesus Christ here in this church
and in this place.” And that is, I
think, something that all of us should pray, particularly you in your
anniversary time as members and leaders, to pray regularly that the Lord would
not remove His lamp stand from this corner of North State and Belhaven Street,
that He would remain faithful by raising up the next generation who will love
Christ and His covenant. So that’s
one lesson.
A FEW GOOD MEN
But a second lesson that I learned from your history was that it really is
necessary to have a few good men. One of
the outstanding features of First Presbyterian Church has been the quality of
men who have served as its ruling elders.
Even when Jackson was a small, struggling town in the mid 19th
century, First Church had remarkable men as elders — Joseph Copes and William
Lemley and J.L. Power just to name three.
Copes was a doctor who would later move to New Orleans and start the
medical school as what is now Tulane University.
Lemley was a leading merchant here in town and J.L. Power was the
longtime owner of what became The Jackson Clarion Ledger and served for a
time as Mississippi Secretary of State.
And from that time to this, the church’s elders have included State
Supreme Court Justices and Federal Circuit Court Judges, prominent lawyers,
leading merchants, hardworking doctors, who have all taken their turns working
in the nursery and teaching Sunday School and caring for the sick and struggling
and visiting the lost and the lonely.
Indeed, what has marked First Church’s elders is not only that they were
talented, but that they were also godly.
It’s that combination, talented, godly men, that sustains influential
congregations over the long haul.
Churches that lose the faith have talented men, lots of small churches have
godly men, but churches that have served as leading churches in the formation of
institutions and impacting cities and towns over generations, inevitably have
talented and godly men. By God’s
mercy, First Presbyterian Church Jackson has had more than a few good men to
serve this church as elder. Indeed,
heaven’s roll call is filled with the talented and godly men who have served
this church, not just Cops and Lenley and J.L. Power, but also Thomas Helm and
J.D. Power and all the Wells’ from the first William Calvin Wells to the
present, and Leon Hendrick and Robert Cannada and the Stokes Robertson, senior
and junior, and Erskine Wells and Russ Johnson and R.G. Kennington and on and on
and on to the present session. My
great regret in writing “Blessed Zion” was that I could not highlight all the
good men who have served as elders and deacons here at First Church.
But the reason why there have been so many good men as leaders here is that
there has been an intentional focus on ministry to men.
Jim Baird would periodically observe from the pulpit, “If you look around
yourself today you’ll see more men present than women and you could travel a
thousand miles in any direction before you would see the same thing in a church
this size.” But from John Hunter’s
ministry starting in 1858 to the present day, the church has focused
intentionally on ministry to men, whether the Brotherhood Sunday School class or
the Men’s Bible Study taught for a year by the Alexander brothers, or the
Mid-South Men’s Rally or many other ways beside, reaching men with the Gospel,
teaching them God’s Word, and involving them in ministry has been an important
focus of your congregation’s life.
This ministry to men has been complimented by having strong men as pastoral
leaders. For example, Gerard Lowe
who was the pastor here from 1941 to ’51 was described this way.
“He has the rare combination of broad scholarship, deep spirituality, an
attractive personality, and at the same time is a hail fellow well met with a
positive genius for making and holding friends and meeting and mingling with the
masses.” Likewise, all who knew John
Reed Miller remember him as a strong, masculine presence. In particular, one man
recalled, “While not seeking to be universally loved, Dr. Miller was and is
respected by all and truly revered by many.
In a day when the average preacher based his personality on how to win
friends and influence people, Dr. Miller concentrated on how to speak the truth
in love and was not in the least taken back by the opinions of men if his own
conscience was in clear alignment with the Scripture.”
What was true of Lowe and Miller has been true of all the men who have
served as pastor here at First Presbyterian Church.
They surrounded themselves with godly men and sought to reach men because
they themselves were men who loved Jesus and loved to be with men who loved
Jesus. That’s an important lesson to
learn, that it takes more than a few good, godly men.
LONG-TERM PASTORATES
A third lesson that I learned was a lesson on long-term pastorates.
One of the trends in missiology over the last twenty years in the study
of missions has been the promotion of short-term missions, whether going to the
mission field for two weeks or two years.
And undoubtedly this is valuable but one of the lessons of First
Presbyterian Church Jackson has been the long-term mission work of its pastors.
Since 1858, the church has only had seven pastors.
Think of that. John Hunter,
1858 to ’94, J.B. Hutton, 1896 to 1940, Gerard Lowe, 1941 to ’51, John Reed
Miller, 1951 to ’68, Donald Patterson, 1969 to ’83, James Baird, 1984 to ’95,
and then Dr. Duncan himself from 1996 to the present.
The longevity of these pastors has shaped the congregation’s life in
significant ways. First, there’s
been profound stability. Consider
this — for the eighty years between 1858 and 1939 there was only one pastoral
search. There were only two pastors
in eighty years. Think of the
stability that provided for the congregation as they went through building
programs, yellow fever, tragic deaths, church discipline, four church plants,
and countless efforts to reach Jackson with the Gospel.
Whole generations in this congregation had lived their lives with only
two pastors, not just the Hunter/Hutton generation but the Miller/Patterson
generation. Two pastors in
thirty-three years between 1950 and 1983, or even between Baird and Duncan, 1984
to 2012 and continuing. Such
stability has children who were baptized being married and then counseled and
see their own children baptized and married by the same men gives a great deal
of stability and strength to a congregation.
That’s been your story.
But not only this, the commitment to long-term pastoral care and missions in
long-term pastorates has allowed for the sustained impact of pulpit ministry.
A long stay in the same place allows these men to shape the theological
but also the piety perspective of the congregation in favor of the grand,
winsome, evangelical truths of reformed Christianity.
So each minister has had his own unique ways and plans for preaching,
there was a common thread in all of them of Gospel-centeredness, and evangelical
commitment that made First Church a powerful advocate for evangelism and
missions, for discipleship and theological education.
For ministers that have been in the front and center of many of the key
institutions that have furthered this work but the groundwork was laid through
the regular, sustained, long-term pulpit ministry of these men.
And finally, the pastors’ long-term stays allowed them to gain great trust.
Though each of the men had other opportunities both coming to First Pres.
Jackson and then even while here, they remained at their post, earning the
long-term trust of the church. A
great example of this was J.B. Hutton.
As the Jackson Kiwanis Club recognized on his fortieth anniversary here
at First Church, over the years Hutton had transitioned from Mr. Hutton to Dr.
Hutton to Brother Hutton. They said,
“People in recent years had called him Brother Hutton because they had found
that not only was there strength in his body and brains in his head, but despite
a seeming reserve, there was a warm and loving and tender heart for his people
and for the people of his adopted state and city.”
There’s the trust. And so
then this lesson – when difficult times come, it’s not only the power or the
wonder of one’s preaching that holds a congregation, but it’s the trust built up
over long-term pastorates. And
you’ve been blessed with that.
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
A fourth lesson that I’ve learned that kind of goes with the previous one is the
lesson of the road not taken, and it’s a lesson that comes again to ministers.
In each point along the way in the church’s history, the church’s pulpit
committees could have made different choices and the future of First Church
would have been dramatically different.
For example, before the church called J.B. Hutton in 1896 when he was a
little-known twenty-nine year old pastor of a parish in the town of Durant, they
had tried to call A.J. Mckelway who was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in
Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Mckelway actually came and preached, investigated the call, but in the end
decided not to come. And that was a
huge blessing for the church because Mckelway would become one of the early
proponents of the social gospel in the southern Presbyterian Church, while
Hutton would become known as one of the staunch defenders of evangelical and
Presbyterian faith. Imagine how
different your history would have been if you had the proponent of the social
gospel preaching from your pulpit at the turn of the last century.
Indeed, several points in the churches history, many of them are in the
book — similar roads not taken occurred.
And while it raises questions about how churches do pastoral searches and
calls, one thing seems clear — churches that stand faithful to the generations
are those that seek men who are faithful to the Scriptures, true to the reformed
faith, obedient to the Great Commission, men who are winsome pastors and
faithful leaders, and men who stay in a little while at least.
But to find men like this as pastors they must be given to the church by
Christ as grace gifts. In God’s
mercy, Jesus gave you great gifts in pastors through your 175 years.
You should rejoice in the men that God has given you as well as in the
roads not taken.
But the fifth lesson I learned, and to me the most important, has been the
blessing of evangelical Presbyterianism because to me, what has marked out First
Presbyterian Church throughout its history, is that you have been a congregation
that’s been committed to evangelical Presbyterianism.
From the earliest days the congregation has sought to preach the Gospel,
to win men and women to Jesus, to present the reformed faith in a warm and
winsome fashion, and the value of this is two-fold.
On the one hand, such evangelical Presbyterianism prevented the church
and its leaders from majoring on minors.
Rather, your pastors and elders have led with the Gospel and have led
with the fixed points of our doctrinal system — the inspiration and inerrancy of
the Scriptures, the reality of God’s sovereignty, the covenants of work and
grace, the Redeemer’s person and work, justification by faith alone, the means
of grace, and the reality of Jesus’ soon return and judgments.
And because they majored on the majors as it were, they were evangelical
protestants first and then Presbyterians.
That was true from John Hunter’s day all the way down to Ligon Duncan’s
day.
For example, J.H. Alexander, a 19th century minister in Yazoo City,
remarked of Hunter that, “It is pleasant to note that while Dr. Hunter was
devoted to the tenets and polity of the Presbyterian church, he had a heart and
a hand for all who loved and served the Master.”
And the same could be said of J.B. Hutton who regularly shared in the
organization and execution of evangelistic campaigns to Jackson with Baptist and
Methodist ministers. When buildings
were dedicated by the church, all the other congregations would shut down and
worship with First Presbyterian Church because there was a heart for evangelical
Christianity. John Reed Miller
started the Winter Theological Institute in the late 50’s and he invited the
luminaries of American evangelicalism to come and speak to you.
Carl F.H. Henry, Kenneth Cancer, Harold Ockenga, and of course your own
Ligon Duncan has been heavily involved in The Alliance of Confessing
Evangelicals and Together for the Gospel and the Gospel Coalition.
And all these ministers did this because the Gospel-centeredness of
evangelical Christianity was at the very center of their passions and their
heart and at the very center of your passions and your heart.
However, though the church was committed to a full-hearted and full-throated
evangelicalism, you have been committed evangelical Presbyterians.
And this was true throughout First Church’s involvement with the
Presbyterian Church in the United States, the old southern Presbyterian
denomination. John Hunter, after
all, signed the original address to “The Church of Jesus Christ throughout all
the world,” the manifesto of the southern church when it was formed in 1851.
This church hosted the General Assembly of the PCUS in 1902.
And from the 1920’s on, the ministers and elders took a leading role in
trying to preserve a Presbyterian denomination that would be evangelical and
Presbyterian in the best senses. And when rescuing the old southern church
failed, your church, First Church, was willing to commit everything in
preserving a congregation and a denomination that stood for the fundamentals of
our Presbyterian system of doctrine and polity.
In an era when denominations have been viewed as the dying dinosaurs of a
previous era, First Church took a leading role in forming and sustaining the
Presbyterian Church in America, a denomination committed to the Scriptures and
the reformed faith and the Great Commission. In addition, this congregation has
provided significant leadership to the PCA having three pastors, Drs. Baird,
Patterson, and Duncan, as well as an elder, Leon Hendrick, serve as moderator of
the PCA General Assembly. You’ve had
countless ministers and elders serve as chairmen of committees and permanent
committees and members of committees both at General Assembly and in presbytery.
This has been a church of Presbyterian church men.
All this to say that First Church has gloried in being evangelical first
and Presbyterian second but in being evangelical and Presbyterian together.
And this has been and will continue to be what shapes this and all other
leading Presbyterian churches.
These are some of the lessons I’ve learned in writing your anniversary history
but there’s one more thing to mention.
In thinking about First Church over 175 years, my mind has come over and
over again to the image of Zion, an image of God’s collective people, an image
of God’s Promised Land, an image of the Church as His cherished prize and
peculiar possession. Over and over I
came back to the title, even as I dallied with other titles, I came back to the
title of “Blessed Zion” to describe this book and this people for whom God has
cared for as First Presbyterian Church Jackson.
In 1806 the hymn-writer Thomas Kelly paraphrased Psalm 125 for a hymn
collection that he published. In
reflecting on the words from the first two verses of that psalm, “Those who
trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people
from this time forth and forevermore,” Kelly wrote this:
“Zion stands by hills surrounded, Zion kept by power divine, all her foes
shall be confounded thou the world and arms combine.
Happy Zion, what a favored lies in Zion.”
My prayer for you as you celebrate your 175th anniversary, is that
you would see yourself as God sees you, as blessed and happy in His love, as
precious in His sight, as attended by the light of God, and protected by His
grace all the way to the end of the age.
Surely First Church you have been blessed, a blessed Zion indeed.
Would you pray with me?
Lord Jesus, we do thank You for these lessons that You teach us as congregations
through the history of our churches.
Lord, I particularly thank You for the history of this church, not only in
getting the opportunity to study it over the last couple of years but indeed,
all the way back to 2002 reading session records.
Lord, I thank You for the way this church has stood for Gospel truth and
has stood for Gospel passion that You would be glorified in seeing lost men and
lost women come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Lord, I pray as they go through the various activities of this month, I
pray that You would encourage this congregation.
May they know that You are with them, that they belong to You, You know
them by name, and they are Yours.
Grant them Your grace, we pray. We
pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.