The Shape of Pastoral Ministry at First Presbyterian Church


Sermon by Sean Lucas on April 25, 2012

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Wednesday Evening Prayer Meeting


April 25, 2012



“The Shape of Pastoral Ministry
at First Presbyterian Church”


The Reverend Dr. Sean Lucas

Well good evening. It’s a great
pleasure once again to be with you all.
I was going to mention once again some of those connections between Dr.
Hutton and William McIntosh who was the long-serving pastor at First Pres.
Hattiesburg. We actually are
celebrating our 130th anniversary this year so we are remembering you
all as we all down south have been celebrating as well.

One of the things that I wanted to talk to you all about tonight was the shape
of your faithful ministry at First Presbyterian Church Jackson.
Really for over 175 years the keynote of your church has been a faithful
ministry, throughout the history of the, Southern Presbyterian Church in all of
its manifestations. Whether the old
school Presbyterian Church or the Presbyterian Church in the
United States
or now in the Presbyterian Church in America, First Presbyterian Church
has been known as a church with a faithful ministry.
And this faithful ministry has been exemplified most obviously in its
pastors but also in your elders and in your Sunday School teachers, or as they
were called back in 1848, your SabbathSchool teachers.
Your youth directors and Christian education directors, your camp
directors — all along the way, among all the people who have served your church,
it’s been shaped and offered a shape of what a faithful ministry looks like.

Now we often think we know what we mean when we say those words, faithful
ministry. But I think it would help
us tonight, briefly, to think a little bit about, “What is the shape of a
faithful ministry?” When we look for
a faithful ministry, what is it? How
do we recognize it? And particularly
for you, First Presbyterian Church, as you celebrate 175 years, what is the
shape of your past faithful ministry that will direct you into your future as
you seek a faithful ministry? Well,
I think the reason this church’s ministry has remained faithful throughout its
history is that it’s been committed to the ordinary means of grace and its
ministry and to Gospel ministry as its spiritual mission.
And specifically there are three things that I want to mention tonight
that provide the contours or the shape of what faithful ministry at First
Presbyterian Church Jackson has looked like.


THE CENTRALITY OF THE MINISTRY OF
THE WORD

First of all, and you’ve heard all of these in the vignettes, which were
wonderfully done, first of all the centrality of the ministry of the Word,
second, a dedication to pastoral care and discipline, and then third, a
commitment to evangelism and missions.
So first then, think with me about a faithful ministry as being centered
on the ministry of the Word. I think
if there has been a most important mark of your congregation’s 175 years it
would be the centrality of the ministry of God’s Word, and particularly the
pulpit ministry of this church, but also in the Sabbath School that was started
in 1848 and the Bible studies for men and women that have been a keynote of your
church from the Civil War forward.
All along the way the centrality of the ministry of the Word has been a central
characteristic of your church, even in times of difficulty — Civil War and
reconstruction, yellow fever, financial or political panic, world wars, civil
rights unrest. Throughout its time
of difficulties, the church has maintained a regular, consistent, focused
commitment to the ministry of God’s Word.

For example, the commitment was clearly displayed in the reconstruction period,
particularly when other congregations, most notably First Baptist Jackson — it’s
always good to run down the Baptists!
But particularly as First Baptist Jackson during the reconstruction
period really, really struggled, First Presbyterian Church maintained throughout
the Civil War and the reconstruction period, a regular ministry of God’s Word.
For example, in his diary, which is a real treasure in your all’s history
room, John Hunter noted when political visitors showed up but also how the Word
of God dealt with his congregation in the midst of all the crises of the
reconstruction period. So in a one
month period he wrote some of these things:

On August 20, 1865 he observed that, “a congregation large.
Members of the 1865 Constitutional Convention present.
I spoke with interest though using an old sermon.”
(laughter) It’s good to know
that he did that too! (laughter)
Two weeks later as Hunter preached on Acts 10 he noted, “The congregation
tolerably large and attentive. May
God increase household religion, a subject too large to be fully treated in a
single discourse. It is undoubtedly
one of great interest and importance.”
When the church observed communion in mid-September 1865, he said he,
“spoke with ease and some tenderness on 1 John 3:2.
Service solemn and impressive.
Some federal officers communed, one a Presbyterian from
Chicago.”
Such was a typical month in Hunter’s ministry as he watched God at work in the
congregation’s life. It was a month
that would be replicated time and time again over his thirty-seven years as
pastor of this church. As a preacher, Hunter was remarkable.
According to one remembrance, “As a minister, Dr. Hunter was always
earnest and attractive, carrying conviction by his logic and sledgehammer blows.
He was always straightforward, pointed and directed, believing that
language was intended to express thoughts rather than to cloud ideas.”

R. Q. Mallard who was a minister from
New Orleans noted that, “As Hunter preached he would
begin in a low, deliberate, almost hesitating tone with his eyes fixed on his
own feet, nervously rubbing his hands together.
But then Hunter became like a locomotive,” Mallard claimed.
“Directly the piston rod began to pulsate, gradually increasing its speed
until the form became erect and the eyes squarely faced the audience as he
plunged along a line of well-formulated thought with force and directness of a
steam-charged engine.”

Now Hunter’s approach to preaching, both earnest and Bible-centered, has
typified the ministry of the Word from 1858 on here at First Presbyterian
Church. From J. B. Hutton’s almost
lyrical style thrown into a kind of verse by his son in a collection of Hutton’s
sermons, to Gerard Lowe’s winsome expositions that were featured on
The Presbyterian Hour, and Wednesday night Bible studies that
offered overviews of the Bible long before Mark Dever was alive (laughter), from
John Reed Miller’s determination to win people with Gospel preaching Sunday
morning, engage people for the Gospel on Sunday night, and teach people the
Bible on Wednesday night, on through Ligon Duncan’s consecutive expositions
through Bible books, the shape of the ministry at First Church has focused on
the earnest preaching and teaching of the Bible as God’s inspired, inerrant
Word.

And because this is the case,
FirstChurch’s ministers prayed
that God’s people would gather regularly so that the church’s ministry would be
effective. Every minister in this
church’s history could echo the words first spoken by J. B. Hutton in his
inaugural sermon at FirstChurch in 1896.
In applying Acts 10:29, the text in the King James Version goes, “I ask
therefore for what intent ye have sent for me,” in applying that text to the
congregation, Hutton said this:

“If I am to come here
to speak to empty benches, it will not only be of no special inspiration to me,
but of no profit to you. If I am to
come to prayer meetings and to Sunday preaching services and you were to remain
at your homes, at your places of business, or at other places, your call to me
to be your minister cannot mean good to you.
For a minister to do effective service, regularity in attendance upon the
ordinances of God’s house is essential.
Nothing can be more discouraging to a pastor than irregularity of
attendance on the part of those who have called him to preach.
But aside of this discouraging of the pastor, irregularity of being in
your place at the Lord’s house is hurtful to the life of individual Christians
and is disastrous to all helpful working in this church.”

A faithful ministry of the Word required a faithful hearing and obeying of God’s
Word by God’s people to be fruitful.
And by and large throughout your history, First Church has demonstrated both a
faithful preaching of God’s Word and a faithful hearing of it as well.
So that’s the first mark, first contour, first line of the shape of a
faithful ministry that’s been your blessing — the centrality of the ministry of
God’s Word.


A DEDICATION TO PASTORAL CARE

But the second mark is this — a dedication to pastoral care and discipline.
Throughout the church’s history there has been a profound dedication to
this, to this pastoral care, to this discipline.
One kind of faithful pastoral care, one that ministers from the very
beginning of this church to its present day have done, is to be with people as
they are dying. In March 1867, the
session convened at the house of Susan Saunders in order to hear the profession
of one J. H. Young, a dying man who had been confined to his bed with a
protracted illness. And the session
minutes recorded, “After free conversation and examination in which J. H. Young
made a satisfactory expression of his repentancy and faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ, he was admitted to membership in this church.
They served him communion that same day; he died the next.”

Several months later, Hunter was by the bedside of his father-in-law, Stephen
Perar. He recorded in his diary,
“After the room was cleared, I sat down by him and asked him about his hopes in
Christ. They were firm.
No cloud rested upon his mind.
He said that he was unworthy has a Christian and hoped for acceptance
through the merits of Christ. After
this profession and a time in prayer Perar sank into a lethargic state and
several hours later he calmly fell asleep in Jesus.”
A month after Perar died, Hunter went to the home of a Mrs. Hawkins who
was dying after delivering her son, Milton.
That Saturday night attended a dead bed for Mrs. Hawkins, baptized her
child, Milton, whom she dedicated to God in her last moments.
She died at midnight hoping for a blest resurrection.
This is the shape not just of Hunter’s ministry but of all your ministers
throughout your history.

Sometimes faithful pastoral care meant intervening in difficult interpersonal
relationships. Duling in particular,
wrote significantly during the reconstruction period and caused the 1868 State
Constitutional Convention to make it a significant crime.
Sometimes though, more severe consequences were unavoidable.
Hunter recorded on January 8, 1866 in his diary, “A sad difficulty
occurred between Erskine Helm and Pembrook Garland.
They used pistols and wounded one another mortally.
A few days later as he was dying, Pembrook desired to make a profession
of faith in Jesus and the church’s elders went to his house and after a full
length conversation and examination in which Pembrook Garland made a
satisfactory expression of his repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ he
was admitted to membership in this church.
The man died an hour later.
Erskine Helm followed him in death three days later.”

While the church’s leaders were unable to prevent the Garland-Helm duel, they
were able to stop another one involving J. L. Power who would serve this church
as an elder for over thirty-five years.
Then, though, Power was a deacon and the co-founder of
The Jackson Clarion Ledger.
And he and a man named Edward M. Yeger, Edward M. Yeger, who would later
gain distinction by stabbing the active mayor of Jackson to death in 1869, got
into some measure of conflict in August 1866.
In fact, that month the session received news about a proposed duel to be
fought between the two men in Vicksburg.
They were able to meet with Power and discuss the matter with him.
It was a serious matter as the session believe that, “Dueling is a
practice utterly antagonistic to the letter and spirit of the Gospel.”
No duh! (laughter) Sorry,
that was an editorial comment! “A
practice wholly inconsistent with the conduct of a Christian professor,” and on
they went. Thankfully Power saw the
error of his ways and confessed that in the acceptance of said challenge, he
grievously sinned against God, that in so doing he forfeited his right to the
privileges of God’s church and also his position of superintendent of the
Sabbath School. And in response, the
session accepted Power’s repentance and did not remove him from his positions of
service within the church. Even
more, in light of Yeger’s later actions, they probably saved Power’s life.

Often though, faithful pastoral care involves church discipline, not just for
fantastic sins but for more common ones as well.
In 1874, the session had to deal with a woman who had, at various times
within the past year, had lived in fornication with a man at her home in Rankin
county. Twice they cited her to
appear before the session but she failed to do so.
And so on July 19, because she had failed to appear and because she had
admitted the act previously to Hunter, “It is therefore judged by this court
that she, for her said violation of the seventh commandment, be and she is
hereby excommunicated from the visible church of Christ.”
A few months later the session had to deal with a man who had engaged in
disorderly conduct. He was cited to
appear before the session to answer to the charge of drunkenness and other
unchristian conduct. The man wrote a
letter to the session in which he admitted to the charges of intoxication and
conduct on becoming a Christian and member of the church, and in response
through Hunter, the session admonished him against a repetition of the offense
and urged him to greater Christian faithfulness.

This was true of the church in the 19th century and continues on to
this day. Your church, like First
Church Hattiesburg and other faithful churches practices pastoral care and
sometimes has to practice church discipline.
It’s a mark of the true church, not just of First Presbyterian Church but
of any true Gospel church that She practice church discipline. And throughout
your church’s history, pastoral care and church discipline has not been punitive
or harsh but restorative and gracious.
To use the language of the PCA Book
of Church Order
, throughout its history the First Church session has played,
“the part of a tender mother correcting her children for their good, that
everyone may be presented faultless in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Such is the heartbeat of true pastoral care and discipline, and such has
been the commitment of a faithful ministry here at First Presbyterian Church.


A COMMITMENT TO MISSIONS AND
EVANGELISM

So two marks — centrality of the faithful ministry of God’s Word, commitment to
pastoral care and discipline. The
third is a commitment to missions and evangelism.
While some Presbyterian churches have moved away from the spiritual
mission of the church to be involved in political or social causes, First
Presbyterian Church has demonstrated a consistent commitment to the church’s
spiritual mission. And this has been
particularly seen in your commitment to evangelism and missions.
From its earliest days, the church has focused especially on evangelizing
young men. In 1870, the sessions
submitted a report to the central Mississippi presbytery in which they observed,
“with sorrow that a very large proportion of the male population of our
community are seldom seen in the sanctuary on the Sabbath and never in the
prayer meeting. This portion
embraces numbers distinguished for educational talents and influence.
They seem to live only for the world and tend only on temporal things,
regardless of the future life.” The
session was determined to reverse this negative trend through a renewed emphasis
upon outreach and discipleship of men.
They said, “It calls for increased effort on our part to secure a learned
and efficient ministry and greater zeal in the enlargement of our Sabbath
Schools and Bible classes.”

And so in order to meet this need, the church not only placed emphasis on Bible
study but they began sponsoring evangelistic meetings that focused on reaching
young people with the Gospel.
Starting in the 1880’s the church held meetings with such noted evangelists as
Sam Jones, the Presbyterian evangelist, El Gurrant, J.S. Hillhouse, and C.P.
Bridewell who was one of the great preachers of his era.
In the new century the church would join in union meetings with the
Baptists and Methodists in order to reach the city with the Gospel. They
sponsored Samuel D. Gordon who was the author of the widely read,
Quiet Talks, series.
He came in 1915. Gypsy Smith
in 1922 and in 1928. G. Campbell
Morgan came under the auspices of the church in 1923 and Billy Sunday in 1924.
First Church also sponsored Presbyterian evangelists such as William
Crow, who pastored the Idlewood Presbyterian Church in Memphis and later the
wonderful Westminster Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.
And Weightsy Smith who was a former First Church deacon who entered the
evangelistic ministry and who preached twice here at protracted meetings.

Now this commitment to mass evangelism was about reaching young men and young
women with the Gospel. And it
continued throughout the church’s history in the 20th century,
sponsoring twice Billy Graham in 1952 and again in 1975 and sponsoring a ten day
crusade with Billy Graham’s then twenty-four year old associate and
brother-in-law Layton Ford in 1956.
The church’s commitment to evangelism sprung from the realization that men and
women were saved primarily when they heard God’s Word read and God’s Word
preached. It was that same
realization that fueled the church’s passion for international missions.
For First Church, your commitment to missions began in November 1897.
That month, J. B. Hutton advised the session that he wished to begin two
new departments — the women’s missionary department and the men’s missionary
department. These two departments
were to select, equip, and maintain a missionary who would go to another part of
the world to share the Gospel. In
the following year, the session wrote to S. H. Chester who was then secretary of
the foreign missions committee for the PCUS, the Southern Presbyterian Church,
requesting his assistance in selecting a missionary.

And Chester suggested that the church assist Annie Rowland Houston Patterson who
served with her husband Brown Craig Patterson in China.
And not only was supporting the Patterson’s amenable because Brown
Patterson had been J. B. Hutton’s classmate at Union Seminary in Virginia, but
it also energized the congregation to get to work.
And what was even more amazing was that Annie Patterson didn’t simply
assist her husband by loving him and caring for their children, she was a
full-fledged licensed and degreed medical doctor herself.
So their ministry in China was actually pioneer mission work.
She would treat the women’s physical ills and sometimes would do surgery
with another doctor on staff. And
the medical work provided an opportunity for the Gospel.
The Patterson’s would go to various towns around their home base for a
day to a week, do medical work, share tracts, offer the Gospel.
There was house to house visiting, periodic protracted meetings.
The Gospel fruit that they had was small and yet provided the foundation
for the modern day explosion of Christianity in that country.
Who’s to know that the hundred million Christians that they think there
are in China do not have some small root in the ministry of the Patterson’s and
in your ministry through the Patterson’s.

In order to support Patterson, the women raised two-fifths of her salary and the
men and the children raised the rest.
By focusing on this one missionary – and her name was listed on the
worship bulletins through all the years the church supported her as the church’s
missionary. By focusing on this one
missionary the beginning of First Church’s international mission outreach was
born. Not only did the church
maintain relationship with the Patterson’s until their retirement in 1940, but
the church began to raise money above and beyond what was necessary to support
the Patterson’s to begin to support others.
Of course you know that your commitment to missions has flourished
through the years, especially with John Reed Miller’s leadership in developing
the world missions conference beginning in 1960.
And also vital has been your commitment to developing giving to missions
which has allowed you to expand your missions ministry exponentially.

But it was all rooted in a commitment to the ministry of the Word.
It was rooted in a commitment to send people with the Gospel because the
Gospel is life giving and it is rooted in and inspired in an inerrant Word that
much be read and preached for men and women to be saved so that there might be
further pastoral care and discipline so that men and women might make it home
safely. Now there’s a great deal
that could be said. You’ve got to
read the book in order to find our more, but these three marks of First
Presbyterian Church’s ministry should be enough to give you a sense of what your
ministry has been for 175. The
centrality of the regular ministry of the Word, dedication to pastoral care and
discipline, commitment to evangelism and missions, these emphases continue today
with the result that your congregation is a blessed Zion.
For tens of thousands in Jackson’s history and hundreds of thousands in
this country and who knows the countless thousands around the world.
As such, your congregation has reason to say in the words of Psalm 48,
“Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God!
For within her citadels, God has made Himself known as a fortress!”
Thanks be to God.

Would you pray with me?


Lord Jesus, we do thank You for this wonderful time of reflecting on Your work
because after all, this is Your ministry that You have done in and through all
those saints who have been in this place through 175 years.
This is Your church, it’s Your Word, it’s Your covenant, it’s Your
Spirit, it’s Your glory, it’s Your Spirit.
It’s all Yours, Jesus. You
use us as Your vice-regents in this work, as stewards of this ministry ,but it’s
Your ministry. Jesus, we praise You
tonight for Your faithfulness over 175 years to this people called First
Presbyterian Church. Surely it is
right for us to sing Your praise.
Surely it’s right for us to raise our voices with the angels and praise the
Triune God for Your faithfulness.
And so Lord, give us hearts and voices to sing Your praise now.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen.

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