Transcript
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: Welcome to TSF. Our speaker for this afternoon is Reverend Earl Palmer. One note before I introduce him, we'll need to end at 1:20, because there's a class on the exegesis of Mark that will be coming in after that. Reverend Palmer is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley,
in California. He is the pastor, been there, the pastor since 1970. Before that he was the pastor at Manila, at the Philippines, at Union Church. He was the pastor, before that in Washington state; University Presbyterian Church. His ministry has meant so much to so many. Any of you who have heard him preach, know that he has been a model to so many.
We want you to welcome him as a trustee, and as our TSF speaker this morning. Thank you.
PALMER: Well, this is really a great honor to be here in the main lounge, kind of graduated upstairs. I've spoken to TSF before, but it's always been down -- what we used to call the basement, but I know now it's got a more euphemistic name. I think it's auditorium -- in the auditorium. Now, up here in the main… You know, this is where, in 1968 -- no it was
1963 that Karl Barth, when he did the Karl Barth lectures here, he had his question/answer time right here. He sat right here; his son, Marcus Barth, sat next to him. And the place was literally jammed from wall-to-wall. And he answered questions, oh, it was a very exciting, exciting moment. So I feel really honored to sit under Dr. Warfield, in this great hall. It's neat that
TSF has asked me to share with you today, and I've decided to give a talk on the theology of encouragement. And each year when I've been here, I've been invited -- I hope you keep doing it -- but every year for this fall trustees meeting, when I am here, I've been invited to be with you at a lunch, and I take it very seriously. So this is now continuing my eight year series of lectures at the fall meeting
of the TSF, here at, now it's -- it was Theological Forum -- now it's TSF. That's great. I want to read a quotation, and use that to trigger my thoughts with you, then just jump right in. J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter he wrote to his son, Christopher Tolkien, pays a tribute to his close friend, C.S. Lewis, who was first a student under Tolkien. Tolkien was professor of philology at Oxford, as you know. And then had this Icelandic
study group and C.S. Lewis is a young graduate student. And then finally as a young don went to this Icelandic folk story study group, for which he had to learn Icelandic language, because Tolkien was such a purist, as a philologist. They studied the Norse stories, which Lewis loved. That little study group played a key role in Lewis's own theological and spiritual formation. And then out of that came the Inklings
group that met on Tuesday nights, in Lewis's quarters. Tolkien, Charles Williams was a part of that, and Dyson and Owen Barfield. A group of people met to read what they were writing, to each other. And a little later, Tolkien wrote to his son, and this quotation appears in his diaries. "The unpayable debt that I owe to C.S. Lewis is not influence, as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement."
You have to appreciate Tolkien, if you are a Tolkien fan, you know a lot lies behind that first sentence. Tolkien was a very proud person, and the idea that anyone could influence him, was really unthinkable. So there is a little charm, in that sentence. Not even Lewis, no one really could influence Tolkien. Tolkien had very strong opinions on every subject. So, his son certainly would appreciate that joke. "The unpayable debt that I owe to C.S. Lewis was not influence,
as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement. He, for a long time, was my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my stuff," quote unquote. And that stuff he's referring to are the, what Lewis kept writing to his brother, he said, "We are listening to Tolkien read about his hobbits." And it was the stuff that later became Lord of the Rings Trilogy. He says, "Only from him, did I get the idea that my
stuff could be anything more than a private hobby." And, I'm sure some of you realize that it was Lewis that urged Tolkien to publish, first The Hobbit, and then Lord of the Rings. So we have the benefit of that remarkable body of literature because of this "sheer encouragement" of C.S. Lewis toward Tolkien. You know it's that that I want to talk about in my annual talk at TSF. I want to talk about what is encouragement. How are we encouraged throughout our life in ministry?
And then, how do we encourage other people? I want to talk really, and give you some of my own thoughts, and maybe some Biblical insights into what it seemed to be, might be that doctrine of "sheer encouragement." The word that Tolkien used to describe his friend, C.S. Lewis, who was to him, he said, "He offered me the gift of sheer encouragement." I just love that phrase, "sheer encouragement." How is it? How do you experience it? And how do you give it, to others? And, I'd like to focus in on that today. It seems to me, that when I understand the New Testament, there are really two key words that could be called the encouragement words of the New Testament. And each of these words, of course, are part of the love vocabulary of the Bible. And the one word is the word that actually is translated in our RSV text, and in most text. It's translated by the English word "encourage." And you know that as the word paracletus, parakaleo.
It's a combined Greek word that means to come alongside, to call alongside, to come alongside. And that's the word, for instance in Acts 4:36 -- you know that famous passage -- where we meet this young man who is from Cypress, who joins up with the Apostolic band, sells his field. His name is Joseph [Barnusha?]. Which Aramaic name, and then Luke tells us that the disciples decided to nickname him
Barnusha, or Barnabas, son of encouragement. And it's there, that the Greek word appears, son of encouragement and that becomes the description of Barnabas. It's also the word that the apostle Paul uses. And I brought this -- I took this out of the chapel. I promise to take it back -- but, I wanted to read that one other text, where you know the word is used over and over again by Paul, in second Corinthians, where there's the play on the word
in the opening paragraph of second Corinthians one, you know, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, the God of all." Now here the RSV translates paracletus, with the word "comfort." Just like it does in John's Gospel, where our Lord, in the Thursday night discourse, talks about, "I will send the comforter to you." But, actually it's the Greek word paraclete, or paracletus, is used there, "the one who comes alongside." I think the word comfort, in English, is a poor translation, really of the word,
because in English, the force of the word is quite weak. But, in Greek, that idea of to come alongside is earthy and concrete. And that's the word that Paul uses here, and you can see the way he uses it, he knows exactly what the word means. Because of the play on the word, now. The Father of all, paracletus, the Father of all coming alongside, Who parakaleta, who comes alongside us, in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort,
or to come alongside -- I think it's nine times this one paragraph the word is used -- to come alongside those who were in any affliction. With the coming alongside, with which we ourselves are "come alongside" by God. You can see over and over again He uses that word. In other words, God is the father of mercy -- that's the word for specific acts of grace, or specific acts of love -- and the God of all, paracletus, the God of all, encouragement, or coming alongside.
It seems to me that the generic word for encouragement, and the other word for encouragement, I guess would have to be the word buildup, or what we use, translates sometimes, edify. Which as you know, a word built from the root oikein, house. Add it to the verb form, it becomes, to buildup. Or to nourish or buildup. And that becomes, I guess, the other basic, generic word for encourage in
the Bible. I'll give you my definition of encourage, then, from those two generic words. Encouragement, if we understand what it meant, that Barnabas was called son of encouragement, it would be someone who comes alongside, for our good, for our building up. If you put the word edify -- and that's the way Paul, of course, is using it here -- the God of all mercies, who comes alongside of us, in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to come alongside those
in any affliction with the same good coming alongside we experienced from God, now toward someone else. And there's the theology of encouragement, I guess, if you tracked it in Paul. Now what are some of the ways that this happens in our lives? In other words, what are some of the, you might, if we were going to try to think of some of the encouragement verbs, that are, what I would call the paracleto, or the [oikeideno?], the
buildup words in the New Testament? And I've got a few here, that I just will, you can probably think of a lot more, but I've just put a few together to try to make sense out of this talk today. First of all, when someone welcomes me in -- and here would be all the welcoming vocabulary of the New Testament -- all the evangelistic vocabulary of the New Testament, would be encouragement vocabulary. When someone welcomes me in to the family, invites me in,
like Paul uses that word "welcome," actually in Romans, where he says, "Welcome one another." Or in Romans sixteen two, again, the word for welcome, welcome, receive in, or welcome each other. And of course, all the Good News vocabulary, all the evangelistic vocabulary, is encouragement vocabulary. When someone is welcomed in, they're encouraged. I think in musical comedy, the most encouraging song in all of musical comedy, would have to be
the song in Oliver, when Artful Dodger sings to Oliver, "Consider yourself one of us." It's a welcoming song, welcoming you in to the family. We've taken a liking to you. And that's an encouraging experience. When you are welcomed in, you're encouraged. Ok, a second one of the encouragement words, would be, when you're taught, you're encouraged. It seems to me that teaching, when it happens, we are encouraged especially
if we learn. And, as you know, our Lord described Himself with the word rabbi, and He was called -- when His disciples wanted to particularly honor Him -- they called Him Rabboni, or great rabbi, great teacher. And the whole idea of the excitement that's involved and the encouraging experiences that are involved in a person's life, when they learn something. When the way has been pointed out -- you know the Hebrew word for teach, is built actually on the word Torah.
Torah means the way, and morah is the teacher, one who points out the way. And when someone has the way pointed out. When you discover a truth, you discover the truth about God, the truth about yourself or scientific truth, you are encouraged. You know I preached a series on encouragement in my church, a year ago, and I asked everyone to write down the names of five people who -- just for themselves, not the hand in anybody else, but just in their own journals -- to write down the name of five people who encouraged them in their life. Then to write
after that, some incident that they remembered in which they were encouraged. And then I also asked those people to write five names of people they encouraged, and how they found out. It turned out to be two very interesting lists. Then I did my own little private poll, and I decided to pick on just twenty people at random, and ask them just this question, "Name the professions that were involved in your list of five. Just tell me the professions, not their names. But what profession were they, what was their work, or their life work?"
And I found out something that I don't think will be a surprise to you. In all 20 people I surveyed, every single one of the 20, had listed as one of their five, and sometimes as more than one of their five, a school teacher. An ordinary, and in most cases, public school teacher. Some teacher that taught them, who ignited them, who opened them up, so that they learned. So that became an encouraging experience. Ok, let me give you another encouraging word. This may be a surprise to you, and this is an antithetic one.
When you're warned, you're encouraged. You think of that moment of danger, when someone warned you of a grave threat. Like you're standing in the path of a runaway car and someone says, "Look out!" And you step off the street, onto the curb and the car goes by and you realize they saved your life, by warning you, at the emergency moment. And so when you are warned, you are encouraged. Though you'll see in a moment, there are a few tricks to the trade in warning. But still when you are
warned, you are encouraged. Like the Apostle Paul, one of his encouragement words in Philippians, is when he says to the Philippian church, "Look out!" For those who want to, in a sense, entrap you, so that you'll, and also in Galatians, he tells the Galatians to look out for those that want to spout your freedom and destroy your freedom. Paul is intending to encourage them with that word of warning. And antithetical to that, would be the word of cheer. That's another encouragement word in the New Testament. When we are,
when someone says rejoice in the Lord, like Paul, like a cheerleader, in Philippians, soon after he says, "Look out," in Philippians four, he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. It's good for me to say this to you." Someone who says to you, in effect, "Take hope. Praise the Lord," or "Count your blessings." That's a word of encouragement. Then, let me give you two more. When someone lifts weight that you're carrying, you're encouraged. In fact the Greek word
that is translated in English by the word help, h-e-l-p is literally [sulambano?], and lambano, you know, the root lambano means to lift or carry. And so the idea of someone who helps you by lifting or carrying part of your weight. Like Paul says in Galatians, "Bear one another's burdens, and yet everyone must carry their own, you might say rucksack. Help someone in order that they can carry their own weight. But nevertheless, help lift and when you lift, like he says again in Philippians, to the
congregation, you know the two women who are having an argument, and perhaps the man, Clement, he says, "Euodia and Syntyche urge you to agree in the Lord." And then he says, "Yokefellow, help those women." There's the word, [sulumbano?], that's used there. Lift with them. Lift the burden with them. You notice he doesn't tell the church what to do, but he gives them that one freedom word, "help." Well that's an encouragement word. When someone actually comes over to your house, and helps you paint your house, move your furniture, move yourself, he
is, or she is lifting and helping you. That's an encouragement experience. And then finally, let me give you one more word and I'll cut this little list off. When someone agrees with you, that is also an encouraging experience. When someone agrees and helps you to have confidence in your own thoughts. Now this person may be different than a teacher or person who's waning you or cheering you, but here's a person that agrees with you. You know that marvelous Greek word, Omologeo.
Omologeo, which is the word translated "agree" in the New Testament. Interestingly enough, it's also the word translated "confess," like confess your sins. Literally means in classical Greek, to say the same language. To speak the same language. So you come up to someone and you agree with their thoughts. And you confirm, you help them negotiate their own thoughts. It's not so much that you're teaching them new thoughts, but you're helping them to discover what they already know. I think Paul is playing this role with the Thessalonians,
when he says to the Thessalonians, "You already know enough. Work with what you know." Here's a group of people who are being entrapped by cultic movements, that are telling you, you don't know enough. We've got something more to teach you. Paul says, "You've been taught enough already. Work with what you already know." I think Paul, there, is playing this final role of agreeing with them, about what they already know. Ok, let me see if I can describe these encouragement, or paracletus, edification
models. The first model, the welcome, is obviously an evangelist. And I already alluded to that. When you welcome someone in, you're playing the role of the evangelist, and that's very encouraging. When you teach, you're obviously playing the role of the teacher. And we in the Presbyterian heritage, we used to call ourselves teaching elders, because of that strong heritage of being the teacher. And when you teach, you are encouraging. And as I understand, warn and cheer, I put those two together and I would describe that as the
prophetic role. The prophetic ministry of encouragement, because the prophet -- if you notice the prophets in the Old Testament, they always warn and they always cheer, but side-by-side. You know, in Isaiah one, where the people are told that God is disgusted with them, they have blood on their hands, and the very next line, "Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." Or the same thing in the Book of Jeremiah, where you have the sense of rebuke, and then right next to the rebuke, the word of hope.
So the prophet, as I see it, plays that double role, of the word of warning, and of the word of hope, or of cheer. And then, when someone lifts weights, in a sense, I think that's the priestly role. The priestly role is someone who ministers huper, in behalf of, and alongside of. The person alongside of you. And that's the way I would interpret the word help. When Paul is asking the church to help the women, he's asking the
church to be priests, in effect, to the women. You know in the Roman Catholic church, they used to talk about the sacrament of penance. I'm glad they don't call it the sacrament of penance anymore, or confession. They call it the sacrament of reconciliation. Where the priest plays that ole. And I believe that's often been lost in Protestant tradition. The priestly tradition of the helping alongside, bearing weight with. Not that we should bear weight that God should bear, but to bear weight. The priestly. And now the final one, the agree.
I believe that's the role of the mentor. A mentor is one who agrees with you. And now a mentor may not be a teacher. Not all teachers are mentors. Not all evangelists are mentors. And not all your prophets can be your mentor. Some people are so concerned to teach you something that they can't help you negotiate your own thoughts. But the mentor helps you negotiate your thoughts. And that's a very special role. The Omologeo role. To help you feel good.
And that's the role Tolkien thanks Lewis for. Notice how Tolkien says to his son, Christopher; he said, "Lewis did not influence me. He was not my teacher." You see Tolkien's too proud to admit that anyone could teach him anything. That was his problem, by the way. Tolkien never could be taught by anyone. That's why he never got along with Charles Williams. Cause Charles Williams was always trying to tell him something. Tolkien didn't like that. And he didn't also agree with what Charles Williams was trying to tell him either. So Tolkien could not be taught but he was mentored by Lewis. Lewis
helped Tolkien clarify his own thoughts. He gave him the gift of sheer encouragement, which was the role of mentor. And he helped him to have confidence in what he wrote, so he was willing to go out on the wind with it and publish it. And thank God for that. By the way, Tolkien played a great role with Lewis. I don't know if you're a Lewis fan like I am, but Lewis was convinced of the deity of Christ because of an argument and a discussion he had with Tolkien. It was Tolkien who said that, "All fantasy stories must have a eucatastrophe, a good catastrophe." And he said, "You know Jesus Christ
is the good catastrophe of all time." Except that he's true. Whereas in fantasy stories, we're dreaming about them. But he is the good catastrophe of all time. And so, Lewis wrote into Arthur Greeves one day -- and you'll see this quotation in his book Surprised by Joy -- he said, "I rode on my brother's motorcycle today to Whipsnade Zoo. At the beginning of the ride, I did not believe in the deity of Christ. At the end of the ride, I believed in the deity of Christ. And it had nothing to do with the ride, nothing particularly spectacular happened on the ride, but the
long talk with Dyson and Tolkien last night had much to do with it." And if you read The Inklings, Humphrey Carpenter tells you about that long talk, in which Tolkien created and helped Lewis integrate all the biblical reading he was doing to see that Jesus Christ was the good catastrophe of all time, except he was true. And Lewis believed in Him, and trusted in Christ. So Tolkien was a teacher to Lewis, but Lewis was the mentor to Tolkien. And, I think, Tolkien was also a mentor to Lewis in many ways, too. Now I want you to notice that
each of these definite acts and verbs of encouragement must be tested by the original principle. They must be, in a sense, to be encouraging, they must be alongside of us, to our benefit, for our good. The reason I say that is, that not all coming alongside is to our benefit. I mean, after all, a pickpocket wants to come alongside, too. And so, you have to test all coming alongside, and you have to test all these on the basis of "Are they coming alongside for my good?" That's why I put in the word
the [oikeideno?]. You've got to have it for the building up. That's that edification principle that Paul tests everything by in the New Testament. In other words, not all welcoming is encouraging. There are con artists that are marvelous welcomers. They welcome you in all the time. We live in Berkeley - I live in Berkeley, California, which has every cult in America, really represented. And they do a magnificent job of welcoming people in. And not all teaching is encouraging. If you wrote down on your list of five people an encourager who a teacher, I can tell
you teenagers that I know who've been devastated by teachers. And some of you, when you go to this seminary, you'll find some teachers here who will be profoundly encouraging and maybe other teachers that will demoralize you for a time. And you have a demoralizing experience with a teacher. Not all teachers are encouraging. And certainly the word of cheer and the word of warning is not always encouraging. There's sometimes when you don't need to be warned and sometimes, in fact you can't warn someone unless you earn the right to warn them, except in an emergency. Parents have tried
that, you know, parents warn their children too much. They develop nervous children with lots of defense mechanisms. You can't warn people all the time. You can't warn kids all the time about drugs or about eating sugar, candy, and stuff like that. You know, the first time you say, "You eat that sugar candy, it's going to rot your teeth." So the kid licks a little bit of it and it doesn't rot his teeth, so all the warning has been lost. Now there's a certain truth in it, but the warning was inappropriate, and sometimes there's too much warning and sometimes the word of cheer is totally inappropriate.
You have to earn the right to be a prophet. The word of warning and the word of cheer, you have to earn the right for. There are a lot of pastors who think they're being prophetic, when actually all they're doing is scolding their congregation, week after week after week. And some people are cheering their congregation all the time, when they ought to be weeping. Sometimes it isn't appropriate to say, "Praise the Lord." First you should say, "Let's cry." And, "Let's worry." And then they do a "Praise the Lord." I remember a lady once, that I knew that was going through a kind of a period of being a little bit unrealistic -- she's over it now, I think --
her family suffered a lot for this because she was so rejoicing in her life, but it was a little bit inappropriate. And finally her son -- who I think was kind of a healthy kid, basically -- decided to run away. He got on a motorcycle -- that was not so good -- and he was driving his motorcycle in Arizona somewhere and she called me on the phone and said, she said, "Well, Earl, I just want to let you know," and she mentioned her son's name, "he has run away." High school junior. "And he's somewhere in Arizona, riding a motorcycle, I think." And then
she said, "But, I'm praising God." Boy, I don't know. I told her I thought she should worry and call the highway patrol and then let's pray and commit him to the Lord, yes, let's pray for God. But, let's, I mean I thought to myself, if he were to call home and say, "Mom, I'm in Arizona." And if his mother were to say that to him, he would really think she was out of her mind. Because he wants her to worry. I think he was doing something to get her to worry, to notice him.
But all of this unrealism of "I'm praising God" all of the time was unrealistic. It was an inappropriate prophetism. Just like the people who are warning all the time, so not all warning and not all word of cheer is encouraging. And, of course, not all helping is encouraging. If you've read Norman Cousins's book Anatomy Of An Illness, you know one of the sad things right now, in the helping industries, is that the helping industries in America, right now, are the sourest of all industries.
The hospital is one of the most dehumanizing places you can be in your life, right now. Norman Cousins made that very clear, in that book Anatomy Of An Illness. And that's why he's now professor of medical ethics. Imagine he hasn't even taken a single course in medicine and he's a professor of medical ethics at UCLA. Norman Cousins, former editor of [Stater?] Review. And it's really true, folks, that people in the helping professions are now some of the most unpleasant people you could ever meet. You just try, if you're a young, unwed mother and go to the
aid for dependent parents agency in your city and try to get help and see how you're treated. See how you're treated by the helping industries. And it's often true in the church, when we're in the helping mode, we become, often the most cynical and the most "unencouraging." So not all helping is encouraging. Well, now let me share a basic thesis. And the basic thesis -- here's my theological
and Biblical thesis, and then I even have a practical suggestion for seminary students, and for me, too, as pastor. It seems to me, here's my thesis, our ministry with people should be a ministry of encouragement toward people. And our ministry in the Gospel should be fundamentally a ministry of encouragement. Because I think I've done a pretty good job of proving to you that the encouragement vocabulary is endemic in the New Testament. I gave you enough word studies to prove that. The word paracletus, Paul uses it decisively.
Of course I didn't even use the agape language. All of the New Testament, this is particularized love vocabulary I gave you. The buildup vocabulary, all the buildup, all the welcoming vocabulary, and there's lots of them. The teaching vocabulary, which is all seen as encouragement. The warning and cheering vocabulary, which is the prophetic vocabulary, all meant to be encouraging vocabulary. It seems to me, if you and I are pastors -- I got a kick out of this morning's, not a kick, I was thrilled with this morning's installation, but afterward, I talked to a choir member and they said every year when they install
faculty, the choir master at Princeton Seminary has them sing this song on 1st Corinthians 13. To let faculty know, and to let everybody know that we are called to love, to encourage. That's fundamental to being in the call as a professor at a seminary or a pastor. It's a fundamental ministry, our ministry of people should be a ministry of encouragement toward people. As I see it, it means we are called to come alongside for their good. To buildup. Whether we're an evangelist -- and every one
of us are called to be an evangelist, to invite people in. I love that idea of an evangelist who invites someone into the party -- like Artful Dodger, inviting Oliver in -- whether we're a prophet, whether we're a teacher or a servant, priest/servant or a mentor. But before we can encourage other people -- now here I have my big part of my thesis, and I think there's lots of Biblical basis to back this up. I believe Paul backs it up profoundly in his Philippine letter, when he says to the encouragers,
"Our God is able to supply all your need." We, before we can encourage other people, without the hooks, and the hang-ups that spoil so much of what is sometimes called encouragement, but is really manipulation, masquerading as encouragement. There's lots of evangelism that's really not encouraging at all because it's an attempt to build up our movement. There's lots of "propheticism" that's not encouraging, because it's really scolding because you're uptight. Because you don't feel good
about yourself, or I don't feel good about myself, and so I scold the congregation on Sunday. Out of my guilt. There's a lot of that, folks, right now. And there's a lot of words of cheer that are not authentic, because we haven't earned the right to tell somebody to count their blessings, because maybe we haven't counted our blessings. And there's lots of teaching that's terribly dull, like Jim Rayburn said, "It's a sin to bore children." It's a sin to bore people with truth, because it's not boring. But there's lots of teaching that has not
become alive to people and it's not encouraging. So, here's my thesis, we have a ministry to people and we're called to be encouragers, but before we can encourage other people without the hooks and hang-ups that spoil so much of encouragement, we must ourselves, be encouraged by God and by people. And there's that second Corinthians passage I gave you. Notice what Paul says, "The God of all encouragement, Who encourages us in our afflictions, so that we may be able to encourage others." I love Karl Barth's insight
that we have an evangelical ethic. We have an ethic that comes first to us in experiencing God's love. We have a love that commands us, we don't have the command to love. But we experience a love in Jesus Christ, Who sets us free, Who redeems us, and out of that comes our ethic to love others. And the same thing is true of the theology of encouragement. We ourselves must be encouraged by God and by people before we can encourage others. And when we know our own worth, and know ourselves and are encouraged, then it seems, to me we're able to
encourage others in all these roles we mentioned, without hooks. So that the father, who is now encouraging his son in Little League, and trying to get his son to play football because he never played football and now his son is going to be what he wasn't. That's not encouragement, folks, that's manipulation. Remember in Gypsy, the mother of Gypsy, who told, "You're going to be great cause momma's going to see to it." That's not encouragement. And yet, that mother will sit, like she does in the soliloquy in that song and say, "Oh, how terrible my children are because they didn't appreciate how much I did
for them. How I sacrificed my whole life for them. And now what do they care?" That's not encouragement. That woman was working through her own needs, using her children as a referred patient. And lots of pastors do that. "Why don't they appreciate all I do?" What that pastor needs is to be himself, or herself, encouraged first. "I've got to know that God loves me." And now I've got my practical suggestions and I realize that these just are going to be a few suggestions
that you'll have to work with. But they're very exciting, I hope. I want to say one thing that as a student in a seminary, I don't think it automatically happens here at PTS -- or as a pastor, I can tell you, I've been a pastor now for long enough to know in a Presbyterian Church USA -- it doesn't automatically happen just because you have the title minister, or that you have the title seminary student or you're at this school, this wonderful school, you're not automatically encouraged. But I do think there are two practical things you can do to get yourself
encouraged, so that you can be an encourager. And the first is, by yourselves staying close to Jesus Christ, and growing in your own relationship with Christ. And I think that's the most fundamental thing you can do while you're here. Advice that was given to me when I came to this school as a young student -- and I was so glad I was not warned about Princeton, and beware of this and beware of that -- but I was rather given an upbeat promise by a mentor/friend who urged me to stay close to Christ, to stay growing in my
own personal relationship with Christ and then just stand here and take everything in and learn what I could learn. And I had a renaissance experience at this school. And I just feel that if you're a growing Christian, in your own relationship with Jesus Christ, and you're growing spiritually -- and I don't think you can do that all by yourself -- and that's where I bring in my second point. I secondly feel, that you as a pastor especially need the last category I gave. You need someone to agree with you.
I'm sure you need evangelists. After all, this is a mission field, too. There are a lot of people at this seminary that need evangelists. There are a lot of people who need to be welcomed into the body of Christ. And there are a lot of people that need teaching -- man, you're here for that. And you all need to be warned, certainly. And you all need to be cheered. And you all need to be helped, but you especially need mentors. You especially need somebody here, you especially need to find soul mates who can agree with you. You certainly, Lord knows, you have enough people here who don't agree with you
and that's good too. But you need to find some people who will help you think through your own thoughts, negotiate your own thoughts, and publish your own thoughts. Somebody that believes in you. And, I really think that's what Barnabas was to Paul. I love that one scene where Paul's up at Tarsus -- you know where they sent him to rescue his life out of Jerusalem. And Barnabas is sent then to Antioch, and he gets to Antioch and he looks around and he sees all this strange mix of people. That's the international
church and he says, "Ah, Paul will fit in here." And he goes up to Tarsus and he finds Paul and he brings him back to Antioch, and it's Barnabas who starts Paul's ministry off at Antioch by saying, "Hey, I found a place where you'll fit in. This church will take you. They can take you. See, I know you, I know what you're gifts are. You don't fit in at Jerusalem. That's not your town. This is your town. And this is what [Thereasin?] was to Karl Barth and this is what Father Stoutness was to
Luther. Not Erasmus. Luther and Erasmus never touched base, they never connected. But Stoutness did. Stoutness is the one who said to Luther, Luther was the sole introspective in all and Stoutness said, "You know what you need to do is teach the Book of Romans. You know it, you love it, now teach it." And while Luther was teaching it at Wittenberg, it was Stoutness who arranged for that appointment. Luther was his heart was strangely warm just like Wesley's. It happened to be chapter 8 of Romans. But it was a mentor who helped Luther realize, "Hey, you already know enough. No more trips to Rome,
no more steps to climb, you already know enough. Now get on with your life." And I think you need some people like that in your life, to tell you to get on with your life. And that's what a mentor is. A mentor says to you, "Hey, you're great. Now get on with your life." No more five-year plans. You know, I think five-year plans do more to destroy church than anything I know. I think one of the big things you got to do in a church is get on with your life.
And a mentor helps you do that. A mentor's the one who helps you to feel good about yourself and what you have already learned. And I want to challenge you in this school to find some mentors. I did when I was here and they have been lifelong friends and lifelong influences in my life. I'm not quite like Tolkien; I tend to be a little more eclectic than Tolkien. I'm always looking for ideas. So my mentors have also been my teachers. But, maybe you're like Tolkien,
ok, then you need a mentor who helps you have confidence in the things that you're doing. And here's a place to find them. Don't let this school slip through your fingers. I talked to a Princeton student this summer, who is here for three months, three years, and told me that they didn't really make many friends here. And my heart went out to that student. Now there are a lot of reasons why that student did not make many friends, but I felt a great sense of regret, that that student went through three years -- just graduated two years ago -- and that student said to me, "I did not make many
friends at Princeton." And I want to tell you something, folks, they're here to make. You have to reach out, you have to get a small support group, you have to find mentors. Maybe it will be like Lewis did, a little Tuesday night meeting; where you read what you're writing for each other, or you pray together. Where you become equals. Now who knows, one of those may be your teacher, your evangelist, your prophet, but probably not. Don't try to be a prophet to everybody. Be willing to agree with somebody without adding something.
You know that's so refreshing. Ministers are so bad at this, but it's so refreshing to talk with someone and when the conversation is over to say, "You know, I don't think I have anything to add. You know enough. Get on with your life. I endorse you." Pastors have a hard time because we are so sold on the fact that we've got to teach. We're so sold on the fact we've got to make people squirm. We're so sold on the fact we've got to get people to clap
their hands or raise their hands. I was at a terrible meeting, not long ago, where a man said, "You got to all raise your hand because the Bible says you got to raise your hand." And I said to my family -- we were all sitting there -- "No, he says we got to raise our hands." And believe me, we didn't raise our hands, we were the only people in the whole room who didn't raise their hands. I'm not going to raise my hand because somebody says I have to. Everybody feels they got to tell you what to do. That's the way you got to praise God, is you got to raise your hand to praise… listen, I hope I haven't offended anybody. You don't have to do that. You don't have to. But, we
pastors feel so many times we've got to do that to each other. What I think right here at Princeton, maybe what you need -- and I'm making my last appeal -- find a mentor who comes alongside and helps build you up. Hey, I think I went too long. Can I lead you in prayer? Heavenly Father, I just thank you for brothers and sisters in Christ. Fellow pastors, here, who as colleagues together are seeking to grow
in our faith and grow in our ministries. I just pray for each of these students and the ministries that are represented in this room. The lives, all the experiences, and journeys that are represented here. I just pray, Father, that You'll bless each of us as we seek to grow in Christ and to mentor each other with the gift of sheer encouragement. In Christ name, I pray. Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: The word next week, next Tuesday, we'll have John (inaudible) from International Students, Incorporated, talking about his ministry to foreign students at Princeton University. Thank you very much.