What I’ve learned in it is to appreciate the disciplines of serious study. I appreciate the role the seminary plays — any biblical seminary. I appreciate and I value it more than ever. I understand the importance of seminary training to prepare a person for ministry. I think I was able to give some input that would relate to curriculum while I was at the helm of the school — tying the teaching in with preparing pastors for the job in front of them. It’s easy if you’re just an academic and you have gone through the school, and you finished your PhD, and you come back to some school and you’ve not had a lot of practical training — it’s easy to miss what is really going on out there. And I came having never lost touch with what is going on and I am still in that area of my life. I think that was valuable.

Advertisement

I don’t know that I have a great deal of new feelings about the church. Since my growing up years, I’ve always been what you’d call a churchman. I am most comfortable, aside from my own home, in a pulpit. In my own home and study, I find a great deal of satisfaction because there’s harmony there and there’s the joy of my study, my work, my research, my writing. I find great delight in that. That really is my hobby. I don’t play golf, I don’t do a lot of other things outside that a lot of folks do. My work is turned to that realm for my hobby. And so my love for the church has just deepened over the years.

I think the church itself is a different context today because of postmodernism — that influence has affected us. But I don’t believe you have to take your cues from where the world is to do church right. I think you take your cues from the scriptures to do church right. Now how you go about that at all is a very delicate balance you have to maintain, and I have trouble with reshaping the entire church so that it fits the mind of the person who wants everything his or her way. Church is not about giving people what they want; it is about providing what they need. And that is not just a cute little turn of a phrase — I believe that with my whole heart, and I still preach that. My job as God’s messenger is not to tell you what you want to hear or to make it fun to listen to; it’s my job to keep it interesting and to drive home the truth where it’s appropriate, but it’s not to make you feel good. It is not to cause you to say, “Ooh boy, this is fun, I want to be back doing this again.” It’s not an entertainment industry. And tragically many a church has become more entertainment than it has been challenging. I think that is an easy temptation to fall into.

I’m not trying to sound like a dinosaur here but in that sense I’m no different. I preach in many ways the same way as I’ve always preached, now probably with more passion than ever. I really do realize this book will transform your life. And if I could just communicate as best I can its truths, and if you will listen as best you can with a heart open to obey, to apply – and, for some, to believe in Christ and become a believer who walks with Jesus — you will be transformed into a different kind of person. I believe it’s the church’s task to communicate that message, and of course it’s wrapped around worship. It includes education, it involves comfort and compassion for those going through the dregs of life. It also requires leadership and a half dozen other things I could name.