One of my greatest joys is mentoring young men. Through teaching at Welch College and pastoring a church, I am blessed with many opportunities to sit across from promising young men who are growing in the faith and discerning the Lord’s will for their life. Many of them are considering local church ministry. It’s a joy to hear about what they’re learning and how they’re growing spiritually, as well as their plans for the future.
Yet even with such noble pursuits, temptations come along with learning Church history, the Biblical languages, and systematic theology. For such students, I see a recurring danger of becoming jaded toward their “home church.” With their newfound knowledge of theology, they are tempted to disparage the preaching they grew up on as not being theological enough. Sometimes they begin to criticize the songs their home church sings, its membership and discipline practices, and/or its liturgy. They might even recall hearing (unintentional) heterodox doctrine from the pulpit or in a Sunday school class. Sometimes these students reach the point where they don’t even want to go back to their home church when they’re home during a break.
When I see this sort of reaction from a student or protégé, I lovingly counsel them not to look down on their home church—not to despise the church of their youth. They are not wrong to want biblical reform within the church. After all, we affirm the Protestant principle of “the church reformed and always reforming” (ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda). But young men must guard against the sort of youthful zeal that causes them to look down upon the people who taught them the Bible, who led them to repent and believe the gospel, who baptized them, and nurtured them as new believers. I don’t want to squelch their desire for biblical reform within the church. But I do want them to see that while they are growing in theological understanding and their desire for some forms of change might be valid, they are despising the very people and places the Lord used to bring them to saving faith.
A Desire for Renewal Through Retrieval
I want the young men I mentor to have a love for Christ and His Church. I also want them to have a growing knowledge of church history, systematic theology, ecclesiology, and so forth. That’s one thing I try to impart to them through conversations about books or even how our gathered worship services are structured at Immanuel Church, where I pastor. I want them to long for what has been referred to as “renewal through retrieval.” So, we talk about things like Baptist ecclesiology, expositional preaching, hymnody, and Trinitarian theology.
But when I encounter a student who seems unnecessarily critical of their home church, I have tried to be introspective and ask: “Is there something about the way that I’m discussing these things that leads students or mentees to critique their home church?” I certainly don’t want to be responsible for leading any of these young men to look down upon their home church. So, I’ve tried to consider my potential responsibility honestly, but I don’t think I’m imparting this message to them in any way. My hunch is that it’s a common result of education, theological or otherwise. Young people receive an education, their intellectual horizons expand, and they are tempted to become snobbish about those who don’t seem as enlightened as they think themselves to be.
Part of mentoring young men, then, is correcting this inclination when I see it. I don’t want to squelch their desire for retrieval and renewal. I want them to think about how a local church might better embrace historic Baptist practices that are rooted in the teachings of Scripture. Yet I want to guard against a sort of youthful zeal that tends toward pride—a pride that is driven by knowledge but lacks the wisdom of experience.
A Personal Aside
I once heard a professor say, “Biography is theology.” To the extent we interpret this remark literally, it is too cynical and subjective; what we believe is not solely determined by our experience. But to the extent we interpret it more moderately, we can admit that experience plays a part. Let me give some examples from my own life that shed some light on why I’m so determined to caution students against despising the church they grew up in.
When I was in second or third grade, my Sunday school teacher was a godly woman who lived a humble life, worked what some might (wrongly) call a “menial” job, and did not have much education. She probably couldn’t have told you a single thing about the Council of Nicaea, the Protestant Reformation, or Baptist history. But one thing was clear: she loved the Bible and the God of the Bible. That simple woman was a faithful saint who taught me Scripture week in and week out. She knew the Bible well, and she imparted what she knew to our little Sunday school class.
I have exponentially more biblical, historical, and theological knowledge than she did. Yet I have no doubt that—as George Whitefield reportedly once said of John Wesley in Heaven—she will be far closer to the throne of God than I will be. I want the young men I mentor to recognize that the churches they grew up in have people just like that humble woman who taught my Sunday school class (thank the Lord for Delana Franks!). They might have read a few more books than the Sunday school teacher in their home church and maybe even their pastor, but it is foolish to look down on the people who faithfully taught you the Bible to the best of their ability.
Let me share another example. Throughout high school, I gave no evidence of saving faith in my thoughts, speech, or actions. I fully planned to attend a local college, study business, and get a job in a real estate related field. The summer before I went to college, I attended an Independent Baptist summer camp. It was fundamentalist in the usual ways: the King James Bible was all they used, female students wore jean skirts and culottes, and the preacher for the week pounded the pulpit, shouted, and got as red in the face as any preacher I’ve ever seen. Yet the Lord used that fiery, fundamentalist preacher to bring me to repentance and faith in June 2006. That same week I sensed that the Lord might be calling me to some sort of vocational ministry. In God’s providence, the Lord used that week at an Independent Baptist church camp to change the trajectory of my life.
I suspect that if that preacher were living today, we’d probably disagree on important points of theology and ecclesiology. However, I don’t want to despise the man and the means that the Lord providentially used to reorient my life. I try to encourage the young men I mentor to take the same approach.
Patient, Loving Reformation
To be clear, I am not telling these young men that if they were to someday go back and pastor their home church, they shouldn’t seek to bring about certain types of biblical reform. I would strongly encourage them to consider including more Scripture readings, more prayer, the best of Christian hymnody, a robust understanding of the ordinances, a high view of church membership and discipline, perhaps even a time of confession of sin and a biblical promise of pardon in corporate worship. I’d love to see an army of young men lead congregations to adopt these sorts of changes. But none of this must occur overnight. In fact, it would be foolish to lead in that sort of change too quickly. We can work for biblical change and reformation, but I want them to seek to be patient and loving reformers.
I also want them to see that oftentimes church practices exist, not because someone had bad intentions, but because practices slowly develop over time as people are doing the best they can with the resources they have. If our assessment of church practice and people’s motives is that they’re being as faithful as they possibly can be with the knowledge and resources they have, that changes the way we view our home church (or any church) and the way we seek to bring about reform. Instead of despising the church of our youth, its pastor(s), its worship “style,” or whatever else, as being intentionally at odds with historic Protestant or Baptist practice, we are sympathetic towards them as people who love the Lord, who are shaped by their upbringing and locale, and who are laboring to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Conclusion
When I think about the caliber of young men the Lord has given me the opportunity to invest in, mentor, and work alongside, I’m excited about the future of the Church, particularly within my own denomination. These young men love the Lord, love the Church, and love to study the Bible, theology, and Church history. They want to teach the truth, share the gospel, defend the faith, and bring about biblical reform in the church. But for all their zeal, I hope it’s clear to them that they should not despise the church of their youth.
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