If you would truly profit by ordinances, after you have a fixed pastor, I think it is of moment to forget, as much as possible, the persons of men, and confider them as no more than instruments in the hand of God, for your daily instruction and comfort. The more you remember the appointment of God, and wait upon his ordinances, in the faith of his presence, and the expectation of his blessing, the more you are likely to receive both sensible and lasting benefit. I must therefore take the liberty to observe, that we have amongst us a set of wandering unsettled hearers, who run about from one congregation to another, and even from one profession to another, and are scarcely ever to be seen a whole day in one place. If they be but deliberating where to fix, we may fay of them, that they are ever learning, and never come to the knowledge of the truth. But the probability is, that they have itching and curious ears, and go about not to serve God but to hear men. If I am able at all to judge, either by reflection or observation, those are most likely to profit, who having deliberately made their choice, sit habitually and regularly under one minister. By this means they enter into his views; and as he will naturally endeavour, if any thing was wanting at one time, to complete his scheme by supplying it at another, they will thereby have a more comprehensive view of the whole counsel of God. At the fame time, not having the charm of novelty to enchant them, they will have nothing to do but to reap instruction. On the other hand, by hearing separate, detached, and independent discourses, men may please their fancy more, but they will improve their understanding less. It is also plain, that as every minister will endeavour, not only to follow an order in his discourses on one subject, but to have a respect to the connection, and relation of the subjects themselves, the more accurate and exact he is, in suiting one part to the, illustration of another, the less he will be understood by these desultory hearers, who take only a single branch, without being able to perceive its subserviency to the general design. I have many times known exceptions taken at ministers, for some parts of a discourse by such persons, when, if they had heard the whole upon the fame or corresponding subjects, they would have perceived there was no place for their objections. The great purpose, my brethren, of a serious and judicious people, in attending on ordinances, should neither be to please themselves, nor to criticise their teachers; but to hear the word of God, that they may do it. On this account it is, that humble and regular Christians are getting real advantage to their fouls, while some are only watching the opinions, or others only passing judgment on the ability, perhaps no more than the style and outward manner of the speaker.
Archive for the ‘Theology of Community’ Category
Witherspoon on church-hopping vagrants
Posted in Church Order & Discipline, Ordinary Means Ministry, Parish in American Context, Parish Theory & Practice, Practice of Piety, Religious Marketplace, The Church in America, The Visible Church, Theology of Community, Theology of Place on March 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“The Most Joyful Event of My Life”: The Story of the West Port Experiment (1844-1847)
Posted in Free Church of Scotland, Locality & the Law of Residence, Parish Theory & Practice, The Gospel & the Poor, Theology of Community, Theology Proper, Thomas Chalmers, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way, Visitation Evangelism, West Port experiment on April 27, 2023| 1 Comment »
Unless otherwise noted here prior to the event, the lecture will be livestreamed here:
Customizable church?
Posted in Commerce & Christianity, Establishments, Gathered Church Ecclesiology, Ordinary Means Ministry, The Church in America, Theology of Community, Worship, True & False on December 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Funny, but damningly true. Again, reinforcement that Adam Smith was dead wrong about leaving religion purely to market forces.
Disorganized religion, the last frontier
Posted in Secularization, The Church in America, The Visible Church, Theology of Community on November 5, 2018| Leave a Comment »
A revealing (and heartbreaking!) article on the secularizing migration of America into the frontiers of heathenism. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof” (Psa. 137:1-2).
All things to all men: a lesson from a Samsonesque Presbyterian
Posted in Church of Scotland, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Gospel Tactics, Parish Theory & Practice, Parochial Strategy, Preaching, The Romance of Locality, Theology of Community on May 13, 2016| 1 Comment »
One of my personal heroes is Scottish Presbyterian minster, Aeneas Sage (1694-1774). I’m not quite sure if everything written about him is totally accurate; I get a whiff of the hagiographic if not the legendary in some of the stories. Yet, something in my gut tells me it is too good and so must be true! (Like a historian friend of mine quipped, ‘If it ain’t true, it should be!’) Whatever the case, Aeneas Sage captivates me, for as a pastor he knew how to captivate an audience – in more ways that one.