Ministry Non Negotiables

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, ìBut we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour ,î so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isnít for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Matt Chandler’s Two Pastoral Non-Negotiables

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and weíre recording new shows here in 2022. I donít know why 2022 seems stranger than 2021. Kind of weird, I mean, when I put my credit card information in and it asked me, you know, expiration date, and itís got 25 on it or something, I thought, ìWow, you know, December 2025, or if I have to put my birth date in, 5 -12, and then the year, 1960?

Ouch! 1960? What was going on in the 60s ?î Anyway, you can always write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Before I get into the topic today, I do have something from the Christian Post. I donít know why this is on my desk, but Iím trying to get rid of stuff on my desk.

Matt Chandler identifies two non-negotiables for pastors to lead well in increasingly hostile culture. I think itís supposed to be in an increasingly hostile culture, but according to Leah Marie Ann Klett, the Christian Post reporter, to lead well in increasingly hostile culture.

What would those two non-negotiables for pastors to lead well be? What do you think they would be? If you were a pastor, and some of you are, what are the non-negotiables? If you are a layperson, and many of you are, laymen, laywomen, you say, ìWell, these are the two non-negotiables for my pastor .î Itís just, ìThese canít be compromised .î What do you think theyíd be?

Any guesses? What do you think about Matt Chandler? I think you can hire him to come to your church and speak for 20 grand. Maybe itís 10 to 20 grand, so even if youíre at 11 grand, youíre in the 10 to 20 grand range.

I donít know if youíd want to do that. I wouldnít want to do that, but two non-negotiables. Letís just stick to the point. Village church pastor. Number one, fight for unhurried time with Jesus. So we have the leader here of a very large church, and we have the leader of the Acts 29 Church Planning Network.

Non-negotiables. Unhurried time with Jesus. Itís one thing to create space for study your Bible or to write a sermon to do deep work. I think there must be a misquote, but thatís exactly the way itís printed.

Itís another thing to say, ìI want to fight for. I want to find unhurried space where I can just linger with Jesus, thanking, praising, asking for gratitude to be stirred in my heart, remembering who I am in Him, remembering He called me into this so He wonít betray me.

He wonít abandon me .î And just sit there and listen, and that will reveal all sorts of other things that are going on in your heart that then the Spirit of God can deal with that I think really embolden and strengthen ministers of the gospel.

Iím sorry to laugh. This is the leader of the Acts 29 Network. Oh, I didnít know I was reading some pietistic Keswick, Wesleyan, Arminian comment here. I thought this was, like, up to date. Where is he?

Denton, Texas? Is that where it is, Denton, Texas? I think if I was in Denton, Texas, Iíd, I donít know, Iíd rather go to Tommy Nelsonís church. And Tommy Nelson church, I like Tommy, heís not quite Reformed enough for me, but I wouldnít be headed to the village church.

Is that what a pastor should do? Well, I regularly, not every day, but pretty close, wake up. Well, so far, every day, thatís true. I wake up, I get some coffee, I grab my Greek New Testament, my regular English Bible, my Berkhoff little theology, concise theology, whatever itís called, Summary of the Christian Faith, Heidelberg Catechism, notepad, and pencil.

And I go sit down in the new room there, the great room, the new living room there, and I begin to read. And I want to have time with Jesus, I want to hear from Him. Thereís nothing wrong with that. Iím all for quiet times, Iím all for lingering with Jesus.

Do you have to let it linger? I am for thanking, praising God. I am for all that, remembering who I am in Him, wonderful. Remembering He called me into this, I want that, unhurried space, thatís what I want to find.

And so, then I can listen. And thatís kind of where this doesnít begin to go south, Iíll tell you the reason why I think itís gone south to start. But it even goes further south. Can you go more south than south?

I mean, eventually, if you go south, youíre going to end up going north. But if you go east, I donít think youíre ever going to go west if you keep going east. How does that work? That doesnít seem like that should happen.

But of course, thatís Bible, pastor, you know, homiletical thing when God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. I mean, north to the south, eventually, if you go north, youíre going to go south, or south, youíre going to go north.

But east to the west, youíre just, theyíre just gone, right? Cast behind your back, etc. Cast in the deepest sea. But sitting there and listening, and then He reveals all sorts of other things that are going on in your heart.

Why would God reveal more things? Maybe He just misspoke. Maybe when you begin to read your Bible, you think about other stuff. When I pray, I remember my to-do list because Iím so distracted. My mind goes elsewhere and doesnít spend time on prayer, what I should be thinking about.

Thatís why praying songs and psalms, the psalms are songs, thatís why praying those things are good. They keep my mind on track. Well, He reveals other things that are going on in my heart. I donít need to know whatís going on in my heart.

Iím quite familiar with that. I need things outside of my heart. Iím not a quietist, a pietist. Iím not a Quaker inner light where itís my inner heart stuff. I believe in depravity, and I believe that once weíre redeemed, weíre no longer dead in trespasses and sins, but the fall still affects us, even as Christians.

There is something called flesh, and there is a sin hangover, as it were, anyway, revealing things. And then the second non-negotiable is Iím always going to fight for transparency with my inner circle.

Those are the two non-negotiables. I think I must have done a show on this before. Okay, fight for transparency with my inner circle. I donít fight for that. I am transparent with my wife, with my kids, with my brother, with the elders here, with many of the laymen here.

I donít reallyóthis never even comes to my mind. If I ask a question thatís appropriate, Iím transparent. Hereís what Matt said. His inner circle is two close, trustworthy friends. Those guys have seen my budget, theyíve seen my tax returns, they know when my wife Lauren and I are trying to navigate something, they know when Iím frustrated or concerned or worried about a kid, they know when I feel like Iím crushing it, and when I feel like Iím not.

Hey, friends, Iím crushing this. I think he means crushing it like heís doing great. I could be wrong, because heís comparing those two. I will copy the select group of men on emails that Iím in that seem to be growingly hostileóoooh!

Remember when Matt slammed everybody for those non-courageous, hostile emails so that they serve as a buffer for what the compulsion of my heart is versus how I probably need to behave as a pastor to a member?

Growingly hostile members? I think thatís a punk rock band, isnít it? Johnny Lyden, open for the growingly hostile members. What do you want in a pastor? What are the non-negotiables? First of all, and Iíll say it again, thereís nothing wrong with a quiet time.

I think you should do that. But Lordís Day worship is more important than that. Did you know that? Lordís Day worship is more important for that. Did Mattís church stay open for the COVID stuff? Now, early on, Iím not going to say you should have stayed open every single Sunday.

We didnít know what was going on, and I think we shut down for ten weeks early on because we didnít know or didnít understand or I was not courageous, whatever the reasons were. So letís give people a ten-week pass.

Letís give everybody a ten-week pass. But Lordís Day worship is important. Ordinary means of grace, right? The preaching of the Word, preaching Christ, baptism, Lordís Supper, thatís a non-negotiable.

Preaching Christ, if he would have said Colossians 128, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, I would have said perfect. Itís a non-negotiable. He faithfully preaches the Word of God in a Christ-centered manner.

That would be a good non-negotiable. But that I have to fight for a quiet time, thatís the non-negotiable. Now if he means, of course, we want to be holy men and maturing men as pastors and elders in the Lordís church, I think thatís good.

If he said, ìI want to be holy ,î right, you would like a Robert Murray McShane type of pastor. I think he said, ìA holy minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God .î I would get that part. Iím for holy living, Iíd like to live a holy life.

But non-negotiable, maybe say pastoral qualifications for pastors and elders and episkopos and overseers in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1, okay, I would get that. But transparency? I mean, the first one I disagree with, but I guess I understand.

But the second one, transparency with my inner circle, Iím going to fight for that. Thatís the non-negotiable. Iím going to fight for that. Fighting for unhurried time with Jesus and making sure that those closest to me know exactly whatís going on in this head and heart of mine, he went on to say.

I just think thatís just a lame answer. And I think if I was going to be a psychologist and kind of do projection or something or kind of think through this, why would he say that? Maybe he didnít think, maybe he regrets saying it, maybe the Christian Post didnít recognize what he said properly and took him out of context.

Reporters have done that to me before. The paparazzi have too. But itís almost like, you know, youíre trying to hide something and therefore you want to tell everybody that youíre really transparent. Youíre not really that transparent.

I mean, remember they had the big issues going on with the church discipline case. I think they had issues with racism, issues in some of the policemen. Maybe it was Black Lives Matter and then it was the police issue and many of the policemen left and police women left the church.

He said coming out of the pandemic, he wants to preach confidence back into the people of God. He stressed that though there is a growing hostility toward the church, the body of Christ was made for this moment.

Is that within the hostility movement? The punk rock band hostility movement, is that in there or outside of his local church? Itís inevitable that pastors are ìgoing to get beat onî in todayís culture, Chandler said.

I mean, this poor guy, maybe itís self-inflicted but thereís a lot of talk about hostility, getting beat up. And thatís true, you know, a lot of it is self-inflicted and many of my problems are self-inflicted.

Youíre not going to be able to lead in such a way where youíre misrepresented. That day is gone. So many people misrepresenting, theyíre hostile people, hostile people inside the church. I have to be transparent because maybe people think Iím not.

What a privilege to endure hardship for the sake of the king and then boldly step into the call to radical discipleship, the call to radical surrender that he called us to now comes with a cost. We will suffer, but through worship and prayer and fasting and confidence, we will overcome and conquer.

Hmm. Henno. Grandma, why do you say henno when you answer the phone? I donít say henno. I say hello. Grandma, Iíll call you right back. Henno. What are your non-negotiables for a pastor? If you searchóthis is good.

I get so many emails. Weíre looking for a church. Weíre looking for a church. What do we look for? We need to leave our church. Should we leave? I get those emails regularly, probably out of the last 13 or how many years have we done the show?

Going into our 14th year? I get those emails. Try to find a church where the pastor fights for his own quiet time and is very transparent. Those wouldnít be the two top of the list ones. Thatís not what you should find.

Either that or donít take the Christian Post call. If they call me, I donít think Iím taking theirs. I remember when we did something hereóI think it was 1999óan outreach and we were giving the Jesus video away to every personóto every house, ratheróin this town of 6 ,000 people.

So however many homes that is, letís justóhow many homes do you think that is? 500 homes? I donít know. We had little bags and we had inviting them to an outreach concert. We had a little tract in there, ìWelcome to our church ,î and all that.

Anyway, we had those bags and we trained everybody and then we divvied up the city, the town, rather. And we came to the church, got all our bags of stuff, prayed, had some coffee, went out and gave the stuff away, came back and we shared some stories of when we got to preach or when the door got slammed in our face or whatever.

And we were interviewed. I was interviewed by the local little paper here. I think itís called The BanneróThe Banna. And I donít think I was represented exactly like I like to have been. But my memory serves me sometimes and other times it doesnít serve me, so thatís just my recollection.

I could be wrong. A funny side note on that. For weeksóFOR weeksóI would return to the church building, run an errand, come back the next day after I was home, and on our door was a little plastic bag with that video.

People would return them. Theyíre like, ìWe donít want those. Weíre Catholics .î I thought, ìWell, even a Catholic likes a movie about Jesus, donít they? Forget the Second Commandment violation, but hey, thatís where we were back in 1998 or 1999.

Something like that. What do you look for in a pastor? I think itís going to be something a little bit different, and if I was asked the question, it wouldnít be answered with those two things. It would be more along the lines of Colossians 1, verse 28.

It would be more along the lines of what we do on a Lordís Day and a Lordís Day worship. I think of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and they put together something called the Directory for the Public Worship of God, P-U-B-L-I-C-K, public, back in those days.

And it was about many different things, but this particular section is of the preaching of the Word, of the preaching of the Word. I was going to talk a little bit about Ephesians today, but Iíll do that tomorrow.

Preaching of the Word, being the power of God unto salvation, and one of the greatest and most excellent works belonging to the ministry of the gospel, should be so performed that the workman need not be ashamed, but may save himself and those that hear him.

Thatís the first paragraph of the Directory of Public Worship of God, 1645, of the preaching of the Word. So you talk about whatís a non-negotiable for your pastor. I think this is going to be one of those non-negotiable.

Itís not going to be, I share my tax information with some friends who I want to be transparent with. Second paragraph, ìIt is presupposed that the minister of Christ is in some good measure gifted for so weighty a service, by his skill in the original languages and in such arts and sciences as are handmaids unto divinity, by his knowledge in the whole body of theology, but most of all in the Holy Scriptures, having his senses and heart exercised in them above the common sort of believers, and by the illumination of Godís Spirit and other gifts of edification, which, together with reading and studying of the Word, he ought still to seek by prayer and a humble heart, resolving to admit and receive any truth yet not attained, whenever God shall make it known unto him, all which he is to make use of and improve in his private preparations before he deliver in public what he hath provided.

Ordinarily the subject of a sermon is to be some text of Scripture, holding forth some principle or head of religion, or suitable to some special occasion emergent, or he may go on in some chapter, psalm, or book of the Holy Scripture as he shall see fit.

Let the introduction to his text be brief and perspicuous, drawn from the text itself, or context, or some parallel place or general sentence of Scripture. If the text be long, as in histories or parables and sometimes must be, let him give a brief sum of it, if short, a paraphrase thereof, if need be, in both, looking diligently to the scope of the text and pointing at the chief heads and grounds of doctrine which he is to raise from it.

In analyzing and dividing his text, he is to regard more the order of matter than of words, and neither to burden the memory of the hearers in the beginning with too many members of division, nor to trouble their minds with obscure terms of art.

I got nine points, and point one has additional eight points with four sub-points and three additional addendums. Lots of people preach that way. I don't want to preach that way. We're reading now from the Directory of Public Worship of God, Assembly of Edinburgh, February 3, 1645, Session 10, Section of the Preaching of the Word.

In raising doctrines from the text, his care ought to be, first, that the matter be the truth of God. Secondly, that it be a truth contained in or grounded on that text, that the hearers may discern how God teaches it from thence.

Thirdly, that he chiefly insist upon those doctrines which are principally intended, and make most for the edification of the hearers. So we want a textual sermon, an exposition. The doctrine is coming from the text, and so you can see it plainly, can you not, congregation?

The doctrine is to be expressed in plain terms, or if anything in it need explication, it is to be opened, and the consequence also from the text cleared. The parallel places of scripture confirming the doctrine are rather to be plain and pertinent than many, and if need be, somewhat insisted upon and applied to the purpose at hand.

The arguments or reasons are to be solid, and as much as may be convincing. The illustrations of what kind soever ought to be full of light, and such as may convey the truth into the hearer's heart with spiritual delight.

If any doubt obvious from scripture, reason, or prejudice of the hearers seem to arise, it is very requisite to remove it by reconciling the seeming differences, answering the reasons, and discovering and taking away the causes of prejudice and mistake.

Otherwise, it is not fit to detain the hearers with propounding or answering vain or wicked cavitals, which, as they are endless, so the propounding and answering of them doth more hinder than promote edification.".

Much to be said on that, but basically, if there's some issues going on, make sure you explain the issues, and maybe you anticipate objections, or you clear up possible contradictions in the mind of the hearer, verses that might not be as easy to understand as the others, but notice this plain terms, plain, pertinent, explaining things, confirming doctrine, plainly.

Back to this text here, talking about the pastor. He is not to rest in general doctrine, although never so much cleared and confirmed, but to bring it home to special use by application to his hearers, which, albeit it prove a work of great difficulty to himself, requiring much prudence, zeal, and meditation, and to the natural and corrupt man will be very unpleasant.

Yet he is to endeavor to perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feel the word of God to be quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and that if any unbeliever or ignorant person be present, he may have the secrets of his heart made manifest and give glory to God.

And the list goes on. Hear the servant of Christ. What does he do? Drawing their souls to Christ through the word. Do it painfully, plainly, faithfully, wisely, gravely, with loving affection, as taught of God, teaching the truths of Christ.

And so I read half of the public, the preaching of the word and the director of public worship of God, and you can read the other half online for free. That's what I'm looking for in a pastor, mainly.

The first non-negotiable, preaching Christ from the scriptures. And if you want the second one, something about the qualifications in First Timothy chapter 3 and Titus 1, that's fine.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.