Kirby Myers Interview

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, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, 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 isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is

Mike Abendroth, and I'm glad to be your host. Couple of housecleaning announcements before we get into our special interview today with my guest and friend.

We are going to Greece in 2013, Lord willing. April 17th through the 27th, 2013.

You can go to our website either at the church or at nocompromiseradio .com, or you can pull up the

Pilgrim Tour site. We'd love to have you go with us. And just added, we've got Crete, and I wanna go see if there are gluttons there and evil beasts and liars, and see if they're still there after 2 ,000 years.

Well, today on No Compromise Radio, I have a special guest on today. And sometimes he's been known as a fugitive from the law.

His name is Kirby Myers, Pastor Kirby Myers. He pastors the

Bible Church of Brownsburg. I think there's a Bible Church in town, but he pastors the

Bible Church. Out of all the Bible Churches in Brownsburg, it's the Bible Church, and he's a good friend.

Kirby Myers, welcome to No Compromise Radio. Thank you, Mike, so much. I'm really, I'm thrilled and humbled and grateful to be on your radio show.

I don't get to listen to it as much as I would like, but really appreciate you and your friendship, and we've got some folks in our church that love to tune in as well.

So this is a great privilege, thank you. Well, we're glad to have you, Kirby. Even though you don't listen very often, that's a pastor translation for, you know what,

I hardly get to listen at all, but he does know of us, and I had the privilege of going out to Indiana, I think it was a year ago, and speaking to your man.

Yeah, almost a year to the date. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why, Kirby, I appreciate what the Lord has done in your ministry and through your ministry.

So let's start off with that man camp. Is that what you call it, man camp? And let's specifically talk about training men, a la 2

Timothy 2, verse 2. Why do you put a special emphasis on men, elders, training other men in the local church?

Yeah, well, obviously you hit on it, Paul's exhortation to Timothy there, but men are called to lead in the church.

It is men that are to be pastors and elders, overseers, and they are to be the primary teachers in the church ministry.

And I think we have emphasized that here. I attended the Master's Seminary and heard

John speak early while we were at Grace Community Church on the early days that he was there, and I'm sure you've heard this story too,

Mike, that he began early on just getting some men together on a Saturday morning, and he said, my goal was to reproduce myself in them.

And I remember using that statement here early on in our church, and one guy thought I was trying to clone everyone, and I had to explain myself that, hey,

I'm trying to take what God has taught me and invest it in other men. And so I think that is of great importance.

And so even with having a man camp like that - By the way, who came up with that name, man camp?

Well, you know, I stole it, pretty much like I've stolen everything. He did call me a fugitive, so we'll talk about that later.

But I think we just called it men's retreat in the beginning, but I was asked to speak at a men's retreat in Houston a few years back with my friend

Brian McKenzie, and they called it man camp. And I thought, that's good, you know, men getting away and just having good times of teaching and fellowship and getting to know one another, so.

Well, Kirby, we had fun at the man camp, no doubt, especially those Holy Ghost back rubs you gave me. But what

I liked about it, just short of watching Braveheart together and screaming with Warpaint on at night, the part

I liked was the emphasis, that's a joke, by the way, the emphasis was on Bible teaching and the ministry of the word to men.

What do you think about all these efforts to make men manly, but they're forgetting about the right way to do it?

In other words, you've got wild at heart people, Braveheart kind of people, but what about biblical masculinity?

What's the rub there? Well, yeah, I think, I mean, doesn't, if you wanna be a godly man, wouldn't you look to the scripture to find out what does the

Bible say about what a godly man should be? And so, I guess I'm a simple,

Mike, and I know you are as well, I just, I don't look for any creative, other worldly ways to do that, but hey, let's just get in the word together, because my, and we'll probably talk about expository preaching, but my worldview in the church is that if we want men to be godly men, if we want people to change and to grow and to be conformed to the image of Christ, which is

God's goal for every one of us, to look like his son, then why not spend time in God's word?

And so, that has been my goal in the four or five man camps that we have had, is getting men to come and teach the word, because that is where men are gonna be beneficial the most.

They're gonna learn what it means to be a godly husband, a godly father, a godly leader in the local church, and so what better thing to do than just open the scriptures and have men like you and your brother and others to teach us what the

Bible says in regard to that? I'm glad you listed me first, then my brother, then other men. Well, you are much older than him, so I think it's a thing of honor to place you first there.

That's true. Next question, Kirby, relating to the subject of training men in gospel ministry.

I see in evangelicalism too many people who are in pastoral leadership positions and being an elder, and they spend all their time, maybe a snuthetic counseling model even, they spend all their time dealing with weak people and then never spending any time training men a la 2

Timothy chapter two. In other words, of course, as pastors, we're supposed to take care of weak people, but if we meet people for 15, 20 weeks at a shot who are just the weak ones and we never spend time training the next generation, aren't we gonna run into a problem sooner or later and then we'll look around as a pastor and say,

I have no help here? Right, right. Yeah, I think God has allowed me to be in this current ministry for 10 years now.

We're coming up on our 10th anniversary as a church. There may be a day that I'm not here. God may take me or God may move me, even though I would love to be here for my whole pastoral career.

But so what happens when the pastor is gone? What happens when there are no elders?

You're left with a bunch of young, immature, really non -leaders.

And so I think it's of great importance to go with those that are on fire and have a desire to lead and really pouring into them and equipping them to go into ministry.

And isn't that what Paul is teaching the Ephesians in the letter to the church at Ephesus, that God has given us gifts to the church and they are to be equipping others for the building up of the body of Christ.

Well, looking at your website, Kirby, talking to Kirby Myers here today, pastor of the Bible Church of Brownsburg in Indiana.

Looking at your church website, leadership page, Wade Danforth is an elder, first got to the church in 2004, served as an elder beginning in 2010.

And then Dan Hurt got there in 2004, began serving as an elder in 2008.

And so two examples of men that God brought to you who weren't elder equipped at the time, but then they grew into that.

And I would imagine that God used you to help recognize and formulate and mature what was already in those men as gifts.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, two great stories there. I think Wade, when he came to us, was a believer and walking with the

Lord, had strong faith, but just getting him involved in ministry and his love for missions, he served us faithfully in missions.

And us as elders at the time recognizing, hey, this is a guy who is elder qualified.

And so let's be pouring into him as one who perhaps in the future could come on and serve with us.

And so Wade has done that and done that very well. Same with Dan, in the sovereignty and providence of God, when we bought our first home, we lived down the street from Dan Hurt.

And it's kind of a non -through street. And so you kind of get to know all your neighbors.

And I met Dan and Dan was a believer, but his wife was not at the time. And so got to know him.

He had heard of John MacArthur and he had been listening to him on the radio and had been converted just by listening to expository preaching.

And so he and his family began to come and I saw this man just soaking up the word of God, a lover of theology.

And we saw his wife come to know Christ. And that was phenomenal. There were a group of us men that were praying for her salvation for three or four years.

And to see that take place was just incredible. And shortly after that, we were able to bring

Dan on as an elder. And he is a man who loves the shepherd and takes that responsibility very seriously.

So I'm very blessed. And I try to continue to do that. I met with a group this morning, a group of men trying to pour into them.

We're currently going through a little series on church history and learning about Martin Luther and the Reformation.

And today we talked about the Roman Catholic view of justification and how that differs from the

Protestant view. And then I meet with a group of guys on Tuesday mornings, guys that we would see as potential elders and in the future.

And again, trying to pour into them. And we've been studying the series from Steve Lawson on the doctrines of grace and the gospel of John.

And those are just two highlights of my week, just to be with men. And again, trying to just impart to them what others have taught me and what

I have gained through my study of the word of God. Well, Kirby, as I'm listening to you talk about that and training men for the next generation and equipping them as God allows and gives the growth, what does this do for the model where we have multi -campuses?

It's not even in the local town where you have to get your message beamed in from Mars Hill or someplace.

Your pastor's not even around. Right. What's the disconnect with that? How can

Second Timothy chapter two ministry be done in a large church like that?

I guess it's not done by the main pastor. Is it done by the second in charge? What's the rub there?

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not a big fan of that. I'm sensing that you're not as well.

I'm sensing. Kirby's so nice. I'm sensing. I've got a question for you,

Kirby. Last question regarding men's ministry and then we'll move forward to preaching maybe. What would you tell listeners who are happening to listen to you and they don't have a pastor who's got a discipleship group, he doesn't have a future elder group, future deacon group, there's not kind of a men's ministry, what do you tell a guy who wants to grow and his pastor doesn't seem to have this mindset?

What advice would you give that guy? Well, I think I meet guys like this all the time and many of them,

I applaud them for their willingness to want to stay in a church. I talked to a guy a couple weeks ago and we were talking about things related to Reformed theology and expository preaching and we learned that we were fans of some of the same people, same pastors and authors and had much in common and I asked him about.

He listens to No Compromise too, I guess, right? Yeah, sure. And so he's a guy that, when

I asked him, well, what's your current church situation? Well, he's been in this church since he was like six months, it's very

Arminian, but the pastor would have a view of God's sovereignty and salvation and so it's a lot of hard work for them right now, but I, in many ways, was encouraged that he's willing to stay there and try to make a difference and try to help people see that God is great and God is glorious and God is holy and that man is depraved and helpless and hopeless and in need of salvation.

But I think, though, that many times there are people that are gonna be in churches that are starving for the truth and they're holding out hope that I'm gonna grow here and it may just not happen and they may need to look and see, is there a

Bible -teaching church close to me where I can be poured into, where I can hear faithful exposition and grow and then be able to take that in turn and invest that into others?

That's good, I think of Robert Godfrey's article called The Myth of Influence. Some people, if they're not in leadership positions, out of love with a motive of kindness and wanting what's best for the church, they just stay too long when the thing is never going to change.

But it just popped in my mind, Kirby, that if you're at a church out there and the pastor's not discipling you, why don't you go to your pastor and say, teach me what you know.

Help me to understand ministry and how to visit people in the hospital and go ask your pastor.

We're talking to Kirby Myers today on No Compromise Radio Ministry. Kirby, it's the Bible Church of Brownsburg, but my sheet here on leadership doesn't have your website.

Tell us your website in case people want to go listen to you. Yeah, it's kind of a long one, but biblechurchofbrownsburg .org.

Okay, and that makes it easy. And on the, it's kind of like the little catchphrase there, whatever you want to call it, this is the truth that defines the church, proclaiming the truth of God's word one verse at a time.

You're preaching through Revelation now. Why should people be interested in a church that does expository preaching and verse -by -verse preaching?

What is expository preaching? I know this is one of your passions. Go. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, before I heard of John MacArthur, I was out of college and had a desire to be in ministry and was asked by my pastor from growing up, my home church, to come back on staff in Danville, Illinois.

And I was doing college and career age ministry at the time and working for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

And so I was going to be the shepherd of this college age group. And so I got this group together and, you know,

I figured, well, we need to start a bible study, you know, time of fellowship, teaching. And I remember them gathering together and I just asked them, well, what is a book of the bible that you would want to study?

And it seemed like the overwhelming response was, hey, the book of James would be good, very practical. And I remember a young girl in that group saying to me that night, hey, if you're going to teach through the book of James, could you teach it verse by verse?

Would you not just jump all over the place? And I said, sure, you know, and it sounded good to me.

And so that was my introduction to expository preaching. I'd never really heard that terminology.

I was just kind of challenged by this young girl in our college age group to teach in that way.

And so I remember I had my Thompson Chain reference bible, you remember those?

And I had Warren Weirsby's commentary on the book of James, Be Mature.

And I just started teaching through the book of James and I loved it. And years later, probably just maybe a year or two later, was at a

FCA national conference and I heard Tommy Nelson preach for the first time. And he was teaching through the book of Judges and was really covering that verse by verse.

Here at our FCA national convention, he was our morning chaplain. And as I listened to this man teach with authority for 50 or 60 minutes,

I just, God was really working in my heart. And I said, this is what I want to do. And I remember that third day making a beeline to him and just saying, this is what

I want to do. Can you help me? And he said, well, yeah, get on my tape ministry and just begin to listen.

And that was very helpful. And so I knew that that's what I wanted to do. And so when I left and when

I was looking to attend a seminary, it was really a no -brainer to look at master seminary because that is where that training would come to learn how to do expository preaching.

I just believe it's the best way to learn the word of God. There are topical preachers out there and God is using that.

But to learn God's word and to learn God's word in context, I think we've all heard bad sermons where pastors take the word of God out of context to make it say what they want it to say.

But learning to teach through a book and boy, a lot of topics come up just from teaching through a book.

And you know that to be true. And so I think it's the best way to teach. And I think it's the best way to learn

God's word is for someone who is a part of your congregation. Kirby, excellent thoughts.

Kirby Myers, the Bible Church of Brownsburg. Kirby, tell me a little bit about this trend today to preach

Christ, to make sure we're not moralistic. Do you think this has been a good recovery?

In other words, let me just let you run with it because I know you're preaching through the book of Revelation.

So here's the uncovering of Christ Jesus. Just how important is gospel -centered ministry versus therapeutic moralistic deism?

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's interesting because if you would have, you know, when

I got to the church 10 years ago, the first book that I taught through was 1 Thessalonians.

I thought for a new church, a young church, that was kind of a model book for us to study, to look at, a church that is commended.

And so, you know, did that expository preaching through that book. And if you would have asked me at that time, to list from one to 66, the books you'll probably preach through,

I think Revelation would have been 65 or 66, you know, down there with Isaiah. But I was on a trip to New York in June with my wife and decided just to read through Revelation on the plane.

And as I read through that, I was just, again, what you just said there, the uncovering and the person of Christ.

You know, I think we think of Revelation, we think about all the eschatology and all the imagery and the end and what's going to happen and the kingdom and the devil and the beast and all this stuff that's going on that is so hard to understand.

But I was captured by the person of Christ. And what a difference we see in the book of Revelation and in the

Bible compared to some of the preaching we're hearing today about who Jesus is.

You know, Jesus is not our homeboy. He's not just my pal, my buddy. He is the

Savior. He is the one who was pierced and the one who was slain yet standing, as we see in Revelation 5.

And so it's, yeah, definitely much preaching about moralism and how to have a happy life and how to have a successful business and things like this.

But let's just preach Christ. May Christ be our focus. And when we began the church, this was one of our distinctives that our ministry is going to be a

Christ -centered worship. So we're going to get together. It's going to have very little to do with us, but all of our focus wants to be on Christ, on his person, and on his work.

Talking to Kirby Myers today, my friend, Pastor Kirby Myers. Let's do a little word association.

You can either give me a word or a sentence or something, but something short. I'm going to just give you some list of names here.

John MacArthur. Faithful, just a faithful pastor, faithful teacher of God's word.

And I think John probably has as many enemies as he has friends, people that don't like him because he preaches the truth.

But I think there would be universal agreement that John MacArthur is a man who teaches and preaches the word of God with no apology and with no compromise.

So thankful for him, thankful for his faithfulness. Before I ask you the next one, I think I might have to sue

R .C. Sproul and Ligonier because their new national conference for next year is no compromise.

Did they call you and get permission? Do you know what? They didn't, but I think we have a good legal team here.

I'm right after Jay Sekulow on the radio station, and so I know people like that. Yeah, that'd be good.

Okay, how about next name, James McDonald. James McDonald, I guess when

I hear that name, and I want to be careful because I know he has been one who has been a faithful preacher and has been a help to so many.

But there are many, I think there's much confusion right now that surrounds his ministry, much confusion with the elephant room.

Why would you bring a man in like T .D. Jakes? That's confusing.

Okay, good, Wayne Grudem. Wayne Grudem, probably the most helpful systematic theology

I've ever read through. I know there are probably some that are more esteemed and more reformed, but for me, for this guy, for a simple -minded guy, reading through that in seminary, so, so helpful, and I've tried to use that with men here in our church.

I know that we would differ with him on some things related to the gifts, but I think a man who is faithful, loves

God, loves God's word. All right, good, Mark Driscoll. Oh, boy.

See, this is kind of fun, isn't it? You've only got a minute and a half to go, so if you just weather the storm, you've done a great job so far.

It is kind of fun. Mark Driscoll is one who I believe has become very dangerous to the church.

I think he is beginning to reveal who he really is. I think he's wanted to see himself as a reformer, but I think we're starting to see that he is pretty charismatic, one who has these visions that are very, very troubling.

You know, back to James McDonald and Mark, you know, I think they're the guys that started the Alfred Room together, but I don't know the wisdom in going on a bus tour and promoting yourself in a book.

I just think we need to be faithful shepherds to stay in our churches and love our people, pray for our people, shepherd the people that God has brought to us, rather than aspiring to be popular and to have a world -renowned ministry, you know?

You know how MacArthur has said over the years, you know, that God would want him to take care of the depth of his ministry and God would take care of the breadth, and I think we need men who are more willing to do that today.

Amen, we're talking to Kirby Myers. It's been a fast 24 and a half minutes. Kirby can be pulled down for the sermons that you can listen to at the

Bible Church of Brownsburg, biblechurchbrownsburg .org. Kirby, thanks for being on No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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 six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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