Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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The One True Church
Chapter 4 – My Experiences As a Church Pastor
Why would we have to move 750 miles for me to go to seminary? Well, the church to which we belonged, and loved so much, was a Presbyterian church. (We didn’t choose that church because it was Presbyterian, but because they focused on Jesus and used the Bible to do so.)
When I expressed my interest in seminary to our pastor, he suggested three institutions – all Presbyterian, of course. We respected him greatly and saw no reason to ignore his counsel. We chose the one in St. Louis because he and everyone else we asked described it as “more pastoral” and less “academic” than the other two.
It’s not that I didn’t like academics; it’s that I thought the focus on Jesus and the Bible should lead to changed lives. Improving the intellect is fine, but that improvement must lead to more righteous living. For us, that meant family and church.
Upon arriving in St. Louis, we, of course, knew where the seminary was, but needed to find a church home. We quickly found one that was very much like the church we had left: suburban, Presbyterian, and focused on Jesus and the Bible. We loved it just as much.
At the end of my first year at seminary, the church’s youth pastor resigned and I was chosen to take his place. While it was a full-time job in the summer, it reverted to a part-time job in the fall when seminary classes resumed.
After a couple of years, I accepted the role of pastor in a small nondenominational church in a different part of St. Louis. My classes in seminary soured me on a denominational outlook because the focus on Christ and the Bible was inhibited by the need to stick to a denominational point of view.
After four years at the nondenominational church, I started a new nondenominational in yet another part of town. I regularly interacted with other nondenominational church pastors. I even asked several of them to comprise a board to advise me and our church. I pastored this church for seven years.
During our 15 years in St. Louis, while serving the three churches I have described, I earned two seminary degrees. The first was a Master of Divinity degree in 1986 from the seminary that had brought us there. The second was a Doctor of Divinity degree, achieved in 1992 through mostly distance learning, from one of the most respected nondenominational seminaries in the U.S.
In reporting all this personal history to you, my goal is not to impress you with my achievements or credentials. On the contrary, I don’t think any of this bears on the truth or falsehood of what I’m going to show you from the Bible in this book.
Why then have I taken the time to give you the history of my experiences with church, both as a member and as a pastor? To make clear that I have not read the Bible in isolation from the church. I have not stood on the sidelines of church and taken potshots at it. I was as in the middle of things as it was possible to be.
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