The Anonymous Pastor

Before I came to Covenant Seminary, I took a couple of Church History classes through the seminary's distance education program.  They were great classes taught by professor emeratis Dr. Calhoun.  These lectures are available on Covenant Seminary's World-wide Classroom, and I highly recommend them.

As we got to the end of Reformation and Modern Church history, we spent some time reflecting on the history we studied. Over the centuries, there were many famous and important pastors and theologians who helped to shape and protect our faith.  Men like Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Benedict (all from the first five centuries after Christ) are just some of the names of pastors that we know and respect down to this day.  But as Dr. Calhoun pointed out in his lecture, all these names, all of the many people mentioned in our text that we used, are just a tiny fraction of the men who served as pastors and elders in the church.  

For every famous pastor or theologian that we know about, there are thousands who remain anonymous.  The strength of the church is not found in the preaching of Chrysostom, Wycliffe, and Baxter, but in the untold number of men who have humbly worked each Sunday to bring God’s Word to their congregations. We must thank God for the Whitefields and Wesleys, but we must remember that it is a fully acceptable and wonderful calling to be an anonymous, faithful pastor.  To be one of the unnamed thousands who humbly preach each week. 

I know full well that I am not endowed with the gifts of these great men of the faith.  I am certain that I will not be well known in my day, let alone in history.  But if that were to be my goal, I could not be a faithful minister of the Word.  If it were my goal to be the next great world-famous pastor, I would not be able to preach the Gospel of grace.  My arrogance and ambition would get in the way.  The great men of Church History came by greatness quite by accident.  Some loathed the prominence that they found.  John Calvin, for instance, asked that he be buried in anonymous grave.  He was concerned that his fame would detract from the Gospel.  That he is remembered at all is likely quite a disappointment to him.

That is the sort of pastor that I want to be.  Anonymous, not famous.  Faithful to the Word.  One of the anonymous thousands who keep the Gospel flame burning bright for generations. 

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."