Q&A with John MacArthur at Shepherd's Conference
Forum category
Dr. John MacArthur
Q&A (Led by Phil Johnson)
Q: You have been in public ministry for more than 50 years now, in your 43rd year at Grace Community Church, preparing to finish the Gospel of Mark in July, which will mean that you have preached verse by verse through every book in the New Testament.
A: It’s part of being in the same place over the long haul. This was something I held in my heart as a desire when I started in 1969. The discipline of it was aided and abetted by Jerry Jenkins with a commitment to write commentaries. Now, I’ve done everything but the final chapters of Mark.
Q: Do you think your ministry will change in any significant way after you finish the NT?
A: I hope not. I want to remain the pastor at Grace Church. I plan to take a few months off, go over to Europe to visit some missionaries. The only thing that will change is the subject.
Q: People have asked “are you planning to preach through the Old Testament now?”
A: Look at me! I don’t exactly what I’m going to do, maybe a sweep through the OT with Christological passages that point to Christ. I feel better now than I’ve felt in 10 years, after knee surgery and back surgery. Now, I feel no pain. I could actually be dangerous in the pulpit now. [laughter:
Q: Will there come a time when you retire?
A: Look, I just tell people around here, “If I make sense, leave me alone.” [applause: The problem will be that when I don’t make sense, I won’t believe that I don’t make sense. [laughter: I have no interest in retirement; that’s not a biblical concept.
Q: What were the most difficult changes you wanted to introduce when you came to Grace Church?
A: The greatest challenge was to see in place mature elders. Dealing with the level of leadership that was here in terms of spiritual maturity, ministry responsibility, etc.—when I got to the end of seminary, I started asking myself “How do you do church government biblically?” I didn’t know a church that did church discipline. I didn’t know a church that had mobilized its laity into anything more than superficial ministry. When I came out of seminary, I found an old self-published thing by Alexander Hague, a Plymouth brethren guy, who just taught from the Bible what elders do, what deacons do, etc. I really didn’t know anybody that did this and felt like I was on my own on this. The biggest challenge was to exercise patience in getting there. The only way I knew to get there was to take a generation of young men and pour that into them.
Q: If you could be transported back to 1969 and knock on your office door, what advice would you give to yourself?
A: There’s so many things you wish you would do differently. There was something wonderful about constant accessibility that brought a reality into my life about shepherding people. But the hardest lesson for me is patience. When I get focused on what I want to do, I want to get there right away. That is the great challenge for a young person. Patience isn’t categorical; it’s individual. You have to know where people are in order to move them. It’s not patience with the clock; it’s patience with the people you lead.
Q: What’s the secret to staying in one place for so long?
A: First, I didn’t have any offers. [laughter: No, it’s not about me. I have this profound attachment to this church. I don’t think of my life as any other than here. There were times when there was a split elder board and they would have been happy to have me leave. It isn’t that we haven’t had those times of conflict. I just have never had any desire to leave here. It’s not that this is where I’m comfortable; it’s just that this is where God has settled my soul. The discipline of study is what I love most about it. I also love the progress of people. I’ve been here for three generations and the Word really produces change.
Q: What’s it like for you to read the story of your life through someone else’s eyes, like Iain Murray?
A: My greatest fear is that some lady will paint my portrait and hang it in the church. The second greatest fear is that someone will write a book about you. I’ve said that people shouldn’t have a book written about them until you’re dead. But what I love about Murray is he can’t keep himself from injecting what he thinks. It’s an honor that he would do this. [discussion about various Murray biographies:
Q: When you discipled young men in your earlier years, talk about the time you invested in that.
A: I didn’t know any resources for doing that at all. I didn’t have a body of work personally to offer. I had a minimal bag of tools. So we started with doctrines. I hadn’t at that time fully defined a philosophy of ministry but it was emerging. The difference now is that I would be able to pull together a cohesive structure of what they need to know. One of the most interesting things in my life is to see that I spent most of my life developing a philosophy of ministry and the last few years defending it.
Q&A (Led by Phil Johnson)
Q: You have been in public ministry for more than 50 years now, in your 43rd year at Grace Community Church, preparing to finish the Gospel of Mark in July, which will mean that you have preached verse by verse through every book in the New Testament.
A: It’s part of being in the same place over the long haul. This was something I held in my heart as a desire when I started in 1969. The discipline of it was aided and abetted by Jerry Jenkins with a commitment to write commentaries. Now, I’ve done everything but the final chapters of Mark.
Q: Do you think your ministry will change in any significant way after you finish the NT?
A: I hope not. I want to remain the pastor at Grace Church. I plan to take a few months off, go over to Europe to visit some missionaries. The only thing that will change is the subject.
Q: People have asked “are you planning to preach through the Old Testament now?”
A: Look at me! I don’t exactly what I’m going to do, maybe a sweep through the OT with Christological passages that point to Christ. I feel better now than I’ve felt in 10 years, after knee surgery and back surgery. Now, I feel no pain. I could actually be dangerous in the pulpit now. [laughter:
Q: Will there come a time when you retire?
A: Look, I just tell people around here, “If I make sense, leave me alone.” [applause: The problem will be that when I don’t make sense, I won’t believe that I don’t make sense. [laughter: I have no interest in retirement; that’s not a biblical concept.
Q: What were the most difficult changes you wanted to introduce when you came to Grace Church?
A: The greatest challenge was to see in place mature elders. Dealing with the level of leadership that was here in terms of spiritual maturity, ministry responsibility, etc.—when I got to the end of seminary, I started asking myself “How do you do church government biblically?” I didn’t know a church that did church discipline. I didn’t know a church that had mobilized its laity into anything more than superficial ministry. When I came out of seminary, I found an old self-published thing by Alexander Hague, a Plymouth brethren guy, who just taught from the Bible what elders do, what deacons do, etc. I really didn’t know anybody that did this and felt like I was on my own on this. The biggest challenge was to exercise patience in getting there. The only way I knew to get there was to take a generation of young men and pour that into them.
Q: If you could be transported back to 1969 and knock on your office door, what advice would you give to yourself?
A: There’s so many things you wish you would do differently. There was something wonderful about constant accessibility that brought a reality into my life about shepherding people. But the hardest lesson for me is patience. When I get focused on what I want to do, I want to get there right away. That is the great challenge for a young person. Patience isn’t categorical; it’s individual. You have to know where people are in order to move them. It’s not patience with the clock; it’s patience with the people you lead.
Q: What’s the secret to staying in one place for so long?
A: First, I didn’t have any offers. [laughter: No, it’s not about me. I have this profound attachment to this church. I don’t think of my life as any other than here. There were times when there was a split elder board and they would have been happy to have me leave. It isn’t that we haven’t had those times of conflict. I just have never had any desire to leave here. It’s not that this is where I’m comfortable; it’s just that this is where God has settled my soul. The discipline of study is what I love most about it. I also love the progress of people. I’ve been here for three generations and the Word really produces change.
Q: What’s it like for you to read the story of your life through someone else’s eyes, like Iain Murray?
A: My greatest fear is that some lady will paint my portrait and hang it in the church. The second greatest fear is that someone will write a book about you. I’ve said that people shouldn’t have a book written about them until you’re dead. But what I love about Murray is he can’t keep himself from injecting what he thinks. It’s an honor that he would do this. [discussion about various Murray biographies:
Q: When you discipled young men in your earlier years, talk about the time you invested in that.
A: I didn’t know any resources for doing that at all. I didn’t have a body of work personally to offer. I had a minimal bag of tools. So we started with doctrines. I hadn’t at that time fully defined a philosophy of ministry but it was emerging. The difference now is that I would be able to pull together a cohesive structure of what they need to know. One of the most interesting things in my life is to see that I spent most of my life developing a philosophy of ministry and the last few years defending it.
- 39 views
That last statement is very interesting.
Discussion