“Men may try; but they will try in vain, when they attempt to convert the weapons for defending against infidelity, into bread to feed God’s hungry children.” -(Ichabod Spencer, Pastors Sketches, 59)
In the context of this quote Spencer is lamenting the overabundance of speculations about faith and the continual labor to defend and explain the faith against those that do not believe. The problem, says Spencer, is that “speculations about faith have no tendency to invite faith”. Rather they tend to do just the opposite. “Many of our treatises on the subjects of faith…are so filled up with explanations, and labored justifications, and attempted analogies, that they have more tendency to awaken doubt than call forth faith”.
If I am reading Spencer correctly he is saying that shepherds ought to be careful not to feed their sheep with weapons used to fight off wolves. A shepherds crook may help wayward sheep and fight off enemies but it makes a pretty unsavory and unhelpful meal for hungry sheep.
Yet how often is the sermon that you hear on Sunday more geared towards displaying the folly of the world as opposed to feeding and nurturing hungry sheep? Defend them, yes; but a good shepherd realizes that his task is far more than just keeping the wolves out. He has to feed them too. Starved sheep are just as dead as wolf-bitten ones.
I had a similar thought one day when I was doing a weed and feed treatment on my lawn.
The priority is on fertilizing the grass to make it grow. You need to to some weeding once in a while as well.
But I think some spend all their time trying to poison the weeds and never really get around to feeding the grass. Not good for the lawn.
Same basic idea, right?
Yes, same idea. Although, I must say I would be somewhat okay with having a dead lawn that I didn’t have to mow.
What I wonder is why crabgrass cannot just be considered a desirable lawn.
same reason you can’t enjoy being around crabby people…crabby lawns are not kind on one’s feet
This is a great post, and I think it should be standard reading. How often do we not only not feed the sheep, but then we beat them with our staff because they are bleeting too much.
Or we train them to be ninja’s then wonder why they are too busy sword-fighting and throwing ninja stars to reproduce sheep…
Are you saying we’re just making a lot of bad kung fu movies where the sound and the lips don’t mesh? Hmm….
That may make Sunday Morning interesting, might draw a big crowd. May be a good outreach. Wanna try a Ninja Outreach with me Dave?
I hear Dave may be more into Spider-Man https://sbcvoices.com/identify-that-superhero/
Wow.
Mike,
This is a genuine concern among church leadership, or should be. I would think that most SBC churches would take advantage of Sunday School, preaching, evening discipleship, preaching and Wednesday opportunities to balance out feeding and training. When sheep are starved with these opportunities at hand it is either gross leadership negligence or their own fault. If it is leadership that starves sheep by pointing at wolves, maybe the wolf is the one pointing.
Great post.
” . . . by the way of the sea,
along the Jordan—
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned. ” (from Isaiah 9)
A quote adopted by the Christophers:
“It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”
Keith Green, of blessed memory, sings to us of a Shepherd’s care:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=pCfT_GRv154
I love the Psalm 23 hymns that point us to Lord Christ,
the Light of the World . . .
‘shepherd me, O God,
beyond my wants, beyond my fears,
from death into life . . . ‘
Mike,
Thanks for sharing this. I know I have to wrestle with this regularly. It seems too easy to point out the error of bad theology, secularism, etc. Bringing myself and my church family to the refreshing and nourishing (even when personally convicting and challenging) truth of God’s word must be paramount.
SG!
I read Ichabod quite differently…
I don’t think this quote is referencing weeding the tares or the wolves from within the flock, I think it has to do with those who would engage the outside world. In his context of time, he was in the middle of the enlightenment. There were many who were saying religion is unnecessary, an invention of man, a crutch to society; all we need is ourselves.
I think Ichabod was referring to those who specialized or were enamored with Apologetics. I think that “weapons for defending against infidelity” may refer to apologetic arguments. Which are certainly useless as bread to feed “Gods hungry children.”
But, I do not have the book and cannot find it online. So it is a guess based on a first reading 🙂
At least you quoted your source so you don’t have to retire and us take away your organization.
http://www.mikeleake.net/2012/04/people-youve-probably-never-heard-of.html
If interested should be a link on the bottom to several Spencer sources.
Uhmmmmm…..I think we are reading Spencer the same way. Your point is mine. Preachers can be tempted to “preach to the choir” about how evil the world is, how wrong “they” are, etc. Apologetics may defend the sheep from solve and may be occasionally necessary but it makes for poor food.
That’s ‘wolves’ not solve…silly auto correct
Yep, I can see we are on the same sheet of music. I just had the word “apologetics” pop into my head when I read this.
I agree wholeheartedly: we need to be training, discipling, teaching the people of God how to live holy lives that honor Him. In so doing, the people will become a living apologetic.
“Starved sheep are just as dead as wolf-bitten ones.” And, they are more easily picked off by the wolves as stragglers.
The link to Ichabod Spencer’s works is truly valuable. I can testify to the fact that Sovereign Grace ministers can make appeals to souls that can scarcely be imagined by those who think such things to be impossible. A study of Whitefield and Edwards and Spurgeon, however, will lay that idea to rest, and your link to Spencer is of the same nature. Praise the Lord. This Awakening for which I have been praying (it will be this fall) 39 years is starting strangely which probably means that the Lord is a very deeply involved in it; that it is not a man produced thing. I think we are on the verge of seeing a generation of the most balanced, flexible, creative, constant, and magnetic ministers and believers rise up like the world has not seen since the days of the First and Second Great Awakenings and the launching of the Great Century of Missions.