Principles Are the Bottom Line

     Prior to last week’s article related to the “current SBC crisis,” I had just completed a series on the eight strategic principles that I have observed in healthy disciple-making churches. At a recent pastors’ meeting in Norfolk, I shared a 1980 Leadership Journal article I ran across as I was going through some old files. It was based on an interview with Warren Wiersbe where he answered the question: “What did you as a pastor/father tell your son as he was entering the ministry?” Wiersbe’s response has application for today’s crisis and our daily efforts to apply Godly principles for disciple-making.

    The Leadership Journal article opens with the following Wiersbe quote:

​About the only thing I remember from one of my courses at seminary is a bit of doggerel that the weary professor dropped into a boring lecture:
Methods are many,
Principles are few.
Methods always change,
Principles never do.
     As soon as I returned to my dormitory room I looked up "principle" in my dictionary and found it meant "a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption." I read further and discovered that the word comes from the Latin “principium” which means "beginning." I learned something from that definition that has helped to deepen and direct my ministry for many years: if I go back to beginnings and build on principles, I will always be up-to-date and in step with what God is doing.
     That conviction led me into a lifelong search for principles, the foundational truths that never change and yet always have a fresh meaning and application for each new situation. I learned never to adopt a method until I understood the principle behind it. I learned to evaluate men and ministries on the basis of the principles that motivated them, as well as on the basis of the fruit they produced.
     Living by this philosophy simplified my life. My mind was not cluttered with the excess baggage of every fad that the winds of doctrine blew into the evangelical world. My bookshelves were not cluttered with popular how-to-do-it manuals that were bestsellers one month and has-beens the next. (My wife thought we were saving money because I was not buying all these books. Actually I was spending the money on other books that, though they were not as popular, have lasted longer and taught me more.)

     Let me encourage you to take time to reflect on each of the following principles. They are expounded on in the full article (view full article).

• "God makes a worker, then He uses that worker to make a work.” In our consumer-driven church world, too many churches are seeking leaders with charisma and dynamic pulpit skills while overlooking more important qualities like character, integrity, and spiritual maturity.
• “The Greek words translated as ‘ministry’ in the New Testament describe some kind of service. Jesus Christ elevated and dignified service when he said, ‘I am among you as one who serves’ (Luke 22:27).” Too many evaluate a pastor's worth by the size of his church.
• “As ministers, we must be concerned about individuals and not just congregations, crowds, or nebulous ‘mankind.’” Working with a search committee recently I heard this principle phrased somewhat uniquely by one member: “I want a pastor who is present when I am in front of him.”
• “Ministry is too sacred to be motivated by gain and too difficult to be motivated by duty. Only love can sustain us. Only love makes a servant put others first. Only love keeps a servant from exploiting and using his people for his own purposes. Only love prevents a leader from becoming a dictator. Duty becomes delighted when it is saturated with love. Jesus sets the standard: ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45).”
• “I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life; nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life." A small handful of men have turned their ministry responsibilities into an easy life. In John 10 Jesus describes them as “hirelings” rather than men called of God.
• “Ever since Satan declared himself independent of God's authority, there have been two philosophies of life: submission or assertion.” Ministers unwilling to submit to the authority of a church, elders, or be involved in a mutually accountable group of spiritually mature pastors WILL encounter a moral or ethical failure. It is just a matter of when not if.
• “All that God does is ultimately for His glory.” Individuals who need to be in the limelight or who are put there by others before they have the character and spiritual maturity to handle it WILL fall.
• “The Word of God and prayer have always been God's most important tools for ministry.” Dr. Howard Hendricks researched the causes behind pastors getting involved in sexual immorality. One of four primary causes was “each had ceased to invest in a daily personal time of prayer, scripture reading, and worship.”
• “The reward for faithful ministry is more ministry! Jesus said, ‘You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things’ (Matt. 25:21).”
• “Educators keep telling us that role models are important; some lessons are just better caught than taught. This is why Jesus recruited disciples. These men lived with Jesus, watched him, listened to him, and learned from him.” Who is walking beside you and learning first-hand from you how to do ministry?
• “If the foundation of ministry is character, then Jesus Christ stands head and shoulders above all. He was ‘holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners’ (Heb. 7:26), and yet the friend of sinners. In every way, Jesus Christ is the model for our ministry. His authority came from submission. His only purpose was to please the Father and glorify him. He ministered in the power of the Spirit, using the Word of God and prayer.”
• "Ministry must never be static. God has made us, and God continues to make us. The grace of God that saved us continues to work in us and through us to enable us to be "ministers of a new covenant (II Cor. 3:6).”

     Biblical Principles transcend time and culture. If you build your life on principles, you are less likely to get lost in the chaos that will always surround you. Our current culture is driven by emotions and fear rather than the rational application of principles and known facts. My prayer is we heed Warren Wiersbe’s advice and get Back to the Bible—and biblical principles!
Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, AMS