The Doctor's Admonition to the Doctors

A brilliant preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones was a profound thinker and pulpiteer in the early to mid-twentieth century in London's Westminster Chapel. This winsome fellow was not only a fruitful minister, he was a physician.

Listen to a passage in his book entitled, The Doctor Himself. Too many practitioners know more about some detail in the anatomy or pathology of a person than they do about the person himself. While we may talk more of, and pay lip service to, the concept of ‘the whole man’ and ‘the complete patient’, we must be very careful that in fact and in practice we do not forget him. It is something which we need continually to bear in mind. The patient, the total patient and all that happens to him, is rarely being fully remembered in contemporary practice. Let me quote McFarlane Burnett again. He says, ‘An important part of the technological and social crisis of our time is this. The social problems of drug addiction and the more subtle influences of the need of alcohol, tobacco, sedatives, tranquillizers, and the rest, to make intolerable situations acceptable, are tolerated instead of making an effort to change them.’ I think that is a very profound remark. Our tendency is to tolerate, just to make these things - these intolerable situations - acceptable without any real thought of radical attempts to change them. Wow! I want to draw parallel to the matter of spiritual ministry because I know that is where our protagonist was going.

I had ocassion recently while travelling, to visit a friend's church. I did not notice the casual worship atmosphere; I paid no attention to the demographics, but I was drawn to the pastor himself. I found in him a genuine ethos that defies trite colloquial descriptions of hospitality. I noticed somebody who was in tune to each person; who was engaging at a spiritual level. I noticed somebody who had a genuine interest in spiritual change in people. He had not lost sight of ministering to the whole-man for the sake of churchiness and technology. He owned the role of shepherd. Now I would not brag on my friend openly here; I would not want to rob him of the spiritual blessing that I am sure is awaiting him. I do want to commend him to you as an example. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul's offering in 1 Cor 4:15a when he says "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet [have ye] not many fathers...".

Ah, here is the tension. I do not believe that God is looking for the qualified instructors, He is looking for the fathers! He is looking for the disciple-making sisters and mothers and brothers. Yes He is looking for the Pastors too. Everyone who is a genuine Christian has spiritual gifts and we are called to identify the struggling, intersect them with Jesus and show them a resounding model of the sanctified man! Hello! Are you out there? Sherrell here.