Gratitude for Joe Tyrpak

I spent a few minutes in the beginning of my November 22 morning message to express to the TCBC body the blessing that Joe Tyrpak has been to our church and to my life. Much of what the Lord has taught me over the last 5 years (including much of what I’ve posted here) has been the result of conversations with Joe, books Joe has recommended, and messages Joe has preached. He’s been a great assistant pastor for me, shoring up my weaknesses and helping me minister more effectively. More than that, he’s been a great pastor for me, teaching me the Word and pointing me to Christ. I thank the Lord for him and want MTC readers to know what a blessing he’s been.

Here’s a 2-minute clip from that message. Thanks, Joe!

Chuck Colson: Manhattan Declaration is “a foretaste of heaven.”

Dave Doran again shows why the Manhattan Declaration is being viewed by both participating ecumenists and non-participating separatists as a significant compromise with false teaching. Noting the centrality of ECT mastermind Chuck Colson to the entire process, Doran makes the following comment:

Can there any doubt, based on his own words, that one of the primary architects of this document believes it is aimed at expressing genuine Christian unity? It would be wrong to conclude that what Colson believes about this can be attributed to everybody who signed it, or even that signing necessarily commits one to Colson’s pursuit of ecumenicism. But the clarity with which its chief architects express their ecumenical ambitions can’t be ignored and should have been a major cause for concern about this project. Frankly, I don’t see how anybody who signed it could really be surprised about negative reactions given the history of George and Colson with regard to ecumenical efforts. How could the Manhattan Declaration not be viewed as part of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together package?

The point of signing your name to such a document is to unite your voice with myriads of others for a worthwhile cause. I get that. But it seems that those who signed the Manhattan Declaration to cry out against moral issues also find themselves being asked to sing backup for Colson’s ecumenism—or even being portrayed by him to be doing just that!—despite their protestations. Almost inevitably, lending your voice to this sort of inter-faith activism means losing your voice, or at least part of it.

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There is a previous post on the Manhattan Declaration here.

The Cross Can Do What Arguments Cannot

William Barclay speaks sagely on the weakness of human argumentation to produce faith in his commentary on John 1:46:

“Not very many people have ever been argued into Christianity. Often our arguments do more harm than good. The only way to convince a man of the supremacy of Christ is to confront him with Christ. On the whole it is true to say that it is not argumentative and philosophical preaching and teaching which have won men for Christ; it is the presentation of the story of the cross…The best argument is to say to people: ‘Come and see!’”

Wesley’s Carol

Dave Mincy (mincymedia.com) is making his choral arrangement of Wesley’s Carol (a fresh take on Hark the Herald Angels Sing) available as a free pdf. If you’re at all involved in your church’s music program, you need to go download it. And if you’re not, you need to send the link to someone who is.

Details here.

We’ve used the arrangement in the past with our combined adult and children’s choirs. It’s beautiful. The melody is ideal for a children’s choir, IMO. I commend it to you. Thanks, Dave, for your ministry and generosity!

Rerun: Al Mohler Explains Why He Withdrew from the “Reclaiming” Conference

In light of Dr. Mohler’s decision to sign and rationale for signing the Manhattan Declaration, I thought a reposting of some correspondence I had with him over a similar situation a couple years ago might be of interest to those thinking through the issue. In short, Dr. Mohler withdrew from a friend’s political/morality conference because speaking on the same platform as a Roman Catholic priest under a “Christian” moniker would unnecessarily muddy the waters regarding the meaning of the Gospel. He defended co-belligerence, but not at the expense of Gospel clarity.

Faced with a similar (and far more public) circumstance now, Dr. Mohler has come to a very different decision. I continue to think highly of Dr. Mohler, but I think he is making a significant mistake, allowing important cultural similarities to trump essential gospel differences, all under the eternally significant term “Christian.” My understanding of the situation is very like Dave Doran’s (here and here), John MacArthur’s, Alistair Begg’s, and James White’s, all of whom speak to the issue much more ably than I do.

Here’s the original post from April 10, 2007. I include my introduction and response, but the germane portion is the letter from Dr. Mohler.

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Some time ago, I made a blog post in which I took exception with Dr. Al Mohler’s participation in the “Reclaiming America for Christ” conference. Dr. Mohler was scheduled to speak alongside a Roman Catholic priest and Ann Coulter, among others. Though I’ve appreciated much of what Dr. Mohler has said and written, I thought he was making a mistake, and I said so.

Well, someone brought my post to Dr. Mohler’s attention, and in January of this year he sent me a very gracious email explaining how he got into the predicament, how he quietly got himself out of it (he did not speak at the conference), and—most importantly—why. Here’s the germane portion of the correspondence, which he has given me permission to post:

O God, My Joy

This hymn by Paul Keew and Brian Pinner is a delight. Exquisitely written, and relentlessly God-centered. You can hear it here. [Addition: You can also here it here (an octavo by Molly Ijames) and here.]

O God, my joy, You reign above in radiant splendor and beauty.
Your Word has drawn my heart to love the awesome sight of Your glory.
Your blazing Light and gospel grace shine brightly from my Savior’s face.
No other wonder would I see than Christ enthroned in His glory!

Sustained by joy in trial and pain, I trust Your wisdom and mercy.
Through suff’ring that Your love ordains, more like Your Son You will make me.
For Christ embraced the cross of shame, beholding glorious joys to come.
O give me faith like His to see that suff’ring lifts me to glory!

Compelled by joy, I fight the sin that turns my gaze from Your glory.
Your Holy Spirit dwells within; His presence arms me for vict’ry.
Let death and hell against me rise; through death I’ll gain eternal joys.
All pow’rs of hell will bend the knee before my great King of Glory!

While Your Collegians Are Home for Thanksgiving…

…encourage them to register for the Student Global Impact Conference in Detroit on January 4-6, 2010. For one thing, they can still get the discounted rate (only $40) if they register before December 1. More importantly (and I speak from experience), there post-Christmas schedules will fill quickly if they don’t plan to go now.

Pastors, parents, and friends, a nudge from you encouraging young people to consider their roles in world evangelization may be just what the Lord will use to get them thinking about investing rather than wasting their lives. Prayerfully send a link, or volunteer to drive a group from your church, or pay some registration fees, but help the good people at Inter-City Baptist Church and the cause of missions by promoting this conference in your sphere of influence!

Information can be obtained at the Missions Mandate site or at info@missionsmandate.org.

“For the sake of His name!”

BJU Thanksgiving Service

What a memorable, humbling day. Greg Habegger and I were both able to take early-morning flights to arrive in Greenville in time for BJU’s 2009 Thanksgiving Service, Portraits of Praise. Portions of the service can be heard or viewed here.

The entire service was beautifully planned and executed, and our Lord was magnified. By God’s grace, two ChurchWorksMedia hymns were included in the service—Greg’s choral arrangement of My Jesus, Fair and Dan Forrest’s arrangement of His Robes for Mine. Paul Keew and Brian Pinner’s exquisite new hymn, O God, My Joy, was also included. I love that!

Thanks to those who worked hard to point people Christ-ward this morning, and thanks for allowing us to have a small part. It was overwhelming to hear the orchestra, chorus, and congregation of some 6000 people lift there voices in praise to our Savior. Grace!

Just for Fun: Last Rites

A bus on a busy street struck a Catholic man. He was lying near death on the sidewalk as a crowd gathered.

“A priest. Somebody get me a priest!” the man gasped.

Long seconds dragged on but no one stepped out of the crowd. A policeman checked the crowd and finally yelled, “A PRIEST, PLEASE! Isn’t there a priest in this crowd to give this man his last rites?”

Finally, out of the crowd stepped a little old Jewish man in his 80s.

“Mr. Policeman,” said the man, “I’m not a priest. I’m not even a Christian. But for 50 years now, I’m living behind the Catholic Church on Second Avenue, and every night I’m overhearing their services. I can recall a lot of it, and maybe I can be of some comfort to this poor man.”

The policeman agreed, and cleared the crowd so the man could get through to where the injured man lay.

The old Jewish man knelt down, leaned over the man and said in a solemn voice:

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“B-4 … I-19 … N-38 … G-54 … O-72…”

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(HT: D Browning)

Praising the Great Shepherd for a Good Shepherd

Guest post by Joe Tyrpak.

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My dad was 41 years old, my mom 39. I was eight years old, and for some reason we were moving to Pennsylvania. Decades later I discovered the horrors that my parents had endured that year and the meeting that led us to move.

Trying to “stop the bleeding” from what we had endured in a difficult church situation, my dad sought personal counsel from an experienced out-of-state pastor who, in God’s timing, was preaching in the area. Pastor E. R. Jordan was the short, bald “Pastor Emeritus” of Calvary Baptist Church in Lansdale, PA (only later did I come to learn how influential this little man was—training of hundreds of pastors, planting of dozens of churches, and shepherding of thousands of believers).

When E. R. and my dad met in private, E. R. said in his characteristically direct way, “You’re gonna kill your wife and family if you stay here. Come to Pennsylvania. The church I pastor has lots of people. You could sit in the back row for a couple years, regularly meet with one of our Biblical counselors on staff, and allow your family some time to heal.”

My dad followed his counsel. We moved to PA and went to Calvary Baptist Church for almost six years (until a job change forced us to move). During those 5+ years, we were faithfully taught the Bible several times a week, I was baptized, and two of my sisters met their husbands at church and were married in the auditorium. My parents were also regularly shepherded by Larry Thornton, a seminary prof and assistant pastor at Calvary, who taught them how to think Biblically and help them get back on their feet.

Although I was only starting my teen years when we left PA, I have several distinct memories of “Chief” (the name that all the “preacher boys” called E. R.):

• He was a phenomenal preacher, unusually gifted in powerful, confrontational exhortation. I remember that he would regularly preach on Wednesday nights in the summer. Even though I was a little boy, his preaching was personally engaging, encouraging and VERY convicting. It was under his preaching that I have the first recollections of God’s Spirit powerfully working in my heart through the public proclamation of the Bible.
• He never forgot God’s grace in saving “a wretch like him.” During my years at Calvary, E. R. gave his personal testimony of conversion a couple times (sometimes in church, sometimes in elementary school chapel). Every time he recounted God’s grace to him personally, he was moved to tears to think that God would love a sinner like him. If you’re interested in his testimony, you can read it in his autobiography, Chief, from BJUPress or you can order program #2720 from Pacific Garden Mission’s Unshackled radio drama ($7 for a cd).
• He oozed with passion for personal evangelism. His evangelistic heartbeat seemed evident in every word he spoke.
• He was a tender shepherd. Although he was fierce in the pulpit, he was personally warm. And, even though he pastored thousands of people, he always had the time to talk with me, a little ten-year-old punk, when I would pass his office, meet him in the school hallways, or greet him at the church door. I’ll never forget his soft, raspy, grandfatherly voice.
• He always ended his prayers with a long “Aaaaaaaa-men.” It would last at least 5 or 6 seconds. I remember imitating this “trademark” hundreds of times as a kid.

When I woke up this morning to my brother-in-law’s email reporting to our family that “Chief” had died, I started crying, and cried for almost 20 minutes. I told my wife that it was a “good cry.” It was because God is so amazingly gracious. He loved a dirty street boy like Bob, saved him, and transformed him into a caring pastor that compassionately shepherded my equally-needy family during the darkest tragedy of our lives. And God used him to stabilize, sanctify, and heal our family, and change the whole course of our family’s life.

When I’m finally in heaven, I will never stop praising God for shepherding me and my family, and I’ll never stop thanking “Chief” for his Christlike selfless attention to poor and needy sheep like us.

It’s my pleasure to dedicate my metrical rendering of Psalm 23, The Lord’s My Shepherd, to “Chief,” one of the most faithful undershepherds I’ve ever known.

Psalm 23—The Lord’s My Shepherd

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