It is quite amazing, and a little amusing, to hear students for the ministry delighting in the fact that all the students for the ministry within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland are sound evangelicals - a very welcome fact indeed. It is a sign that God is blessing His church when He gives Gospel ministers to her.
The obverse is also true; when He gives only liberals to the ministry, that is a sign that He has placed the church under His judgement. When there is a bit of each, then it is difficult to assess what exactly it is that God is doing.
But when all the students for the ministry are 'sound evangelical men,' there is cause for great rejoicing amongst the people of God. When young ministerial students report this wonderful fact, they do so with an air of superiority at times, and with a sense of gratitude to God at others.
I started formal training for the Christian ministry in the Presbyterian college, Belfast in 1975, and I can remember saying to a senior minister how great the future for the church really was, now that God has called all these good young men into the ministry.
He, also an evangelical man, took the wind out of my sails when he told me that when he entered the ministry within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland some 35 years earlier, that all the students in his day were also evangelicals.
What had happened in the meantime? To my recollection, most of the men of my friend's generation were not noted evangelicals, as we both admitted. So what happened?
Several things come to mind. First, it is possible for men to lose their 'first love' for Christ and the Gospel, and these are then forced into second place, if even that, in the affections of these men. A love for Christ and the Gospel that has run cold, is no love at all. They have lost the reason for their entering the ministry.
Decency would demand that they resign, or are removed, but pride and security, tempered with the desire for popularity, demand otherwise.
Second, the denomination sucks them in. While officially within the Presbyterian system of church government, there are no preferments, as in Anglicanism, for example, those at the top of this system do exert a certain 'benign' influence on them, offering them inducements. Young evangelical ministers of promise are promoted to positions of leadership within the wider church, promised foreign travel opportunities, lured by the potential of a bigger congregation in which to minister, told who best to associate with, and whom to stay away from at all costs - those men who would not do your promotion chances any favours - even have held out to them the possibility of the Moderator's Chair.
Now these inducements are there for the 'good churchmen' of the denomination, and the younger evangelicals, having taken their eye of the ball, are deluded into following this evil advice. A senior churchman of any credibility or standing cannot and does not hold to this simple Gospel that they preached in their earlier years of their ministry, so they tone down their preaching, and make it a real struggle for their hearers to discern any clear message. So they give up the Gospel in order to hold on to their chosen careers for life!
A third reason why men depart from the evangelical message is the love of this world and all its attractions. How many have sold the pass in order to have more of this world's goods! Here again, toning down the Gospel so that it becomes palatable to "the people that matter" within the church, the good payers, the people of standing in the community, the people who can decide your destiny, yes even within the Presbyterian system!, the people who 'count,' is resorted to. These worldly thought patterns draw good men away from the Gospel that may have once burned in their hearts and souls, thus ending their evangelical credentials.
Fourth, there is unbelievable pressure in congregations for men to conform to the way things have always been done there. If every young person reaching the age of 15 or 16 has been admitted to church membership and privileges, then the new man must not change this practice. If every new born thing that moves has been 'christened' by the previous minister, and/or the one before that, then the new man must conform. If having a Bible Study and Prayer Meeting has not been there in the past, then he will be allowed to hold these, but must not insist that these are attended by elders, deacons, Sunday schools teachers, youth leaders, and all new communicants. Why? Because they might not be into such things. And in any case, you don't want to lose members from the church!
And the result? Ministers have three choices: they either relinquish their precious privileges and 'go with the flow,' or they will have to move to another church, or they will be removed from their present charge by Presbytery on the grounds of incompatibility of minister and congregation.
So a few men were still clear-cut evangelicals when I left the church, but only a few. Young zealous evangelicals need to know that the situation that they are today reporting was virtually identical with the case 65 years ago, and 30 years ago.
Yet where is the church today? In theological bankruptcy, and in the spiritual wilderness, having no saving message for a lost and dying humanity, and therefore incapable of criticising what is now tolerated within her ranks.
I dare say that this pattern will repeat itself for generations to come, and young zealous evangelicals who train to minister in the big liberal and ecumenical churches, and sadly also in some of the smaller evangelical churches, will express delight in the influx of godly evangelical men to serve in the ministry.
Christians must pray for these good young men who offer themselves for the Christian ministry. But they must also take them under their more experienced wings, and be mentors for them.
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