Tag: History

Thy Thoughts Which Are to Us-ward

On By Dave MallinakIn Personal, Wildcard Wednesdays2 Comments

Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. (Psalm 40:5)

Berean Baptist Church of Ogden started on the first Sunday of April in 1958 – 65 years ago this past Sunday.  For the past twenty-two and a half years, I have had the privilege of serving Berean as her pastor.  God has done some extraordinary things for our church, and I still haven’t gotten over it.  So, I decided to share a couple of things with the reading public, hoping that you will be encouraged by God’s amazing kindness to a small and relatively insignificant body of Christ.

A Short History

Humanly speaking, we shouldn’t be here.  The believers God used to form the church reached out to Dr. Ed Nelson, who directed them in establishing the church Biblically and recommended a man to pastor them.  While the church waited for a pastor during their first year, one of the men took care of the preaching.  And when the new pastor arrived, he lasted only about three years.  After this, Berean experienced a revolving door of four different pastors over the next six years, followed by two years without a pastor.  So, in the first twelve years of our existence, we had five pastors, one interim, and two years without a pastor.  How does a church survive this?

But God sustained the church, and in 1970, God brought Pastor Hal Mason.  Pastor Mason led the church for eight years, followed by Pastor Wayne Musson, Sr., who pastored the church for twelve years.  Pastor Musson established our Christian Academy in 1979 and led the church to build our academy wing in the mid-1980s.  But near the end of his twelve years, tensions erupted into a full-fledged church split.  About half the membership walked out the door, and Pastor Musson served without a salary for the next two years.  Finally, in 1990, Pastor Musson decided it was time for him to step down as pastor. 

Under Pastor Musson’s direction, the church extended a call to Pastor Mark Short, the youth pastor for fourteen years at Anchor Baptist Church in Salt Lake City.  When Pastor Short moved to Ogden, he wasn’t sure if God was moving him there to close the church or to lead it forward.  But God healed the hurt from the church split, and the church soon thrived again.

Before I go any further, let me say that the point of rehearsing our history should not be to praise ourselves as if we have done something special.  The history of our church is the history of God’s providence towards an undeserving people.  We haven’t survived because we were especially great or especially godly.  We have survived because God decided to display His goodness by preserving Berean Baptist Church.  I cannot explain to you why Berean continues to this day.  I can tell you that God has worked through some tragic events to keep and use us as a church.  Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done.

My Story

I first heard of Pastor Short and Berean Baptist Church on a rainy night at the end of a long workday in the summer of 1997.  My shift ended at 9:00, and when I returned home, my wife had a message from a pastor in Utah.  He said it was urgent and asked me to call him when I arrived home.  Before I called, my wife and I got an atlas to see how far we were from Utah (this was in the pre-smartphone world).  We had been receiving phone calls fairly regularly from pastors at the time.  We had just left our second ministry in about one year – our first ministry ended with the pastor asking us to go after six months (he didn’t think I was loving enough).  Our second ministry ended when the pastor resigned, and the deacons didn’t want us to stay.  In June and July of that year, we worked, attended a wonderful church on the south side of Harrisburg, and visited Gettysburg every other Saturday (not kidding).  I fielded plenty of phone calls from churches during that time, but I had pretty much determined that God didn’t want me in the ministry, so I declined every invitation. 

So, when Pastor Short called, I figured this was just another “no.” However, I was curious about Utah.  When I hung up the phone after my conversation with Pastor Short, I was even more persuaded that the answer was “no.”  But, I had promised to spend some time praying before making a final decision and to mail him my resume the next day – which meant I needed to type it (on a typewriter) that night.  Fortunately, WalMart was open, so we could get ribbon for the typewriter (ask an older person to explain).  My wife ran down to the store – as she describes it, kicking and screaming and stomping angrily through the puddles – while I pulled out the old resume and prepared to update it.  My wife didn’t think there was a remote chance that we would be going to Utah, so she didn’t see the logic in revising a resume – at 10:30 at night – so we could mail it out the next morning.  But she bought the ribbon, and we sent the resume.

And over the next week and a half, I spent hours in prayer, seeking God’s will.  With the previous offers, I had prayed for maybe an hour or two before God settled it in my mind that this wasn’t His will.  But with this offer, God wouldn’t let me walk away.  After a week of praying, the only thing I knew for sure was that I needed to keep seeking God’s direction.  I talked to Pastor Short a second time, and God clarified His will for us after that phone call. 

In August of 1997, my wife and I loaded a moving truck and moved to Utah, sight unseen.  My wife had traveled through Utah several years earlier when she vacationed with a friend before we were married.  Otherwise, we had never seen the state, let alone Berean Baptist Church. 

God blessed us with four helpful, healing years under Pastor and Mrs. Short, and we began to thrive in ministry. Then, at the end of our third year of ministry, God used a friend’s death to stir me about the next stage in ministry.  At the time, I was delivering newspapers (ask an older person about that), and I used those early morning walks to pray and seek God’s face. 

Truthfully, when the thought of becoming a pastor first entered my mind, I believed I was in sin.  I accused myself of pride and haughtiness in thinking I could ever pastor a church.  Day after day, for several months, I pleaded with the Lord to deliver me from this pride, to forgive me for thinking that I could pastor a church, and to give me a humble spirit that would be content in the place God had given me. 

Perhaps this sounds contrived, but God is my witness that this was how I saw it.  Morning after morning, the thought would enter my mind that maybe I would become a pastor, and no sooner did the idea enter my mind but I began to plead with God to take it away and my pride with it.  And then, one day, it dawned on me that maybe my pride wasn’t speaking.  Maybe the Lord was leading. So I presented that to the Lord and asked Him if this was His will.  In my heart, I imagined God asking me, “What if I want you to become a pastor?”  When I thought about it that way, I decided it would be sinful pride on my part if God called and I refused.  That brought a moment of wonderful surrender, and for the next couple of weeks, I began to ask the Lord to direct me to what He wanted me to do.

At the end of that period of prayer, I became convinced that the first step was to tell Pastor Short what the Lord had been doing.  I figured that if this were of the Lord, my pastor would agree; if it weren’t, my pastor would object.  So, one day in early August of 2001, I told Pastor Short what I thought the Lord was leading me to do.  Pastor Short shocked me with his response.  He said, “Amen! I’ve been praying for this!  I pray that God will move me to the mission field and make you Berean’s pastor.”

Of all the horrifying things a person has ever said to another person, that had to be the worst thing I had ever heard.  I had been wondering if maybe God would move us to Idaho to start a church or if God would have a church for us to take over.  But the thought of pastoring Berean was too much for me, and I told Pastor Short that this was the last thing I would want to do.  Pastor Short asked me to return to talk to him again in a week while we both prayed about what the Lord wanted.

A week later, Pastor Short expressed his concerns about me, especially if I was to become a pastor.  I thought he was telling me that he had changed his mind – something I would have welcomed at that moment. But instead, he concluded by telling me that he was more convinced than ever that this was of the Lord and then reiterating his hope that God would move him and his family to Fiji and make me the next pastor of Berean.

A Tragedy

This meeting happened about a week before Pastor and Mrs. Short traveled with their family to Fiji, where the Short’s oldest daughter was a missionary with her husband, Kory Mears.  The tragic events of that trip still sting.  This past Sunday, we showed the documentary we made for our 60th anniversary.  Central to that history is the tragic death of Pastor Short, who was swept out to sea in a riptide and drowned just days after 9-11.  As a church, we still can’t rehearse that devastating day without a very emotional response.  God took our pastor, and we will never get over that.

When I received the phone call with the terrible news, I knew immediately that God had prepared me for this moment.  But I had a church to comfort and care for, and that took up all of my thoughts and energy.  The deacons and I gathered at the church that night for prayer.  We wept together, claimed God’s promises, found comfort in His Word, and reminded ourselves of our good God.  At the conclusion of that meeting, I read the section of our church constitution that describes what the church is to do in the event of the sudden loss of a pastor.  I wanted to ensure that the church knew the steps so we could avoid uncertainty and insecurity.  Our church constitution (thankfully) sets forth very clear actions to be taken in such an event.  The constitution requires that the assistant pastor become the interim pastor and that a pulpit committee be formed.  We all agreed that the pulpit committee should wait until after the funeral.

After that meeting, I visited with some of our grieving members before returning home to see my wife late that night.  The next morning early, a flood of emotion overwhelmed me.  Throughout the day, the phone at church rang off the hook as pastors, friends, and well-wishers called to express their condolences and offer the best comfort they could.  The most challenging moment came that first Sunday after his death.  I dreaded standing in the pulpit that Sunday.  I’ll never forget walking into the basement entryway and seeing one of our men.  We both broke down, and I had to return to my office to regain my composure.  That Sunday morning, I preached on the love of God from Romans 8.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

God carried our grieving hearts through those dark days.  Pastor Short’s body was recovered that Sunday afternoon, and we set the funeral for two weeks after his death – providentially because it took that long to return his body to the States.  After the funeral, I met with our deacons to form the pulpit committee.  As Interim Pastor, I was responsible for leading the church, but I would not be part of the actual committee – only serving in an advisory role. 

The Call

I knew what God was leading me to do, but I also knew that it would be very damaging to the church if I breathed so much as a hint of my conversations with Pastor Short.  I believe in transparency, but this had to be an exception.  As you can imagine, our church was emotionally exhausted, and if we had given any hint to the church of Pastor Short’s wishes, the people would have voted unanimously.  I felt very strongly that the church needed to confirm God’s leadership in my life.  For this reason, I didn’t give the pulpit committee any indication of what direction they should take.  Instead, I encouraged them to choose a chairman, and then I turned the committee over to his direction.

The first meeting of the pulpit committee was interesting, to say the least.  Once the chairman was chosen, he began to discuss the process of finding candidates.  He asked the men if they had any suggestions.  One by one, the men said they had no idea where to look. Finally, the chairman asked, “Would we want to consider Pastor Mallinak.”  One of the men immediately said, “He doesn’t want it.”  The men agreed.  “If he wanted it, he would have said something.  We wouldn’t need this pulpit committee if he wanted to be the pastor.”  As the men discussed this among themselves, one man pointed out that we would still need a pulpit committee even if I did want it because the church constitution required it. There is no automatic succession from Assistant Pastor to Pastor.  This led to further debate about my desire to become the pastor. Finally, one of the men said, “Well, Pastor Mallinak is sitting right here.  Why don’t we ask him if he wants to be the pastor?” 

So, the men asked, and I told them that I was willing to be considered.  One of the men pressed me on it.  If they offered, would I accept?  He insisted that they didn’t want to offer it if I wasn’t going to take it.  I told them I wouldn’t say: it doesn’t work that way.  They needed to seek God’s will as to whether or not they should extend an invitation to me, after which I would seek God’s will as to whether or not I should accept that invitation.  The men asked again, “Are you willing to be considered?”  And I said that I was.

Immediately, one of the men said, “I nominate Pastor Mallinak,” and another man seconded.  The chairman of the pulpit committee looked around in surprise, then said, “Well, I guess we should vote.”  I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fit with Robert’s Rules of Order, but I thought I should interject something before they voted.  So, I reminded them that not ten minutes before, they didn’t think I wanted to be considered.   I pointed out that in the ten minutes from then to now, I was pretty sure nobody had taken time to pray and seek God’s direction in this.  The men agreed, and we tabled that motion.  We decided to meet again in a week.  Meanwhile, the men would take time to pray over this decision.

The following week, the men had many questions for me.  Some had serious concerns about me as well.  Some even considered me arrogant (shocking, I know!). Nevertheless, I was thrilled with their questions and concerns, and I am grateful that they sought the Lord diligently.  At the end of that meeting, the men voted to a call to me. 

The following week, the chairman of the pulpit committee announced to the church that the deacons had voted unanimously to ask me to consider becoming Berean’s next pastor.  We gave the church a few weeks to pray and invited them to discuss with me and among themselves whether or not I should be the pastor.

At this time, the opposition began to rise within the church.  Once the announcement was made, our adult Sunday School teacher decided that he would teach what a pastor should be – and it just happened that his ideal for a pastor was the opposite of me.  The chairman of our pulpit committee suggested that maybe I should attend the Sunday School class, and I did.  But my presence (I sat in front of the man) did not deter him from what he had to say.  On the Sunday of the vote, he opened Sunday School by announcing that he was not going to vote and intended to return his ballot empty.  His father-in-law, a missionary supported by our church, had recommended this as an alternative to a “no” vote. 

On the Sunday of the vote, it felt like the wheels would come off.  One of the most bizarre things that happened that day came immediately after my “friend’s” Sunday School lesson (about me).  I was mildly irritated at the lesson, and as I walked through the parking lot to my office, two cars came whipping into parking stalls, and about three couples came spilling out.  Enthusiastically, they pumped my hand and informed me that they had heard we needed a pastor, and they had a man with them who had moved to our area to take a church.  They then asked me if we had found a candidate yet.  I told them that we had, that, in fact, we were voting on a man that very evening.  Surprised, they asked me for the candidate’s name, which I gave them.  They had never heard of him. 

They didn’t ask me for my name, and I didn’t volunteer it, as they didn’t seem too interested in anything except their own agenda.  Instead, they hustled into the church while I continued to my office.  I took a moment to ask the Lord’s help and wisdom, fully expecting to stand up and preach to this clan, but by the time I returned to the auditorium, they were gone.  Apparently, they came into the lobby asking the same questions they had asked me, and when they learned that they weren’t needed, they decided to vacate the property. 

Before the vote, I had decided to accept the church’s call so long as I received the minimum vote required in our constitution (a 2/3 vote), with one exception.  I did not believe I could accept the church’s call if I received a unanimous vote.  I understand that many pastors desire a unanimous vote, but I had served in the church for four years, and I knew some people didn’t like me (such as the adult Sunday School teacher).  I wanted an honest vote, not a sentimental vote.  We were cautious not to hint at Pastor Short’s desire, knowing how that would influence the church.  I assumed that a unanimous vote would not be an honest vote and thought I couldn’t accept if that were the result.

That Sunday night, after I preached, my family and I returned home while the church voted.  We did not participate in the vote.  About an hour later, the chairman of the pulpit committee came to our house with his family.  He informed me that the church had voted to call me as the pastor.  He was very anxious about what my answer would be and told me that the number one concern the church had expressed during that time was that I would decline the call. 

Then, I told him what the Lord had been doing in my life before Pastor Short’s death.  I told him that in the very moment when I heard the news that Pastor Short was lost at sea, God had confirmed to me His call in my life and indicated that He intended for me to pastor Berean.  I then asked the chairman to give me until Wednesday to pray and re-confirm this with the Lord and told him that I would announce my decision to the church that Wednesday.

That was over twenty-two years ago now.  When I accepted the call, I asked the Lord to give me forty years to pastor this church.  I thought then – as I believe now – that longevity is crucial in Utah, as Bible-preaching churches are scarce, and our church especially had suffered for so many years through a revolving door of pastors.  I praise the Lord for the years He has given me here.  I recognize that forty years is my desire, not necessarily God’s plan and that this could all end tomorrow.  But I am grateful that God continues to carry this ministry forward.

Some Thoughts

I have often looked in awe at how God helped us through such a tragic time.  We are a small church.  Initially, I thought that perhaps God intended something more significant for us, but twenty years later, we are still essentially the same church we were then.  Humanly speaking, I would expect God to give such remarkable providences to an important church, a substantial church, a famous church.  I wonder: why Berean?  We aren’t well-known.  We have been engaged with our city and community for these many years, and we certainly have impacted Ogden for Christ.  But we aren’t exactly turning the world upside down.  I don’t have an influential public ministry.  For the most part, we have labored in obscurity.  So, why would God go to all this trouble to preserve our church? 

I don’t have an answer to that question.  Everything I thought God might do through us has turned out to be wrong.  We have met with many struggles and difficulties and disappointments along the way.  Our church has experienced seasons of significant growth followed by times of decline.  We have seen families gloriously saved and others turn from the Lord.  We have sown much and brought in little and sometimes feel as if we have little to show for our work and labor in the Lord. 

I am reminded that, in the history of the New Testament church, a few churches were famous, genuinely great, and influential to a generation.  And there have been countless thousands of small, obscure, faithful churches scattered around the globe, where Christ is preached and magnified, and believers are disciplined in all things God has commanded. Of course, God has a purpose for the important, influential churches, and I praise God that He has raised up churches like that in every generation.  But for the most part, the kingdom of God is advanced through the work of faithful churches that labor in obscurity, unknown and yet well-known, serving the Lord in their generation. 

If God allows us to be that, it is enough.   

Unpacking My Trip to Israel, Suitcase #2

On By Dave MallinakIn Personal

In case you missed it in the previous post, I supplied a few hyperlinks to videos I made on the trip. You might enjoy watching those – who knows. The guy making them is a bit cheesy, but who’s judging?

Third, my biggest surprises

I suppose I could blame it on flannelgraphs and A Beka flashcards, but I had no idea how rugged the terrain would be in Israel.  Galilee sits deep in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountains that rise a thousand feet or more above it.  But nothing could have prepared me for the steep climb into Bethlehem, or the mountain where Jerusalem sits.  For whatever reason, I always pictured Bethlehem as a rolling meadow with a little hill outside of town.  In fact, Bethlehem sits on a mountaintop, with steep climbs on all sides of the city. 

From the City of David, which is the location of David’s palace, sitting on the southern side of the Temple Mount, our guide referenced the 125th Psalm, where David said,

As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

He then pointed out the mountains that surrounded the City of David from all sides – the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Offense, the Mount of Evil Counsel, Mount Zion (which has changed names a few times).  Between Jerusalem and each of these mountains is a deep valley, which shows just how strategic Jerusalem was for defense and how difficult it would be to conquer. 

I was surprised by several of the Old Testament ruins, particularly at Bethsaida, Dan, Beth She’an, the two Caesareas, and Hazor.  I had read about each of them, but still was unprepared for what I saw.  Bethsaida was probably the biggest surprise.  As you know, Bethsaida in Galilee was the hometown of at least three and possibly four of the disciples.  We visited Bethsaida Julias, where Jesus performed several of His greatest miracles, and which He condemned for their unbelief.  In this Bethsaida, we saw ruins dating back to the kingdom of Geshur.  King David married the daughter of the King of Geshur, and their son Absalom fled to this town when he murdered Amnon.  The ruins here are well preserved, including the fisherman’s house and the wine maker’s house, along with the ancient gates of the city.  I confess, I was amazed to think of Jesus walking among these ruins – probably not ruins in his day, and working His miracles.

Continue reading “Unpacking My Trip to Israel, Suitcase #2” →

Unpacking My Trip to Israel, Suitcase #1

On By Dave MallinakIn Personal

Our church decided that it was high time we visited the land of the Bible.  They didn’t exactly ask if we wanted to go, but informed us that they had bought us a trip and told us we were going.  Then, they asked if that was okay. 

And we consented. 

I thought you might enjoy hearing a little about our trip, thus this miniature travelogue.  Let me say from the start that a trip to Israel looks more like a work trip than a vacation.  I wonder if you can write it off on your taxes. 

Don’t get me wrong – we did get to stay in some nice hotels and eat some really fine meals in those hotels, desert tables groaning beneath the weight of some pretty amazing sweets.  We were with a group of friends, and two of my very close friends were on the trip.  We had a riot with them – except when our tour guide was cracking his whip.  But the daily schedule is rigorous and exhausting.  We were up at 6:00 every morning and on the bus by 7:30. A couple of the early days of the trip, we were back to our hotel around 4:30, but as we neared the end of the trip, the days stretched closer to 6:00 in the evening. 

But it was worth it.  Thank you to my church (and to Jeff Voegtlin) for “making” us go!

Continue reading “Unpacking My Trip to Israel, Suitcase #1” →

Healing Our Racial Hurt, Part 3

On By Dave MallinakIn Hot Topics, Independent Baptists, Racial Reconciliation2 Comments

Now that our racial hostilities have come to a fast boil – some might argue a volcanic eruption – I believe it is time we admit that our approach to the issue has been ineffective.  I would describe my approach to racial tension throughout much of my life in terms of ignorance and apathy.  I didn’t know, and I really didn’t care.

A little more than 20 years ago, God used a visiting evangelist to expose the racism in my own heart.  It came through a discussion we were having after a chapel service in our Academy.  I was an assistant pastor at the time.  My evangelist friend had just preached a message to our teens about courtship and marriage.  Our pastor had one objection, and he addressed it after the students were dismissed.  His objection? “You didn’t say anything about interracial dating.”

Before I relate our evangelist’s answer, I should remind you that a traveling evangelist depends for his livelihood on the relationships he has with pastors and churches.  It would be easy enough for an evangelist to be a little bit craven out of fear of losing meetings.  Our evangelist friend was not.  His answer stunned me, like an open-handed slap to my face.  He did not hesitate: “I don’t have a problem with interracial dating or marriage.” He explained: “You can’t tell me that a black girl and a white boy who grow up in the same church and live a few miles apart shouldn’t marry because of the color of their skin.  They were raised in the same environment, they have the same cultural experiences, there can be no Scriptural reason to forbid it.”

I interjected. “God separated the races at the tower of Babel.  Interracial marriage blurs the lines between those races.” He looked at me and shook his head: first, nothing in the Bible commands that we maintain “racial integrity” through marriage standards.  The idea that “God set the bounds of their habitations” came from Bob Jones, and (as my evangelist friend said it), “everyone knows that the old man was a racist.” Second, nobody could give a Scriptural breakdown of what constituted a different race, or which races were forbidden to marry one another.  He pointed out that some pastors say there are three races, some say there are more – some as many as seventeen.

I respected this man for his answer, but at the time, I strongly disagreed with him.  Since then, God has changed my heart.  First, my friend was right – God has not put a restriction on marriages based on skin color.  When Aaron and Miriam criticized Moses for his Ethiopian wife, God gave no credence to their criticism at all, though He did punish Aaron and Miriam for opposing Moses’ leadership.  Second, God reversed Babel on the day of Pentecost, when the gospel was heard in the heart languages of – you guessed it – seventeen nationalities (Acts 2:8-11).  Third, God has made of one blood all nations of men (Acts 17:26).  And while it is true (as Bob Jones argued) that God has determined the bounds of their habitation, He has never restricted a nation to that boundary.  Fourth, and I think most importantly, God has made us all of one blood.  There can be no Scriptural grounds for forbidding marriage between blacks and whites.

In the twenty years Continue reading “Healing Our Racial Hurt, Part 3” →

Healing Our Racial Hurt, Part 2

On By Dave MallinakIn Hot Topics, Issues Facing the Church, Racial Reconciliation1 Comment

On July 4th, at least two NBA players – Chris Paul and Donovan Mitchell – posted a meme on their social media accounts.  The meme said, “Free-ish, since 1865.” Predictably, many white fans were outraged by this sentiment.  After all, these men are NBA stars, millionaires. Hasn’t America been exceptionally good to them?  When have their rights been deprived?

But they have a point.  The road to freedom has been especially rocky for black people in our nation.  As I highlighted in the first part of this series, even after slavery, America treated blacks as sub-human, an inferior race and culture.  We degraded them, despitefully used them, and persecuted them.  Though I was never personally involved in the segregation that characterized the first half of the 20th century – and neither were my parents or grandparents – I can assure you that my attitudes as a teenager would undoubtedly have supported such a thing.  Had I lived in the days of segregation, I believe I would have been a fan of it.

Out of the 150 years since the Civil War Continue reading “Healing Our Racial Hurt, Part 2” →

Healing Our Racial Hurt, Part 1

On By Dave MallinakIn Hot Topics, Racial Reconciliation4 Comments

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. (Romans 12:18)

Now that all the woke realtors have stopped using “master bedroom” and JPMorgan-Chase has dropped terms like “master” and “slave” from their internal tech code, I think we can all feel much better about our new and enlightened sensitivities.  After all, I don’t want my computer to be in a slave relationship to me.  I want my computer to master me like everyone else.  I’m not going back to Master Muffler until they get woke either.  Give me a better name, like Novice Muffler or Beginner Muffler.

Race relations is serious business, of course, and every Christian should be concerned about it.  Those Christians have it right who find the solution for our racial hostilities in the gospel.  But we should also recognize that many barriers have formed over time that make it hard for some in our society to hear the gospel preached.  Every Christian should work doubly hard to see those barriers removed so that the gospel can bring forth abundant fruit.

Even before a rogue cop murdered George Floyd, Continue reading “Healing Our Racial Hurt, Part 1” →

Upheld

On By Dave MallinakIn Personal, Thanksgiving1 Comment

Two years ago, while our church celebrated our 60th anniversary, a pastor friend commented to me that throughout his ministry, there had only been a couple of years when he didn’t feel like it could all end tomorrow.

Sixty-two years ago, in a small living room on the corner of 29th and Adams, Berean Baptist Church of Ogden was born. From those humble beginnings, God has seen fit to uphold us until this day. Due to the current worldwide situation, we were extremely limited in what we could do to celebrate our anniversary yesterday. But I thought a few comments would be appropriate.

As part of our 60th-anniversary celebration, we recruited a young man to help us create a documentary about our church’s history. Pastor Nate Warren grew up in our church and now pastors a small church in Elwood, Indiana. Among other things, he is very talented in videography. He did an outstanding job helping us to record our story for our posterity.

When we set out to make this documentary, we definitely had our children in mind. We wanted to preserve this history for them so that they would know our story. We tried to get this done while some of our oldest members were still with us. We are so glad we did it when we did. A few short months after completing the documentary, one of the key figures in our church went home to be with the Lord. We are so grateful that we were able to record her testimony before she left us.

But once the documentary was completed, we thought we had something that could bless and encourage every Pastor. Let me explain.

The story of Berean Baptist Church is pretty amazing, all things considered. We aren’t a large church. We aren’t a famous church. We are an average-sized church in an average-sized city in America. Yet, God has seen fit to carry us through some unusually hard Providences through the years. In our first twelve years, we went through six different pastors. The longest any pastor stayed between the year of our founding in 1958 and 1970 was three years. One pastor stayed for three months.

In the late 1980s, we survived a devastating church split that followed, not surprisingly, on the tail of a building project. But again, God saw fit to Providentially preserve our church.

No doubt, the hardest Providence in our history came with 9-11. Two days after terrorists turned airliners into missiles to bring down the World Trade Center, our Pastor, who was visiting Fiji at the time, was swept out to sea and drowned. The story of how God worked through that time still amazes us.

We named our little documentary, “Upheld.” We believe that word captures the gracious way God’s sovereign hand has worked to sustain and preserve our church over these years. “Upheld” comes from one of our church’s favorite hymns: “How Firm a Foundation.”

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

Once we made the documentary, we felt very strongly that it could encourage other pastors. After all, ministry is warfare.  Trials and troubles are not unique to us.  God sustained our church in unique ways, but we are not uncommon in that regard.

We thought that you might enjoy seeing what God has done in our church, that it might encourage you in yours.  Churches have struggles and experience many setbacks.  It can be useful to hear how God has sustained others so that we can look forward to what God will do for us.

You probably won’t know many of the people in our story. And since we don’t have a famous church, you might not be all that interested in our history. But we think that if you take the hour or so to watch this documentary, our story might encourage you that God can uphold you too.

A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without God’s notice. A small church might be comparable to a sparrow – unknown, humble, obscure, in some ways the off-scouring of all things. Yet God is big enough to care about the small stuff, to hold the sparrows in His righteous, omnipotent hand.

I hope you will consider viewing this history. We don’t publish it so we can be famous. We like it just fine outside the spotlight. But we want to encourage you with what God can do. Our history is, ultimately, the history of every church. We all face trials and triumphs, crushing disappointments and uplifting victories. Our history is not the story of extraordinary people. It is the story of ordinary Christians with an extraordinary God.

In many ways, we have gone along for the ride. God has carried us through some stormy seas. He has sustained us and upheld us, and we want this documentary to be our expression of gratitude for all he has done. What God has done for us, we are very confident He will do for you too.

Martin Rinkart’s Thanksgiving

On By Dave MallinakIn Hymn Stories, Joy, Thanksgiving

Martin Rinkart knew a thing or two about thanksgiving.  He was just 31 years old when he became pastor of the Lutheran Church in his hometown of Eilenburg, Saxony.  A year later, one of Europe’s deadliest wars broke out.  During the years from 1618 to 1648, more than 8 million people died in what historians refer to as the Thirty Years’ War.  For more than a decade, Eilenburg avoided direct involvement in the war, but by 1631, the war moved to the city.  Sometime in 1636, according to historians, Martin Rinkart penned the words to the thanksgiving hymn Nun Danket Alle Gott – “Now Thank We All Our God.” The next year brought the greatest devastation of the war to the city.  Thousands fled the war, and Eilenburg became a place of refuge.  But in 1637, overcrowded conditions and the devastation of war brought famine and plague to the city.  During that one year alone, 8,000 souls were lost.

At the beginning of 1637, four pastors served the city of Eilenburg.  Soon after the plague struck, one of those pastors abandoned his post and fled to safer regions.  As the death toll mounted, Pastor Rinkart and the remaining two pastors conducted sometimes as many as 40-50 funerals in a day.  Then the two other pastors died.  Pastor Rinkart, sound in body but no doubt suffering in spirit, was left alone to deal with the dead and dying.  Over the course of that year, Martin Rinkart conducted more than 4,000 funerals.  Then, his own wife died.  By the end of the year, with no suitable burial ground remaining, the city of Eilenburg was forced to dig trenches to bury the dead.

Despite his grief, in the face of such extreme suffering and starvation, Martin Rinkart remained steadfast.  He organized efforts to feed the hungry, opened his own home to provide refuge for those in need, gave away his own wealth and all the provision not needed by his own hungry family, and faithfully served Christ and His people.

The story is told that towards the end of the Thirty Years’ War, the Swedish army surrounded Eilenburg and demanded a huge ransom in exchange for an end to the siege.  The tribute required much more money than the devastated city could ever possibly afford.  Some have said that Martin Rinkart led a delegation to the Swedish general to plead for mercy.  When the Swedes refused, Rinkart turned to the delegation and said, “Come, my children, we can find no hearing, no mercy with men; let us take refuge with God.”  Then, falling to his knees, Martin Rinkart pleaded with God for his people.  Seeing his passion, the Swedish general relented, reducing the tribute to an affordable amount.

Out of the depth of such extreme suffering came a song that continues to be a classic thanksgiving hymn nearly 4 centuries later.  “Now Thank We All our God” stands as a lasting testimony to the triumph of joy and the faith of the believer in the face of hard trials.

The Apostle Paul said of the Macedonian believers that

…in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. (2 Corinthians 8:2)

True Christian joy can only be a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer.  There can be no other explanation for it.  We do not say that extreme sorrow or suffering is necessary for fullness of joy.  Where the Holy Spirit indwells the human heart, joy will be evidently present.  Great trials of affliction do not produce joy.  They are not necessary for joy.  But they do cause our joy to shine.  They make our joy evident.

How else can we explain the way joy lifts us up and causes us to triumph in the face of great trial and affliction?  How else can we understand the way joy overflows out of the cup of our sorrows, so that it seems the deeper the sorrow, the greater the joy.  When weeping endures for a night, joy comes in the morning.  Joy outlasts our sorrows.  When pain and sorrow weighs us down, joy outweighs our afflictions and lifts us above them.  Joy is a display of the power of God in the life of the believer to give him happiness when happiness is the last thing anyone would expect.

If we can only be thankful on warm, sunny days with favorable winds at our backs, then we need to learn the lesson of thanksgiving.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)

 

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And guard us through all ills in this world, till the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven—
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heav’n adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

The Reading Report, September, 2017

On By Dave MallinakIn Book Lists

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. – Sir Francis Bacon “Of Studies”

I try to avoid the charge that “he writes more than he reads,” so I work on reading a little every day. Since life is busy, I read in the bathroom. And some days that is the only reading I have time for. But then that is an argument for reading in the bathroom, since we do that every day regardless of the schedule. But I digress.

From time-to-time, I will update my reading list. This gives me some good review and a good way to track my own reading. And who knows, one of my two readers might find a recommendation in what I say.

I read the way I eat: I call it “grazing.” I have about 5 books I am working through right now, here a little there a little. I will begin with a couple of books I recently finished, and then go on to the books I am reading now.

Recently Completed Books

John Adams by David McCullough

Every once in a while, you read a book that wows you from beginning to end, and this is one of those. It goes to my “all-time favorites” list, along with John Stott’s The Cross of Christ and Laura Hildenbrand’s Unbroken. I knew Adams was a great man, and I have heard plenty of people speak highly of this book, but I did not realize what a quality life he led. He was unusual even for his time. The book is well-written and a delight to read.

Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg

My wife and I took a long drive across country recently, and I wanted to listen to an audiobook. So on this one I cheated. I found the book in the library and I was interested, and since I was reading Adams already, I thought this would fit. Burr was not as bad as history paints him, but he was not a good man. I probably knew this before, but his father, also named Aaron Burr, married one of Jonathan Edwards’ daughters. In a matter of less than 1 year when Burr was a young boy, his father died, his mother died, his grandmother (Edwards’ wife) died, and his grandfather (Jonathan Edwards) died. The Edwards were moving to Princeton to raise young Aaron. We cannot deny that these early tragedies shaped his life and outlook.

My Current Reading List

A Theological Interpretation of American History by C. Gregg Singer

Yes, I enjoy history, and this one has been in my stack of books to be read for a while. It is not, in my opinion, well-written. The author has a passion for his subject and seems to have read much on the subject, but he provides little documentation, rarely sites a source or even gives a quotation. So he is giving his opinion of the way America’s changing theology impacted America’s development as a nation. Nonetheless, the thesis is interesting. I wish someone would take what he has done and document things for us.

Apologetics to the Glory of God by John Frame

I am teaching Apologetics in our Christian school right now, so this is part of the curriculum. I have read parts of this book in the past, but this year I made it our class text, so I am reading the entire book. Yesterday, I found this nugget:

To defend the Bible is ultimately simply to present it as it is — to present its truth, beauty, and goodness, its application to present-day hearers, and, of course, its rationale. (p. 18)

Seasons of a Leader’s Life by Jeff Iorg

A pastor-friend gave me this book a couple of years ago. I have been reading it for a while now. Some helpful advice for sure.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

A short little powerhouse of writing advice. I highly recommend it. Of course, it is the magnum opus on style, and everyone who aspires to write should read it. Consider this little nugget from my reading this week:

The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place. (p. 71)

On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons by John Broadus

I wish I would have read this book about 15 years ago. Every preacher should read it and then read it again. Consider this little gem on “subject-preaching” (aka “topical” preaching)

Subject preaching is the orator’s method par excellence. It lends itself to finished discourse. But it has its dangers. The preacher easily becomes interested in finding subjects that are interesting and readily yield a good oration rather than such as have a sure Christian and scriptural basis or such as come close home to the needs of his people. He is tempted to think more of his ideas and his sermons than of “rightly dividing the word of truth” and leading men into the Kingdom of God. He is in danger also of preaching in too narrow a field of truth and human need, since of necessity he will be drawn to those subjects that interest him personally or with which he is already familiar. Unless, therefore, he is constantly widening his horizon by diligent study, he will soon exhaust his resources. Accordingly, at the very beginning, the student should be warned against too exclusive use of this type of sermon. (pp. 136-7)

Fitting Words: Classical Rhetoric for the Christian Student by James Nance

You guessed it: another textbook. This is a new one this year for my Rhetoric class, and I have appreciated the opportunity to grow in my understanding of Rhetoric this year. We just finished reading “Phaedrus,” and I will leave you with this quote from Socrates:

And this skill he will not attain without a great deal of trouble, which a good man ought to undergo, not for the sake of speaking and acting before men, but in order that he may be able to say what is acceptable to God and always to act acceptably to Him as far as in him lies; for there is a saying of wiser men than ourselves, that a man of sense should not try to please his fellow servants (at least this should not be his first object) but his good and noble masters… (from p. 39)

Blessings!