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Yancey Encourages Pastors in Midwinter Closing Remarks
By Craig Pinley
ROSEMONT, IL (February 7, 2003) - Renowned author Philip Yancey spoke at Friday
morning's breakfast to close the 2003 Midwinter Pastors Conference of the
Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), encouraging his audience with a few
reminders from the Bible that have touched his life.
Following breakfast, Yancey participated in a book signing and an interview
with Covenant Communications later in the morning. Yancey also had an
opportunity to renew Covenant connections from his days at the
Chicago-based La Salle Street Church. While Yancey was attending the church
(his wife, Janet, served with a senior adult ministry there), his pastor
was Arthur Nelson, now senior pastor at North Park Covenant Church in
Chicago.
Yancey, an editor-at-large for Christianity Today, has written 16
books and more than 600 magazine articles, making him a popular and
poignant voice in evangelical circles.
Glenn R. Palmberg, president of the ECC, told the audience that when
friends ask him what kind of an evangelical church he leads, he describes
it as "Philip Yancey evangelical." In his introduction, Yancey confessed
his popularity is a bit surprising
to him.
"I've always positioned myself as a little on the edge, a smart alecky man,
the world's only white man with a gray afro," he said. "I play off the
church I grew up with as not only the toxic church, but the radioactive
church. It's my identity. It's questioning authority. That's who I am.
"We're all jars
of clay and I'm just one blob of baked dirt talking to another," Yancey
continued. "People ask me questions like: What are the five biggest trends
of the church? And I tell them, 'I work in a basement office and look out
the window and see deer eating my plants,'" explaining that he claims no
special expertise in that respect.
Yancey offered five reminders to pastors as they serve in ministry, drawn
from some of his favorite biblical texts:
- Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave
or free, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- I John 3:20: If your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart
and He knows everything.
- Romans 5:20: Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
- Galatians 5:1: It is for freedom's sake that Christ has set us free.
- Romans 8:28: God can use all things for good of those who love him, who
have been called according to his purpose.
Yancey shared his struggle in grasping the meaning of "oneness in Christ"
found in
Galatians 3:28, describing Paul's words as radical considering they came
from a Pharisee who discovered the reality of Jew and Gentile being linked
through faith in Christ.
He lauded the Covenant's affirmation of ethnic diversity, introducing a bit
of humor with his suggestion that "the idea of diversity in the old days of
the Covenant was having
two groups of people from different regions of Sweden. It is tough, this
diversity thing. There's a cost. My challenge is the same that Paul left
for us - to live out this verse."
In sharing his insights about Romans 5:20, he incorporated several stories
to illustrate how Jesus continues to use sinners and those who are weak to
accomplish great things for the Kingdom. "Oh, I wish the church understood
this," said Yancey, drawing on his research in writing one of his
best-sellers, The Jesus I Never Knew. "You could draw a line - the
more of a social outcast a person was, the more attractive Jesus was. Isn't
it interesting how the church has reversed this.
"I look at the Bible and it looks like God goes out of His way to show
people that He
can use any raw material," Yancey continued. "Jesus elevates people, not
for what they have been, but for what they will be. You as pastors . . .
don't offer a solution to broken
people - you offer a Christ who was broken for them."
Yancey urged pastors and others to remain open to the doubts and the
doubters of our faith journey, reflecting on the truths of Galatians. "I
loved Jesus' tenderness with
Thomas," Yancey said in recalling the post-resurrection story of Jesus and
his encounter with the doubting disciple. "I look for a place (church)
where they would reward my questions, my doubts."
Yancey closed by sharing the story of a tortured missionary who was
imprisoned in a different culture and spent his time translating scripture,
thinking his time in prison was of no value and that his life reflected
little in the way of lasting accomplishment. Yancey recently visited that
region and found more than a million Christians who trace their spiritual
roots to that missionary and the translated scriptures he provided.
God didn't promise that only good things would happen to Christians, Yancey
reminded his listeners in quoting Romans 8:28. He used the words of Dallas
Willard, Thursday night's speaker, to help make his point. In a footnote in
one of his books, Willard interprets the Romans passage to suggest that
"for those who love God, nothing irredeemable can happen to them," Yancey
said, noting that God can use any circumstance for His own good purposes.
Palmberg publicly thanked Scott Bolinder of Thornapple Covenant Church in
Grand Rapids, who serves as executive vice president and publisher of
Zondervan Publishing, for helping secure Yancey as Friday's closing
speaker. Zondervan is Yancey's publisher. Bolinder, who serves on the
Communications Committee of the ECC Executive Board, also introduced
Yancey, describing him as "the most lucid and compelling Christian
author of today."
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