Sinclair Ferguson's reflections on ministry

One of my favorite preachers is Dr. Sinclair Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson is currently the senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina. When I was a student at Westminster in Philadelphia, I was fortunate enough to have him as a professor for one of my classes. The class was a winter term class, which meant that for two or three weeks we met for several hours a day. I don't remember Dr. Ferguson ever consulting a single note during that whole time!

One of the habits I've acquired over the winter is listening to Dr. Ferguson's messages on my mp3 player while I jog at an indoor sports complex down the road from us. His preaching is very powerful and compelling, even recorded. I think he must be one of the more effective Christian communicators of our day.

I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Ferguson a few years ago while we were both standing in a buffet line for dinner at a Reformation Day service in a Dallas church. He was preaching that evening, and since I had him as a professor, I introduced myself to him and we talked for a little while. Since I was also at that time a great admirer of his preaching and teaching, it was a blessing to be able to talk with him a bit in an informal way.

I recently learned about a talk that Dr. Ferguson gave at a seminary campus recently that is available on iTunes. Rather than a lecture or sermon, this talk was about his reflections on the pastoral ministry at age 60. Much of it is autobiographical. He speaks of how he came to Christ as a teenager in Scotland, his formative years as a believer, the profound influence two ministers had on him (Rev. William Still and Rev. Eric Alexander), the Christian authors who shaped him spiritually (John Calvin, John Owen, and John Murray), and his struggles as an evangelical believer at a very liberal theological school. For me, this very personal account of his life was both fascinating and inspiring. I do hope he writes an autobiography someday.

His reflections on ministry were challenging at a few points. He noted the lack of prayer in today's churches, especially in those churches that are faithful to historic Reformed theology. This is a sad commentary on the state of Reformed churches today, but from my own very limited experience, it seems he's right. We just don't pray as we should.

What Dr. Ferguson had to say about preaching also left an impression on my mind and heart. Since I preach twice a week, and spend many hours each week preparing sermons, I am especially interested to hear what great preachers have to say about preaching. It is his conviction that today's preaching is far too subjective, even in Reformed churches. Much preaching today is like "finding Waldo," in which the primary emphasis is always on finding one's self in the text and seeing how it then speaks to one's own life.

What is needed, he says, is for preaching that so centered upon Jesus Christ, and the Holy Trinity, that the imperatives of God's Word are "propelled" forward into the heart as God is magnified in the preaching. Not that a sermon should be a theological lecture, but that a sermon should so manifest Christ, and so impress him upon the conscience, that the imperatives of God's Word are naturally, as it were, driven into the heart.

I was challenged by this. I felt my own inadequacy as a minister of the gospel, how little I know the Word of God, how lightly Christ rests upon my own heart. I hope to grow to be the sort of preacher that Dr. Ferguson describes (and which, I believe, he also exemplifies).

What most impressed me, I think, of hearing Dr. Ferguson's reflections was his sincerity. I couldn't help but think that this man cares about ministry because he believes the gospel. He has thought deeply about preaching because he really believes in the power of preaching to communicate Christ. He has served Christ as a pastor and teacher because he loves Christ.

I pray that I would serve as a Christian minister for these reasons, too.