by: Dr. Bruce Goddard
2 Timothy 3:14, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;”
When I consider the young men pastoring around America, I realize how much we need them. I like them! I want more of them! I understand that the Gospel is in their trust, and so I covet their future. Easter weekend brought me wonderful news from many young men who were once in our youth department. How very proud I am of them and their work. But these from my youth department only represent a few of the many around America.
Considering these things, I realize that I probably like the young preachers of America more than they like themselves. I like them; let me prove it. I want to continue the type of church that produced them so we might have more just like them. I am passionately guarding the kind of church from which they came. I am preaching, teaching and encouraging the Old Time religion that brought these wonderful young men into the Lord’s work. I am protecting the purity of the recipe, not redefining it into some untested creation that has never put a generation of preachers into the pulpits of America.
They on the other hand, really must not like themselves much, for they are changing the kind of church that produced them, they are trying to redefine the Fundamentalism that produced them. I for one, love them and want to reproduce the exact thing that God used to call these wonderful men into the ministry. I want to protect the historic Fundamentalism that produced them, not redefine it.
What was it that God used to train most of these awesome young men? Soul-winning, standards, hymn singing, King James Bible, holiness and a lot more are what made these young men. These things were typical in most of the churches/colleges that produced the young preachers of our nation. Go on, test the theory out, go to their blogs and then search their past and you will see they came from the old school fundamentalism. See if their blogs match their training, I dare you. The young men out there getting churches going are wonderful men, they married good ladies, most of whom came from… ready?… Fundamental Baptist, separated, soul winning, KJV, hymn singing churches. I like their wives, I like them, I like what produced them, and I, for one, will keep our church doing the kind of thing that God used to train and call these awesome young people.
I love you young couples getting started out there in the ministry. I want you to know that I love you enough to keep doing what we have always been doing in hopes of producing more just like you.
Just in case you don’t know, we were never the biggest church in town, but I believe without question that we had the best young people in town. Those young people have done so much over these thirty-three years, both in the ministry and secular work, but all were used in Sunday school, bus ministry, soul winning and loving people. Thank God for the old fashioned churches that produced the young preachers of America! Let’s guard the church and keep it exactly the same so we can have more of these tremendous young couples to lead our nation into the next generation.
You young preachers, we need you. And we need more young people just like you, so I hope you will help produce more like you by mirroring the ministries that produced you, not redefining them.
Unless I like you more than you do.
Dr. Bruce Goddard
Pastor
Faith Baptist Church
Wildomar CA
http://thepreachersfriend.com