Shawn Mathis is a pastor at Providence Presbyterian church in Denver, Shawn Mathis is a conservative essayist with ten-years’ experience. His six-year stint as a reliable news and opinion writer at Examiner.com ended after one too many anti-Obergefell articles. He specializes in Christian apologetics, early American history and education. He describes the man of God as the man behind the pulpit is the communicator of God’s Word, the dispenser of heavenly wisdom that restores the fainting, encourages the weary, and motivates the determined. The preacher is a minister—a servant to God and to his fellow man. But who ministers to the minister? In the Man of God, a host of preachers dispense comfort and counsel to their brothers in the trenches, men who often work in ministerial isolation as they seek to build up the body of Christ. Shawn, the author of this volume, has assembled ten different writers to cover a wide swath of material. In eleven chapters, Shawn manage to cover many of the areas wherein preachers need continual encouragement: time, relationships, discouragement, stress, criticism, family, finances, sin, attitude, and laziness.
The author of the Man of God manages to minister grace to the minister by using candid, captivating language. The variety of the text and the timelessness of the themes make both readable a Man of God relatable. This book makes a valuable contribution to the catalog of homiletical literature—a contribution that accomplishes much, helping to make men. Primary focus Man of God involves the Scriptural duties and responsibilities of the person and his family.
The additional concerns addressed include: congregational and leadership relationships, various duties such as visitation and counseling, officiating weddings and funerals, financial concerns, the preacher’s office, library, and continuing education, Shaun D. Mathis
Emphases include: working in large or small congregations, working with no eldership in place, working in various demographics such as metropolitan/urban or small rural areas, working as a “tentmaker” or as a “part-time” or self/secularly supported preacher/evangelist, serving as an elder or deacon in addition to being a preacher/evangelist. There is a disease, a viral infection that has swept through the body of Christ. It is no respecter of persons, places, denomination or creed. It is an infection that starts in the body causing paralysis but eventually moves to the head and brings on delusions of grandeur. I am talking about the “Man of God” disease.
Back at the start of the reformation, the church had a teaching that priests were the conduits between man and God. That men had to come to the priests to receive forgiveness of sins and have the grace of God bestowed upon them in the form of blessings. The priests were “men of God”.
The priests began to think more highly of themselves than they ought. They were enamored by their perceived value. They would sell what was called indulgences where they gave permission to break God’s moral law. They would wear costly clothing and expensive jewelry that indicated their wealth and power in the church.
This disease has once again infected the church. It matters not which denomination we belong to. It matters not which doctrine or teaching we adhere to. This disease has infiltrated the church. We have arrogant leaders enamored with their own power and influence. Instead of making themselves of no reputation like Jesus, they are spending their time making sure everyone knows of their reputation. Our Christian leaders are stuck on themselves. Be it the individuals that think they are God’s man of power for the hour in Charismatic circles, or the intellectual scholars that parse every jot and tiddle of scripture to prove the heresy of others. They all have one thing in common. They all are trying to be the “man of God” who people need to come to, or agree with in order to be right with God and to obtain favor from God.
Church leaders should guide the church so that all believers will desire to be conformed to the likeness of Christ.
You may want to do as I have done: to examine the names on your prayer list. I was surprised and sorry to see that there was little diversity in age, physical traits, gender, or ethnicity on my list. We need to plead with the Lord to place us at the crossroads of the world around us, to stretch us by getting to know those who have different experiences, skills, and gifts than we have. Then we can praise God together from the unique perspective of the fullness of our diversity, experiencing a more complete and whole devotion.
Most Christians have probably heard something about the fear of man and the fear of God. However, many Christians fail to see when they do not have the proper perspective on what they do. The fear of man is insidious, creepy, and sneaky. It can disguise itself in many ways, and people rationalize it in many ways. Carl Trueman has talked about one form of it in terms of conferences: only the best-known names get invited, and they get invited again, and again, and again. Why is this? Is it simple marketeering? Or is there a fear of man involved, in the sense that organizers think that only well-known names will be convincing. Where did the Holy Spirit go, I wonder?
Reasonably mature Christians will know that the fear of God, being the beginning of wisdom, constitutes a proper awe and reverence for the Lord God. However, what even mature Christians often forget is that the fear of man and the fear of God are on a teeter-totter. Austrian economics helps explain how wealth is created much better than Keynesian economics (in my opinion), but when it comes to the fear of man and the fear of God, it is a zero-sum game. As one goes up, the other goes down.
It seems to me that the more important a person becomes, the more famous, the more well-known, the wealthier, and the better placed, the temptations of the fear of man grow exponentially. Power is intoxicating, in whatever form one has it, and people who acquire this kind of power and respect become very loath to risk it in any way whatsoever.
In the Reformed world, this kind of respect comes from publishing a book, or becoming a professor at a seminary, or having a prominent position in the denomination, or having a large church. It is easy to forget how eminently expendable we are, and instead start to think (even if it is not as crassly put as this) how lucky God is to have us around.
The rubber really hits the road when these famous gurus are tempted to moderate their theological views for the sake of political expediency. If someone is just moderate enough, then he can win yet more influence. It can be rationalized by saying that we will still try to pull people over to the more conservative side by thus appearing more moderate. The only pulling that results, however, is toward the liberal side. Once we have begun to abandon our convictions, the game is up, and we have lost any ground that we thought to have gained.
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