William Still
I recently read Dying to Live (Christian Focus, 1991), the autobiography of Scottish pastor William Still. I became interested in Still after reading his book The Work of the Pastor earlier this year.
The first half of Dying to Live tells about Stillâs early years into young adulthood and his beginning in pastoral ministry. Still had an unsettled childhood. His parents were separated in his early years, and his father was an alcoholic. He was a sickly child who took refuge in music and became an accomplished pianist. He was part of the Salvation Army as a young man but then entered ministry in the Church of Scotland and served at the Gilcomston Church in his hometown of Aberdeen from 1945-1997.
The second half of the book deals with various aspects of Stillâs pastoral ministry. Still was an evangelical. In his early ministry he worked with Billy Graham, Alan Redpath, and others in evangelistic events. With time, however, he moved away from what he came to call âevangelisticismâ to develop a solid expositional ministry.
Still faced his fair share of hardships during the course of his ministry. When he moved away from pragmatic evangelistic methods, for example, more than two hundred people stopped attending his church almost overnight. In the preface, he references Martin Lutherâs observation that there are three things which make a minister: study, prayer, and afflictions. He observes, âHe who is not prepared to make enemies for Christâs sake by the faithful preaching of the Word will never make lasting friends for Christ, eitherâ (p. 93).
He describes one particularly difficult controversy early in his ministry when he confronted a group of disgruntled elders. At the end of one Sunday service, he read a statement confronting these men, which ended, âThere you sit, with your heads down, guilty men. What would you say if I named you before the whole congregation? You stand condemned before God for your contempt of the Word and of his folk.â He adds, âThe moment I had finished, I walked out of the pulpit. There was no last hymnâno benediction. I went right home. It was the hardest and most shocking thing I ever had to do in Gilcomstonâ (p. 124). That same week seven of his elders resigned and Still was called twice before his Presbytery to answer for the controversy. Yet, he endured.
Still maintains that in light of the unpleasantness one will face in the ministry that the minister of the Word must possess one quality in particular: ââŚI would say that this quality is courage: guts, sheer lion-hearted bravery, clarity of mind and purpose, grit. Weaklings are no use here. They have a place in the economy of God if they are not deliberate weaklings and stunted adults as Paul writes of both to the Romans and to the Corinthians. But weaklings are no use to go out and speak prophetically to men from God and declare with all compassion, as well as with faithfulness, the truth: the divine Word that cuts across all menâs worldly plans for their livesâ (p. 140).
Still was a pioneer in several areas. First, he developed a pattern of preaching and teaching systematically through books of the Bible at a time when this was rarely done. He began a ministry of âconsecutive Bible teachingâ starting with the book of Galatians in 1947, calling this transition from âevangelisticism to systematic exposition ⌠probably the most significant decision in my lifeâ (p. 191).
He was also a pioneer in simplifying and integrating the ministry of the church. After noting how youth in the church were drifting away, even after extensive involvement in the churchâs childrenâs ministry, Still writes, âI conceived the idea of ceasing all Sunday School after beginners and Primary age (seven years) and invited parents to have their children sit with them in the family pew from the age of eightâ (p. 171). He laments âthe disastrous dispersion of congregations by the common practice of segregating the church family into every conceivable category of division of ages, sexes, etc.â (p. 173).
Dying to Live is a helpful and encouraging work about the life and work of the minister and is to be commended to all engaged in the call of gospel ministry. As the title indicates, Stillâs essential thesis is that in order to be effective in ministry the minister must suffer a series of deaths to himself (cf. John 12:24). On this he writes:
The deaths one dies before ministry can be of long durationâit can be hours and days before we minister, before the resurrection experience of anointed preaching. And then there is another death afterwards, sometimes worse than the death before. From the moment that you stand there dead in Christ and dead to everything you are and have and ever shall be and have, every breath you breathe thereafter, every thought you think, every word you say and deed you do, must be done over the top of your own corpse or reaching over it in your preaching to others. Then it can only be Jesus that comes over and no one else. And I believe that every preacher must bear the mark of that death. Your life must be signed by the Cross, not just Christâs cross (and there is really no other) but your cross in his Cross, your particular and unique cross that no one ever diedâthe cross that no one ever could die but you and you alone: your death in Christâs death (p. 136).
you still need good friends
Few realities in human life are as captivating, fulfilling, and elusive as friendship. Most of us have tasted its deep and dynamic potential for good at some point along our journeys, and yet most of us can also testify to having neglected friendship, maybe for years. Maybe for decades. As Drew Hunter observes, âFriendship is, for many of us, one of the most important but least thought about aspects of lifeâ ( Made for Friendship , 23). How much time do you spend thinking about your friendships? Many of us give our friendships less attention than they deserve, and we suffer for it. The absence of good friends slowly starves everything else we do. A husband without good friends will be a worse husband. A mother without good friends will be a worse mother. A pastor, a doctor, a teacher, and an engineer will all be less effective at their callings without the support and camaraderie of friends. And this thread weaves quietly through Scripture. How many saints can you think of who do something worth imitating while friendless? To be sure, Jesus stormed the grave by himself. It had to be so. And yet even he spent most of his life and ministry with a handful of guys. And as the cross drew near, he said to them, âNo longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to youâ (John 15:15). He may have died alone, but he lived among brothers, because friendship is an essential part of being fully human. Unnecessary and Vital Love That being said, friendship is an unusual relationship because itâs not essential to existence. Itâs why friendship is so often neglected â and, ironically, why it holds so much power and potential. C.S. Lewis writes, âFriendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survivalâ ( Four Loves , 90). We spend tens of hours a week on work because we would die without food and shelter. Friendship isnât feeding the kids or paying the mortgage. But it can make parenting richer and more bearable, and make a home feel a lot more like home. We may be able to live â to eat, drink, work, sleep, and survive â without friends, but what kind of life would that be? The truly good life, we all know by experience, is a shared life. Lewis goes on, Our ancestors regarded Friendship as something that raised us almost above humanity. This love, free from instinct, free from all duties but those which love has freely assumed, almost wholly free from jealousy, and free without qualification from the need to be needed, is eminently spiritual. It is the sort of love one can imagine between angels. (98) âWe may be able to eat, drink, work, sleep, and survive without friends, but what kind of life would that be?â Unnecessary and angelic â this describes the mysterious reality of friendship. It raises, or even removes, the ceiling on all our other experiences. Most of what we love to do, we love to do all the more with friends. Those who find meaningful friendship experience a nearly super-human life. Why? Because they get to see more of God, and because they get so much more done, together . Personal Windows into God How does Christian friendship raise us above the unremarkable rhythms of our humanity? First, by intimately introducing us to more of Godâs creativity and supremacy. Those who see him together will see more of him. Lewis captures this capacity of friendship when he writes, Friendship exhibits a glorious ânearness by resemblanceâ to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. . . . The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have. (79) The beauty and worth of God cannot be exhausted by one pair of eyes, by one finite mind and heart. Therefore, two really can see more than one. The more we share of him, the more we have of him. Surely, this is one reason why God plans to redeem people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, right (Revelation 7:9). Because whatever makes each of them unique prepares them to notice and treasure dimensions of Christ that millions of others might miss. So it is in friendship. As we gaze at God together, over months and years and longer, walking through joys and sorrows, victories and losses, blessings and adversity, we get to see him through each otherâs eyes. Worship is communal and contagious. Every human life has the potential to be a unique window into the divine. Because thatâs who God is â Father, Son, and Spirit forever adoring and glorifying one another. Courage in Flesh and Blood As friendships help us see more of God, though, they also unleash us to live more radically for God. What good have any of us done in the world without the help or encouragement of friends? As you take yourself back through anything youâve accomplished in life and ministry, and then allow yourself to look around for a minute, what do you see? For many of us, we see faces . The most defining moments of our lives have been most defined not by addresses, degrees, or promotions, but by people â often, by friends. Hunter highlights the unusual and spiritual productivity of friendship: One of the greatest gifts we can offer our friends is sheer encouragement. As we listen and light up to their ideas, we stir their souls into action. We lift their hearts and spur them on. Much of what is truly good in the world is the fruit of friendship. (71) Why did Jesus send the disciples out in twos (Mark 6:7)? Perhaps he was concerned for their safety on the road (a kind of grown-up buddy-system). It seems far more likely to me that he wanted them each to have built-in, by-their-side courage to keep going when ministry got hard. He knew they would do far more good as twelve pairs than they would on twenty-four different paths. He knew they would conquer sin and Satan together in ways they couldnât alone. Friendship Isnât About Friendship These two insights about friendship â that friends helps us see more of God and that they free us to do more for his glory â explain what makes friendship precious. And what makes it possible. Good friendships, after all, arenât about friendship, which means we wonât experience them by focusing on them. Again, Lewis, wisely observes, Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; Friends hardly every about their Friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some interest. (78) âGood friendships arenât about friendship, which means we wonât experience them by focusing on them.â Lovers often find one another looking for love. Friends find one another while chasing something else. They providentially collide while striving after God, while studying his word, while loving their families, while meeting needs in the church, while discipling younger believers, while pursuing the lost. âThe very condition of having Friends,â Lewis continues, âis that we should want something else besides Friends. . . . Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelersâ (85). If you want to experience real friendship, go hard after God, take bigger risks to glorify him with your life, and then look around to see whoâs running with you.
