I’m a Modernist Minister’s / '14AÂ
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H ave you, who have Christian hus bands, wondered what it would be like to be married to a man who is a modernist? How do you think you would feel if your modernist husband was the pastor of a beautiful church? John (that is not his name) and I have had “Reverend and Mrs.” before our names for fifteen years. Often I wondered why I ever married him. But he is a delightful person, good company, loyal, dependable, having all the qualities that make for an outstanding professional man. The only lack is that there is no evidence of his having been bom again. As a child of 12, I was troubled and went to our pastor to ask him whether, if I died, I would go to hell. He laughed as he patted my hand and answered, “Don’t worry your pretty head about such things— just go on being a good girl.” I was far from being a good girl, and at twenty-two years of age, I realized God would remove my sins as far as the east is from the west. A peace came into my heart that has never left—-and then I met and mar ried John. No Message for the Needy The first week in our new parish a knock came at the door late at night. A nurse from a nearby hospital asked for the minister to come quick ly to a dying man. As he entered the sickroom the man gasped, “ Preacher, what shall I do?” This article was given to Dr. J. Vernon McGee, pastor of the Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles, by a woman at a Bible conference last summer. The woman told Dr. McGee that she had attempted many times to have her article printed but had always been turned down because of the nature of the situation. — ED.
Do you know what my husband told me he answered him? “Man, you’d better pray!” he said. I feel somehow that Vjod saved that man because of the desperateness of his need and in spite of my husband’s inadequacy. It was a sad day in our little com munity when Maebelle died.' A de voted Christian mother to her little daughter of two years, she looked for ward to her second child. But by the time the new baby was dressed, the lovely young mother had gone to be with her Saviour. My husband called to plan for the funeral and I reminded him, “Be sure to say something to him about Christ—her husband is not a Chris tian.” When he returned, I asked John whether he had mentioned Christ to the man and he replied, “There wasn’t an opportunity.” At the cemetery John shook hands with the distraught man and told him, “ Stay close to Christ and every thing will turn out all right.” I have often wondered what went through that lonely father’s mind at those words. In this small church, John was also president of the Kiwanis club and busy at Red Cross and other com munity enterprises. Then a call came to a larger church with double the salary. At the first interview, a committee man warned us, “ Don’t say anything against the second coming or you won’t get the church.” I could scarcely wait until we were alone to ask what the second coming was. John replied, “ I don’t know— there are several theories.” No thonging for God’ s Revelation As soon as we reached home I found a godly woman who said, “ I’ll come over tonight and explain—have your husband there, too.” I drank in every word, but he lis
tened only diffidently. In the years since then, I have bfecome a firm be liever, but his training has never let these deeper truths become part of his life. In this larger church he has be come president of the ministerial un ion and is a popular speaker at clubs. He makes his calls on the congre- gation-where they will count the most for our church, our denomination or his personal standing. His sermons are clever, but in all the 17 years I have never heard him mention the name of Christ outside the pulpit. Whenever I chide him he tells me, “Honey, you bring in the name of Christ at such odd intervals. You say ‘Praise the Lord’ just to have some thing to say.” I try to be careful not to offend him. My husband is not the man God wants in the pulpit—he does not say what God wants him to say or go where God wants him to go. I have tried to get my husband to leave the ministry, but although he was at one time a schoolteacher, he likes this life the best. A W ife ’s Task I consider my greatest ministry out side the home to be encouraging and building up the Christian faith of other ministers’ wives, some of whom are in the same situation as I am. John does not oppose Child Evange lism, so I have a class in our home. Women of the church come to me with their problems, and though loy alty keeps me from ever saying any thing against the minister, I can al ways point the troubled ones to Christ Jesus. I can rejoice when I see our 13 and 15-year-old daughters, true bom-again Christians, leading their young school friends to Christ. Just this word: Next time that you, who have Christian husbands, think the going is hard, remember me! END.
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