Editor’s Reflections -- By: William David Spencer

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 22:3 (Summer 2008)
Article: Editor’s Reflections
Author: William David Spencer


Editor’s Reflections

William David Spencer

Ministries come. Ministries go. For the last twenty-six years, my wife and I have been teaching with Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS). Occasionally, I pause and wonder: How exactly did A. J. Gordon and Russell Conwell pull this off? How did they each establish a ministry that not only lasted throughout their lifetimes, but went beyond and today continues to thrive together? Did they ever imagine that, sometime long after their deaths, people they never met would fuse their two ministries into a powerful institution that would propel their vision for training pastors on into a second century?

That’s certainly not a given in ministry! So many worthwhile endeavors, begun with such promise and flourishing for a particular place in time, begin but then end. Why do some last while others do not?

In the course of what has now become for me forty-two years of trying to serve the Lord, which began with my conversion in 1966, taking to the streets with a handful of tracts (which was all that I understood about ministry in those days) then eventually seeking training that unexpectedly ended in ordination, after the presbytery called up Aída and me in 1973 and asked if we wanted to be ordained—and what else is so clearly a calling, as one done by telephone!—we’ve seen numerous worthwhile ministries come and go. Obviously, the Lord is in control of initiating and extending ministries. We all know that. But, at the same time, there is a certain propinquity of resources and personnel, a vision that can be shared and owned by more than one person, a dedication and perseverance that, no matter the cost, this ministry is worth doing long-term. Some worthwhile ministries we’ve seen have starved to death for lack of resources, being in the wrong place and/or with the wrong people to gain sufficient attention for support. Others were personal visions and served a clientele that was transient and whose need proved to be just for a time and dissipated with their passing. Still others were simply given up and let go of, their founders or inheritors figuring the investment was not worth the yield and their energies could be invested elsewhere. And sometimes they were the victims of a change of vision of the overseeing body and the ministry moved on into another phase. These are some of the more positive reasons for the passing of a ministry, but, in the last analysis, the positive effect on the people served is the way to judge any effort—namely, did it move anyone along in the faith?

One such ministry we experienced, during several short-term but worthwhile ones we had prior to landing at GCTS, was a four-year stint in the center of Newark, New Jersey, with The Salvation Army. Prior to that, my experience with t...

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