If you were to ask the average Christian or pastor to speak of their spiritual heroes, it would be common for them to bring forth the names of great pastors, preachers, and missionaries who have served faithfully and well in the Kingdom in the past or present. Names like Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Edwards, Carey, Judson, Spurgeon and the like would, no doubt, fill up many lists.
There are a number of contemporary ministers who fill conference rooms and pastor large churches, Christians by the thousands buy their books, listen to their sermons, and follow their posts. Their names are known and their accomplishments appreciated by many.
There are, however, a host of ordinary men and women and young people who have, in my estimation, surpassed many such worthies. They have become my “heroes”. They are not in the pulpit, but in the pew.
I want to tell you bit about some of my heroes. Most of them have never preached and certainly have not written popular books or blogs. They have never spoken at conferences. With the exception of a few dozen fellow churchmen, they are unknown in the wider Christian world.
My heroes consist by and large of the men and women of my church. They are the faithful plodders of God’s Kingdom. They love the worship of God and the ministry of His Word. They work long hours in their spheres of labor, in the home and out of the home and yet make it a priority to come to services of worship and the times of prayer. They have full schedules and are often weary and yet they come, not to be served, but, like their Master, to serve. Some of my heroes face crippling diseases and have battled through crushingly dark providences. I’ve seen them lose their jobs, lose their children, and their spouses. I’ve seen the cost they pay to simply follow Christ. I’ve seen men and women and young people persevere when loved ones turn back to the world. I’ve seen them bear with the faults and sins of others. I’ve seen them forgive the slights and foolish behavior of their brothers and sisters without fleeing to another congregation. Their elders have, at times, disappointed them, and their brothers and sisters have let them down. Yet they show that love covers a multitude of sins. They exemplify what it means to bear with one another in love and to bear one another’s burdens. Unlike the heroes of the church or the heroes of our culture, they do not preach, they do not travel to foreign lands, they are not strange visitors from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal man. They are, and I mean this lovingly, the “nobodies and nothings” that God delights to save. They are not the superheroes of comic books or movies who cling to walls or fly through the sky. But they are my heroes, and one day, the King of Kings will say to them before the whole world, Well done!
Jim has been with RBC since 1990. He was set aside by the church for full time ministry in November of 1991. Jim was brought to faith as a teenager and soon began to experience a desire to preach God’s Word. He trained for the ministry at Columbia Bible College in Columbia, SC (now Columbia International University) and at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, NJ. He married his wife, Becky in 1989 and they have been blessed with three daughters and one son.
