Category: All Articles

The Shadow of the Inn

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday

–December of 1997

The Shadow of the Inn

It was on Christmas in my first pastorate that I heard Johnny’s story.  Johnny was a grade school boy, big in body but sadly slow in mind and movement.  He was good-natured and kind, thoughtful in almost every way.  Though other children ridiculed Johnny, it was always Johnny who was ready to take up for a smaller child and to stand in his stead in front of the schoolyard bully.  It was Johnny who was always willing and ready to share his lunch with anyone who had forgotten his.  Johnny’s heart was always large enough to include anyone that wanted or needed his love, though he was often shut out by others.

It was nearing Christmas, and Johnny’s church was making plans for its annual program.  All the children were assigned an appropriate part.  Of course, Johnny was always given the shortest role possible.  His slowness of speech and learning difficulties really allowed him nothing else.  This year’s assignments came easy, and Johnny was to be the Innkeeper.  It was a role that only had ten words, and even Johnny could master that.

Finally the rehearsals were over, and the night of the pageant arrived.  The church was crowded with proud mothers and fathers, as well as many visiting guests.  The children stood, nervously fidgeting behind the make-shift curtain.  The cardboard inn was in its place, as well as the stable and manger scene.  Johnny was taken to his position by the prompter and told to stand very still until Mary and Joseph knocked on the door.

The curtain finally opened.  Mary and Joseph started down the center aisle and stood with sobriety and uncertainty in front of the inn door.  Finally Joseph knocked on the door.  The door opened, and with a gruff voice Johnny shouted, “What do you want?”

“We need lodging.”

“Seek it elsewhere.  The inn is filled.”

“But sir we’ve sought everywhere in vain, and we have traveled so far.”

“There is no room.  Go away.”

“But oh, kind innkeeper, my wife is expecting; and the moment of birth is upon her.  We need your help.”

Johnny relaxed.  He lost sight of the crowd and stood looking gently down at Mary.  Finally the prompter whispered from the wing, “Be gone!  Be gone!” shouted Johnny automatically.  Joseph took Mary by the arm and slowly moved away.  But Johnny did not go back inside his little cardboard inn.  He stood at the head of the center aisle and watched sadly as the couple moved away.  Tears began to run down his cheeks.  Suddenly he lifted his hand and stepped down the aisle after them and said, “Don’t go!  You can have my room.”

A wave of laughter ran through the congregation.  Then silence filled the sanctuary.  Then tears began to fall freely as every listener received the impact of Johnny’s message.  Johnny had made room.

There is no question in my mind that Luke penciled with inspired deliberateness the brief story of rejection at the crowded inn the night that our Saviour was born.  The shadows cast by that filled-to-capacity inn have prophetically fallen across the full length of man’s history.  The Son of God found no room that night; and, sadly, He finds little room today.  The Scripture tells us we have turned as it were our faces from Him.  He sought to fill our lives with His presence, but we rejected Him.  We spat in His face, we plowed His back with a scourge, we spiked Him naked to a cross and mocked His anguish until the sun hid its face in shame.  Yet despite all of our rejection, God made peace through the blood of that cross.  Even now, though He stands in the shadow of the inn that spells rejection, He patiently knocks at the door of our heart, seeking entrance.  Will you make room?

The Bible College Movement Facing The Future

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Education

–April of 1997

The Bible College Movement Facing The Future

 

In this interview, the Rev. Leonard Sankey and GBS President Michael Avery discuss the philosophy and vision of the Bible college movement and of God’s Bible School and College specifically.  Mr. Sankey, veteran holiness leader, conference speaker and pastor, is also chairman of the GBS Board of Trustees.

 

President Avery, what brought about the birth of the Bible college movement, and how does GBS fit into that historical event?

 The Bible college movement was a child born of necessity in the late 19th century.  The atheistic views of Darwin and the influx of higher criticism and liberal theology had brought about devastating results in the divinity schools and departments of religion in our major colleges and universities.  The mainline denominations were of no help in rectifying this course, as most had also pursued a very secularistic path and had heartily embraced a social gospel that emphasized a better cultural environment rather than focusing on the salvation of the soul.  It was in this environment that men like D.L. Moody and A.B. Simpson sounded the alarm and called for the establishment of Bible-training institutes to raise up a generation of young men and young women who believed in the ultimate authority of the Word of God and who would give their lives to advance God’s cause both at home and around the world.

GBS was a part of this movement.  Now the eighth oldest Bible college in America, it was the thirteenth of its kind to be formed.  Knapp founded the school for basically the same reasons that Moody and Simpson founded theirs.  He was concerned about the apostasy in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the lack of emphasis on the doctrine of entire sanctification, and the general apathy towards the evangelization of the lost, both at home and around the world.

It has been said by some that the Bible college movement came into existence at the beginning of the 20th century and will go out at the beginning of the 21st.  How do you respond to that statement?

 The Bible college movement has had a steady growth since its first school was started in 1882.  It has survived longer than its critics thought possible and endured for more decades than many of its early premillenialist leaders hoped would have been necessary.  Today, 115 years later, there are over 400 Bible colleges in America, each endeavoring to do its part in shaping the cultural landscape with the principles and convictions of God’s Word.  So you can see that sheer numbers tell us that they’re not going to pass away quickly.  Moreover, I’m convinced that the Bible college has more reason now than ever to remain active.  The movement was born in an evangelistic passion to save the world and usher in the Kingdom of God.  Today that must still be one of the forces that propels this movement.  However, there are many other significant reasons for the existence of the Bible college.  Let me give you at least three of those.

First, the church needs the Bible college to articulate and model a discipleship – what it really means to have “the mind of Christ.”  Research by George Barna and Associates reveal that 62 percent of “born again” Christians have concluded that “there is no such thing as absolute truth.”  The Bible college, then, must exalt the authority of an inerrant Scripture.  It must lead the way in declaring that the Bible is God’s standard for absolute truth, and it is the norm for daily Christian living.

Second, the church needs the Bible college to stimulate the church out of stagnancy, lethargy, and complacency.  It must assist the church in addressing old issues with new strategies and new issues with imagination commitment to Biblical ways of thinking and acting.

Third, the Bible college offers us the most logical place to re-flame a generation of young people who will be willing to commit themselves to a life of full-time Christian service.  At the Bible college, they will come to the understanding that seeking the lost and sharing the message of full salvation is the greatest vocation to which a person can give himself.

What do you see as one of the greatest problems in recruiting new students for the Bible college, President Avery?

 It would be difficult to single out one specific hindrance, but let me share with you some of the hindrances all Bible colleges are facing as we recruit prospective students.

The first is very painful, but I believe very pertinent to the problem the Bible colleges are facing.  It was summed up by Howard Hendricks, President of Taylor University, when he said, “Today’s parents’ desire for their children’s upward mobility serves as one of the greatest hindrances to young people committing themselves to full-time Christian ministry.”  Growing out of this hindrance is the mindset in today’s church world that the best and brightest of our young minds ought to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants; and that those who can’t rank in these professions should perhaps consider Bible college.  Brother Sankey, I want the next generation of Christian leaders to be more than mediocre!  We need them to be the very best, and that will require the very best of our youth.  God has always demanded and still demands the best of the flock, the best of the fruit, and the best of our gifts.  We must give Him the very best of our youth!

Another hindrance is the anti-intellectualism that is still alive in the church.  There are those who feel that the Bible college shouldn’t stress scholarship and academic excellence – that mastering original languages and theology is not important and somehow detracts from real spirituality.  But scholarship and spirituality are friends, not foes.  Erasmus, the paramount scholar of the Renaissance, was often asked, “How does scholarship enhance your faith?”  To this he replied, “How does ignorance improve yours?”  I’m not saying that it takes an intellectual giant to be an effective minister, nor am I saying that only the brightest should be allowed to work in God’s Kingdom.  I am saying that we do our churches, our mission fields, and our Christian schools great harm when we offer them young men and women who cannot “rightly divide the Word of truth,” nor give each man “a reason for the hope” that is within them.

What is one of your fears for the Bible college movement as it faces a new millennium?

 My greatest fear is that Bible colleges will do anything to keep their enrollment up.  I predict all sorts of schemes and marketing strategies to attract students.  So many students now are remaining at home and going to local community colleges that the Bible college has made the community college its chief competitor.  Bible colleges are trying to adjust their programs to be more compatible with the community college by offering a variety of two-year degrees that would lure potential students.  The danger here is the message we are communicating to these kids.  We are saying, “Come to our Bible college; we are just another version of the community college.”  Brother Sankey, that is not true!  We are not another version of the community college.  We are a Bible college!  To try to lure a student, who has no compassion for, and is not compatible with, the mission and intent of our school, is simply to fill our schools with students who have no interest in our main purpose.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I want every student that I can get, whether he/she has a specific call to Christian ministry or not.  I want to expose that student to the influence of godly teachers and of faithful preaching in chapel services.  It may be that God will use that time to change that student’s life and call him into His service.  Furthermore, we will also offer a variety of two-year degrees tailor-made for that student.  However, at the core of those degrees will be the Bible.  We are a Bible college.  If we ever say anything different, we are straying from our original mission statement and purpose.  God’s Bible School was born for the purpose of training young men and young women for full-time Christian ministry and for the purpose of training those who did not feel a call into full-time Christian ministry but who wanted a Bible training so they could be effective laypeople in their local church and effective witnesses in their future vocation and profession.  That is what we are committed to continue doing so as long as Jesus tarries.

President Avery, my last question focuses on the future.  What do you see as the greatest challenge to GBS and the Bible college movement as it faces the future?

 Here again, Brother Sankey, that is a multi-faceted question that deserves more than a simple answer.  But maybe I could answer it this way.  The greatest challenge we face in the coming days is reaching the student who needs what we have, offering that student nothing less than the best and finding the resources to pay for it.

Recent statistics from the College Board indicate that only 20 percent of students who are now in college are living on campus in a residence hall.  So the traditional way of the student coming to a Bible college campus is clearly changing.  We are now facing the challenge of taking classes and lectures to external sites for various student populations across the country.  This will involve the possibility of external lectures in various places where students of all ages will come together.  It may involve satellite classes or offering external classes by video.  We get requests on a weekly basis from holiness people scattered literally around the world who want to finish a degree or to get some extra help in a particular area where they are weak.  We are looking into this right now and hope to have something in place by this fall.

The other part of that challenge is to make sure that what we give them is the very best we can give.  I have determined that our mission as a Bible college requires nothing less than academic, professional and spiritual excellence.  Striving for excellence is both painful and expensive.  We disgrace the cause of the Christ by advocating anything less than the best.  However, excellence is expensive!  As Bruce Lockerbie said, “There is no such thing as affordable excellence or excellence-on-the-cheap.”  But the cost of excellence is nowhere near the cost of mediocrity and inferiority.  I’ve committed myself to this institution and to God to offer this present generation and the coming generation of students the very best in training that we can give them.  We must offer them the best campus atmosphere for spiritual growth and character development that we can possibly give them.  We will keep our chapel pulpit hot with the kind of preaching that will enlarge their soul, warm their hearts, and keep them on the stretch for God.  Our faculty must be the best-prepared that they can possibly be to equip our students with all of the tools that will be necessary to “rightly divide the Word of truth” and carry the gospel to our present culture.  God deserves our best; and in clear conscience I cannot give Him less!

Again, excellence isn’t cheap.  It is very costly.  However, just as we have set a standard for excellence in training, we have also set a standard for excellence in managing our financial resources.  We are committed to being the most efficient stewards of the funds entrusted to us.  I consider every donation to be “blood money” for which we are accountable to God.  If we commit to excellence in both areas, God’s people will supply the needs for GBS both today and tomorrow.

Sinkhole Saints

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living

–September of 1997

Sinkhole Saints

The residents of a Florida apartment building awoke to a terrifying sight outside their windows.  The ground beneath the street in front of the apartment complex had collapsed, creating a massive depression in the earth that scientists call a sinkhole.  Tumbling into the ever-deepening pit were automobiles, lawn furniture and whatever else fell prey to its gaping mouth.  In a matter of time the building itself would go.

Sinkholes occur when underground streams drain away during seasons of drought, causing the ground at the surface to lose its underlying support.  Suddenly everything simply caves in, swallowing everything on the surface and leaving the area in a state of disarray and chaos.

There are many dear Christian people whose lives are like one of these sinkholes.  On the surface, all looks well.  They are a bundle of spiritual energy and enthusiasm.  They dash about at a breathless pace, involving themselves in every activity imaginable.  Then suddenly it happens.  They collapse and leave onlookers scratching their heads in bewilderment as to what happened to this sincere child of God.

Others cave in more slowly.  They, too, immerse themselves in exhaustive activity, filling their daily schedules from early until late.  However, they are spiritually sensitive enough to feel the cracks developing in the surface of their lives.  They sense that something is about to give way.  They try to warn us about what is happening when they use terms like, “I feel so empty,” or “I’m just too busy to have a real devotional life,” or “I feel that my whole world is just coming apart.”  They are always talking about being stressed out, even after coming back from two weeks of vacation.  They’re like a drowning victim, grasping whatever is in his reach to keep his head above water, yet knowing that unless there is a rescue, he will ultimately go under.

The problem with these dear people is very similar to the problem that creates the Florida sinkhole.  Just as physical drought takes its toll on the underlying streams that uphold the surface, spiritual drought takes its toll on our inner world and we lose the ability to sustain and support all that must be done in the outer world of our lives.  The world’s wisest man was well aware of this when he penned the words, “Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).

Those of us who are affected by Westernized Christianity are extremely susceptible to this danger.  Our Western cultural values blind us to this problem.  We are naively inclined to believe that the most publicly active person is also the most privately spiritual person.  We wrongly assume that the more activity we are involved in, the better.  But the truth of the matter is that we can only engage in the quantity of public ministry and activity that our inner spiritual resources can sustain.  That is why Martin Luther said on one occasion, when confronted with an extremely busy day, that it would necessitate him rising earlier to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able to handle the day’s busy schedule.  He needed the extra inner resources that only prayer could give him.

It is shocking the number of good people scattered across our country that have become weary and feeble spiritually, when they ought to be strong and flourishing.  I’m amazed at the number who have lost the song from their soul and are ready to put their harp in the willows because they are so deeply discouraged.  I’m sure there is no simple answer.  But I do firmly believe that at the heart of much of this is an empty heart.  Too many Christians are trying to sustain a huge superstructure of activity without the underlying power and strength that comes from close fellowship and daily communion with our Lord.

My world at GBS is extremely busy.  I constantly face the temptation to let the most important part of my life go—strength and care of my own soul.  Recently, back in the spring, I called for several days of prayer and fasting on our campus.  I felt I needed something more and that the campus needed something more.  I felt empty, stressed out, and void of any music in my soul.  After the third day into the fast, my soul began to soar, heaven’s orchestra began making melody in my heart, and I felt prepared to tackle the biggest problem around.

Don’t wait until your world collapses and your inner resources have given way.  Learn what Jesus meant when He said, “Apart from me ye can do nothing.”

Has the Pulpit Gone Silent on Hell?

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Church, Education, Theology

–May of 1997

Has the Pulpit Gone Silent on Hell?

“The biggest problem facing the modern age is what to do about the doctrine of hell.”  I wish that had been the wise observation and assessment of a holiness preacher or scholar.  Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t.  It is the assessment of the eminent historian Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times.  While a secular historian has enough insight to see an important issue and speak to that issue, many pulpits have gone underground or become totally silent on the subject of hell.

When is the last time your local pulpit reminded you that there is a hell for sinners who remain rebels to the end?  Several years ago while preaching in a large youth camp, I asked the kids when they had heard a sermon on Hell.  Out of approximately only 300 young people, only three had heard a sermon on Hell in the last two years.  None had heard a sermon on hell within the last year.  As I penned this article, a returned missionary stopped by my office; and I asked her the same question.  Her answer was, “I’ve only heard one sermon on Hell in the five years that we’ve been back in the States.”

When the church does not clearly teach the doctrine of hell, society loses an important anchor.  In a real sense, it is the doctrine of hell that gives meaning to our lives.  When men and women understand the doctrine of hell they also understand that behavior has eternal consequences that daily moral choices have spiritual significance, and that God takes our choices seriously.

Failure to believe in hell is often the by-product of a silent pulpit.  Whatever doctrine the pulpit ceases to preach, the people cease to believe.  When people cease to believe in a final judgment and everlasting punishment, they feel no accountability for their actions and any sense of moral obligation soon dissolves.

Why the silence?  Many preachers have been hushed by the objections of laity and the scorn of higher critics.  Both dislike the frightful intensity of the pains of Hell as suggested by many sermon illustrations and indeed by certain passages of Scripture.  Jesus spoke about Hell under three symbols: First, that of “everlasting punishment”; second, that of destruction; and third, that of separation or banishment.  Connected to each of these is the “fire that is not quenched.”  Each of these ideas convey something unspeakably horrible; and, although many object, any interpretation which does not face that fact is clearly not Biblical.

To be fair, there has been at times more emphasis on the imagery of hell than on the doctrine.  But one abuse doesn’t justify another.  Pulpit silence on the subject of hell is treason against God and heresy to the church.  One old divine said it like this, “If a man has a mind to get a head start and be in hell before other sinners, he need do no more than open the sails of his soul to the pulpit winds of a preacher whose silence loudly denies hell.”

God Will Do What It Takes

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday, Theology

–November of 1997

God Will Do What It Takes

Thanksgiving this year finds me in the praise section, giving God thanks for something a little off the well-worn path of typical praise petitions.  I’m thankful that God will always do whatever it takes to make me His and to get me home.

God has proven over the years that He will do whatever it takes to get me safely home to Heaven.  Popular writer Max Lucado tells a story in one of his books about a plane ride.  While flying over Missouri, the plane encountered a storm.  The flight attendant gave the order for everyone to take his seat.  It was a rowdy flight, and the passengers were slow to respond.  She gave the warning again.  With some still not responding, she changed her tone of voice and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, for your own safety take your seats.”  One would have thought that by this time everyone would have been in his seat buckled up; but apparently that was not the case, because the next voice that was heard was that of the pilot.  “This is the captain,” he advised.  “People have gotten hurt by going to the bathroom instead of staying in their seats.  Let’s do what I say.  Now sit down and buckle up!”  About that time the bathroom door opened, and a red-faced fellow with a sheepish grin exited and took his seat.  The pilot was not being insensitive or unthoughtful, but rather just the opposite.  He would rather the man be safe and embarrassed than uninformed and hurt.  Any good pilot will do what it takes to get his passengers to the airport safely.

God has been teaching me that He will do whatever it takes to get us safely home.  He will whisper, shout, touch, and tug.  He will be kind and stern, tender or tough.  He will lift burdens or take away blessing.  He will do what it takes.  He will allow my world to be crushed and my heart to be trampled if that is necessary.  God will do whatever it takes to get me home to Heaven.

He will do whatever it takes to make sure that we are completely His.  God’s goal is not our happiness but our holiness.  He is not scampering about the landscape seeking ways to meet our every want, but He is committed to turning the world upside down, if necessary, to provide us what we need to be holy.  If suffering is what we need, God will let the storm break in upon us.  If it is adversity that we need, God may allow the devil to unleash his hoards against us.  If it is the tender caress of His heavenly hand or a miraculous answer to prayer, God will make sure it comes.  Whatever we need to conform us to His image, God will see that it is there.  This is consistently reaffirmed in Scripture.  Israel could have been out of Egypt and in the land of promise by foot in only eleven days.  But God took them on the forty-year route.  Why?  Deuteronomy 8:22-24 tells us that He wanted them to suffer hunger and then feed them manna so they would know that “man does not live by bread alone.”  Their clothes would not wear out, and their feet would not swell so that they could learn that He is absolutely trustworthy.  He sent the Hebrew boys into the fire, He sent His disciples into the storm, and He sends His Church into a world that promises opposition and hatred.  But through it all, He brings us through.  He does whatever it takes to make us His, to make us holy, and to get us home safely.

This Thanksgiving you can look for me in the praise section, and my note of praise is going to say, “Thank God that our Heavenly Father will do whatever it takes to make us His and to get us home.”