Church History for Modern Ministry: Why Our Past Matters for Everything We Do

By Dayton Hartman

With all the pressing demands of modern ministry, why make time to learn church history? Is it relevant to worship and ministry today? Pastor Dayton Hartman argues that church history is not old news, but a vital component of a healthy ministry.
In Church History for Modern Ministry, Hartman explores the importance of church history and shows how an understanding of our past can help us address contemporary issues. The faithfulness, discipleship, and perseverance of the early church can help today's church stand firm in times of change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Release date: Feb 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781577997009

Book preview

CHURCH HISTORY FOR MODERN MINISTRY

Why Our Past Matters for Everything We Do

DAYTON HARTMAN

Church History for Modern Ministry: Why Our Past Matters for Everything We Do

Copyright 2016 Dayton Hartman

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

LexhamPress.com

You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail].

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN 9781577996606

Digital ISBN 9781577997009

Lexham Editorial Team: Rebecca Brant, Lynnea Fraser, Abigail Stocker

Cover Design: Christine Gerhart

Back Cover Design: Brittany Schrock

To my children:

Thank God for what has been and trust God for what will be.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Chapter 2

CREED AND CREEDS

Chapter 3

IMITATING CHRIST

Chapter 4

PREACHING AND THE CULTURAL DRIFT

Chapter 5

CHRISTIANS AND CULTURE

Chapter 6

YESTERDAY, TODAY WAS THE FUTURE

Recommended Reading

WHERE TO BEGIN

Appendix 1

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Appendix 2

A GUIDE TO CREEDS, CONFESSIONS, AND CATECHISMS

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Subject and Author Index

Scripture Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a debt of gratitude to Brannon Ellis for his belief in this project and to Todd Hains for refining its content. Also, to my wife for her willingness to be my sounding board and first-draft editor. In addition, I’m very grateful to Josh Wester and Erik Harris for providing chapter-by-chapter feedback. By God’s grace, these collective efforts will make this material useful to my readers.

1

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Martin Luther was a chump. Yes, I said it. I used to believe it. In fact, reflecting on my early adulthood, I had the nastiest case of chronological snobbery I’ve seen outside of KJV-only circles.

So what if Martin Luther (1483–1546) ignited the Reformation? Who cares that he preached a biblical gospel? Today many evangelicals consider much of Luther’s thought to be in error, or at least in poor taste. Worse yet, although he was arguably one of the greatest theologians of his time, the most average of theologians today seems undeniably superior.

Why? Well, we have Logos Bible Software, and Together for the Gospel conferences, and we can live tweet major theological events. Who live-tweeted the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses? Nobody! That’s probably a good thing. Can you imagine the hashtags #IFixedYourDoctrine or #TetzelFail? Those would be the tamest. When angry, Luther’s vocabulary was less Dr. Phil and more Lewis Black. Since Luther’s revolution was neither televised nor live tweeted, it obviously has little value, except for that whole defending the gospel thing.

Not until I had spent a full year in pastoral ministry did I begin to see the value of what has come before. I remember wrestling with my own explanations of the relationship between the gospel and works. Then I started looking more closely at Luther’s works to see what this old timer said in error. I was shocked that, rather than being amused by Luther’s errors, I was overwhelmed by his insight. Luther’s wrestling was, in a sense, my wrestling. Luther’s pastoral burden to preach grace to his church was, and is, my burden. Still, even after accepting and embracing the theological riches of Reformation leaders, I maintained my disdain for the early church fathers and the creeds they helped form. After all, those Catholics love creeds, and they revere many of the early church fathers. Therefore, creeds and the church fathers must be useless to me as a Protestant pastor.

As I delved more deeply into apologetic writings, however, I latched onto Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984), only to see that he occasionally referenced the early church fathers. Even though Schaeffer’s thought changed my life, I dismissed his occasional church history references as proof that nobody is perfect.

Then I began to engage Mormons and Muslims in my community. The claims that they made about church history shook me. In response, I decided to scrutinize their accusations against the first Christians. I dove headlong into the early church fathers. I embraced this new direction in research so completely that I purchased Philip Schaff’s (1819–1893) massive 38-volume set of translated early church works.¹ It was incredibly cumbersome to use, but it looked amazing on a bookshelf. Just having it in my office made me feel—and probably look—smarter. As I made my way through this series, I found that my Mormon and Muslim friends were sorely mistaken in their understanding of early church history—and that I was too.

The early church fathers were incredibly helpful. Instead of seeming strange and foreign, they seemed familiar and welcoming. I was surprised by how much Justin Martyr’s (100–165) apologetic writings applied to our culture. I was moved by the seriousness with which Augustine (354–430) undertook efforts to disciple young people. I found myself at home among early Christians, struggling to hold onto biblical doctrine while striving to express it clearly.

In short, this multi-year journey into church history changed my view of the creeds, preaching, discipleship, pastoral care, and cultural engagement. I am a different and, I believe, better pastor because of church history. Now, more than a decade since my first foray into church history, I am a church planter. I also teach church history and historical theology to seminary students.

By wrestling with church history, I have identified a number of dangers inherent to ignoring the past, as well as many benefits to knowing what has come before us. These benefits have convinced me that pastoral ministry is maximally effective only if carried out in light of lessons from our history. Before moving into some of the practical benefits of knowing church history, let’s look at how unfamiliarity with church history can cause dangerous error in doctrine and practice.

IGNORANCE IS DOCTRINALLY DANGEROUS

Throughout the Back to the Future series, Marty McFly, a hapless teenager, continually saves the present, and the future, by going back to the past in his DeLorean. While the series didn’t help anyone understand anything about science (still, how cool is a flux capacitor?), there is one valuable takeaway: The past was once the present, and the present is what dictates the future. For Christian theology, this is an invaluable reminder.

For pastors, ignoring the past is both foolish and dangerous. During my first stop in vocational ministry, I met a young man who had only recently been called to his first pastorate. Over the next two years, I watched as this young, uneducated preacher moved from a shallow orthodoxy into the deep waters of heresy. As he preached week-in and week-out, he began to see things in the text of Scripture that led him to believe that Jesus was created by the Father. He began to embrace heresies condemned long ago as unscriptural.

In his mind, he had found something that no one else had ever found before;