Considering Cheer Up! Part 2

Here is the second part of my interactive review of Michael Graham’s “critical biography” of C. John (Jack) Miller, one of the key figures of the 20th century as a pastor, evangelist, professor, missionary and author. I hope you take the time to read Cheer Up! The Life and Ministry of Jack Miller.

Cheer Up! God’s Spirit Works In Your Weakness

Jack learned that weakness was a good thing, and his pride and self-reliance were not. This awareness of his weakness set the stage for a time of fruitful, pioneering ministry for Jack. But the changes in his approach to ministry still needed to be applied to family life to a greater degree.

During a summer vacation in Europe, they spent time at L’Abri and were struck by how much prayer took place there. He realized that pride kept him from prayer. He realized that pride keeps people and congregations from prayer. He connected that to the collapse of his ministry & joy in Christ. Jack saw that weakness was not to be feared but was the occasion for prayer which God used as a means for fruitful ministry. As he studied by the Mediterranean he saw the important place of God’s promises to our prayer. He also saw the ministry of the Spirit strengthening the weak who lay hold of those promises. Here exactly is where many churches fail. I am convinced this is why the first church I pastored closed: I couldn’t get people to pray corporately. This was connected to a lack of personal witnessing.

““When I pray and do evangelism, I have laid hold of God’s own … method [of salvation],” Jack wrote. Therefore, he concluded elsewhere, “we must get down to knee-work””

When Jack returned home he continued his study of prayer, promises and the out-pouring of the Spirit. He became a functional Trinitarian rather than neglecting the Spirit. Edmund Clowney helped him see these connections more clearly. Like Paul he wanted to boast in his weakness instead of fleeing weakness. American Christians seem to fear weakness, and expressing their very real weakness. Our denomination struggles with pride: we value success, not struggle. We hide our weaknesses. This can be seen in comments about not needing to learn from other denominations. We think we have it all together.

In evangelism, he realized he invited people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelism is relational, and he began to add “Lordship evangelism” to the mix. We can see this in his book Repentance (formerly Repentance & the 20^th Century Man). We cannot tear Christ asunder. He was influenced in this view by a paragraph in Bavinck which unmasks false religions as sin and calls people to a knowledge of the true God. Jack sought to approach people as a fellow sinner rather than an angry Christian. We should be humble as forgiven people. We speak as repentant people, not those who have arrived (the last chapter of Repentance is all about this).

Jack experienced a new freedom in evangelism, and ministry. He was free to confess his sins, leading people as the repenter-in-chief. The danger can be that others are content to let you confess your sin as though they don’t also need to do this. As pastor, I can often feel that I’m the only one who seems to own their sin in conflict.

In 1972 Rose Marie experienced a series of health problems. He knew that he should leave either the Chapel or WTS to have more time to care for her. Shaeffer advised him to remain at WTS in order to influence a generation of pastors. He resigned from Mechanicsville Chapel. A few months later his daughter Barbara announced she was leaving the faith. This resulted in an expanded paper on repentance which would become Repentance & the 20^th Century Man. It also resulted in a prayer group meeting in his home in Jenkintown.

Those prayer meetings began considering a church where the unconverted could hear about Jesus and be called to faith. By February 1973, 48 people met in the Miller home for the first meeting of what would become New Life Church. They met at 4:30 in the afternoon. Soon they met in the local library. Despite expanding to two services, they needed a larger facility. They moved to the YMCA in 1974 and would be there until 1981.

One main emphasis for New Life was prayer, and prayer meetings could last 3 or 4 hours. People were encouraged to invite non-Christians. John Julien, son of the OPC elder who provided airfare, lived with the Millers during this time frame. As a WTS student, he noted it was essentially a never-ending prayer meeting at the house.

Jack began to speak of “preaching the gospel to yourself.” This practice was not original to him though the language seems to be. Martyn Lloyd-Jones encouraged people to talk to themselves instead of listening to themselves. The Puritans talked of claiming the promises.

Jack’s theology of evangelism which included relationships, Lordship and weakness now incorporated hospitality. This did not mean it could only take place in the home, but that home was a good place to further friendship and express love. This didn’t mean easy. It was often messy. Dealing with sin and misunderstandings in light of the gospel is one way to make the gospel visible and relevant. There was also an assault on a host. Graham includes a shocking example of this with Gwen. After spending time living with the Millers she began to plan their murder. Before carrying out a plan she confessed this to them and experienced the reality of forgiveness. She saw her sinfulness in wanting to kill the only people who’d given her consistent love.

Despite the numerous and often dramatic conversions, Jack learned all was not well at home. So good at listening to others, Rose Marie declared that Jack didn’t listen to her. Jack began to develop his listening skills with her. When he asked again, she had the same answer. He realized his sin problem was deeper than he thought. But so was hers. She looked to him as something of a savior. Her struggle deepened. In 1975 he was granted a sabbatical to caravan in Ireland and Europe. Rose Marie began to learn what Jack had learned earlier about regular repentance and reliant prayer.

Back at New Life Jack had help from Ron Lutz, a WTS intern who became an associate pastor, and Dick Kaufmann. These men complemented one another, and Jack, to form a great team.

Cheer Up! Justification Is By Faith Alone, Even in the Twentieth Century

The growth of New Life Church contributed to a theological controversy that occupied Jack, WTS and the OPC for seven years (1976-1983). This chapter is one of the best resources to understand the controversy. The Trinity Foundation material was not helpful to me. Graham reflects Jack’s concerns, but doesn’t vilify Shepherd. Neither did Jack. Graham also notes that at points, Jack agreed with Norman Shepherd.

Shepherd taught systematic theology at Westminster. He was concerned about “easy believism” in general and what he perceived was happening at New Life. His concerns were similar to later concerns about Sonship (which I find generally unfounded) that the emphasis is so much on justification that sanctification is neglected.

As is common, to address one extreme Shepherd went to a different or opposite extreme rather than re-establishing the gospel. Shepherd began to stress the necessity of works for salvation. How you express that matters. Confessionally, they are necessary evidence of justification but never the basis for justification. It is common to speak of having been saved (justification), being saved (sanctification) and will be saved (glorification). Shepherd expressed the ideas of having been justified, being justified and will be justified. His views seem to lay the foundation for Piper’s “final justification” which includes works, and the Federal Vision (as much as I can understand the FV).

Shepherd believed Jack expressed a Lutheran law-gospel distinction (the WCF expresses such a distinction), while Jack believed that Shepherd overly stressed the continuity of the covenant such that he lost sight of the newness of the covenant under Christ, particularly the outpouring of the Spirit. It was a controversy that tore at the fabric of Westminster’s faculty and board, and then the OPC. This controversy is one reason the PCA turned down the OPC’s inquiry into uniting along with the RPCES. The PCA and RPCES would unite in 1982.

It did result in Shepherd being removed from the faculty after years of debate. It did drive Jack deeper into the Scriptures, Confessions and theologians like Calvin, Vos and more. Sadly his unpublished paper “Justification by Faith in the 20^th Century” remains unpublished and isn’t an appendix to this book. Similar to the Marrow Controversy, we should learn that “easy believism” and various forms of “Lordship salvation” are twin sins whose answer is always the gospel rather than pushing the opposite error.

Jack lamented the damage to God’s glory and faculty relationships. In a letter to Gaffin he wrote “I’m left totally downcast at our inability to work through these matters in a gospel manner.” I find his comments in a letter to Norman Shepherd pertinent to the PCA’s current struggles.

“On some points I am closer to you than brothers like Arthur [Kuschke] and Palmer [Robertson]. On the basic issue I think I am further away from you than they … The conflict simply cannot go on in this form simply because it undermines the clarity of the gospel and confuses the faith of us all. … My purpose is only that you might understand that your style at times was not one of reconciliation and mutual love. … It must be greatly offensive to the Lord to see us defending the gospel in a manner that puts us at a distance from one another… The whole matter makes me sick at heart. I see little honor for Christ in what has happened, and no victors, only mutual shamefacedness.”

Theological precision is important, but love is more important. We aren’t discussing vastly different theological systems, but are down in the finest of points. These are not departures from the gospel, but seem to be about how best to minister to others in a culture more like Corinth than the one we grew up in many decades ago.

Cheer Up! God’s Kingdom Is More Wonderful Than You Ever Imagined

A friendship with an African pastor opened the door to ministry in Africa and the formation of World Harvest Mission (now named Serge). WHM would spread to Ireland, Spain and other nations.

That pastor was Kefa Sempangi, who initially met Edmund Clowney at the home of Hans Rookmaaker in 1973. He led a Pentecostal church in Uganda and wanted more trained pastors in his home country. Shortly after Idi Amin took control, Sempangi and his family fled for their lives and he ended up at Westminster. Attending New Life, he became a friend Jack’s who introduced him to Reformed Theology.

New Life began sending some missionaries to refugee camps in Kenya. New Life was a pioneer of short-terms missions as they sent teams to Africa and Ireland. When they were able to go back into Uganda it was still scary. Any sermon could be your last in light of all the armed and angry people. The level of poverty they experienced was also shocking. Rose Marie, in particular, struggled with this. Jack expressed that she was living like an orphan, as if an all-powerful and good God wasn’t her Father. Jack’s weakness and cultural sensitivity opened many doors and hearts. Numerous churches were planted, and people converted.

During this period, Barbara divorced her husband. Their conflict with her “beat the stuffing” out of them. Jack slowly began to apply what he’d learned with others to this relationship: repenting of his failures as a father. He expressed his love for her, which angered her but eventually broke her. She and her new husband Angelo would convert to Christianity in 1980.

In 1982, mission creep led to frustrations between the PCU and NLC. This led to the formation of World Harvest Mission with a clearer vision and mission. In 1983, Rose Marie confronted Jack about his two mistresses: the PCU and NLC. She expressed the need for him to cherish and nurture her (Eph. 5) like he did them. Growth in one area does not guarantee growth in all. We can also fall into the same traps a few times. Jack’s pioneering spirit expressed its downside in his marriage. Living on the cutting end of life is not good for your marriage. At the same time a financial misunderstanding led to a break between the PCU and WHM. The day before leaving Uganda after contentious meetings, Jack suffered a major heart attack. His weakness would deepen. The conflict would be put on hold.

In light of this, John Julien was tabbed to plant a New Life church in Philadelphia (he would serve until he retired in 2020). Other changes at New Life became necessary. In the midst of this the AIDS crisis emerged in the States. Jack had seen AIDS in Africa and was far more compassionate than most evangelical leaders. During his recuperation he wrote Outgrowing the In-grown Church.

“We must become the community of the forgiven and forgiving, not the community of the frightened.”

Training manuals for New Life and World Harvest continued to be updated. Paul Miller developed the course to cover prayer, evangelism and discipleship. It had four modules, as Paul describes them “In Sonship you learn about God’s love for you. In Discipleship you learn to communicate that with another Christian. In Evangelism you learn to communicate the gospel with non-Christians, and in Teams you do that with a group of Christians.” So, you have the foundation of Sonship.

Jack taught a Sonship course in St. Louis in 1986. President Kooistra of Covenant Theological Seminary invited him to speak on campus. Kooistra wanted to establish a theology and practice of grace, concerned about a form of Reformed fundamentalism that used theological strictness to continually whittle the church down (and denomination). He saw this as a response to liberalism (here we see the opposite reaction being another departure from the gospel, again). Jack kept pointing him to the gospel of grace as the answer and hope for the denomination.

Learning this I can see why some so despise Covenant Theological Seminary. They want CTS to be theologically strict. This is all part of the Subscriptionist debate in the PCA. This on-going tension seems to be playing a part in the recent controversies.  Theological agreement in the minutest point take precedence over our calling to “seek and save the lost” and partake in the ministry of reconciliation rather than one of condemnation. In Repentance, Jack speaks of loving the Confession more than the Christ of whom the Confession speaks. Some prize theology more than Christ and His church and end up damaging the church through a lack of love.

Cheer Up! Come On, Let’s Die Together! It’s a Great Way To Come To Life

Graham looks at the last few years of Jack’s life as he continued to struggle with health issues. This also saw the growth of the Sonship movement along with criticism from unlikely sources.

I’m not sure the doctrine of justification was neglected in the PCA, but certainly the doctrine of adoption was. You could say justification is neglected as a present reality. Sonship was intended to not simply be theoretical, but designed to help people live out biblical theology, as well as communicate it. It focused on a life of repentance.

Jack perceived resistance in the OPC. In his opinion, too many pastors focused on the sins and failings of others and not their own, nor the denominations. They were in-grown. He began to think that NLC and WHM were a better fit for the PCA than the OPC.

For instance, after his first pastorate in Hopewell Tim Keller worshiped at NLC for 5 years while teaching at WTS. He’d been asked to find a good candidate to plant a church in Manhattan, NY and ended up going himself. He would bring what he learned at NLC to this PCA church plant.

Additionally, the PCA’s Mission to the World used Sonship to train its missionaries. The failed union between the PCA and OPC weighed on Jack as well. The PCU asked Jack how the denominations could work together in Uganda but not in America. After the Shepherd Controversy ended, the PCA extended another offer to the OPC in 1984. This time the OPC, in a 1986 GA vote, rejected the union.

Many thought the denominations nearly identical. There is more to it than theology (as the tensions in the PCA today reveal). There are also considerations of culture and methodology (applied theology). In these regards the OPC is very different from the PCA (and the ARP, RPCNA etc.). In these terms, NLC and WHM fit much better in the PCA.

What happened is odd in that NLC would move into the PCA in 1990. It took so long as the leaders were aware that their departure, as the largest congregation, could have huge ramifications. WHM would remain distinct, and eventually old friend Paul Kooistra would end the use of Sonship for training. The issue seemed to be more about some of the disciplers/trainers than the program. Our Pharisaical hearts can even be legalistic about grace, and some MTW missionaries expressed this concern.

With Jack’s declining health, he followed the advice of many to resign from NLC and work only with WHM in late 1990. There was a financial issue to address. He had to adjust to the additional oversight provided by a board, particularly as a man who had a pioneer spirit. As he health continued to decline due to a series of mini-strokes he focused more on prayer. He wrote A Faith Worth Sharing in 1996.

“It is hard to see it as a perfect plan if you don’t know how much God loves you, because hard things happen to all of us.”

He continued to travel to speak in the U.S. and Europe. On the day before a scheduled trip home from Spain in April of 1996 he experienced more angina. When they performed surgery on him they discovered that the damage to his heart from the earlier heart attack and his chemotherapy had damaged too much of his heart. It was only a matter of time, and family members rushed to Spain to say their good-byes. Jack was only 67 when he died.

After his death, criticism of Sonship came from some unexpected sources. One was Jay Adams, who had served with Jack for years on the practical theology faculty of WTS. They had been friends which made the personal tone Adams used particularly painful for the Miller family. The word used as Graham discusses this is “psychological”. Perhaps the old word used by the Puritans would be more appropriate: experiential. Sonship pushed you to experience or appropriate grace, not discuss it in the abstract (like a good Presbyterian). Much of the criticism seems focused here. When one uses shorthand too much it can become too much like magic. Kooistra spoke of grace becoming a power word (like gospel-centered would be later), as though simply talking about grace was the answer instead of seeking grace in Jesus Christ by faith.

Graham speaks to the legacy of Jack Miller, which really can’t be well accounted in this life. In terms of institutions you do see his fingerprints on WTS as well as Covenant Theological Seminary (via Kooistra) and Reformed Theological Seminary (as many WTS grads taught there). His impact on pastors, missionaries  and lay people can’t be added up. We will ultimately only be able to behold the fruit in heaven.

Graham did call this a critical biography. He shows us Jack’s development (which includes struggles and sin) as a person, pastor and professor. He shows us Jack’s failings as a father and husband. But those failings were not the end of the story. Graham shows his repentance and gradual transformation. While Jack was worse than he knew, Jesus was greater than Jack could ever imagine. Jack’s pride, self-reliance and insecurity would not get the final word. And neither will yours. This biography offers hope to the struggling pastor, father, husband, elder, missionary, lay person because it shows us that Jesus uses flawed people who embrace their flaws and trust in Christ.