May 6

Written by: Mike Milton
5/6/2008 9:15 AM

On a family vacation five-year-old Tyler gazed out the window as they drove through Kansas. Tyler had never seen anything like it. Being an adopted Kansan I know that once you past the middle of the state, it is wide-open fields that seem to stretch forever. Tyler looked out at the expansive, treeless horizon that met the giant sky and he exclaimed, “Boy,” he said, “it’s so flat out there, you can look farther than you can see.”

“Looking farther than you can see” describes the way Joseph Strauss saw things when he looked across the San Francisco Bay in the 1930s and saw, in his mind’s eye, a bridge connecting both sides of the bay. In 1936 the Golden Gate Bridge was dedicated. He looked father than you could see.

Closer to home, “looking farther than you can see” is the way that Harry Reeder and four families saw things in Charlotte in 1983 when he planted Christ Covenant PCA Church.

“Looking farther than you can see” is not a bad way of talking about that thing we call vision. “Looking farther than you can see” through faith in Christ’s kingdom may also be called faith.

I have been “looking farther than you can see” regarding RTS Charlotte.  As I talk about vision I am really talking about faith.

In Pope Benedict XVI’s recent visit to the United States, he made a point of visiting St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York. He wanted to draw attention to the needs of their seminaries. As goes the health of the seminaries, go the health of the churches. That is not just so in Roman Catholic churches.  It is true in ours.

There was a time in American history when the enlightenment brought great confusion to the churches. God raised up a man, the third professor of theology at Princeton Seminary, Dr. Charles Hodges. Hodge’s theology was based on the Bible and that every jot and tittle of the Bible was true. He would tell his students, gathered in his living room at his house, “you will learn no new thing here.” He meant that all that they would learn from him would be the pure, unadulterated Word of God taught and believed since the days of the Apostles. Beginning in 1819, at the age of twenty-two and for the next forty years, Charles Hodge taught the timeless truths of the Gospel and over 3,000 students were sent out from that living room with that message. And the result? A missionary movement that took Christ to India, to Korea, to China and planted churches all over America, many that still stand today.

Do seminaries matter? Yes. Does RTS Charlotte matter? People are being saved, and the kingdom is built up because of it. What is the vision then for this school? What is the faith we have as we seek to “look farther than we can see”? I want to give you five points of reference in this vision of faith.

1.    It is a vision that begins with a God-revealed burden for lost people, disoriented flocks, malnourished Christians, and others in need of faithful shepherds of Christ

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:36-37)

But there is more.

2.    It is a vision that is bound by Biblically faithful values of producing pastors and other Christian leaders who have “a mind for truth and a heart for God”

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

This is training and sending out pastors and other workers approved by God to handle the Word of Truth.
But it is not just that.

3.    It is a vision that is built upon an Apostolic Model of pastor-teachers training up other pastor-teachers who will be able to teach other also.

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teah others also (2 Timothy 2:2).

But it is not just that.

4.    It is a vision that is based on a Gospel-centered methodology that trusts the ordinary means of grace: Word, Sacrament, and Prayer to meet the needs of this and every generation.

That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

But it is not just that.

For all of these things are leading to a long-term vision for Reformed Theological Seminary; a long-term vision that must be seen by our faculty, our staff, our students, our supporters, our Board, and yes, by the President of RTS. For if we miss this long-term vision, we are missing it all.
And this is it.

When I was a pastor I taught the Pastor’s Welcome Class. It was an eight-week course that described the faith and life of our church. At the end of that time, the inquirers would come into our home. There I would give the last lesson as we ate together and enjoyed fellowship. That vision is based upon 1 Thess. 2:19-20 where Paul says that his glory and joy is not tall steeples or big numbers or fame or fortune in his ministry. He says that his glory and joy is the people with Christ when He comes again.

Well, not much changes. I want to give you what I believe is the only long-term vision for this seminary that really matters:

5.    The great long-term vision of RTS Charlotte must be a vision that believes in a Christ-glorifying mission:  to see souls, from all over the world, and through the generations, safe in the arms of Jesus Christ because of our ministry in Jesus’ name today (1 Thess. 2:19-20).

In other words, our glory and joy are the men and women, boys and girls that will be saved through the faithful preaching and teaching of the ministers, missionaries, Christian teachers, and other Gospel proclaimers that go forward from this place.

This is not “farther than we can see” for God has shown it to us. This is our glory and joy. This is our vision. 


Illustration from a sermon by King Duncan, “A New Vision,” 1st Quarter Sermons 2008, King Duncan, Dynamic Preaching, 2008
Ibid.

 

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