10 Reasons to Host a Pastor Story Hour
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As people across the nation have been hearing about our Pastor Story Hour, I thought it would be helpful to sketch out some of my thoughts on why we are doing an event such as this. And while I prefer to sit and talk about this over a dark roast coffee, I would like to be brief enough here to be truly helpful. Of course, considering that I am a preacher, my goal may already be in jeopardy. Nevertheless, I would like to provide a few significant thoughts on why we believe this event is so helpful, useful, and necessary.
1) GOSPEL - The doctrine behind every conversion and the heartbeat fueling every Christian is the Gospel. It is the power of almighty God, and it is not only the MOST ESSENTIAL doctrine that we could ever learn as individuals, but it is the most essential doctrine that our children could ever learn as well! The Gospel is the doctrine that will guard their hearts and minds should they find themselves in a secular university. The Gospel is the balm for their weary soul when they walk through the pain and suffering life will inevitably throw at them. The Gospel is the life raft for their doubts, the comfort in their sadness, and the fuel for all their joy and gladness. As parents, we are responsible for preparing them for life without us. But, to do that well, we must actively, deliberately, and passionately teach them the Gospel.
As elders and pastors, we take that work seriously (1 Ti 4:1-2). We want to be a resource for our parents in helping you understand the Gospel so that you can also train your children to know God's glorious Gospel!
2) PASTORAL LEADERSHIP - We believe pastors have been called to bring the truth of the Scriptures to bear on every facet of God’s people's lives. We do not want to produce people who can behave like Christians during a Sunday morning service. Instead, we want to develop people who are impacted by the Gospel at every level, in every nook and cranny of their lives, so that all of their life looks like Christ. To do that, we must not take for granted that people are leaving the safety of our churches on Sunday to enter the battlefield on Monday. While we are reading commentaries and preparing messages throughout the week, our people are inundated with the enemy's lies, saturated with every wind of cultural dogmatism, and pressured to compromise. Frankly, if we are not actively seeking to help our people develop a Biblical worldview, then we are preparing them for failure.
As pastors, we stand with one foot in the Biblical world of truth and theology and the other foot in the world of liberal and secular ideology. We stand on the wall and see the trends coming, the pagan philosophies forming, the secular ideologies gathering steam, and we are the exact people God called to help. We are the ones who help equip God's people to think about things from a Biblical worldview, and that duty must never be abandoned. For this reason, an event like Pastor Story Hour is so helpful because we can pick and choose topics to teach that do not usually come up on a Sunday morning. Further, we can take those topics and use them as an opportunity to train our children and equip our parents. That is pastoral leadership.
3) FAMILY WORSHIP - The more we become acquainted with the Gospel, the more we realize that it is not just a Sunday doctrine and not the kind of thing that can be contained in a one-hour church service each week. The Gospel finds its way into every aspect of our life, which means we must also teach the Gospel in every area that our children live. This is why the Gospel must be read in books, sung in songs, prayed at dinner tables, tucked in with them when they go to bed, and the aroma of the home they will awaken into.
For this reason, Pastor Story Hour is not only for the children to learn the Gospel, but it is also an intentional environment for parents to come and watch us teaching their children and to observe how we do it. We want moms and dads to see how we do it and get ideas and inspiration on how to do the same thing for their children in their own homes. We want you to feel comfortable, competent, and confident in knowing how to instruct your children in the Gospel. We believe Pastor Story Hour can be a wonderful part of that! Our goal is that Pastor Story Hour will be a blessing to every member of the family and that it will invigorate family worship in our community and beyond!
4) CHRISTIAN EDUCATION - Along with family worship, we believe the Church has a God-ordained responsibility to educate all of our people in the Gospel and to help equip them for service in His Kingdom. Part of that is helping our people grow to have a love of learning, a desire to read the Scriptures, study doctrine, and love God with all of our minds. That work begins by giving our children a godly vision of robust Christian education.
Thus, Pastor Story Hour allows us to teach various topics that our children will face and come into contact with in this world. Plus, we get to do so in both Biblical and age-appropriate ways that model a love of robust Christian learning so they will grow strong in the faith and can equip our grandchildren in the faith as well.
5) RESOURCES - We believe that there have been many faithful men and women throughout church history who have known God in precious, intimate ways that we now pray and long to know Him as well. Those Christians have written and produced some of the most excellent resources, such as the Heidelberg catechism (which inspired the book we are reading this month). We want to pass along the resources we believe are exceptional to our community. We hope that by recommending these resources, your family may build a faithful library for multiple generations to grow strong in the Lord. Also, I plan to have a few books with me to give away at this next event. :)
6) MISSIONAL - We are doing this at the Library because Christ is Lord over all the world and not just Lord over Sunday. As Abraham Kuyper once said: "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!" That means the public square does not belong to the world; it belongs to Jesus. The library was built with His bricks, carpeted with His fabrics, and filled with people made in His image. Therefore, we need not be afraid to enter a realm that is under His authority. Instead, we can live confidently as children of the King knowing this land is our inheritance.
With that, we must have the courage to live boldly, confidently, humbly, and persistently as Christians in a world where Jesus is already the reigning! Because of these convictions, we cannot retreat as people who have no hope because Christ is the hope of the world. We cannot hide the light of the Gospel because He is the light of the world. We cannot store "the salt" in church cupboards because He called us to be the salt of the world. Because of this, we must be present and active in our community. We must love them enough to let the Gospel shine in front of them even if it means that some salt gets on them. We must be patient while they malign, hate, and say all manner of evil against us. And we must be persistent and consistent enough to keep shining that light, hoping that those who hate us today will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ tomorrow.
7) MASCULINE VISION - Our children are growing up in a world where it has become shameful and inexcusable to be a man and to act in masculine ways. Today, men are encouraged to be avoidant, passive, and timid (like their father, Adam), which is not Christ's vision for redeemed manhood or boyhood. So with that, Pastor Story Hour allows us to show our boys and girls what Biblical men look like, who they are, and what they do.
What do men do? Well, they slay dragons. Men tame the chaos. Men build things. Men fight against the injustices and errors that cripple the world around them, and men fight for the ones they love. Men take godly risks. Men take a stand for truth. Men take responsibility for the world around us and labor to make it a better, sweeter realm for our girls and women. And men, real Biblical men, do not stand idly by complaining about how things are, romanticizing how things used to be, but instead stand up and do something about it! Children need to see that sort of godly, Biblical masculinity that motivates us to stand up. They need to see us running toward problems and working to find Christ-honoring solutions. Instead of cowering and letting the world keep lunging toward hell in a handbasket, our children need to see us showing consistent Christian love for those who are perishing. This is the kind of man we find in the Scriptures. This is the kind of man we want our boys to become. And this is the kind of man we want our daughters to marry!
8) COMMITTED - The last thing we would ever want to happen is for the town of Chelmsford to see us throw a big event with lots of noise and then never come back again. That would be unloving. Instead, we want them to see us being consistent, committed to the community, and convicted that we must live publicly for Jesus so they will see Jesus. We may be the only glimpse they get of Jesus. Because of this, I am praying we would showcase Him faithfully to them and that they would see our good works and give glory to our Father, who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
9) ACTIVE - Whether it is Pastor Story Hour or something else, we want our children to see us active in the world. We do not want them to grow up hiding from culture. We do not want them to believe that our faith is private, quiet, and secretive. We do not want them to grow up afraid to engage. We want them to feel encouraged to labor for Christendom. Excited and eager to see King Jesus reclaim territory for His Kingdom in their lifetime. And we want them to see themselves in that work, encouraged that God might use them to do something extraordinary for Jesus. When we model it to them, they will catch a vision of doing it themselves.
10) COURAGE - Finally, the world is in the shape that it is in because the Church has grown cowardly. While we have retreated, the world has redefined marriage, made moral arguments that a child in the womb is just a clump of cells, and forgotten what a man or a woman is. In fact, the more we retreat, the more confused and morally decrepit they will become. With that, we want to simply acknowledge that God has put us here to shine as lights in a crooked and adulterous generation (Phil. 2:12-14). It will take courage to live that way, and I pray we will.
As we close, let me remind you that God is sovereign, He is all-powerful, He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and He has called us to live publicly for Him. And if He has called us to it, He will see us through it. If He has asked us to do it, then He will supply everything we need to accomplish it (Mt. 6:33). So, have faith, live boldly, be faithful, and may you be blessed in your labors!
If you are interested, our next Pastor Story Hour is February 18th, from 9:30 - 10:30 AM at the Chelmsford Public Library. Pray for us, share this invite, invite others, and if you are a pastor reading this, consider hosting a Pastor Story Hour in your town as well. It would be a strange and beautiful providence if liberal Massachusetts led the nation in something like this that honored God!
Soli Deo Gloria,
Kendall
