Interview
R. Kent Hughes
by Art Azurdia
R. Kent Hughes has been engaged in pastoral ministry for forty years. He is the author of numerous books, including the highly acclaimed Disciplines Of A Godly Man, and several commentaries that reflect his many years of diligent expositional ministry. Having just retired from twenty-seven years as the Senior Pastor of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, Kent and his wife, Barbara, are now making their home in Spokane, Washington. Last August I spent a couple of hours with Kent talking about his experiences in the pastoral ministry.
Art Azurdia : Kent, after all these years of experience, talk to us a little about what it means to be a pastor and about some of your deepest convictions related to the pastoral ministry.
R. Kent Hughes: Well, being a pastor is obviously a multi-faceted and dynamic concept, but I would say the first thing that comes to my mind is “man of God” which, of course, is an Old Testament term. What I mean is this: Necessary to the whole matter of preaching is that you be a man of God in the sense that you are a man who lives in the Scriptures, applies the Scriptures to your own soul, and lives a life of constant repentance so that the truths you urge upon your listeners are evident in your own life. You’re sympathetic to them and pursuing them in your own life so that when people think of you, they think of a man of God even more than a preacher. Preaching is a major task and requires immense sacrifice and hours of preparation. But I would say that the main thing is that you must be a man of God and, of course, if that’s true, then you’re a man of God in relationship to the leadership of your church, you’re a man of God in relationship to your wife, and you’re a man of God in relationship to your family and your community. That would be where I would root the whole thing. |
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"Necessary to the whole matter |
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AA: Kent, what happens to a man when that assiduous effort to apply the Word of God to his own life first is not really prominent?
RKH : Well, when it’s not prominent, I think you can go ahead and speak God’s words. God used Balaam’s donkey so I think that that kind of thing can happen. But there’s an illustration from Phillips Brooks in which he talks about a man who preaches like an old-fashioned railroad conductor, announcing destinations to which he’s never been. By the mere announcing, “All aboard to Albany! All aboard to Chicago!” he imagines that he’s been to Albany and Chicago. And so you can have men who are self-deluded in that they haven’t been to those destinations. They preach repentance to people though they haven’t truly repented, or they passionately preach of sexual purity to men though they’re not living it out themselves. These pastors become talking heads rather than men of God.
AA: And what happens to a man’s soul in the midst of that?
RKH: I think there are many things that happen because we’re so complex. There could be conscious duplicity. And certainly that exists out there. But I think it’s more of an unconscious duplicity which is the result of a long line of the mere proclamation of those things. Such men are self-deluded into thinking they practice those things just by virtue of preaching them, perhaps passionately so, imagining that those character qualities or commitments are in their lives. It can be very seductive.
AA: I think of Baxter: “I only preach that which I did first smartingly feel.”
RKH: Yes, and I think Baxter said somewhere else, “Lest we offer them bread that we’ve never tasted.” It’s the same thing. I think it was John Owen who said that if the word is going to go from you in power it has to first course through your life in order to come out in power.
AA: Do you see these convictions being shared by many people in the pastoral arena?
RKH: Well, Art, one of the things that helped define preaching for me is passion. And I don’t think there is such a thing as dispassionate preaching.
AA: Dr. Lloyd-Jones certainly didn’t.
RKH: Right, yes, “logic on fire.” But sometimes I hear biblical exposition which is a type of exegetical explanation rather than the passion of a man whose soul has been plowed by the truths he’s preaching. Now, I don’t want to confuse anybody by implying, “Well, that means if I’m not raising my voice or if I’m not shouting, I’m not passionate.” You can be very passionate and whisper. You could be saying in a very low tone: “This is the most important thing you’ll ever hear; listen very closely.” But it’s got to be a real passion, not a bogus passion; a passion that flows out of an existential interaction with the very word and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
AA: Some of these convictions that you have about the pastoral ministry, Kent, were they established early on in your ministry or do they reflect some kind of evolution over the many years of labor?
RKH: I always believed in Biblical exposition from the time I was a youth pastor back in the sixties right on through, and it was because of my bibliology. I don’t believe that every word is inspired; I believe that every jot and tittle is inspired! So I have a high view of Scripture. I truly believe that the Bible is the very word of God. I believe it with all of my heart. My bibliology, then, affects my approach to preaching so that it’s always been to stand behind the Bible, not in front of the Bible when I preach the word of God. My job is to open the word of God. The evolution, however, has been this: I would say that early on, because I wanted to be so accurate, some of my preaching could fall into the category of exegetical lecture. And actually, it wasn’t intentional and I didn’t know it to be that; it was just that I was so careful and fastidious about not wanting to pervert the word of God. My wife said to me one day, “When you’re preaching you say the most wonderful things, but you say them like they are of little import.” In other words, my own heart’s conviction and passion weren’t evident in my preaching. So I never have affected passion or pretended passion, but I think over the years anybody that has listened to me knows that I truly believe what I preach with all my heart, and desire that they believe it with all my heart, and that I would die for the truths that I’m preaching.
