Televangelists and mega-church pastors strut their stuff for all the world to see. Not all misuse and abuse their positions in this way of course, but far too many do. And how often does mere eloquence, wit, good looks or youth become some of the main qualifications?

In many ways things are not so very different today than what they were 2000 years ago. Problems we face in the church today were problems back then. We might have new names for some of these things, but the core issues continue. Anyone familiar with the two letters the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth will get my drift.
Back then a major issue Paul had to deal with were the “super-apostles”. These were leaders and teachers (often false teachers) who tended to put their personalities, their prestige, and their power forward as their credentials. They thought they were superior and more authoritative than people like Paul.
In 2 Corinthians especially we find him spending a lot of time dealing with this. In 2 Cor. 11:5-7 he puts it this way: “I do not think I am in the least inferior to those ‘super-apostles.’ I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?”
He boasts not in great power or speaking ability or popularity, but in his weakness, so that Christ might be glorified: “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the ‘super-apostles,’ even though I am nothing” (2 Cor. 12:10-11).
He had made all this clear in his first epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 1:26-31):
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Today things are no different. Indeed, with the new technologies and global media, it can be even more of a problem, with televangelists and mega-church pastors strutting their stuff for all the world to see. Not all misuse and abuse their positions in this way of course, but far too many do. And how often does mere eloquence, wit, good looks or youth become some of the main qualifications here?
I recall some 16 years ago writing about one of these super-pastors who would not go anywhere without first sending through a list of his demands. I had mentioned a terrific article in Charisma magazine by J. Lee Grady which spoke of the “deadly virus of celebrity Christianity.” This is how he described what one celeb leader required before coming to speak:

a five-figure honorarium
a $10,000 gasoline deposit for the private plane
a manicurist and hairstylist for the speaker
a suite in a five-star hotel
a luxury car from the airport to the hotel
room-temperature Perrier

Wow. Imagine Paul or Peter or John or Luther or Spurgeon or Lewis or Paul Washer sending out such a ludicrous list of demands. Indeed, I once was speaking with a pastor and he discussed having me speak at his church. He asked me what my speaking fee was. I laughed and said it was as much as Paul had charged. I have never had a fee, and I never will.
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As aspens reveal hidden fall glory, unexpected faith transforms astonished sinners. Formerly tarnished outlaws interiorize/showcase/reflect Redeemer God’s brilliant love/truth stashed in Christ! Jesus tells Son-drenched new creations: “You are the light of the world!” (Matthew 5:13) “The ultimate experience of life is knowing God.” (Billy Graham) Who would have guessed? Hallelujah!

Friend, let’s contemplate fall. Fall’s colors remove a shroud and reveal hidden glory. What veiled glories will God reveal to you and in you?
First, some personal history. For the past eighteen years, the West has been home. It is my treasured birthplace and Via’s chosen adopted abode. Still, for the prior thirty years, God gave us a home among the Southeast’s multi-hued fall grandeur and – here I must pile up adjectives – its redolent floral spring exuberance.
Such spring and fall triumphs are now muted – fond memories.
But here, fall after God-given fall, we have mostly brilliant yellow and evergreen green – with a few splashes of orange among humble bushes and a few unusual aspen. Not much? Not so! Here simplicity bespeaks and magnifies beauty.
Casting our eyes along roadside rivers, well-hydrated deciduous leviathans display their fall golden yellow – adding wonder to the river’s gun-metal hue and the vast expanse of Cerulean blue sky.
But up in the mountains, Fall, we delight to discover your awaited royal golden yellow – ASPEN! – especially along the forest edge – or in secluded pockets, here and there. Suddenly, Fall you transform timid isolation into strikingly bold expression. Glowing aspen, you beguile us by your luminous virtuosity. No yellow compares with your sun-drenched, stunning-yellow. Great Emancipator God, you stashed improbable glory in aspen! Who would have guessed? Hallelujah!
Note: aspens mean “young forest.” These white-with-random-splashes-of-black barked beauties make way for shade-tolerant evergreens which eventually choke-out their vibrant hosts.
But, until that final day, Fall, aspens radiantly answer your call to reflect the sun’s splendor. Creator God, these bewilderingly spectacular martyrs bear witness to your uncommon/common grace.
One October, so I could preach at Covenant Presbyterian in Lander, Wyoming, Via and I traveled six hundred miles from presbytery in Kalispell, Montana, to Lander. Such windshield time reinvigorated our souls! Stretches around Polebridge, Seeley-Swan, Big Sky, Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Dubois took our breath away. Marvelous!
And there is more.
While other trees perform photosynthesis through leaves, aspens’ thin white bark allows sunlight to pass through to the chlorophyll containing cortex. Thus, aspens thrive in tough snowy conditions when other trees remain dormant.
Also during winter, sugar in the aspen’s bark sustains wildlife – deer, elk and rabbit. What a lifeline!
And, here we pause for a story. When Via and I first moved to Helena, we lived in town. Eight years later when our youngest graduated from high school, we found a fixer-upper-with-a- view halfway up a small mountain. We named our new home Starfall.
As we prepared to move, I took some aspens I’d planted at our in-town home and transplanted them to a grassy meadow at the base of Starfall’s hill. I bucketed water so they would survive.
And they did – until one morning I discovered deer had eaten them off at ground level. Ouch!
Later that summer when everything else turned brown, the meadow where I planted the aspens remained green. Reader, most likely you have connected the dots. This was our septic field! God knew we didn’t need aspens and their extensive root system there! So, he sent deer to overcome my ignorance.
Friend, perhaps you can identify. In your naivete, you rejoiced in something. Then God uprooted or cut it down. You mourned. But, at last you understood God meant such pruning or more for good, and you rejoiced in God’s wise Providence!
Now, more about aspens. Surprisingly, aspen roots sprout to produce a genetically identical replica of the mother aspen tree. An entire clump of aspen trees can be a single tree’s clone. Thus, all leaves in the clump synchronize with each season. Reportedly, an aspen clone in Utah spread over 100 acres. Such interconnected aspen root structures make aspens one of the largest organisms on earth.
Such physical fullness prompts another spiritual analogy: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the Gentiles will rally to him.” (Isaiah 11:9, 10) Jesus, Root of Jesse, you are the “firstborn among many.” (Romans 8:29)  Reduplicating your magnified LIFE, whole people groups reunite in you.
Consequently, Jesus, you declared: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Once more, back to aspens. Individual aspens can live 150 years. Groupings of aspens are some of the oldest living organisms on earth.
And to the aged trusting God, Scripture gives honor/hope:. “The righteous flourish like the…tree…They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” (Psalm 92: 12-15)
One final word. “Aspen” comes from Old English “aespe,” “shaking tree.” Growing up, I heard this tale:  Embarrassed aspen leaves perpetually shook at the slightest hint of wind because – somehow – most improbably/incredibly – aspen wood composed Jesus’ cross.
Aspen lovers, notwithstanding shady legends, ponder Jesus’ cross. There we find a compelling connection. Holy Spirit, your Wind moves our hearts. Embarrassed by our sin, we shake. Then, most improbably/incredibly, despite crucifixion brutality, we witness the Son’s deep compassion followed by his incandescent resurrection splendor. Many bask in his shine.
Friends, as aspens reveal hidden fall glory, unexpected faith transforms astonished sinners. Formerly tarnished outlaws interiorize/showcase/reflect Redeemer God’s brilliant love/truth stashed in Christ! Jesus tells Son-drenched new creations: “You are the light of the world!” (Matthew 5:13) “The ultimate experience of life is knowing God.” (Billy Graham) Who would have guessed? Hallelujah!
Steve Bostrom is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in  America and lives in Helena, MT.
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Spurgeon kept the baptismal pool filled — even when no baptisms were scheduled (81). His people would always have the mission set before them. May our pools be figuratively filled with importunate prayers, compassionate tears, and joyful proclamations of the excellencies of our glorious Christ. May we be fully awake, fully alive, sowing much. And let us look to the God of our ancestors to answer us from heaven.

Over 38 years of pastoral ministry at New Park Street Chapel (later to become The Metropolitan Tabernacle), Charles Spurgeon and the church added nearly 14,000 people into membership. Of that number, how many would you guess were brought into the church through baptism — as new souls won to the Savior?
I would have guessed up to 3,500. Most, I would have reasoned, transferred from other churches to hear the generation’s greatest preacher. Further, 3,500 people baptized — on average 92 a year, nearly 2 per week for 38 years — seems like a downpour of blessing compared to the trickle of conversions I am accustomed to.
In his wonderful book Spurgeon the Pastor, Geoffrey Chang gives us the answer. “Spurgeon took in 13,797 people into membership. Of that number 10,063 (73%) were taken into membership through baptism,” the rest through transfer (20%) and by profession (7%) (110). Meaning, “most of the membership of the Tabernacle was made up of those who were converted through the ministry of the church” (112).
In one generation, over 10,000 brought into one local church through baptism. Can you imagine?
“Burning Disgrace”
The astonishment deepens when Chang documents how Spurgeon detested lax standards of baptism and membership. Meaning, the church did not baptize on a whim. Those ten thousand did not raise a hand in one moment of passion and wade into the pool a few minutes later. Spurgeon refused to boast of “unhatched chickens” (112). Rather, the church remained serious about regenerate membership, with a process on the front end that towers over many churches today.
Above all, Chang writes of Spurgeon, “he wanted to see people brought into the church from the world” (111). His hunger to see God save souls was contagious. He could not conceive of the church of Jesus Christ not winning her Master’s spoils.
I should reckon it to be a burning disgrace if it could be said, “The large church under that man’s pastoral care is composed of members whom he has stolen away from other Christian churches.” No, but I value beyond all price the godless, the careless, who are brought out from the world into communion with Christ. (111)
How many pastors and churches today think this way? Or, most convicting to me, how many believe this way? How many really believe God can build our churches primarily through baptism? I struggle to. How many really believe we can see a revival of a neighborhood, town, city, or nation with that old rugged gospel? I struggle to. How many really plead for God to move mightily among us as of old? I struggle to.
Great Awakenings
Stories like these stir a restlessness in me.
I read of God’s work in other lands and times, and wonder at such little resemblance to my own experience. They lived in an epic, it seems. I turn the pages of Scripture to read of my forebears “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:33–35). What would they read flipping through the pages of my life?
Continuing on, I read of a mighty gospel “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). In special epochs — distant epochs — I read of major cities casting their idols into the fire (Acts 19:18–19), and of conviction for sin shattering hearts by the hundreds and thousands (Acts 2:37–41). I read of Great Awakenings on our own shores, as many looked up from their snake-bitten condition to Christ and were healed.
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