For_the_Fame_of_God's_Name.pdf

At last Fall’s Desiring God National Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center, 27 writers were able to surprise Pastor John with a volume of essays in his honor, under the title For the Fame of God’s Name. The truth of that alliterative expression points away from him and happily up to God.

Thousands of pastors and church leaders were there that morning to witness the moment of the book’s presentation. None of the “insiders” were entirely sure how John would react . . . either with frowning chagrin or smiling delight. Well, God graced him to be humbly delighted. Amen!

Now, we, the members and friends of Bethlehem, get a chance to put ourselves and our preaching pastor and his wife to the test again. We are inviting them and you to a 30th anniversary celebration of their ministry here, three decades from the date John & Noël changed addresses (from New Brighton to Elliot Park) and ministry directions (from college academia to a downtown pastorate).

Our “test” and theirs is whether, in our eating and drinking and whatever else we do, all will be done to the glory of God, i.e., for the fame of His Name.

Thirty years has become a generational “vapor’s breath” for us to get something called God-ward perspective, the kind John glimpsed for himself, along with a room full of mourners on February 17.

“God has been so good to us,” he remarked in the Downtown Sanctuary on Thursday morning at 56-year-old Bob Lockman’s funeral. “We came to Bethlehem in 1980, and Bob came two years later. We’ve had weddings, babies, and blessings together of all kinds, along with painful failures and struggles and brokenness. Then, we were 500 or so; now we are 5,000 or so . . .  And we get to die together, too. How wonderful to do it all with one another in community . . . God has been so good to this church,” he repeated, reaching for his handkerchief and for one of his first Advent poems, titled Jesus, written 27 years ago . . . Linda Lockman remembered and knew it bore repeating.

What do you remember? The possibilities abound. Because of John’s expository preaching method, many of you can locate your start here with the chapter (and maybe even the verses) he was exulting over when you dropped in for the first time. Was it in Romans, or Hebrews, or now in John’s Gospel?

And there are the years and years of Advent poems . . . how many of those exquisite pieces are stand-out favorites for you?

Perhaps you came to Bethlehem because you discovered that the author of one or more of his 40 books was pastoring right under your nose here in the center of the metropolitan area!

How about when we were buying dilapidated properties up 7th and 8th streets, one at a time, to scratch out at least a little on-site parking next to a crumbling church building that was constructed in 1873?

Did you keep coming because of the God-centered worship, the attention to neighborhood ministry, the rebirth of world missions recruitment, exposure to a biblically rich children’s curriculum, the arrival of Campus Outreach, the challenge of multi-campusing across the Twin Cities, student life in The Bethlehem Institute or Bethlehem College and Seminary?

Whatever the reason(s) may be for thankfully looking over our shoulders, let’s be sure to help each other pass the “God-wardness” test by joining John & Noël in our united forward look. Let’s encourage them and be encouraged by the Pipers to “strain forward to what lies ahead . . . toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus!”

May the next years for the Pipers be for them and for us God’s display of his goodness to Bethlehem like never before!

David Livingston
Pastor for Shepherd Groups & Adult Ministries
(South Campus Pastor)