I have known Kent Hughes for most of my life - as friend, pastor, and boss. After watching him from the "front row" during all of these years, I am regularly impressed by two seemingly contradictory conclusions. On the one hand, Kent is essentially the same man today as the one whom I met over forty years ago. His unbending commitments to Christ, Bible, church, and family are just as strong today as they were in the 1960s. And in a profession where men are more regularly loosening, or even letting go of, their grip on these fundamental commitments, Kent's enduring discipline is refreshing, even bracing.
On the other hand, while Kent is the same today as he was all those years ago, he is also an entirely different person. That is to say, while Kent's commitment to Christ, Bible, church, and family remains high, his enduring discipline in these areas has made him a far more outstanding man than he could have been otherwise. In fact, Kent is a living example of his own exposition on Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who grew stronger in the Lord and more ambitious for his kingdom throughout his advancing years.248 Or, to put it another way, Kent is like a knife that, instead of losing its edge with use, is becoming sharper as time goes by.
This biography traces some of the key figures and events that God has used to make Kent into the disciplined man and pastor that he is today.
Beginnings and Endings
Richard Kent Hughes was welcomed into the world on March 1, 1942, at Las Companas Hospital in Compton, California. He was the first child born to Beth Adelle Bray and Graham Winfred Hughes, a red-headed drill instructor at Camp Pendleton Marine Base in San Diego County.249 The growing Hughes family, later including Kent's brother Steve,250 faithfully attended Vermont Avenue Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. Here Kent was baptized, enlisted on the cradle roll, and later became a faithful Sunday school attendee. It is also the scene of one of his earliest memories.
Like Tiny Tim from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Kent recalls being carried on his dad's shoulder to a church-sponsored, father-son banquet. Beth made matching ties for the occasion, which were worn proudly by both father and son. Even now, Kent can still summon up the memory of his father singing "Shine on Harvest Moon" on that cherished night. But not long after that happy occasion, life for the Hughes family took a terrible turn: Kent's father was killed in an industrial accident.
By the time Graham's tragic death was being reported in the Compton News-Tribune, Beth was already receiving condolences from friends and family, including Edward James Caldwell, pastor at Vermont Avenue Presbyterian,251 as well as Kent's paternal grandparents in North Carolina.252
New Town, New Start
The Hughes remained in their Lynwood home immediately following Graham's death. But as Kent was beginning grammar school, Beth decided to move her family to the up-and-coming, post-war community of Whittier.253 Here, on magnolia-lined Edmaru Avenue, the Hughes settled into the house where Kent would finish growing up and Beth would remain for the next five decades.254
In 1955 construction commenced on a liquor store in one of the many strip malls along Whittier's expanding border. Phil Martin, a local resident, believed that if a new liquor store was being introduced to the community, a new church should be added as well. Martin was so strongly convinced of this that he told the California Yearly Meeting of Friends Churches that he would pay a pastor's salary for one year if it would plant a congregation in the blighted neighborhood. Not long afterward, Granada Heights Friends Church was founded just two blocks north of the liquor store.
The Hughes family was attending East Whittier Presbyterian Church when they accepted an invitation from Marge and Jim Rhode to visit the new Monthly Meeting. Not long afterward, Beth Hughes and her boys became fully involved with the fledgling Friends congregation. During that opening chapter in Granada's history, Kent was introduced to two people who would become influential lifelong friends.
"Friend of Friends"
David Hamilton MacDonald and his family were living in the ranch house across the street from the soon-to-be-completed church building. Though David was slightly older than Kent, the two adolescent boys became fast friends, and almost immediately the MacDonald family began making an influence on young Kent. David's dad, Joseph, was a role model and paternal figure to the fatherless boy. A career Navy man and one-time boxer, this chief boatswain mate exemplified masculinity and tenderness toward Kent that he, in turn, would someday show his own sons and grandsons.
David's sibling, Donna, exercised a sister-like sway over Kent, who was growing up with only brothers. While possessing all the feminine graces, Donna also owned the grit to accept Kent's challenge to a memorable race down Granada Avenue - Donna gripping the reins of her pinto pony, Chico, and Kent clutching the wheel of his 1941 Ford coupe, on the side of which was painted the descriptor Swing Low Sweet Chariot!
David, Kent's water polo-playing buddy, is the one who accompanied Kent on the epic, day-long journey to which Kent often refers when recalling the consummate Southern California adventure from his youth.255 But while David was endearing himself to Kent as the "friend of friends,"256 the slender youth was also being influenced by another "Granadan."
A Life-changing Relationship
Verl Lindley was the Friends minister chosen to plant the church down the street from the new liquor store. His broad smile, robust personality, and gospel heart were attractive to twelve-year-old Kent, in whom Verl had taken an interest.
During the early days of Granada Heights, the young pastor and twelve-year-old Kent spent time together working on the construction of the new church building. On one occasion, Verl even took Kent and his brother Steve on a fishing trip to Irvine Lake.257 But it was over the last week of August 1955 that God used the new pastor, who was working that summer as a camp director in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to make the most profound and lasting impact on Kent's life.
One evening, after a talk during which campers were introduced to the well-traveled Romans Road258 thirteen-year-old Kent came to faith in God through Jesus Christ. Later that night, flashlight in hand and hunkered down in the musty confines of his flannel-lined sleeping bag, Kent returned to those sacred texts. Tears began falling onto the pages over which he poured again and again and, in the words of John Wesley, Kent's heart was warmed to the gospel. His life would never be the same.
Growing in Faith and Favor
Soon after coming to faith, Kent was given greater responsibilities at church. As a fourteen-year-old, he once presided over Granada's Sunday evening "Inspiration Hour."259 A year later Kent offered the invocation at the Family Christmas Service260 and within the next few months, the sixteen-year-old, high school junior announced his intention to become a pastor.
Kent was confirmed in that choice with an invitation to preach his first sermon. He selected the entire book of Jonah for his text and gave his exposition the double title, "The Chicken of the Sea, or God has a Whale of a Plan for Your Life!" The talk enthused Granadans and encouraged the youthful preacher.261
While Kent was beginning to grow in the disciplines of the ministry, the Lord was, in the words of early-Victorian divine Charles Simeon, taking care to "grow him downwards." For instance, in the same year that Kent decided to pursue the pastorate, he also wrote this note of apology to his mother concerning an otherwise undocumented incident:
Dear Momma,
I'm sorry I got excited. I really wasn't mad, just nervous. I know I should learn to listen, because what you tell me is important. I know that when I act like a child I don't act too Christian. See you in St. Louis.
Your Loving Son, Kent
These lines reveal the disciplining work of God's Spirit on Kent's character. They also show that, even as a teenager, his writing style was to the point and biblically founded, two traits that continue to mark his books and letters even to this day.
Kent did not relegate himself to church activities and friends alone. Newspaper clippings from the time reveal that he was accomplished in a variety of broader pursuits as well. For instance, Kent took first place in a district-wide editorial writing contest, as well as a competition sponsored by the Ford Motor Company for his mechanical drawing of a drill press vise.262 He also played basketball and received accolades as a topnotch tennis player, and he was a well-known "Condor" yell leader at the newly built California High School.
College and Courtship
Upon graduating from Cal High, Kent enrolled at Cerritos Junior College and then Whittier College, where he majored in history and political science. Kent enjoyed collegiate life and found his classes to be especially invigorating. But as an underclassman Kent found someone even more interesting than his books. Her name was Barbara Triggs.
Barbara grew up thirty minutes south and a world away from Kent in urban Long Beach. The two teenagers met at a Bible study held in the East Whittier home of Barbara and Robert Seelye.263 Within months, Kent and Barbara had fallen "crazy in love," as Barbara so often puts it, and not long after that the two were engaged to be married.
On May 6, 1962, Kent and Barbara exchanged wedding vows before Verl Lindley at Granada Heights Friends Church. After a poolside honeymoon in Palm Springs, the Hughes moved into a little above-garage apartment on Washington Avenue across from Central Park in the historic uptown district of Whittier. As Kent began his junior year of college, life could not have been better for the twenty-year-old groom and his nineteen-year-old bride.
Studies, Family, and Work
The coming years flew by and were marked by rapid growth. In 1964, Kent received his B.A. from Whittier College and immediately went on to graduate school at Talbot Theological Seminary located on the campus of Biola University.264 While Kent liked college, he loved seminary.
Seminary was the convergence of Kent's greatest and growing interests - biblical studies, theology, church history, and preaching. Immersing himself in the strenuous pursuit of these disciplines alongside other men preparing for the pastorate, such as fellow-student John MacArthur Jr., was supremely exhilarating to Kent. Even his professors recognized Kent's ever-escalating interest and enthusiasm for his studies.265
On the home front, the Hugheses had begun their family while Kent was still at Whittier College. Between 1963 and 1968 all four of their children were born266 and summarily dedicated by Verl Lindley beneath the blue-tiled, stained glass window at Granada Heights.267 In 1966, Kent added the hectic role of youth pastor at Granada Heights to his already busy life.
Kent assumed his ministerial position as a Copernican cultural shift was taking place in America, especially in Southern California. The typically well-groomed-and-clad pastor let his brown hair grow and began sporting bell-bottomed jeans to more readily identify with his charge. But the power of Kent's ministry, then as now, was not in his sartorial relevance but rather in an unswerving reliance upon the sufficiency of the gospel to change lives. Evidence of that power was never more clearly seen than during five memorable days in Parker, Arizona.
By Kent's own admission, the highlight of his four decades in pastoral ministry transpired at the Colorado River during Easter week 1968. As remains the custom, hoards of Southern Californians had flocked to the river to tan under the strong desert sun, water ski the wide turns and broad inlets of this great American waterway, and, to put it simply, drink too much beer. Amidst that party-minded, tent-dwelling company strewn along the river's edge, the high school group from Granada Heights had come to do evangelism.
By God's grace, the enduring reward of that week was a harvest of four souls - a collection of young men, just a bit older than those by whom they were evangelized, who arrived in Arizona sporting the swagger of the late 1960s and returned home to Southern California with the gospel burning in their hearts. The majority of that group went on into Christian ministry. Today, one of those men is the president of a preeminent missionary agency.
During his decade on the pastoral staff at Granada Heights, Kent served in a variety of pastoral roles,268 each one requiring the preparation and delivery of up to two or more Bible talks per week. Robert Seeyle once observed that the discipline of that weekly regimen was crucial in preparing Kent for the next step that God had in store for him.
A New Challenge
In 1974, the evangelistically minded men and women of Granada Heights set out to establish a daughter congregation in nearby north Orange County. Enthusiasm ran high as Granadans poured the latest in church planting research, twenty of her most active families, and $50,000 into the project. Above and beyond all that, Granada Heights sent her favorite son, Kent Hughes, as senior pastor. His professional stock was at a peak and the prospect for success was great. For a while, the results of the endeavor matched their hopes.
While Kent views the 1968 "river trip" as his greatest moment in ministry, the first Sunday at the newly completed Brea-Olinda Friends Church building was certainly the most satisfying. After months of packing and unpacking their portable congregation, the people of Brea-Olinda had now completed a visible beachhead for the gospel on a prominent corner in a burgeoning community. And the future looked increasingly bright.
But as the months went on, the forecast began to change. "After considerable time and incredible labor, we had fewer regular attenders than during our first six months," Kent writes. "Our church was shrinking, and the prospects looked bad - really bad."269
Out of this increasingly desperate chapter in Kent's life rose the principles on which Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome is based, the book that Kent later coauthored with Barbara. In it, the two review God's definition of success according to the Scriptures versus the numbers-driven version to which Kent had succumbed. Once this matter of true success was settled in their hearts, the Lord lightened Kent's burden (though attendance persisted at low ebb) and, in doing so, began preparing Kent and Barbara for an unexpected and dramatic move.
Heading East
College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, was founded in 1878 and is located across the street from the sprawling front campus of Wheaton College. While College Church was started as a part of Wheaton College,270 she assumed independence some fifty years later when the congregation moved from Pierce Chapel to its current location on Washington Street.
In the summer of 1979, Neal Conley, chairman of the pastoral search committee, contacted Kent concerning the now long-vacant position of senior pastor at College Church.271 That conversation led to others, and within weeks, Kent, with family in tow, was in Wheaton to candidate for the job at College Church. While his morning talk was well delivered and uneventful, the story of Kent's evening sermon is a much-loved and well-traveled tale among the people of College Church.
August 5 turned hot and humid as night began settling on the non-air-conditioned College Church building. A Midwestern thunderstorm, thoroughly foreign to the Hughes, was blowing in from the west. Between the ghastly heat and the noticeable presence of three evangelical luminaries sitting with their wives in the first few rows,272 the thirty-seven-year-old candidate was starting to perspire.
Upon stepping into the pulpit, Kent began having second thoughts about his sermon. His text for the night, taken from Luke 8, was chosen at the request of his children - not for its expositional punch but because it included an illustration about one of their friends! So, with a talk of doubtful origins before him, Kent began preaching with the coming thunderstorm now present and raging outside. What followed was a sermon interrupted fifteen times by a malfunctioning fire alarm, as well as the lights and sirens of arriving fire engines.273
The calamity of that Sunday evening cast a pall over Kent's confidence. He returned to Orange County uncertain that he would be getting the job. But within a few days, the phone rang and Kent was receiving an invitation to become the next senior pastor of College Church.274
Within days, the Hughes began packing up their Brea home and a few short weeks after that were bidding a tearful farewell to their lifelong friends and family. Piling into their pale blue, faux-paneled Ford station wagon, Kent, Barbara and their four children, now ages eleven to sixteen, began heading east on Interstate 10 toward a new and unknown life in the Prairie State.
The Years of Establishment (1979-1988)
Kent's first decade at College Church was devoted to the establishment of his ministry.275 From his first Sunday in the College Church pulpit, Kent began establishing his approach to preaching, which he regularly referred to as "serial Bible exposition." Beginning with John 1:1-18 on October 21, 1979, Kent took the next two years to work his way, section by section, through the fourth Gospel. Upon completing John, he commenced with a study of Acts276 and after that the book of Romans.277 Over the next twenty-seven years, Kent would preach through sixteen complete books of the Bible.278
Kent also began employing successful ideas from both of his Southern California churches that, with God's blessing and some cultural tweaking,279 became equally well established at College Church. In 1980 a college pastor was added to his staff, a first for any church in the Wheaton area. Next came Summerfest, an attractive entry point for unchurched friends and family members of those in the congregation and surrounding community.280 Finally, Women's Bible Study, established and developed under Barbara's leadership, would become, in Kent's opinion, the single most effective evangelistic tool in his nearly three decades at College Church. Kent's first ten years are also the ones during which he began establishing some of the most cherished holiday traditions at College Church.281
As Kent's first decade in Wheaton was coming to a close, he, along with the elders, established a sabbatical program.282 In 1987 Kent and Barbara took their inaugural sabbatical to Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, for six months of rest and study. Here, with their days at Brea-Olinda firmly set in providential perspective, the Hughes prayerfully laid down the principles derived from that trying time in their book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome.283
The Years of Expansion (1989-1998)
A major decision was facing Kent as he began his second decade at College Church. The choice was whether to remain in Wheaton or accept an invitation to become the lead pastor of a long-standing, big-city congregation. After wrestling in prayer and receiving the wise counsel of a revered and senior confidante at College Church, Kent resolved to remain in the Midwest. With his feet and heart now firmly established in Wheaton, the years of expansion were underway.
Shortly after Kent's arrival in Wheaton, the people of College Church began outgrowing their facilities. By the late 1980s, prints were being drawn up under Kent's defining leadership for a new space in which the entire congregation could meet for corporate worship. After a protracted series of civic challenges, College Church was finally granted a building permit, and on January 31, 1993, a thoughtful dedicatory service284 was held in her new, 1,200-seat, Georgian-style building.285 But the physical expansion of College Church was merely symbolic of Kent's greater desire for spiritual expansion among his people.
With the prospect of a new millennium dawning for the congregation, Kent started contemplating the coming years. As he did, his mind kept returning to a single question: with the forces of postmodernity bearing down on the culture with ever-increasing strength, what kind of person would it take to stand tall for Christ in the year 2000? With that query firmly planted in his mind, Kent began developing a plan for greater gospel growth among the people of College Church.
Kent's strategy evolved in stages and was built on his rigorous biblical reasoning and that of his staff and senior lay leadership. The heart of their effort was twofold: first, to unify the vision of College Church according to the gospel286 and, second, to strategically bring each ministry into line with that vision. By doing this, the teaching and training at every level of the church, from cradle to post-career, should have a centripetal, gospel pull.
To begin, Kent preached Vision 2000: Ministry Countdown to the Next Millennium,287 an epoch-making sermon setting forth seven pillar values upon which the future ministries of College Church would be built. Kent's thinking about Vision 2000 was especially refined in the summer of 1994 as he and Barbara enjoyed their second sabbatical, this time in Australia.288 Upon his return, Kent's disciplined efforts to grow a stronger gospel people began unfolding in earnest.
In 1996 the Pursuing Christ document, a catechism created under Kent's leadership, was completed to provoke gospel-centered growth throughout every level of ministry at College Church.289 This was followed by a series of in-depth discussions convened by Kent, giving birth to a new, gospel-driven purpose statement for the church - "God's people joyfully proclaiming Christ's glory among the nations."
The era of expansion reached its apex in the spring of 1998 when a small band of families and single adults moved from suburban Wheaton to the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Here, across the street from the soaring bell tower of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, Holy Trinity Church was born. Holy Trinity was a source of great pride and excitement for the people of College Church. But there was no one any more elated over the new congregation than the former church planter himself, who had pitched the idea years before in Vision 2000.290 Kent could see that his gospel strategy was not only capturing the hearts of his people, but also moving them out of their comfort zones.
The Years of Elevation: 1999-2006
Under Kent's leadership, the expanding ministry of College Church was creating an ever-heightening profile. Locally, this became apparent in the ongoing physical expansion of the College Church facilities. In 2000 the much-needed Commons building was opened across the street from the original College Church complex.291 The completion of this 55,000 square foot structure marked the fulfillment of Kent's dream to leave the next generation of church members with a ministry center suited to take them well into the twenty-first century.
College Church is known for her longstanding commitment to overseas gospel work,292 but in recent years this dedication to that task has grown dramatically. When Kent arrived in Wheaton, there were forty-two men and women on the missionary rolls who were supported by a budget of $183,000. In 2006 the international gospel force of College Church numbered over two hundred and was backed by a $1.7 million budget. By God's grace, Kent has left "the jewel of College Church," as he refers to the church's missionary program, shining more brightly than ever.
During his days at Granada Heights, Kent developed a thriving ministerial internship program. In 1981 that same model was adopted by College Church. Exactly twenty-five years later, almost two hundred men and women have received intensive training in gospel work through the internship program at College Church. The alumni of this program are helping to realize Kent's vision of elevating the gospel "DNA" of College Church throughout a growing number of ministry settings across the country and around the world.293
In the early 1980s, Kent was invited to publish a drastically edited version of his expositions on John.294 While he was grateful to expand the scope of his gospel influence, Kent was frustrated by the extent of the editing process. A few years later, Lane Dennis, president of Crossway Books, began attending College Church. Lane was particularly impressed with Kent's series of expositions on the book of Joshua and, with Kent's permission, published them in 1987 under the title Living on the Cutting Edge: The Challenge of Spiritual Leadership.295
As Lane continued to sit under Kent's preaching, he enthusiastically continued publishing Kent's sermons. "Early on," says Lane, "we decided to call the series Preaching the Word, and after [a while], our [steering] committee discussed the possibility of publishing an expository volume for each of the books of the Bible." With the publication of his sermons on Philippians, Kent has contributed seventeen books to the Preaching the Word series, with the remaining volumes committed to expositors whose work will be published under Kent's general editorship. During his last era of ministry at College Church, the elevating profile and proliferation of Kent's published expositions296 was accentuated by three complimentary projects.
The first project involved serving as a member of the translation oversight committee for the English Standard Version of the Bible (ESV). This task combines Kent's love for the biblical languages with his growing concern that English-speaking churches ought to possess a Bible well suited for both rigorous study as well as private and public reading. From the committee's first meeting in 1999 at Cambridge, England, until both testaments were published in 2001, Kent's time and energy spent on the ESV has been a labor of love.
The history behind the second project dates back to 1994, when the inaugural Workshop on Biblical Exposition was held at College Church.297 The workshop is aimed at helping preaching pastors sharpen their skills as biblical exegetes and expositors.298 Along with a variety of visiting instructors,299 Kent has been hosting the annual gathering for an ever-growing group of men. In the late 1990s, he was approached with a plan to regionalize and thereby elevate the influence of the workshop. Within a few years, the third project provided the vehicle to make that idea possible.
In 2001 the Charles Simeon Trust300 was established with Kent as its founding chairman. The purpose of the trust is to finance a handful of major gospel initiatives, one of which is the regional growth of the Workshop on Biblical Exposition. In its first five years, the Simeon Trust helped Kent and an increasing number of able hosts and instructors to strategically export the workshop to almost ten different locations around the United States and Canada.
The End of an Era
In the winter of 2005, Kent announced that, upon turning age sixty-five, he would retire from the pulpit of College Church and begin a new chapter of ministry. His reasoning, expressed in a letter to the congregation, was put like this: "At midlife I promised myself that when I came to my sixty-fifth year I would transition. I've seen others who, having had a good ministry, made the mistake of holding on too long."301 Even though his final sermon was almost two years away, the news of their senior pastor's forthcoming departure ran like shock waves throughout the congregation. For some, Kent was the only senior pastor they had ever known.
In time a search committee was impaneled, and the conclusion of Kent's final series of expositions was in sight. With that, the graying pastor informed his people that he would wrap up his tenure two months early, fulfilling his ministry on Christmas Eve of 2006. The end of an era was coming faster than anyone, even Kent, had realized it would.
On the weekend of November 18-19, 2006, colleagues and congregants, past and present, descended on College Church to honor their beloved mentor and senior pastor. After Kent preached a farewell sermon to three packed congregations on the morning of November 19, the College Church family came together en masse that night to honor Kent and Barbara. Gathering in the structure designed and built under Kent's inspiration, tears and laughter filled the room as twenty-seven years of ministry were remembered with a stirring series of verbal and visual testimonies.
The four Hughes children and their spouses were present on that night, sitting in the first few rows with Kent's twenty-two grandchildren. A couple of now middle-aged members of the Granada Heights high school group who were on the 1968 river trip were there too, as well as a convert from a subsequent evangelistic river trip. And taking it all in with a sense of paternal pride was the man whom God used to bring Kent into relationship with himself, Verl Lindley.
On Christmas Eve 2006, Kent preached five times - twice in the morning, twice in the afternoon, and once at night,302 all to a packed house. The nighttime gathering was particularly full as many came to sit under Kent's teaching one last time. Other than a brief acknowledgement of his twenty-seven years at College Church and his enduring gratitude for the faithful service of the chancel choir, Kent showed no sign that three decades of ministry were coming to a close.
The customary candlelit singing of "Silent Night" welcomed in Christmas and, as usual, its arrival was heralded throughout Wheaton by the bell atop the College Church bell tower. Kent concluded the service by pronouncing the benediction, blowing out his candle, and receiving an embrace from each member of his pastoral team. Members of the congregation came forward and offered their thanks and affection as well. As Christmas Day was beginning in Wheaton, Kent's career was ending - full, sweet, and blessed.
The Reward of Discipline
If there is one word that particularly describes Kent - now and over the years - it is discipline. It is the term that especially depicts the father whom Kent barely knew,303 and it is the central theme of his best-selling book.304 Almost every success that Kent has enjoyed over his forty years of gospel ministry is the result of divinely blessed discipline. In conclusion, here are three areas of Kent's pastoral life in which that discipline has especially paid off.305
Discipline of Study
From the beginning, Kent has maintained rigorous discipline in the study. For sermons, the process began with multiple readings of the book on which he intended to preach. Then Kent meticulously made a calendar covering the dates and texts for each exposition, factoring in holidays and other special occasions on the church calendar. After consulting a variety of expert sources, Kent went about collecting a cache of commentaries.306 His accumulated store usually included a combination of classical treatments, critical analyses, pastoral overviews, Jewish works, and even unorthodox treatises of his chosen book.
After carefully analyzing the text for a given week in both English and its original language, Kent determined the main point of the passage and wrote his outline. Only after doing these things did Kent consult his written resources. He then composed a sermon, relying on a vast supply of illustrations to punctuate his points.307
Over the years, Kent's discipline in the study afforded him the ability to create a sermon in less and less time. But instead of devoting that time to the other pressing details of ministry, Kent poured it right back into further study. As time went by, this clearly made his messages fuller and richer.308
Discipline of Preaching
There are few expositors today who understand the importance of words better than Kent. In a world that increasingly refuses to accept the absolute meaning of words, Kent was all the more disciplined in channeling God's truth by that medium - the very same one through which our Lord reveals himself to the world today. So, like a surgeon who must choose the most appropriate instruments for an upcoming operation, Kent selected words for a sermon with surgical precision. As Barbara once observed of her husband, Kent is a wordsmith.
Once in the pulpit, Kent understood that the power of preaching is in the preaching. That is, all the preparation in the world is of no use to a congregation unless the preacher presents his text in a compelling fashion. That means a sermon must be preached in a manner that is true to the preacher's personality and prayerfully blessed by the Holy Spirit.309
To ensure that he stayed on course and used his pulpit time wisely, Kent preached from a manuscript. That is not to say he preached a written essay, but rather a sermon written as he intended to speak it. This is a distinctive mark of the Preaching the Word series - it is a record of Scripture faithfully explained by way of the spoken word before a live audience. In fact, Kent sometimes refused the grammatical refinements of the editor's pen in favor of keeping his printed sermons true to their live presentation.
Discipline of Teamwork
Over the course of his ministry, the discipline of assembling a well-qualified team has served Kent well. This is due, in part, to the following four things.
First, for pastoral positions, Kent hired pastors. He never looked primarily for a "youth guy" or a "music man" to fill his staff. Rather, Kent wanted to work with men who possess the biblically required desire and qualifications to pastor and teach those for whom he was responsible. Once that kind of man was found, Kent viewed him with an eye for a specific ministerial task, and if he was well suited to it, the man was offered the job.
Second, Kent always said that he was looking to hire team members who are better than himself. This unthreatened approach to ministry created an atmosphere of creativity and growth among his entire staff. One area in which Kent especially grew his colleagues was in the pulpit. Rather than hiring out-of-town preachers to speak during his periodic absences, Kent filled pulpit vacancies from among his own staff. This practice not only led to the further development of his assistants, but it also heightened the congregation's familiarity with and confidence in their own pastoral team.
Third, Kent poured time into his team. To begin, he met with the entire staff once a week for almost a half a day. For many years, the morning followed this pattern:
-- 7:00 AM Gather in the home of a staff member for an extended season of prayer over the congregation and one another.
-- 8:30 AM Shift to a restaurant of the host's choosing. Over breakfast, discuss everything from Monday Night Football to the latest theological conundrums.
-- 9:45 AM Reconvene at the church building to work through an agenda of business items.
-- 11:00 AM With the congregation prayed for, working relationships refreshed, and business done, the meeting was adjourned and a new week was underway.
The fraternal collegiality engendered during these times was vital in building a hardworking and disciplined staff - one just like their boss!
Another occasion at which Kent poured time into his team was at regularly scheduled retreats for staff and spouses. These five day getaways were held twice a year, and the agenda was simple - a leisurely breakfast followed by a lively time in the Word and then a build-your-own lunch. The afternoon was usually dedicated to free time, while the evening was given to supper, group games, and late-night discussions. In the early days, staff retreats were geared toward doing business. But over time Kent learned that the absence of a formal agenda promoted greater creativity and conversation when business items were informally brought up.
Finally, Kent advocated that many of the professional provisions made for him be made for his team as well. So the pastors at College Church now receive a book allowance, a budget line for continuing education, and (most highly valued) a six-month sabbatical for every seven years of service. These gracious benevolences created a ministerial team in fact, not only in name.
Retrospective from the Family
Kent himself expressed his conviction that the opinion that counts most with him regarding his work is the testimony of his family. It seems appropriate, therefore, to conclude this biographical essay by quoting words that Kent and Barbara's daughter Heather spoke at her parents' farewell celebration at College Church:
As children, we have been witnesses to Dad's love for this church. As my husband, Jeff, read through my notes for tonight, he told me that one of the ways my father loved the church the most is that he has never shortchanged you on a sermon. His commitment to doing his best for you and before God was evident to us by his very thorough preparation on every text. He has prayed for you fervently and consistently, and I know that as he and mom leave, their prayer for you will certainly echo that prayer of Paul in Philippians 1:9: "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
And lastly, Daddy, we your children want to thank you publicly for being not just our dad but our pastor as well. We have benefited from a lifetime of learning that has been unhindered because we have never wondered about the motives or the heart of the man behind the message. We know you, and you are worthy of our honor because of and only because of the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit in your own life, so all honor ultimately belongs to the Lord God, and we praise Him for you!
