In all the expansion of the 1980s there were at least two (continued)
go JOHN MacArTHur: SERVANT OF THE WORD AND FLOCK accountable for how people apply God's Word. But as the pastor-teacher of a congregation, I have a relationship with my people like that of a shepherd and his sheep. I watch over their souls as one 'who will give an account' (Heb.
13:17) .. . I share the joy of parents over the birth of a child, as well as the pain of children over the death of a mother or father. I help celebrate a wedding: I also offer comfort at a funeral . . . I feel loved, appreciated, needed, trusted, admired—all a result of being an instrument God has used in the spiritual progress of His people. I know my people pray for me and care deeply about me. . . Lite reward of being a pastor far surpasses any frustration I ever feel in the ministry. And so I say with the apostle Paul, 'I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus' (Phil. 3:14).°
The work in the congregation at Sun Valley, instead of being weakened by the additional agencies, was rather encouraged by them. The fact that all came under the oversight of their elders gave unity to the whole, and there was enthusiastic help from unpaid volunteers for Word of Grace and Grace to You. At this same period much was also going on at the church itself. A day school for children up to fourteen years of age was started in 1980. Aid for the mentally impaired and the handicapped was strengthened. Thirty missionaries had gone out from the church and were being supported. A thriving bookstore, The Book
Shack, was open daily, for MacArthur believed in the ministry of books as an integral part of good teaching.
It was no part of the vision of the leadership at Sun Valley that a church may be a preaching centre, where individuals have no commitment to one another, and no oversight is exercised. In ° Published in Masterpiece, Nov. — Dec. 1990, pp. 2-3.
The 1980s gI
1984, when it was clear that too many people were in attendance without becoming members, teaching was specially directed to this subject. The result was 1,200 new members, and approxtmately three hundred baptisms.
In a December 1984 letter to "Beloved partners in ministry' the pastor reflected on the growth of the work, and continued: [ve grown spiritually in these last five years, and I trust you have too. Its good to be able to look into the past and see the hand of the Lord, and the marvellous way He works to conform us to the image of His Son. The external growth of this ministry is definitely encouraging, but it's the evidence of spiritual growth that means the most.
If this testimony had not been true for MacArthur, and he had relied on himself, the weight of ministry in the 1980s could have marked its end. He knew the work 1n which he was sharing was not his accomplishment. Martin Luther wrote to John von Staupitz in 1522 about the Reformation: 'Christ 1s doing this without us, of course, without the help of a human hand, solely through the Word."
If Luther's words seem an exaggeration let it be remembered that Luke described the advance of the gospel in similar terms when he wrote 'the word of God grew and multiplied' (Acts
12:24; 19:20). John could say:
From the very beginning, I was convinced that Grace to You would only be used of God if we were continually faithful to the proclamation of the Scripture. I can promise that God will bless that, I can't promise that He'll bless anything else, but I know He will bless His Word.
7 Luther's Works, vol. 49, 'Letters' (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), p. 12.