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A Visit to Grace Community Church 223
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Question' from Luke 9:18-22. Page size here is reduced.
224 JOHN MacArtHur: SERVANT OF THE WORD AND FLOCK
I should not leave the campus of Grace Church without
adding a word on how it appears on a weekday. Even without
the Sunday crowds the car park is far from empty and there
is plenty of activity. Work is going on in all the offices which
form a wing to the main auditorium. Across an open courtyard
from the auditorium is the fine building opened in 1998 for the
Master's Seminary, with four hundred currently in attendance.
For the Seminary chapel the original chapel building to which
MacArthur came in 1969 is used. On another part of the campus
Grace Community School continues, with 260 pupils and four-
teen staff under the headship of Tom Chaffin. One venue with
a special draw for me is the Book Store, originally "The Book
Shack'. It is now a full-scale work, open all week, with shelves
filled with books most likely to help the church and not neces-
sarily the latest popular titles. Those attending Grace Church
often hear from their pastor such words as the following:
The role high-quality books play in our lives is absolutely
critical. So why do so many Christians find it difficult to apply themselves to books? A. W. Tozer said that 'to enjoy
a great religious book requires a degree of consecration
to God and detachment from the world that few modern Christians have.' While it takes great determination to form new habits and cultivate our minds through books, even greater are the rewards you'll see in your thought patterns and your spiritual growth. When it comes to how we spend our spare moments, have we passively allowed
the world to squeeze us into its mould? What can we do
today to change that?
Before we leave the campus of Grace Community Church I
will share a thought that inevitably comes to my mind on such
visits. There is a likeness to the work of C. H. Spurgeon, who
A Visit to Grace Community Church 225
died in 1892, that cannot be missed. That is not because Sun
Valley is any kind of imitation. I doubt if John MacArthur had
very much acquaintance with Spurgeon's life and work until the
1980s when a great student of Spurgeon in the person of Phil
Johnson came to join him. As should already be clear, the work
of Grace Community Church developed without following any
known example. Yet the resemblance is there, and it is because
both men were given similar ambitions for the cause of Christ.
Spurgeon gave priority to a college for preparing preachers
and missionaries; organized conferences at which the spiritual
growth of pastors was uppermost;* wrote and promoted Chris-
tian literature of the Puritan school; presided over a Society for
the distribution of Christian literature; and never lost sight of the
world as a mission field. MacArthur would be the last to draw
a parallel, but it exists, and indeed extends beyond the features
already mentioned. Both men loved young people: Spurgeon
was the president of two Orphanages, and MacArthur of the
Master's College.
What is certain is that MacArthur found in Spurgeon's for-
titude and discernment a strengthening encouragement as the
twentieth century came to its close; he saw him as a 'kindred
spirit' although he hastened to add, 'I sit at his feet, not by his
side.' He writes of how he stood at Spurgeon's grave one sum-
mer's day in London in 1992, and reflected on the similarity
between the contemporary church situation and the dangers
which 'thrust Spurgeon into a battle that ultimately led to his
3 For real usefulness graces are better than gifts. As the man is, so is his work. If we would do better we must be better.' Such was Spurgeon's convic-
tion, and it is also MacArthur's: 'A leader's effectiveness is always bound up
in his character. It is the pastor's example that ultimately lends credibility to
his message.'
226 JOHN MacARTHUR: SERVANT OF THE WORD AND FLOCK
death'.4 With Spurgeon he dreaded an increased toleration of
worldliness in the church:
'Many would like to unite church and stage, cards and prayer,
dancing and sacraments. If we are powerless to stem this torrent,
we can at least warn people of its existence, and entreat them to
keep out of it. When the old faith is gone, and enthusiasm for
the gospel is extinct, it is no wonder that people seek something
else in the way of delight. Lacking bread, they feed on ashes.'
MacArthur quotes these words of Spurgeon's, but his own
are very like them.
I judge that there 1s another similarity between these two men.
At times it was a great burden for Spurgeon to realize not only
that thousands looked for the help of his ministry, but that the
very livelihood of Christian workers and missionaries, and the
support of several agencies, all depended on his presence. If,
on occasions, his friends saw him depressed, it was commonly
in connection with this burden. John MacArthur would be less
than human if he did not feel the same weight of responsibil-
ity, but any references to this are brief: 'Our ministry exacts a
price — one that alone we could not bear.' He is sustained by a
praying wife and people, and ultimately because he knows, as
Spurgeon knew, that all lasting work is truly the work of God
Himself. Christ's work will all be fulfilled, and it is in no way
dependent on the instruments He chooses to employ. The text
Susannah Spurgeon chose for her husband's 'Funeral Sermon', could not have been more suitable: 'For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep'
(Acts 13:36).° When the service of one man is done, the work
of God is certain to go on.
* Ashamed of the Gospel, p. xi.
° Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 38, 1892, pp. 73-84.