It’s New Year’s Day; 50 years since ordination next month and an article to write. What better time for me to consider and share some words that have helped me to follow Christ? It was Dr Larry Crabb in the 1980s who reminded us of the concept of ‘words of life and death’, from Proverbs 18:21, ‘the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit’. I was challenged then to consider how I spoke to others (bearing in mind the NT commentary on this in Matt 12:37; Eph 4:29-30; Col 4:6; Ja 3:1-12) and I have been so grateful to God for those who have spoken ‘life words’ to me over many years. The first three came as I was growing up and in my BC life. Unsurprisingly, they were all from the sporting field. ‘Keep your eyes on the ball’ were much-needed words spoken to me by my cricket coach after my getting out to another rash shot! It is too easy for me to lose my focus, especially when tired, distracted by too many balls in the air or tempted to be attracted by the latest quick fix for successful ministry. Keeping my eyes on the ball that I am facing, which has to played, on its merits and where it is, is always an opportunity to experience God’s grace (as strength, as sin-conquering or as Christ-affirming). In my experience this will only happen if I keep my eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2).

Closely related, but from the golf course, ‘keep your head down’ is the cardinal rule. I’ve been playing golf ‘on and off ’ for 70 years. Every time I play, especially the close- range chip shots, I must remind myself, ‘keep your head down Peter!’ So, too, in discipleship and ministry.

The temptation is to want to see the results immediately. I must remind myself that I have work to do (the outcome of which often depends on others who may or may not respond) and, more importantly, that my Heavenly Father who sees my work can be trusted for the outcome in His time. My responsibility is to keep my head down on what I must do and up in prayer for what he must do.

‘The pass always beats the man’, drummed into us at club and school rugby to make us into team players, has many counterpoints in our life together as believers. I have been grateful for the teams of Christians God has placed me in, teaching me the joy of fellowship, the privilege of learning from others and serving with encouraging brothers and sisters. The effort of team work is always worth it.

Following my conversion at age 17 in 1964 five words from local church team members helped transform my thinking. I cannot be sure who spoke the first two to me, but they were from young men in their twenties whose lifestyle as believers made commitment to Christ attractive. ‘Peter, we were glad to learn that you became a believer last Sunday, can I encourage you to try to read your Bible every day and expect God to speak to you as you do’. How good was this! No trace of legalism. Just love as he passed on the secret of his own commitment and contentment. It was an invitation too good to refuse and one I have proven true ever since. I had benefitted from sound teaching at youth group and Evening Prayer for almost 6 years, so I knew he was not speaking of audible voices from God, but his ‘expectation’ emphasis has kept me from the ever-present temptation to see Bible reading, or ministry preparation, as ends in themselves. Ours was a Scripture Union Parish and a SU chorus has become my prayer: Make the Book live to me O Lord/ Show me Yourself within Your word/ Show me myself and show me my Saviour/ And make the Book live to me.

It was on the following Sunday, as I recall, another young man remarked that, ‘since you have a job and still live at home, it will never be easier to form the habit of giving at least 10% of your pay to the Lord’s work’. The joy of giving was easily learnt through this advice, one layman to another. But not only a joy, it has served the same function as the valve on the old pressure cookers, that of keeping the accumulation of riches from blowing away my love for the Lord and His work. Mind you, it has to be re-embraced each year but I am so glad for that ‘lifeword’, so thoughtfully given. Saving me from the fatal traps of 1 Tim 6:6-10 by introducing me to the pleasures of 6:17-19, it has proven its worth as a life-word of lasting value.

I am ever so grateful to God that I grew up mainly praying the prayers of Morning and Evening prayer. Another ‘life word’ that shaped me, even before I became a Christian, was prayed by our Rector or Catechist every Sunday morning. ‘O God…Whose service is perfect freedom’ was affirmed in our prayer request and clearly answered, to my teenage eyes, in the way our elders served us. We were learning from their unmistakable consistency. Passages of Scripture (Matt 11:28-30, Luke 9:23-26, John 8:34-36; 10:10) were prayerfully lived out before our very eyes. In this I was doubly blessed. Coupled with clear calls to servant-heartedness, encapsulated in those memorable one-liners, ‘Lord of all or not at all’, ‘blessed to be a blessing’ and ‘he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose’, along with the regular ministry of visiting missionaries (and the reading of recommended missionary biographies), taught me that nothing given over to the service of our Saviour is anything other than the path of joyful freedom. Whoever claimed that rote liturgy does not have its place in discipleship formation and pedagogy, has in my judgement, done us, and our younger generations, a grave disservice. Life words take time to take root and then to sprout! Our Rector in the 1960’s, ‘Mr Ostling’, had many memorable life-words to offer, which over-flowed from his loving, Christ-saturated, pastoral heart. ‘Peter’, he said as he gave me a note with 2 Samuel 9:1 written on it, ‘Could you visit Geoff, who lives with his parents. He is about the same age as you, and I would like you to invite him to youth group.’ He added, ‘this would be a kindness you could show to him’. I had been a Christian for a year. There was no reason for me not to accept this invitation from Mr Ostling. After all, this was what he did. Geoff and I are still friends. He loves Jesus. He also has cerebral palsy, but still gets to church from his group home. He is one of my closest friends, who continues to pray for Christine and me. How kind God was to me, when I was asked to imitate King David in showing kindness to him. I need no other encouragement to know that serving the Lord is ‘perfect freedom’ since the call to serve others is always the promised way of blessing. Like a boomerang it returns, not to kill its prey, but to keep me from killing myself through self-interest. At about the same time we were encouraged to read Richard Wurmbrand’s ‘Tortured for Christ’. When he came to Sydney we found ourselves in the overflow crowd at St Paul’s Chatswood to hear this great man’s testimony. The following Sunday we asked ourselves whether we would be able to stand for Jesus if we were called to make the decision to own Him or be shot on the spot. Mr Ostling joined the circle, as we were talking about this. After a while, he offered a wise life-word, ‘It’s a good question you are discussing. If you are faithful to Jesus at school/work/uni/tech tomorrow and on the rugby field next Saturday you will likely be ready to stand for Christ if a gun is pointed at your head!’ In other words, practice makes permanent, or in the words of the hymn, ‘each victory will help you some other to win’! His answer, permeated with the aroma of Matthew 6:34 and Mark 13:11 and the exhortation of 1 Peter 3:15, were lifewords of encouragement.

Many life-words were spoken at Moore College, by fellow students and staff alike. Two that helped me were to do with preaching. The first, ‘Let the word do it!’ The context has escaped me, but its purpose was to remind us that it is God’s word, faithfully and humbly proclaimed and applied, that will bring about God’s purposes. It is simple enough, but easily forgotten in the cut and thrust, and the competing demands, of pastoral and evangelistic work. It was Dr Knox’s way of saying, ‘Let your theology of the Bible be shown in your patient, prayerful, week-in and week-out ministry. Here was the theological equivalent of my cricket coach’s ‘keep your eye on the ball’. The work still had to be done, pressures lived under and dealt with and priorities sorted, but this advice has helped me to rely upon God to bring real heart-change. Good theology is always pastorally beneficial, God-honouring and lifeaffirming. The second, from a lecturer in my first-year in 1971, who would later become Principal and then Archbishop of Sydney ran, ‘How you handle the Bible in the pulpit will determine how people will read it in private!’ If my preaching explains and applies the text carefully and clearly, my hearers may go home and think ‘I can see how (s)he came to that’. However, if there are flights of fancy, with the text serving only as a platform for my own ideas, my listeners are more likely to think ‘its too hard for me!’ It was good to be reminded that my role was to be a ‘reminderer’, not a novelist (2 Peter 3:1-2). To be ‘a workman who rightly handles the Word of truth’ is a labour of love, both to God for His gift of a public domain, Spirit-saturated Scripture, and to His children who come expectantly to hear His Fatherly voice of loving encouragement and timely exhortation. The pulpit is never a place for showing off my learning nor complicating the message with unnecessary details. My rare privilege and responsibility of teaching people, whom I am called to exegete as I serve among them, has been nurtured by this timely life-word.

To have colleagues who care enough to exhort, as well as encourage, is a great boon. ‘Peter, there is hardly a person over 50 in our congregations who is not carrying a great sadness’. I was just shy of 30 years old when this pastoral wisdom was given me by my Senior Pastor. He was in no sense rousing on me for insensitivity, just offering wise advice, given that my days were primarily spent in visiting. He trusted me to find out who these were, which I did in time, at least from those who wanted to share their burdens with me. It was, and remains helpful, encouraging me to listen (I hope). It has helped me admire the patient stickability of many, and to grow through their example. It is a rebuke to me when nursing thoughts of ‘why aren’t they doing more in the church?’ It helped me to remember that their turning up to church expectantly and considerately is an acceptable act of worship and a significant testimony. One of the greatest burdens that many in this demographic carry is the deep pain of seeing their children and grandchildren no longing walking with the Lord. Paul’s life-word decades ago helps me to be quick to encourage others gracefully and to find encouragement in their example.

‘Never move a fence until you know why it was put there!’ was a life-word I learnt from a farmer. Far from being a barrier to necessary change, it served as a reminder to make changes thoughtfully. It is possible that no one knows why, or even cares whether, it is there. Listening to reasons why the metaphorical ‘fences’ should not be moved has caused me to think carefully why I thought there should be change. I learnt, slowly, that better outcomes resulted from consultation. Bonhoeffer’s ‘the best gift we can give to others is to be a good listener’ proved to be as true in leadership as in personal relationships – lessons I am still learning.

‘Remember who is in your grandstand’ were wise words spoken by Dr Arch Hart at a pastor’s conference. They have helped me to remember that God, who sees all I do, is not only the only One whose praise I need, but is the One who honours faithfulness above popularity and substance above style. The praise of others can be heady and addictive, to the point of sinful covetousness or pride. This has led me to neither expect, look for or live for the praise of others, whilst seeking to offer genuine praise (but not flattery) to as many as I can.

The question, ‘I wonder why we (pastors) don’t seem to make much time to encourage each-other?’ became a life-word for me many years ago. It certainly made me appreciate those, like Gordon who asked the question, who did make time to encourage me. It helped me I trust not only to make time, but to make the best of the time when we were able to meet. Loneliness can easily become an occupational hazard, and along with John Stott’s observed ministerial hazards of ‘depression and discouragement’, can be ameliorated by our intentional care of each other. In my experience as a receiver of this ministry this is a great gift we can offer one another. Lifegiving indeed!

A brother whom I got to know well during the second half of my ministry used to ask me, ‘Peter, do you still love your bride and Peter, do you still love Jesus?’. I was grateful to John for these questions, since it is far too easy to take for granted those we love, and who love us. Both of these relationships began at a point of commitment. Both must be nourished in order to grow. My love for Jesus must remain my first love so that all other loves, not least that for my wife, can be as rich, realistic and Christlike as they are meant to be. Both are experiential loves. John’s life questions have, I trust, helped me to keep formalism far away by nurturing the friendship captured by the Puritan’s definition of marriage as, ‘a perpetual, friendly fellowship’ and the affirmation of that great hymn, ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’ — a friendship amplified in its verses, experienced so richly in life, whether we are single or married and so essential for the richness of fellowship in our local churches. These life-words have encouraged me over many decades. Having been nourished by their fruit, I offer them as means of mutual encouragement and thank God for those who spoke them to me.

Peter lives in Perth and gives thanks for good health enabling him to be involved in locum ministry.