John 316 Marshall

Women now wear pants to church. I can remember when this never happened. In the blizzard of 1977, Ruth became the first woman in Gosnell AR to wear pants to church. The next Sunday, many women had followed suit. Speaking of changes in clothings styles, people wear much tighter clothes to church than they did long ago. One lady told me she cannot abide seeing men in skinny jeans at church. Dancing is no longer taboo. Pool halls, multicolored hair, tattoos, and men having long hair have also fallen off the naughty list. We even sell merchandise in church now. In my younger years, this was always anathema because Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. On a more serious note, the Charismatic Movement has mainstreamed. In fact, in some places around the globe, it is the most common expression of Christianity. Megachurches have proliferated in my 51 years of ministry. All indicators point to the fact they are here to stay, and will continue to grow bigger and bigger...

Better retirement plans and accounts have marked my generation of preachers. When I started preaching 51 years ago, most ministers did not have adequate retirement plans. They literally had to preach till they died, not only because they wanted to, but because they had to to survive. Another mark of better times for Pastors has been the reduction in the number of parsonages. Being able to buy their own house has made a huge difference. To me, one fascinating change has been the decreasing appreciation by Pastors for books. In my early years, books were a status symbol, tools of our trade as ministers. Now books are hard to give away. I left 900 behind when I left Second. Being able to study online made the value of books decline.

"The Sacred Desk" is what we used to call a pulpit. Now many churches don't even have a pulpit. We even changed the name of "Pulpit Committees" to "Pastor Search Committees". None of these changes is inherently wrong. I just hope they don't mean we are beginning to minimize the role of preaching in our churches. If we ever lose the primacy of preaching, our loss will be grievous. It was John Calvin who tore up an altar, built a large pulpit to hide most of the preacher, put a Bible on the pulpit, and wore a robe. Nothing was to stand in the way of the voice of an anointed servant of God wafting over a Bible. I still feel preaching is essential. What do you think?

I used to wear a suit every time I preached. I showed up at Dad's church to preach one night without a suit coat. Dad made me wear his, even though it was way too small. V. E. DeFreece, Pastor at Esther Baptist Church, once took me aside and said I need to wear long sleeve shirts under a suit coat. Being a dutiful young minister, I dressed up to preach for most of my 51 years of preaching. Then everything changed. Renowned Pastors like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren started preaching on the national stage in casual clothes. It was inevitable that the cultural tsunami would change me. I began preaching in casual clothes years after most other preachers did. I would often be the only preacher at a meeting wearing a tie. Casual clothes became a part of my preaching garb, but I never lost my love for suits and ties. To this day, I feel like a real preacher when I'm wearing a suit and tie. www.john316marshall.com

Music is a major component of Christianity that can morph to accommodate varying cultures. We never change our message; the Bible is our standard in every nation. The ultimate truths of our faith are unalterable and nonnegotiable. Music, though, is up for grabs. Scripture never prescribes how we are to sing. This is interesting, because we are a singing people. Wherever there is Christianity, there is worship in song. This flexibility in music helps make Christianity palatable, whatever the culture. None of us would ever go to Japan, for instance, and try to convince the churches to sing Southern Gospel music. It obviously wouldn't work. We would instead listen to the sound of popular music there, and seek to reproduce a similar sound in the churches. This applies to USA churches as well. Run your radio dial. Listen to the types of music the average USA American listens to. Often we will never find on our radios the kind of music we hear at church. This tells us something. If...

A major change in the Pastor's role in my 51 years of ministry has been caused by the proliferation of social media. In simpler days, Pastors had times when they were "off". If people wanted to reach the Pastor, they called the church office and left a message, or if something was urgent, they would call the Pastor and leave a message if their call was unanswered. The Pastor had time away. Then came Facebook. I personally love social media. I was born to socialize on Facebook—not only for fun, but also as a powerful tool for ministry. I have always seen myself as a Pastor, whether I'm in prayer or on Facebook. The latter gave me multiplied ways to minister to the people I loved. This blessed me. The down side of social media is; the Pastor who uses it is always "on". There is no place and no time to hide from the need to communicate. Life becomes a constant flow of info flowing through the brain. Some say, "Well, just get off Facebook." Th...

Maybe the most dramatic change in the last 51 years for me has been the change in expectations from Pastors. When I started, a Pastor was a Shepherd, preaching, soul winning, marrying the young, burying the old, and carrying the sick. These were the reasons we entered the ministry. We wanted to care with all our being for the needs of people. Then the role of the Pastor changed, from Shepherd to CEO. The church growth movement and other cultural expectations began to cause Pastors to need to be able to run organizations efficiently, and to make decisions quickly. We were expected to be able to handle staffs well, and lead them effectively. I evolved into the CEO model, but never liked it. Only one staff member in all my 51 years of ministry ever called me "Boss"; I often asked him not to do that. At some point, being a Shepherd was not enough; I had to be the chief superintending officer of a bustling company. I know it is trite to say, but it is true that in my lifetim...

Church work has changed dramatically in the last half century. David Taylor of KWFC Radio asked me to comment on some changes I have personally seen. I decided to write some of the main items down to blog about them. Any discussion on this subject would have to devote a good amount of time talking about music. We had essentially only pianos and organs when I started preaching at age 15. Drums, guitars, and saxophones each became battlefields on which another worship war was waged. My dad opposed all three of these instruments. He felt they were too worldly. Not only did we change what we brought in; we also lost some things that were taken out. Hymnals and organs left the building (as did attendance boards, by the way). Big screens and electric keyboards became the preferred instruments. Another music change has been the quality and expertise of the music leaders. Back in the day, qualified leaders needed only to know the songs and how to wave their arm in 4/4 or 3/4 time. It ...

Retirement continues to bring new activities into our lives. We have started walking the mall. We like the music, enjoy seeing people we know, and the weather is always perfect. I do have one concern. The stores are not open when we walk there, but Ruth likes to do window shopping. Walking the mall is supposed to be free. Don't kid yourself. I fear we will end up spending lots of money at the mall. All kidding aside, Ruth and I are enjoying retirement life. These are good days.

The old retirement joke is; the wife now has twice the husband, and half the money. Fortunately, our financial situation is not that dire, but we are having to deal with habits that need to be changed. It has been interesting to reconsider how often we eat out, how much we spend on gifts for others, and our own wants, etc. Retirement forces people to think about things not carefully thought about before. Ruth and I are thankful for churches that generously contributed to our retirement accounts through the years. Now we will try to be good stewards of what God's people provided.