John MacArthur, A Personal Model for Ministry

Precious in the sight of Yahweh Is the death of His holy ones (Psalm 116:15, LSB). 

With John McAurthur’s graduation to glory, there will surely be many eulogies given and well-deserved accolades heaped upon the blessing God gave through this man. I will leave it for others to catalog and describe the diversity and extent of MacArthur’s ministries. Average servants of the Lord are not going to have a ministry that extends much beyond their own church and communities. In this piece, I want to point out some foundational characteristics in John MacArthur that make him a model for every minister, whether ordained or lay.

I first heard MacArthur preach in the fall of 1979. The church I had been a member of had fractured itself into irrelevancy, so after returning from working at a Christian Summer camp, I started looking for a new church. Grace Community Church (GCC) was only a mile from where I lived, and I had already been attending one of their college home Bible studies for over a year, so it was the logical place to start. 

When I first walked into the worship center, I was struck by two things. 1) “What is holding up the roof?” 2) “Don’t sit under one of those huge speakers hung from the ceiling in case of an earthquake.” (I am a native of Los Angeles, and after a couple of major earthquakes, you tend to think that way). MacArthur was still preaching through Matthew at that time. When I left after the service, I only had one thought – this preacher believes the Bible is true and that every Christian can and should live according to it. That is the first model of ministry for every servant of the Lord, regardless of the particular gift, ministry, or empowerment.

Preaching with Confidence

MacArthur’s example had a direct effect on the beliefs and manner of life of the congregation. The minister, whether the pastor or lay teacher, who both teaches and lives according to what he believes, will find his people following suit (Luke 6:40). The woman who later became my wife often points out that Grace Community Church was the first place she had ever experienced people who were actually living for Christ. Preachers and teachers who waffle on whether the Scriptures are actually true cannot preach/teach with confidence, and they hinder their people from being able to live according to them. 

Because MacArthur was committed to preaching through biblical books in their entirety, chapter by chapter, sentence by sentence, and sometimes word by word, he became well known for being willing to tackle tough passages and the tough subjects that went with them. That often caused controversy in the Christian evangelical world as his influence expanded with his writings, radio and tape ministry, and conference speaking. However, this was not due to any desire on his part to create controversy; it was solely due to his desire to be true to the text of Scripture to the best of his ability to understand it. He did the hard work of digging into the Biblical text to understand it in its grammatical and historical context instead of just repeating what he had been taught in Bible college and seminary or what was written by his favorite commentators. This gave him what used to be referred to as “divine unction” in the pulpit and teaching ministries. He had the confidence to preach without compromise. He would not be tickling anyone’s ears. That is the second model of ministry found in MacArthur’s life. 

It is also one I have worked hard to follow.

Personal Impact

I soon became a member of GCC and became involved in various ministries. After graduating from college in 1982, I took a year to learn Greek and then began seminary at the Talbot extension hosted at GCC. The Master’s Seminary (TMS) was formed when I was about half done, so I completed my MDiv at TMS. During those five years of seminary training, I was putting into practice what I was learning in weekly jail ministry and then leading a career home Bible study as a deacon in that department. After graduating in 1988, I became the associate and then the interim pastor at a nearby church. That same year, I was also on the team that held Shepherd’s Conferences in Australia. I maintained close contact with TMS, tutoring Hebrew and filling in for the discipleship labs. 

In 1991, I moved to New York to pastor Grace Bible Church, where I am still to this day. I said all that to say this: The ministry model of John MacArthur profoundly affected my life, personally, in both becoming a pastor and in the manner in which I have carried out ministry over the last four decades. Believing the Bible as God’s word and living according to it are foundational to any ministry. Doing the hard work to understand the Scriptures in their grammatical and historical context is foundational to proper interpretation and teaching ministry, whether from a pulpit or in personal discipleship. Confidence in proper interpretation is what enables the minister to tackle difficult passages and subjects.

Uncompromising on Fundamentals

MacArthur’s ministry characterized a true Fundamentalism. By that, I am referring to those men who in the early 20^th century laid out the fundamental doctrines of the faith necessary to believe as a true Christian, and were gracious in all matters beyond that. That is why MacArthur could be close friends with many outside his own theological camp, from Pentecostals to Presbyterians. MacArthur was a dispensational pre-millennialist and well known for his challenges to charismatics, yet many speakers at the Shepherd’s Conferences have held to covenant theology, followed amillennial or post-millennial eschatology, and some were non-cessationists. 

That is also a model for all of us to follow. Be uncompromising in the fundamentals of the faith, but charitable in all matters beyond that. Teaching with conviction the doctrines you believe the Scriptures support and even challenging those who hold to other positions on secondary issues, but without being arrogant or obnoxious. The goal is for every Christian to “…be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9–10). 

That has been the life and model of ministry of John MacArthur. God has blessed us to have been able to know him. God continues to bless us with the legacy MacArthur has left behind.