The Heart of a Servant Leader

Letters from Jack Miller

C. John Miller

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780875527154
• eBook ISBN: 9781596387713
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Over a study on ministry issues we learn that a leader should be the chief servant and that right attitudes come from a heart changed by an encounter with God.

Motivation for Serving:
The Glory of God

What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old, old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive—the glory of Christ.

The letters in this section emphasize how important it is for the Christian leader to be motivated by the glory of God. This was a subject that Jack talked and thought about a lot. Right after he became a Christian, he spent the summer living in a fire lookout that was on top of a mountain in Oregon. During his time alone, he read the Book of Romans and meditated on the gospel of grace and how it brought God glory. The sunsets on the mountain were spectacular. In describing them he said, “It was a glory road of amber, orange, and yellow that started in heaven and reached my lookout.”1 He felt the same way about the gospel of Jesus that he was studying in Romans. For him it was a glory road that came from heaven, reached into his mind and heart, and taught him to live only for the glory of God.

It was his desire to live and work for the glory of God that led Jack to become a church planter and a pastor. But after twenty years of full-time Christian ministry, Jack found out how easy it is to lose that essential focus on God’s glory—and to end up depressed and burned out. He faced this kind of crisis in the spring of 1970 while he was pastoring a small church in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and teaching practical theology at Westminster Seminary in nearby Glenside, a suburb of Philadelphia. He had gradually become frustrated in both jobs. It seemed to him that neither the church members nor the seminary students were changing in the ways that they should, and he did not know how to help them. In desperation he resigned from both positions and then spent the next few weeks too depressed to do anything except cry.

Gradually during those weeks it became clear to him that the reason for his anger and disappointment was his own wrong motivation for ministry. He realized that instead of being motivated only by God’s glory, he was hoping for personal glory and the approval of those he was serving. He said that when he repented of his pride, fear of people, and love of their approval, his joy in ministry returned, and he took back his resignations from the church and the seminary. 2

Instead of quitting ministry he took his family on an extended sabbatical to Spain and spent his time there studying the missionary promises of God through the whole Bible. He spent long hours tracing the promises of grace for sinners in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakkuk, and Zechariah. Then he looked at how they were fulfilled by God in the New Testament. As he studied, he was captured by the vastness of God’s promise to fill His kingdom with people from every tribe and nation. He also realized in a new way that the promise of the Holy Spirit’s help, comfort, and encouragement was not just for the disciples of long ago; it was for every Christian. He went back to the United States full of hope, not in his abilities, but in the power of the Holy Spirit to be with him, to change his heart, and to use him to bring all kinds of people into the kingdom of God.

This marked a turning point in Jack’s life and ministry. Not only did he go back to work with a renewed sense of purpose, he also had a new freedom to live and work only for God’s glory. It was out of this time of repentance and renewal that NLPC was founded and missionary work was begun. But Jack never forgot how far he had drifted from his focus on God’s glory, and he never forgot how that affected his life and ministry. So, in his mentoring of leaders, he often returned to the theme of God’s glory. He knew that if they did not start in ministry with the right motivation they would eventually end up as he did—full of anger and bitterness.

In this group of letters Jack was writing to missionaries and pastors. Some of them were on the mission field, one couple was considering whether or not to leave the mission field, and another couple (his daughter and son-in-law, Bob and Keren Heppe) was deciding whether or not they should become missionaries. To each person Jack emphasized the necessity of living, working, and serving with only God’s glory in view.

He wrote in a letter to a young missionary couple in Uganda, “What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old, old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive—the glory of Christ.” Jack believed that this was the essence of serving God, and that when you begin with desiring the glory of God the “how-tos” of bringing Him glory will become clear.

He repeated this message in slightly different ways in each letter in this section. To the couple who was struggling with whether or not to leave the mission field, to his daughter and her husband, and to Jack’s copastor who was mentoring missionaries, his message was the same: begin with desiring the glory of God, and everything else will become clear. Jack wrote to Bob Heppe, his son-in-law, “Honestly, I find it hard to believe that anyone who wants His glory will be long without some clues as to how to express that glory in a form of service to Him.”

Jack began his Christian life captured by the glory of God, and he learned as a failed pastor and professor that living for God’s glory is the only motivation that can sustain a life of service to God and others. He said this to one of his copastors at NLPC: “The thought that came to me was the power that comes when our vision is centered on the glory and praise of God. Practically I believe that this glory comes into its own when we self-consciously make it our anchor for what we are doing.” The glory of God became Jack’s motivation and his anchor through many years of doing ministry. He believed that there was no other anchor or motivation worth having.

The Glory of Christ Is the Motive for Getting
the Gospel Clear

To a young couple who were one of the first missionary families sent from World Harvest Mission (WHM) to the Ruwenzori Mountains in Uganda.

March, 1984

Dear Tom and Joanne,

Today is the third day of spring here in Philadelphia, but the weather has in it the sharp fingers of February rawness. But I managed to get my walk through Jenkintown completed anyway, about a mile and a half. While I was walking, I prayed for you and meditated on how to pray more effectively for you. Yesterday we had good prayer all morning and brought you all before the Lord more than once. Then in the evening I had more prayer. But still to pray effectively is more than any human being can work up. I am convinced that prayer, effective praying, is a divine gift that comes while praying. Sounds odd, prayer comes while you are praying? But I think that really there is praying which gets results and that is fine, but then there is praying that gets into the center of God’s will and gets bigger results and also leaves the soul at peace, satisfied that God’s will has been contacted and God has responded with peace in the heart.

What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old, old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive—the glory of Christ. Getting the glory of Christ before your eyes and keeping it there—is the greatest work of the Spirit that I can imagine. And there is no greater peace, especially in the times of treadmill-like activity, than doing it all for the glory of the Lord Jesus. Think much of the Savior’s suffering for you on that dreadful cross, think much of your sin that provoked such suffering, and then enter by faith into the love that took away your sin and guilt, and then give your work your best. Give it your heart out of gratitude for a tender, seeking, and patient Savior. Make every common task shine with the radiance of Christ. Then every event becomes a shiny glory moment to be cherished—whether you drink tea or try to get the verb forms of the new language.

Put quality in your lives then. In the sloppy world in which we live, try to make the most ordinary things have a special touch from God. I think Florence Allshorn used to serve tea in good silver up in Busoga district when all was primitive. Not so much as a touch of home, but as a touch of heaven.

So I have prayed that God would give you grace to seek quality in all that you do and seek to promote quality in others. We have prayed this for your language studies, for your preaching and teaching, and for your whole way of living. Believe me this is no easy battle. You will find in the world of Uganda, as in the world here in the States, “getting by” is the dominant tone. Of course, I know we are all glad just to get by with many things. Some things merit only getting by, but don’t give in to it as the rule. Keep up the standards.

I’m also praying that God will give you some “quality people” with whom to work and some “quality converts.” I don’t mean flashy and razzle-dazzle people. Uganda and the U.S. always seem to have plenty of that sort. But I’m thinking of the solid people like John in the Kampala painting company. He’s a real example of how Christ can take a raw pagan out of the marketplace and give you a life that shines for Jesus through honesty and hard work. I just glorify Jesus for such a brother!

Tom, two pieces of counsel: always try to be daring but don’t be in a hurry. I’ll let you think about that. Another thought: if you don’t like what’s going on in Uganda, wait a week. It’ll be the opposite.

Rose Marie has had much physical weakness of late, for about the last two months. We are watching her diet and sending her to the doctor on Monday. She spent nine days in Florida resting with Jill and Kimber...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword: My Most Unforgettable Christian
• Introduction
• Part 1: Motivation for Serving: The Glory of God
• Part 2: The Basics of Serving: Faith, Humility, and Prayer
• Part 3: Persevering in Serving
• Part 4: Encouragement
• Appendix: Recovering the Grand Cause
• Timeline of Jack Miller’s Life and Ministry