Awakening - The life and ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne - Steven's book report

A change of pace now: a couple of book reports from Steph and I as part of our Pastoral Apprenticeship. I read 'Awakening. The life and ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne'. A biography of one of the most influential ministers in Scotland. Steph read 'Through the Gates of Splendour'. The account of 5 missionaries who gave their lives trying to reach the most brutal of all native tribes in South America with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hope you enjoy!

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David Robertson, “Awakening. The life and ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne”

It was inevitable I guess. I recently finished reading ‘The Barbarian Way’ by Erwin Raphael McManus and was deeply disappointed. For all the good intentions of the book I found it exegetically weak and lacking in firmly grounded teaching. So when I picked up ‘Awakening, the life and ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne, I prayerfully asked that this would be the book I had wanted to read by McManus.

It was so.

I have never experienced being so disturbed and challenged whilst reading a book. McCheyne’s life and ministry seemed to teeter on a knife’s edge. It was concerning to see a minister with so much ‘on his plate’, yet it was so challenging to see that in the midst of all his busyness there was a deeply rooted passion for God’s glory in Jesus Christ.

There were a number of things which struck me about McCheyne personally and his ministry.

First was his relatively common upbringing. It struck me, in an odd sort of way, that he came from the comforts of middle-class-nominal-Christianity. That McCheyne would go from a comfortable and happy lifestyle, in which he was fond of the ‘pleasures of society’ to ministry would be a surprise considering the many people I know who are comfortable in their middle-class-nominal-Christianity and have no inkling of heading towards anything more fruitful.

But the precursor to change in McCheyne would come from a world shattering moment in his relatively young life. The friends and family of his middle-class lifestyle were of no help, or at least to McCheyne were of no perceivable help, when his eldest brother, David, died. This untimely event changed the life of McCheyne on a number of levels. Primarily he began to rethink his own mortality and eternal future, but also because he found that in his current group of ‘friends’ there was no one to talk to him about his soul. McCheyne even felt uncomfortable approaching the ministerial family friends - the McCheyne family was well connected to the church despite being nominal in faith.

So he turned to a number of books and whilst there was no magical moment of which he identifies in later writings, McCheyne refers to this time as his conversion period. As I read this I was greatly reminded of Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. But in this instance the good was not limited to McCheyne alone, but also to his immediate congregation as well as beyond in the form of this biography. How many countless people have been the fruit of McCheyne’s life and ministry? Upon further reflection I marvelled at how God’s plans go far beyond what our eyes can see. We can be so limited to our time and space and underestimate the far reaching affects of our ministry work. Time and again God uses circumstances of utter despair to bring about goods beyond imagine (ie many of the Old Testament narratives contain great despair and affliction but the bigger picture reveals much grander plans).

So off to study he went. Another fascinating period in his life was his theological training in which he was able to learn and grow under godly men. This particular part of McCheyne’s training reminded me of the importance of sound theological education in preparation for ministry.

But one of the larger surprises and challenges in this book was the bulk of the writings concerning McCheyne’s ministry and the people he ministered to. Whilst after his studies he was apprenticed in a relatively similar middle-class parish, his move to the working class town of Dundee and the work he did there challenged me greatly. The move itself was no real surprise. Compared, however, to the current trend of college students and their preferences for which areas to minister to we have a great disparity between those wanting to head into the middle to upper class parishes and those wanting to head to blue collar or regional areas A great concern.

McCheyne’s ministry to the town of Dundee was also a great encouragement. Whilst the book itself doesn’t go into any specific detail regarding the content of his sermons, McCheyne clearly had the gift of teaching and preaching as the numbers of people he drew each Sunday was nothing short of a revival. But not only this, McCheyne kept up a ferocious pace to his ministry visiting up to 18 homes a day. On some of these regular visits he would draw a crowd of up to 200 people listening to him preach from the Word of God.

However the pace of his ministry would overwhelm his health. In what feels only like a few short years McCheyne’s health degraded and what may have been relatively easy to cure these days, typhus caught up with McCheyne during an epidemic. His fragile health was always an issue and motivated him greatly in ministry since he always feared ‘he would not be long for this world.’ His death was stirring in its glory and the effects of his ministry would continue for a number of years afterwards. Sadly the church in Scotland would see many changes a few decades later and the momentum was lost.

The final chapter of the book summarises a few key reasons why McCheyne, though dying young, was so successful in his ministry. Worth quoting at large was to me the most profound insight and challenge to my own ministry:

McCheyne’s theology was a key part of his success. It is not that the theology was incidental, nor that it was something that he had to overcome by experience or character. Theology is the study of God. McCheyne was absorbed by Jesus Christ and he desired to know him better. That knowledge (theology) affected his practice in every way. For example in evangelism, because of his passion for souls, he could easily have gone down the ‘revivalist’ route – that is counting heads, seeking to create effects and pushing to make conversions. But his theology prevented him from doing so. He knew that it was only the Spirit who could convert and that he was but an instrument. He knew that God would not allow his glory to be taken by any other. And so he was patient. Sowing the seed of the Word, but leaving the results to the Holy Spirit. ‘God feeds the wild flowers on the lonely mountainside without the help of man, and they are as fresh and lovely as those that are daily watched over in our gardens. So God can feed his own planted ones without the help of man, by the secret falling dew of His Spirit’.
That theology was also seen in public worship. After his ordination to St Peter’s the Dundee Chronicle reported that McCheyne declared that he wanted to preach Christ, that he would endeavour to know everyone by name and lead by example as well as doctrine that:

his church might be filled to the door, but they must all join in wishing, and it was his own earnest wish and prayer, that it might be filled with the true glory of the sanctuary – the glory of God; and that God might dwell in the midst of it. Thus, the church would become not only an ornament to the town, but the centre from which salvation might flow to many a heart.

The glory of God. That is what he sought in all that he did.

Theology which shapes character. Seeking God’s glory alone in all that you do. Patient in waiting on the Spirit to work.

I have a long way to go!