Writing in 1889, after the Downgrade Controversy, Spurgeon wrestled with the question of unfaithful ministers and congregational accountability. Under the new modern theology, these ministers were using the language of historic Christianity, but redefining that language in rationalist and anti-supernatural ways. But how are churches to hold them accountable? As a congregationalist, Spurgeon believed that the congregation was the final authority in its discipline and doctrine. But again and again, Spurgeon watched unsuspecting congregations call modernist ministers, believing them to be orthodox, only to be corrupted by their teaching over time. So as important as congregational authority was, Spurgeon also understood that pastors play a crucial role in shaping the theology of a church through their preaching. All this created a dilemma:
QUIS custodiet ipsos custodes? So say the Latins. Shepherds may keep the sheep; but who shall pastorize the shepherds? A question of the weightiest import, both for the flocks and the pastors.
What is to become of anybody of Christians whose ministers are not loyal to their Lord and to his gospel? When a church has over it a man of whom it can be justly said that he shows no sign of ever having been converted, what spirituality can be expected to survive? When another preacher has one creed for the pulpit, and another for the private fraternal meeting, how can truth and honesty flourish in the community? When a third changes with the moon, and is not quite sure of anything, how can his hearers be established in the faith? We are not imagining cases; there are too many who answer the description. Evil in the pulpit is poison in the fountain. In this case we find death in the great pot out of which all the guests are to be fed.
What is to be done? Spurgeon offered three reflections:
We must look to the Great Shepherd
But who shall keep the keepers? There is the great difficulty. This is a task beyond the power of the church and its most valiant champions. We might do well to watch the schools of the prophets, that more of deep devotion and fervent piety should be nurtured there. We might do no more than our duty if we were more jealously watchful over every election of ministers in which we take part, so that none were ordained but those sound in the faith, and filled with the Spirit. Even for these things, who is sufficient? But if these were done to perfection, the plague might still break out among the teachers: their heads might be dazed with error, or their hearts grow chill with worldliness. We are thrown back upon him that keepeth Israel. It is well that it should be so. That which develops dependence upon God works for good.
All plans, however wise in themselves, and however effective they would be if we had to deal with honesty and truth, are baffled by the moral obliquity which is part of the evil. The men are not to be bound by creeds: they confess that such things are useless to them. Their moral sense is deadened by the error they have imbibed. They have become shepherds that they might poison the flock, and keepers of the vineyard that they might spoil the vines: if this was not their first motive, their course of action distinctly suggests it. There is no reaching them: they are bewitched and benumbed. Neither from within nor from without are healthy influences likely to operate upon them; we must carry the case to the great Head of the church, and leave it in his hands. When he ascended on high he received gifts for men; and these gifts were men of differing offices, for the perfecting of his people. We have need that he should anew send us such men. Maybe we have forgotten to look to the ascended Lord. Maybe we have been gazing about us to find the men without looking first to HIM from whom they must come. Our Lord can speedily raise us up a new race of apostolic preachers from amid our youth, or he can convert those who are now the devourers of the churches. In the Reformation, many of the ablest leaders were called from among the priests and the monks; and to-day the Lord may breathe the life of faith into those who lie buried in skeptical philosophies. With him all things are possible. When we are at the end of our power and knowledge, we are on the confines of his omnipotence and omniscience. Let us bow our heads as we pass the frontier, and leave behind our own barren impotence to rejoice in his fruitful strength. Our confidence in the church of God lies not in her natural power, but in the fact that “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.”
Despite our best attempts to organize our churches as best and as faithfully as we can, we must never think that our structures will somehow ensure theological faithfulness. To be sure, a biblically organized church polity is important. And extra-ecclesial structures, like seminaries and ordination councils, can be helpful. But we remain always dependent upon the Great Shepherd for His faithful care of his flock. We cannot hope to have faithful churches apart from prayerful dependence on Him. Having gone through the Downgrade Controversy in his beloved denomination and having seen so many churches depart from the gospel, Spurgeon came to understand that underneath all our best plans must be a humble dependence upon the risen Christ.
We should hold unfaithful shepherds accountable
Those who lament the declension of many among the present professed ministry should cry day and night unto the Lord to bless his people with pastors after his own heart. Let them also see to it that they walk wisely towards those they have. It behoves established believers to bear their testimony faithfully, but kindly, to young divines who are beginning to step aside; for it may be that a gentle word may save them. In grosser cases, firmness may be needful as to the matter of quitting an unfaithful, Christless ministry; or as to the removal of the false teacher.
This reliance on God does not mean that congregations can afford to remain passive. Even while churches might benefit from outside resources, ultimately they have to take responsibility for their own ministry. In reliance upon God, churches are to hold their pastors accountable. They are to regularly pray for their pastors to remain faithful to the gospel. They must be willing to confront ministers who are beginning to go astray. And they must even do the hard and painful work of removing unfaithful ministers. In all this, Spurgeon knew that there was no way to by-pass the role of the congregation if a church is to remain faithful.
We should praise God for faithful shepherds
In the happy instances in which the gospel is held and fully preached, the faithful should encourage, sustain, and help with all their hearts. Those who are faithful to the truth of God, should find us faithful to them. God will have his gifts valued, and his servants well treated. He has among his chosen ministers those who feel tears of gratitude welling up in their eyes when they think of the kindness of their churches; but there are other worthy men who are buffeted and battered, left without a decent maintenance, and never appreciated as they ought to be. For these the Lord himself will plead with his people, if there be not speedy improvement. Let not true shepherds before gotten by the flocks to which they minister, nor by any of the faithful, lest their Master should be provoked to recall the gift which is not valued. Now, if never before, our eyes should be upon all the faithful of the land, to hold up their hands. No one must hold himself aloof lest that bitter curse should fall upon him which was of old pronounced on Meroz and the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Spurgeon always believed that pastors were Christ’s gift to the church (Eph. 4:11). But now having seen so many waver on gospel orthodoxy and embrace theological liberalism, Spurgeon came to treasure this truth even more: a faithful minister was a truly a gift from God. Therefore, churches who had faithful ministers should praise and thank God, and receive their pastors as such. Though they might not be as gifted or charismatic or eloquent as they might hope, at the end of the day, churches should not take faithful pastors for granted. And the best way for churches to support their pastors is to “hold up their hands,” laboring alongside them and standing with them, even as they seek to remain steadfast in the truth.