why can’t we be friends

Posted by chuck maxwell on May 4th, 2010 filed in Chuck's blog

John Angell James was pastor of Carr’s Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham, England for 50 years. His successor was R.W.Dale in 1859. Dale had been co-pastor for 6 years prior. “The transition from James to Dale was not easy, either for the church or for the young successor. James was Calvinistic in his leanings, although he preached the Word of God and not a doctrinal system. ‘I do not seem to find much about Calvinism in the Bible!’ he once told a friend who asked him why he was not preaching more Calvinistic sermons. When Dale began questioning unconditional election, total depravity, and limited atonement, some of the saints were horrified. Were it not for the fact that James privately intervened and told his unhappy leaders to be patient with their associate, Dale probably would have been dismissed. In fact, early in his ministry as co-pastor, Dale felt he was definitely out of place at Carr’s Lane. An opportunity opened for a church in Manchester, and some of Dale’s friends urged him to accept the call; loyal to his senior pastor, Dale laid the matter before James and asked him to make the decision. Without hesitation, James replied, ‘Stay!’ And Dale stayed! Subsequent events would indicate that the decision was a wise one.”

excerpt from Warren Wiersbe’s 50 People Every Christian Should Know

Dale was pastor at Carr’s Lane for 36 years! Let’s take a cue from these great pastors gone before us.


3 Responses to “why can’t we be friends”

  1. Jason Pratt Says:
    July 5th, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    Hi Chuck!

    Glad to see a friendly nod to an orthodox trinitarian universalist. {g!}

    (R. Dale, aside from writing one of the chief standard commentaries on the atonement, beloved by John Stott, was a fellow trinitarian universalist with Lewis’ “Teacher” George MacDonald. Which is why, when he questioned the limited scope of who God would act to save, he did not question the persistence of God’s salvation of those He intends to save. Armenian total scope of intention to save + Calvinist persistence to completion of salvation == Christian universalism.)

    His biography, written by his son, can be found for free here; his series of lectures on the Atonement can be found for free at GoogleBooks here.

  2. Jason Pratt Says:
    July 5th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    Whoops! Sorry, having done a little more research, it appears R. Dale became an annihilationist (having started off his professional career as a universalist).

    My bad! {g}

  3. chuck maxwell Says:
    July 8th, 2010 at 11:00 am

    Thanks for the comments Jason. There are some great men and pastors that have much to teach us young leaders! Sometimes it is not in the area of theology! Universalism is definitely a problem for me and from our reformed perspective is unsupported by scripture. But I can still learn some other principles of ministry even from those I disagree with.

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