Must limitations and weaknesses keep us from effective ministry? And how should we think about others in the church who have glaring, limiting imperfections?
James Alexander Stewart was experiencing enormous success as an evangelist. By the age of 20, he was so sought after that he was preaching four or five times a day. He also filled his hours with evangelism in the streets and in homes. This was too much for a young man to handle alone. Stewart commented:
I began to feel that I needed a co-evangelist to labor with me. . . . My heart longed, also, above everything else, for a companion with whom I could share my spiritual experiences, a companion with whom I could pray. . . . I felt my greatest need now was for a praying evangelist. [1]
Stewart began to pray for a ministry partner, and God answered him in an unexpected way. A man from England named Herbert Brown came to Stewart at one meeting and enthusiastically stated, “B-b-b-b-b-b-brother S-s-s-s-Stewart, I have-have-have-have wonderful news for you. G-g-g-God has c-c-c-called me to work-to work-to work with you!”
God’s answer to Stewart’s plea for a co-laborer in the ministry was to send him a stutterer!
The popular, eloquent evangelist was not pleased. He even prayed, “Oh God, this situation is impossible. The Holy Spirit is not the author of confusion, and surely would not call a stutterer into His service.” Stewart continues:
I reminded [God] that the reputation of the gospel ministry was at stake. “What will the believers say — to say nothing of the unbelievers!”
“You asked me to send you a co-worker, and I have done so. Do not rebel,” my Heavenly Father said to me . . . “You are not so much interested in the reputation of MY name as your own. You are afraid of being embarrassed with My servant. I know he is a stutterer, but do not forget that he is my precious servant, redeemed at an infinite cost through the blood of My dear Son. . . . Can I not be glorified in the weakness of my servant and work mightily through him? It is not your gospel witness; it is Mine.”
James Alexander Stewart humbly accepted that Herbert Brown was the answer to his prayer.
Interestingly, when Herbert prayed, his tongue was set free from stuttering. Stewart said about his praying:
He had a holy boldness at the Throne. Yea, may I say it reverently, he was on familiar terms with God. Sometimes he took my breath away with the boldness of his petitions. I soon discovered that he could be friendly with God because he was on intimate terms with Him; they knew each other well.
As these men went forward with the gospel, God’s power was evident in fresh and noticeable ways. Herbert Brown even preached occasionally, but rarely without stuttering. His stammering produced a spray of saliva for all to see and sometimes, if within spitting range, to feel! Nevertheless, God used this awkward preacher: “The Spirit of God drove home the words in power. Nobody ever forgot a message of his, for when he sent them to Calvary or hell, it was with great reiteration!”
Herbert Brown’s handicap sometimes bothered him. He once begged Stewart to pray for deliverance. Stewart replied, “I will pray for you, but let me say that I had rather preach in a stuttering and spluttering way with the anointing you have than to have my liberty without the anointing.”
Consider the following lessons we can learn from the life of Herbert Brown:
1. Your weaknesses are no hindrance to God working powerfully through you. Your limitations may be the very thing God uses to make you most useful. Remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh: “Three different times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:8-9).
2. Be as eager to welcome and partner with “members of the body which seem to be weaker” (1 Cor 12:22) as you are those who are typically considered more attractive and able. We are so quick to move toward smooth and dynamic people that we might miss the power of God that we will only experience if we embrace the kind of people the world ignores.
3. Pastors, beware of being too satisfied with a well-crafted sermon and not as concerned as you should be about experiencing God’s power when you speak (1 Cor 2:4). There was a dependence on God in Herbert Brown’s life that made him far more useful than the prayerless man who says everything eloquently. Richard Baxter, in his classic book The Reformed Pastor, put it like this:
“The most reverent preacher that speaks as if he saw the face of God doth more affect my heart, though with common words, than an irreverent man with the most exquisite preparations.” [2]
[1] Quotes and facts are taken from a booklet by James Alexander Stewart, He Was a Stutterer: The Story of Herbert Brown of England—A Mighty Intercessor (Asheville, NC: Revival Literature, 2007).
[2] Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1997), 119.