Chang said his research revealed a specifically Baptist ecclesiology that Spurgeon practiced in his ministry to his local church, despite the cultural pulls he was living through.
“Spurgeon was living in a time of theological downgrade, where people were starting to lose hold of orthodox doctrines in favor of more modern theology or theological liberalism,” Chang said.
“At the same time, there was also a decline in ecclesiology among Baptists. They were becoming sloppy on things like membership, church discipline, church governance and baptism. Spurgeon was resorting back to an older and more historic Baptist ecclesiology of a generation before.”
In the same way, Chang said Baptists in today’s culture may find Spurgeon’s pastoral views strange and be tempted toward pragmatism.
“People today are very Gospel-centered, which is a good thing, but everything else can sometimes get shoved to the side, especially things related to church,” Chang said.
“Spurgeon understood the Church is what protects and upholds the Gospel, as a pillar and a foundation of truth. He was concerned to practice these things, because that’s how you ensure the Gospel continues is through healthy churches. God’s evangelism plan for the world is the local church.”
After finishing his dissertation, Chang would become a professor and curator of the Spurgeon Library at Midwestern, which houses thousands of volumes of Spurgeon’s work and valuable items related to his life and ministry.
Despite his current role as a professor, Chang believes the book could reach beyond academia. He also wants it to be an encouragement to pastors to be faithful to biblical convictions, and not succumb to cultural concerns or mere practicalities.
“My main argument with this book is that Spurgeon was convictional in his ministry,” Chang said. “He based all of his practices on biblical and theological convictions. We might disagree with his practices, or do things differently than he did, but I’m encouraging pastors not to give way to pragmatism or just doing whatever works.
“As a pastor while I was researching, it was amazing to read about Spurgeon and be reminded that God can still do amazing things. The most important encouragement that Spurgeon gave to me is that your job as a pastor is not to determine the outcome, but to be faithful. Leave the outcome to the Lord. I think pastors get in trouble when they try to work for results. If your job is just to be faithful, then you can be content with whatever the Lord has.”
This article originally appeared here.
