Lloyd-Jones on Driscollian Pastoral Deportment
Lloyd-Jones on Driscollian Pastoral Deportment
At the end of the First World War there was in England a famous clergyman who was known as 'Woodbine Willie'. Why was he called 'Woodbine Willie'? The explanation is that he had been a chaplain in the army and had been a very great success in that capacity. His success he attributed to the fact - and many agreed with him in this - that he mixed with the men in the trenches in a familiar manner. He smoked with them, and in particular he smoked their cheap brand of cigarette known as 'Wild Woodbine' commonly called 'Woodbines'. In pre-1914 days you could buy five such cigarettes for a penny. Now this cheap type of cigarette was not the brand of cigarette that an officer generally smoked, but the ordinary soldier did. So this man, whose name was Studdert-Kennedy, in order to put the men at ease, and in order to facilitate his work as chaplain smoked 'Woodbines', hence the name 'Woodbine Willie'. Not only that, he noticed also that most of the men could not speak without swearing, so he did the same. It was not that he wanted to swear, but he held the view that if you want to win men you have to use their language and you have to be like them in every respect. All this certainly made him a popular figure - there is no doubt about that. After the end of the Second World War he used to go round the country teaching this and urging that preachers must do this; and many tried to do so and began to do so. But the verdict of history on this was that it was a complete failure, a temporary 'stunt' or 'gimmick' that achieved notoriety for a while but soon entirely disappeared from the thinking of the Church. But it had a great temporary vogue.
From the standpoint of the New Testament it was based on a complete fallacy. Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him. That poor sinful woman of whom we read in Luke 7 did not draw near to the Pharisees and wash their feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head. No, but she sensed something in our Lord - His purity, His holiness, His love - and so she drew near to Him. It was His essential difference that attracted her. And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to Christian faith by showing that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.
(Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers, 139-140)
At the end of the First World War there was in England a famous clergyman who was known as 'Woodbine Willie'. Why was he called 'Woodbine Willie'? The explanation is that he had been a chaplain in the army and had been a very great success in that capacity. His success he attributed to the fact - and many agreed with him in this - that he mixed with the men in the trenches in a familiar manner. He smoked with them, and in particular he smoked their cheap brand of cigarette known as 'Wild Woodbine' commonly called 'Woodbines'. In pre-1914 days you could buy five such cigarettes for a penny. Now this cheap type of cigarette was not the brand of cigarette that an officer generally smoked, but the ordinary soldier did. So this man, whose name was Studdert-Kennedy, in order to put the men at ease, and in order to facilitate his work as chaplain smoked 'Woodbines', hence the name 'Woodbine Willie'. Not only that, he noticed also that most of the men could not speak without swearing, so he did the same. It was not that he wanted to swear, but he held the view that if you want to win men you have to use their language and you have to be like them in every respect. All this certainly made him a popular figure - there is no doubt about that. After the end of the Second World War he used to go round the country teaching this and urging that preachers must do this; and many tried to do so and began to do so. But the verdict of history on this was that it was a complete failure, a temporary 'stunt' or 'gimmick' that achieved notoriety for a while but soon entirely disappeared from the thinking of the Church. But it had a great temporary vogue.
From the standpoint of the New Testament it was based on a complete fallacy. Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him. That poor sinful woman of whom we read in Luke 7 did not draw near to the Pharisees and wash their feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head. No, but she sensed something in our Lord - His purity, His holiness, His love - and so she drew near to Him. It was His essential difference that attracted her. And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to Christian faith by showing that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.
(Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers, 139-140)
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