Bethany and Westbank Children's Homes

In light of current news in Northern Ireland, the following post by Michael Copeland MLA has taken on a relevance that cannot be missed.  Please read this and then ask questions of the churches to which you belong, if they were involved in supporting such homes of abuse.

Michael Stewart Copeland updated his status: "We welcome moves to include Westbank Orphanage, Greystones, in inquiries into institutional abuse in Northern Ireland. Children from Westbank were trafficked illegally over the border and placed with unregistered foster carers. Children in the home and in fostering arrangements suffered physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse. The orphanage was unique in that children were hardly if ever adopted. Some 'children' remained in the home into their early thirties. The orphanage appears to have operated without proper supervision from the 1950s until it closed in 1998. In 2011 residential records were removed from the PACT counselling service by the Trustees of Westbank in Bray Gospel Hall. Children whose mothers were from Northern Ireland gave birth in Dublin's Bethany Home, Rathgar, before being transferred to Westbank Home. Bethany Home should, therefore, also be included in the NI process. 219 Bethany children are buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin, while many who survived suffered lifelong illnesses and/or were sent into dysfunctional and abusive situations (including Westbank). Derek Leinster is one of those children. The state sanctioned neglect and death in Bethany when the Deputy Chief Medical Adviser, who was investigating reported abuse, stated in his report, 'It is well known that illegitimate children are delicate and marasmic'. ('Marasmic' is another word for starving). Mothers of three of the undersigned had children born in the Bethany Home. Sydney in 1964 and Colm in 1967 were sent to Westbank. They were sent back and forth over the border, sometimes on fundraising trips to perform for church groups. Sydney's mother was from Northern Ireland. Three of her children were sent to Westbank, one of whom was born in Bethany. Colm's mother gave birth to two children in Bethany who were sent to Westbank. As it was policy in Westbank, children were not told their siblings were also there. A number of religious denominations large and small, from the Church of Ireland to Presbyterians, Methodists, Free Presbyterians, Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, gospel halls, and the Orange Order, were involved in directing unmarried mothers to, and/or raising funds for, Bethany and Westbank. This diffuse association makes it possible for churches to deny specific responsibility for what went on in institutions run by evangelical Christians. Leaders of the CofI, Presbyterian and Methodist congregations twice met privately to discuss Bethany, but did not issue a statement. The Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has given written commitments to TDs and MLAs from the Democratic Unionist Party, the Unionist Party, the Labour Party and from Sinn Fein, to do something, sometime, about demands of former Bethany children for official recognition and for justice. Bethany and Westbank operated in the Republic of Ireland. Perhaps an inquiry into their activities will begin in Belfast while Justice delays in Dublin."

Preaching Degraded

Dr W. A. Criswell rightly says, "Preaching is increasingly looked upon disparagingly; they (i.e., church members) just 'put up with it.'" What has caused this situation to develop? Criswell thinks that the preacher himself has caused it. Instead of preaching the Gospel, instead of expounding the Word, instead of saying, 'Thus says the Lord,' the preacher began preaching psychology, and sociology, economic and civic amelioration. The time was when preachers proclaimed the Gospel; but now they preach sociological life situation sermons that have left the church anaemic. They preach sermons that make their congregations 'feel good' afterwards. The modern Gospel is a watered-down version of the real thing. You would travel far today to hear sermons that grip their hearers and cause them to think very deeply about their spiritual condition. Much preaching is pathetic, woeful, disappointing to some who hear it. But what must it do to God Whose Gospel it is they are supposed to be preaching! They are set apart to be His ambassadors, bringing to the people exactly what He wants them to hear.

Criswell also sees the training of preachers in modern seminaries and theological colleges as being at fault in this very thing. But there is a problem here. Just because a candidate for the post of lecturer or professor of practical theology holds a doctorate does not mean that he is a fit man to hold this position. Is he a preacher? And is he a preacher of the glorious Gospel? What are his gifts in this regard? Does he know how to preach gripping Gospel sermons? Is his own soul on fire for the Gospel? 

If not, how can such a man train ministerial candidates to be Gospel preachers? The students have nothing to model themselves on. This man cannot convey to the next generation of preachers what it is to Preach Christ and His crucified if is does not or cannot preach Christ himself!

I fear that within evangelical circles, there has been a serious move away from the systematic exposition of whole chunks of the Bible, and preachers have adopted a method of textual preaching instead. Now I would be the last to deny that such methodology has been greatly used of God in the past. One just has to mention the name of Spurgeon to prove the point. Yet I think that the practice of Spurgeon has had a detrimental effect upon the pulpits of the Church, as men have tried to emulate the Prince of Preachers, and have failed. Textual preaching, coupled with the desire to draw the crowds, has enticed men to reduce to a respectable minimum the biblical and doctrinal content of their sermons, and have compromised their whole ministries thereby. 

Thus preaching has been degraded by both the preachers themselves and by those who trained then to be preachers.

Man Without a Calling

William William of Pantycelyn, the great Welsh Calvinistic Methodist preacher and poet and hymn-writer, wrote the Welsh Christian classic Theomemphus, and towards the end of that very long poem (some 22 chapters), he penned these unforgettable and challenging lines:

But man without a calling, who is a wolf inside, 
Will take the shepherd's wages, but not the flock provide.

These deeply challenging words will repay deep and prolonged study and meditation. How many mere hirelings there are in the church of Christ! How many there are who use the Christina ministry, that most holy and highest of callings on earth, as a cover for promoting their own real interests! How many use it as cover for promoting of their own ambitions! How may use it as a means to promote their own business interests! Alas, how many use it as the means of feathering their own nests, while caring nothing for the flock over which Christ has made them overseers! Part-time ministers! Part-time under-shepherds! Yet, the sheep are left to their own devices. But, and here's the BUT,

But man without a calling, who is a wolf inside, 
Will take the shepherd's wages, but not the flock provide.

They take the salary each month, but use that pay to further their own selfish interests, not care for the flock.

Is it any wonder the church is in the state it's in just now? Ministers need urgently to review the reality of their calling before they take another penny from the church that called them.

Preachers Inadequately Trained

Dr Henry Drummond thinks that seminaries are doing an inadequate job in the training of preachers because, firstly, teachers have so given themselves to the historico-critical method that it has suddenly undermined the authority of the Word of God. Preachers, and/or their professors, now do not have confidence in the Scriptures, therefore they do not believe that the unfolding of the Word of God is where the power of preaching really is. 

I commenced my ministerial training in 1975 in what is now Union Theological College in Belfast, Northern Ireland. During a conversation with a friend this past week, he indicated to me that in the College there does not seem to be any training on preaching. I informed him that when I was there all those years ago, we had a full lecture by the Professor of Practical Theology whose responsibilities included training us how to preach, was given on how to fold a communion cloth. It doesn't get much worse than that! But no training is given to trainee ministers on how to do the single most important task in their calling.

While it is important to have some knowledge of the mechanics of sermon preparation and delivery, these are clearly not the vital issues.  You could train a monkey how to do these tasks. What is vitally important is this: has the man received a clear and discernible calling from God to the Christian ministry? Does he have the requisite gifts for this task? Is he passionate about this work? Does he know what needs to be preached even if he as yet does not know how to preach?

Secondly, the homiletics departments of seminaries have generally failed to emphasise expository preaching. Since Fosdick, life situation preaching has been emphasised. The climate in many congregations today is such that it dictates a low priority of preaching, where preaching is not seen as significant in ministry at all. So often, Christians prefer to sit in judgment on the preaching, and even say such things as this: "if a man cannot say what he has to say in 15-20 minutes, he shouldn't be a preacher." Today, preaching must be ultra-brief and go over us and hit our neighbour. This anti-preaching climate has a destructive effect on the preacher himself, for his very call is under question, his raison d’être is challenged. And if such a climate tends to destroy the preacher, then the congregation has little or no chance of surviving. What many congregations want today is not a preacher of the Word of God but an office manager, (Ravenhill).

Preaching is Gospel Proclamation

Preaching must be THE issue for the minister. "The whole basis of our spiritual life and our church life is that we respond to what God has done. The essence of preaching is the proclamation of what God has done; therefore if we are to have experience with God, both individually and corporately, it is going to be the basis of responding to the knowledge of what God has done, which in one form or another, must come from proclamation. Preaching is, therefore, fundamental in the church life and therefore should have a high priority in the life of the pastor," (Dr S. Briscoe). All of the spiritual life is simply a response to God, Who has revealed himself through His Word and through His messenger, the preacher.

Therefore proclamation is of vital importance and an essential ingredient in the worship of God. Praising God and preaching His Word are essential to true worship. Through God-owned preaching, sinners and saints alike meet with the living God. In the word, believers experience fellowship with their Lord and with each other. Take away the proclaimed Word, and little else remains. The Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God states,

“Preaching of the Word, being the power of God unto salvation, and one of the greatest and most excellent works belonging to the ministry of the gospel, should be so performed, that the workman need not be ashamed, but may save himself, and those that hear him. In the Presbyterian Church, the sermon is the climax of our church's worship services.”

Preaching is not a Profession

"Preaching is not a profession; it is an obsession, and a passion. And if it isn't, a man should not preach," says Dr L. Ravenhill. It is the key to any church and to any pastorate. Where the preaching fails, all else fails; but where the preaching is raised to its proper place and priority in the mind of both minister and congregation, everything else is raised thereby. It is the central aspect of the church's life and mission. Ministers must never think of preaching as a mere adjunct, a duty that has to be performed, a part of their professional responsibility. It should be their very life, their obsession, their passion. To preach the Gospel should be the one thing they live to do above all else! He must burn to do it week in and week out. He must preach, or his heart will burst. 

Jeremiah speaks with deep feeling when he talks about God's Word in his heart like a burning fire, shut up in his bones, (Jer.20:9). He says that he is weary of holding it in, indeed he cannot! He must preach the word, or burn up. His burning prophetic vocation compelled him to testify concerning covenant spirituality, despite all opposition from his beloved fellow countrymen, (R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah, Tyndale Press, Leicester, UK, 1973:113). Jeremiah did not regard himself as a professional prophet. To him, preaching was a categorical imperative. He must preach or die! His attempts not to do so merely wearied him out.

The true preacher knows that his work is an obsession and a passion; with Paul he can say, "Woe is unto me if I do not preach the Gospel,"(1 Cor.9:16).

Pastoral Preaching

Preaching is by far the most important of the minister's public duties. More will be done for more people in that concentrated preaching session that at any other moment. Patterson says, "If preaching is done properly, it will alleviate the need for a large percent of counselling necessities." Lloyd-Jones, drawing on his vast medical and pastoral experience, argues that the task of the church is not to alleviate the symptoms of a man's spiritual condition until the cause of those symptoms has been isolated and dealt with properly. Counselling generally seems to help people who have problems of various kinds, and this is good so far as it goes; but sometimes the 'successful' counsellor is seen to be the one who can make people feel 'good' after a session. But this is nothing short of criminal, because it removes the only indicator that something is wrong.

But when the Word is truly and pastorally preached, needy people will find their problems being sorted out as they attend to that Word. Sometimes the charge can be levelled against preacher's, especially in the Reformed Church, that their preaching is too cerebral at times, and not experiential enough. I think there is truth in this charge. The result is that people are driven to look for someone, possibly even their minister, who will help them sort out their difficulties. This is very time consuming, and in itself is not guaranteed to be successful. Well prepared and faithfully proclaimed sermons will do more to counsel people than is often imagined. Preaching is still God's chief way of sharing His Word with His people.