Who Will Tell?

A most refreshing, encouraging, and challenging book! By man’s standards, this is a book that should never have been written. Why? Because by man’s standards, Tom Carson was just an ordinary pastor. Thank the Lord, Tom’s son, D. A. Carson, took the time to write this little book. Tom Carson (1911-1992) was a pastor that spent the bulk of his ministry in French Canada. He battled with a combination of perfectionism and, very often, an extremely critical attitude about himself, his ministry, and his love for the Lord—he viewed much of what he did as an absolute failure. However, from the testimonies of his own children and others that he ministered to, he was an extremely faithful believer and a wonderful pastor.

Read this book. You will be deeply encouraged in your life and ministry. You might also stand corrected about your take on true success.

~Michel Lemaire

Many of Pastor Carson’s journal entries are included in the book. Some of the entries are filled with praise and thanksgiving. Others are filled with self-doubt and probing introspection. As I read these pages, it was so encouraging to me to see some of the internal struggles and battles that a fairly-recently-departed, faithful soldier of the cross had gone through. These insights give me hope into my own struggles with many of the same things.

I sincerely hope that my life can be characterized by the same kind of diligence and faithfulness that is reflected in the life of Tom Carson. Michael Thate, D. A. Carson’s administrative assistant, after transcribing all of the English parts of Tom Carson’s journals, sent this message along with the last of the digital files: “I used to aspire to be the next Henry Martyn [heroic British Bible translator and missionary to the Muslim peoples of India and Persia]. However, after reading your dad’s diaries, the Lord has given my heart a far loftier goal: simply to be faithful. I know we as men are but dust, but what dust the man I read about in these diaries was!” While this book is written about a pastor, I believe it can be a great encouragement to any Christian, as we all face many of the same kind of battles in our own lives. I like the quote of one Canadian pastor, Michel Lemaire: “Read this book. You will be deeply encouraged in your life and ministry. You might also stand corrected about your take on true success. Perhaps you will even end up praying that you’ll be deemed as ordinary as Tom Carson was.”

PREFACE
By: D.A. Carson

Some pastors, mightily endowed by God, are remarkable gifts to the church. They love their people, they handle Scripture well, they see many conversions, their ministries span generations, they understand their culture yet refuse to be domesticated by it, they are theologically robust and personally disciplined. I do not need to provide you with a list of names: you know some of these people, and you have been encouraged and challenged by them, as I have. Some of them, of course, carry enormous burdens that watching Christians do not readily see. Nevertheless, when we ourselves are not being tempted by the green-eyed monster, we thank God for such Christian leaders from the past and pray for the current ones.

Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches. Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth. They will plug away at their care for the aged, at their visitation, at their counseling, at their Bible studies and preaching. Some will work with so little support that they will prepare their own bulletins. They cannot possibly discern whether the constraints of their own sphere of service owe more to the specific challenges of the local situation or to their own shortcomings. Once in a while they will cast a wistful eye on “successful” ministries. Many of them will attend the conferences sponsored by the revered masters and come away with a slightly discordant combination of, on the one hand, gratitude and encouragement and, on the other, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and guilt.

Most of us—let us be frank—are ordinary pastors.

Dad was one of them. This little book is a modest attempt to let the voice and ministry of one ordinary pastor be heard, for such servants have much to teach us….”

TWO EXCERPTS:

[Don Carson speaking] “The longer I have spent getting to know pastors in many small and medium-sized churches (and some larger ones!), the more I have become aware of the chasms of discouragement through which many of them pass. The reasons for such discouragement are many, but some of them, at least, overlap with Tom’s self-doubt, guilty conscience, sense of failure, long hours, and growing frustration with apparent fruitlessness. Some reflection on these matters some four and a half decades after the events will not only put some of Tom’s comments into perspective but may help discouraged ministers of the gospel today.” pp. 91-92

“Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.’ His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.

When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side…” [you’ll just have to get the book!] pp. 147-148