Burk Parsons is a good interviewer, for he always includes practical and pastoral questions. For example, in this recent four-part interview with Michael Horton he asks questions like
- What encourages you most about what you see in the church today?
- If you could study under any three churchmen in history who would it be and why?
- If you could have a one-hour discussion with any living person in the world today, who would it be?
- Is there one particular word of counsel that has proven to be helpful in your life?
- What word of admonition do pastors most need to hear today?
- What word of encouragement do pastors most need to hear today?
The whole thing is worth reading. Here’s one exchange worth highlighting as Horton talks about one of his besetting sins:
Mike, what is one lesson you’ve being learning in recent years that you think might be helpful to share with others?
I guess it’s the lesson of needing more patience. Impatience is one of my besetting sins, as my wife—one of my chief sanctifiers—reminds me regularly. It’s a terrible besetting sin because essentially it’s rooted in a failure to connect theory with practice. I believe that God is sovereign, but I don’t really think He is. If it’s going to happen, I think that I have be the one to do it and that it’s got to be done my way. And as I grow just a little bit older I’m beginning to realize more and more that this world is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. I am also growing in my understanding that the church is Christ’s and that He has not entrusted its welfare to me or to us. He is making sure that His church progresses, and He’ll do it even through our feeble efforts. So my relaxing a little bit more and trusting in the providence of God—not just believing it intellectually but relaxing in it, basking in it, really, taking refuge in it, has been helpful in trying to become more patient and dependent on God.