The Delivery Room of R-Rated Preachers

Entering seminary is usually for the sake of being equipped for ministry. Here, students grow in knowledge, their vision is renewed, and their lives are transformed—because the seminary is the “delivery room” where R-rated ministers are brought to birth.

Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord GOD! I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’ But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a youth.” You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.’”

“Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

The word of the LORD came to me again: “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied. The LORD said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching over my word to fulfill it.” (Jeremiah 1:4–12)

R-Rated Ministers

At the 2025 Pre-Semester Spiritual Retreat of China Evangelical Seminary, President Rev. Dr. Dai Chi-Tsung spoke on Galatians 4:19—“until Christ is formed in you”—and insightfully articulated the three spheres of theological education. Whether in academics, spiritual formation, or ministry, the journey must move from "inform" (instruction), through "reform" (renewal), and ultimately to "transform" (transformation), until Christ is formed in the life of every seminarian.

Einstein put it well: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten all the knowledge memorized in school.” The goal of education is not merely to inform, but to stir a reformation of thought, and ultimately a transformation of life—only then is its purpose fulfilled. The graduation ceremonies of schools, churches, and seminaries are much like delivery rooms, sending forth those who have been formed and transformed to shine beyond their walls.

Paul also writes in Galatians 1, “God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace.” The imagery of the “mother’s womb” and “being formed” echoes the language of Jeremiah. Jeremiah speaks of himself as one “set apart from the womb”: his prophetic role (a prophet to the nations), his sphere of ministry (going wherever he is sent), his message (the LORD touching his mouth and putting his words there), and even his method (first to uproot, tear down, destroy, and overthrow, then to build and to plant) were all bounded by God’s commission—thus an “R-rated minister.”

In an age that says, “As long as I like it, anything goes,” those who would become influential ministers must learn to live within holy boundaries. Spurgeon once said, “A train runs fastest when it is on the tracks.” Jesus likewise taught, “If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” And the seminary is precisely the delivery room where such R-rated ministers are brought to birth.

Since Martin Luther’s Reformation, believers have come to understand that through the salvation of Jesus, Gentiles like you and me may enter in and become priests—proclaiming, in every walk of life, the praises of the One who calls people out of darkness into light, as “undercover ministers.” In the broadest sense, a minister is simply “one who proclaims the Way.” Thus, not only is the seminary a delivery room for ministers—the church is as well. Believers “recharge” in church on the weekend so that they may “discharge and shine” during the week as R-rated ministers.

A most evident mark of those used by God is that they are restricted. Moses, shaped by two utterly different seasons—Egypt’s palace and the wilderness—was restrained for eighty years before he developed the influence to lead Israel out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. Elijah was constrained by God at the Brook Cherith, where he experienced miracles, and only then did he have the authority to defeat the false prophets of Baal. Peter, who became the rock of the early church, was, under constraint, ultimately led to a place he did not wish to go. After encountering the Lord, Paul immediately prayed:

“What then should I do?” When John the Elder was imprisoned on the island of Patmos, he wrote the Book of Revelation. And Jesus set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem, for “it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem.”

Jeremiah became a restricted-rated minister while still young. Though he initially tried to shrink back from his calling, in his later years he could say with gratitude in Lamentations, “It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth.” To be called early into the delivery room of restricted-rated ministers is a blessing—for when one finds direction early, life is far less likely to lose its focus.

An R-Rated Vision

In Jeremiah 2, the LORD rebukes His people: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug for themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” From this we see that Israel’s primary disease was idolatry—so blind that they exchanged the true God for useless idols. In this sense, Israel’s “self-destruction” led to its “destruction by others,” plunging the nation into the fate of exile and ruin. As the historian Arnold J. Toynbee observed:

“The collapse of civilizations is not murder, but suicide.”

When nations, churches, or individuals worship false gods as though they were true, they will inevitably decline the more they worship. Eugene Peterson—often called “a pastor to pastors”—put it well: “If God is not the center of our lives, everything will fall into disorder.”

From this perspective, at every level of theological formation, the order of spiritual construction must be demolition before building. Each discipline of theological training must first deconstruct its own assumptions. Thus, in the early years of theological study, students often pass through a disorienting phase—“seeing the mountain as no longer a mountain”—before they can build and plant biblical truth rightly, arriving at the clarity of “seeing the mountain once again as a mountain.” Just as Jeremiah prophesied, Israel—having fallen into idolatry—had to undergo the loss of nationhood and exile among foreign peoples before returning to the Holy Land, and that return to God ultimately came through Jesus and the establishment of the New Covenant (cf. Jeremiah 31:31–34).

By the same principle, whether on the scale of nations—fragmented by external forces or civil conflict—or on the scale of individuals—displaced through migration—such upheavals may be processes through which the sovereign God “reshuffles the deck.” As C. S. Lewis aptly said:

“Suffering is a megaphone to rouse a sleeping soul.” John Milton, in "Paradise Lost", uses this image:

“God can bury the suffering of one generation and turn it into the spiritual soil of the next.” The Cultural Revolution gave rise to tens of millions of believers; Ukraine, having been refined through the fires of war, may yet become a locomotive for spiritual renewal in Europe; even the “martyrdom” of Charlie Kirk may serve as momentum for advancing the gospel on American campuses—provided there is an elevated vision of God’s kingdom.

The kingdom vision of restricted-rated ministers must be bound by God’s revelation, lest it collapse into narrow nationalism. Jeremiah was a prophet to the nations; though repeatedly risking accusations of treason, he still urged the kings of Judah to surrender to the besieging Babylonians. The purpose of theological training is to form messengers of God’s kingdom—those who proclaim the message of the heavenly kingdom to the kingdoms of this world. If one were to respond like Jonah, would that not reduce this calling to that of a “Christian nationalist”?

Marx's statement "workers have no country" is quite appropriate when applied to Christian "workers," as Paul said: "Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." Christians should value the heavenly kingdom over earthly kingdoms, lest they fall into the disciples' delusion: "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" Our prayer should be "Your kingdom come," not "May my kingdom (whichever it may be) come!" Citizens of heaven should also fulfill the responsibilities of earthly citizens, but while paying attention to political issues, we should also heed what Chuck Wendell Colson said: when the church gets close to politics, the loser is always the church being used by politics!

Spurgeon once said: "I would rather win a lost soul than gain the British Empire." British general and military chaplaincy founder Sir Henry Havelock said: "The first duty of a soldier is to draw near to the Lord; the secondary duty is to defend the country." Daniel, from his captivity in Babylon through the Persian Empire period, continued serving God as a chief administrator, not bound by a "one kingdom" perspective. He didn't act like loyal ministers limited by Confucian thinking, expressing high moral character disdaining the new regime through suicide or self-exile.

When the Babylonian Empire invaded Jerusalem three times, the last kings of Judah panicked greatly and came to ask Jeremiah in succession how they could survive. Jeremiah's answer was always "Surrender!" Such difficult-to-hear honest advice was naturally misunderstood as him being a "Jewish traitor" collaborating with Babylon. Regarding today's political, social, and other issues, are God's children willing to proclaim the Lord's message, even if misunderstood by compatriots of mainstream culture and the people of the world?

R-rated Suffering

In fact, workers used by God are often unavoidably misunderstood, even disliked and framed—who would want to hear the message Jeremiah preached: the holy city and temple would be broken through; Judah would have famine; Israel would be like sackcloth and wine jars; the potter's vessel would be destroyed; the chosen people would be scattered among the nations? Those who want to merely please people's hearts, or even expect to "get along well" in the world, should heed what Jesus said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Those who enter the delivery room all know that suffering is the mark of R-rated character growth. Isaiah witnessed with his own eyes the destruction of the northern kingdom, and Jeremiah saw the tragic destruction of the southern kingdom. However, the suffering of the prophets allowed them to better understand God's heart.

Jeremiah was restricted from marrying (this was a special case for prophets, not a general rule) so that he could experience the suffering of the southern kingdom's captivity—after God's "beloved" Zion was destroyed, He became "alone and widowed"! Hosea was restricted to marry an "improper" wife Gomer who committed adultery after marriage, so he could experience the pain of Israel's adultery with Baal, to the point where after Judah's destruction God "couldn't cry." Ezekiel was restricted from crying after his beloved wife died—she died on the very day Jerusalem was destroyed; how could God "cry"?

Restricted-rated preachers must take up their cross and follow. Robert Morrison applied to the London Missionary Society to come preach in China with these words: "I ask God to bring me to the mission field with the most difficulties and, from a human perspective, the least likely to succeed." Methodist missionary James Calvert and his companions were sent to Fiji, north of New Zealand. Previous missionaries on these nearby cannibal islands had all been martyred (eaten!). The crew said: "You will all die on the island!" He replied: "We were already dead before we came."

Unrestricted Presence

Failure in ministry is the norm for restricted-rated preachers. Jeremiah's most unique failure was that the king not only refused to listen to his advice to "surrender to Babylon," but also burned the holy book that Jeremiah had written through the scribe Baruch! Afterward, the prophet took another scroll and rewrote all the words from the previous scroll that Jehoiakim had burned. Restricted-rated preachers can, through the Lord, start over after failures and setbacks in ministry!

After completing *The French Revolution*, Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle excitedly gave the thick manuscript to a good friend, asking for criticism and corrections. A few weeks later, the friend appeared at his door, pale-faced and voice trembling, telling Carlyle that a servant had burned the entire manuscript of "The French Revolution" as firewood! Carlyle could hardly accept this terrible news, but in front of his friend, he struggled to control his anger and disappointment to prevent his friend from falling into even greater pain.

After his close friend’s departure, Carlyle could no longer hold himself together and plunged into a pit of despair: the labor of his lifetime had gone up in flames. Worse still, believing the manuscript had already been completed, he had thrown away all his notes and source materials—any hope of rewriting was shattered. At night he tossed and turned, unable to sleep; by day he wandered the streets in a daze.

Until one day, in his despair, Carlyle saw workers by the roadside building a house—laying bricks one by one, slowly raising the wall. A thought suddenly crossed his mind: “If I write one page a day, then the history of the French Revolution—like bricklaying—could be completed again.” In his darkest, most hopeless hour, he began to write page by page, until this monumental work of history was finally finished.

When the Southern Kingdom was like a flickering candle in the wind, the false prophets all claimed that Babylon would soon vanish like smoke. But Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Judeans who had been exiled to Babylon—especially the second group of captives, the royal family of Judah, officials, warriors, craftsmen, and metalworkers—the elites who longed to return quickly to the Holy City. Jeremiah urged them to settle in the land of exile and wait for seventy years; only then would a return be possible.

This harsh and grating message, of course, infuriated the mainstream false prophets. Time and again they framed Jeremiah and had him thrown into prison; they even cast him into a muddy cistern, deliberately intending for him to die of hunger, thirst, and cold. From this we see that unless one is determined to pour oneself wholly into it, it is impossible to faithfully live out the role to which God has called him.

In a turbulent age, everyone faces threats to their sense of security. The Book of Jeremiah records twice that Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was forced to watch all his sons being killed before his eyes, after which his own eyes were gouged out. Yet the God who promised, “I am with you,” rescued Jeremiah through Ebed-Melech the Cushite—remarkably, his deliverer was not one of his own countrymen.

In a turbulent age, everyone faces threats to their sense of security. The Book of Jeremiah records twice that Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, was forced to watch all his sons being killed before his eyes, after which his own eyes were gouged out. Yet the God who promised, “I am with you,” rescued Jeremiah through Ebed-Melech the Cushite—remarkably, his deliverer was not one of his own countrymen.

“See, today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 1:18–19)