[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 13, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E61-E62]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING REV. JOHN WOOD

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 13, 2015

  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday, Rev. John 
Wood was honored for his 25 years as Pastor of the Cedar Springs 
Presbyterian Church in Knoxville.
  Almost everyone who has heard John Wood speak believes he is one of 
the greatest preachers this Nation has ever produced.
  He is not loud or flashy or flamboyant, but he preaches the Gospel in 
a sincere, intelligent, humble way that relates well to all types of 
people.
  I think he is one of the most brilliant men I have ever known, and I 
have felt that way since I first met him in one of his early days in 
Knoxville.
  Under his leadership, Cedar Springs has become one of the largest 
Presbyterian churches in the Nation. His sermons are both enjoyable and 
thought-provoking, and, most importantly, Biblically-based.
  He somehow has the ability to teach the Bible in a way that is 
helpful to Biblical scholars as well as to beginning Christians. He 
preaches in a kind, down-to-earth manner that gives his listeners the 
feeling he is preaching to himself as well as to everyone who is 
listening.
  John has been a true friend and an inspiration to me and my family. 
He has been with us through good times and bad, and I am very fortunate 
to have known him and have him as a part of my life for these last 25 
years.
  Much more important than the help he has been to me, however, is the 
fact that he has touched thousands of lives in a good and positive way.
  He has brought the Christian message to churches and meetings through 
the U.S. and to many countries around the world.
  I want to congratulate John Wood on his 25 years at Cedar Springs and 
encourage all my Colleagues and other readers of the Record to listen 
to one of his sermons on the internet or hopefully someday in person.
  I would also like to call attention to the article that appeared in 
the Knoxville News Sentinel on January 13, 2013, entitled ``Pastor John 
Wood: Best leaders are servants.''

              Pastor John Wood: Best Leaders Are Servants

                            (By Josh Flory)

       Legendary University of Tennessee football coach Robert 
     Neyland was famous for his seven maxims of winning football. 
     In that spirit, the News Sentinel offers a series that 
     highlights maxims for the 21st century--not about football, 
     but about effective leadership.
       On one Sunday every month, the Business section will 
     highlight an East Tennessean from spheres including 
     athletics, the arts, religion or the public sector, speaking 
     about their ``leadership maxims'' for the 21st century.
       John Wood, senior pastor, Cedar Springs Presbyterian 
     Church: ``The best leaders are those who help people 
     accomplish good things, not by ruling over them, but by 
     serving alongside them.''
       Q: Tell me about your philosophy of leadership as a pastor 
     and a minister.
       A: I think ``leader''--just at its rawest, most basic 
     definition--a leader is someone who gets other people to 
     follow them and to get something done.
       But a good leader is someone who encourages and motivates 
     people to get something good or something necessary done. A 
     great leader, the best leaders, are those who accomplish 
     that--who encourage, who motivate, who really get people 
     excited about being a part of something that they're doing--
     not by ruling but rather, as Jesus said, by serving.
       It's servant leadership. And it's not just Jesus' word, 
     it's really the whole picture of leadership, positive picture 
     of leadership in the Bible. And (it) often contrasts between 
     the very good leaders and very bad leaders, those who ruled 
     and those who served. . . .
       To me, the ultimate example of servant leadership, 
     integrity in the Bible is John 13, where just the night 
     before he was crucified, Jesus, having loved his disciples, 
     loved them to the end and took off his robes, put a towel 
     around his waist and did the one thing that no Jewish family 
     could force another Jew who served them to do, and that was 
     wash feet. . . .
       And so Jesus lays aside His robes, puts a towel around His 
     waist and crawls from one set of dirty feet to the next, 
     washes feet, and then when He resumes his place He says: ``Do 
     you understand what I've told you? You call me Lord and 
     master, I am. I'm your master, I'm your teacher. And if I, 
     your master and teacher, have washed your feet, how much more 
     ought you?'' This is servant leadership. This is what it 
     looks like.''
       Q: You mentioned the service aspect of leadership. At the 
     same time . . . you mentioned this issue of mastery and being 
     a master. In some sense your role involves challenging and 
     confronting people at certain times, I would imagine. How do 
     you balance those competing demands of confronting at times 
     but also serving and being humble?
       A: When Jack Kennedy was inaugurated as president, he asked 
     Robert Frost to write a poem and read a poem for him, which 
     Frost agreed to do. When Frost's friends heard that he had 
     agreed to participate in Jack Kennedy's inauguration, they 
     said how could you do this, you've always hated liberals?
       And he said, Kennedy's no liberal. And they said, what do 
     you mean, what's your definition of a liberal? And he said, a 
     liberal is a man who cannot even pick his own side in an 
     argument.
       Now I always tell our people, Christ was never, in calling 
     us to be humble, telling us that we can't have principled 
     views--hopefully biblically formed and shaped--for which we 
     are willing to stand and passionately take a position and 
     debate it, but debate it charitably without demonizing people 
     who hold a different view.
       Being a leader means that you're going to have to go to 
     people, often if you see them working what you think is 
     outside of their own gifting, and say: ``Look, you know, you 
     have so many really wonderful gifts, and I want to help you 
     use those gifts. We need for you to be using your gifts. 
     We've got you in the wrong place. This is our fault. We asked 
     you to do something that is outside of your gifting.

[[Page E62]]

       Or it's something that you clearly have no interest in. I 
     think you could do it, but you've got no interest. Now let's 
     help you get in a place where you can really be fulfilled and 
     be, in our context, serving Christ and serving others by 
     using your gifts. And let's deploy you rightly. . . . '' But 
     also as a pastor, and a pastor who believes that the Bible is 
     God's word written, there's often the responsibility of 
     confronting--hopefully gently, lovingly but firmly--someone 
     who's simply wanting to go along and be part of the family of 
     Christ and yet wanting to live way outside clear teaching of 
     God's word. And that doesn't mean on secondary and tertiary 
     issues, but on things where the Bible is clear, where 
     Christians have always everywhere believed these things.
       You have to be able to go in love and say: ``Look, I love 
     you too much to watch you on a destructive course. And this 
     isn't an option for you. How can I help you get out of this 
     thing? And I'm willing to walk with you or we'll find 
     somebody who will walk with you.''
       And again, I think too often as pastors we want so much for 
     everybody to like us and for the numbers to keep increasing 
     and for the money to keep coming in, and so we don't want to 
     say the hard things. We say hard things that we know 
     everybody agrees with. . . . We preach to the choir and they 
     (say) ``Oh yeah, go get 'em.'' And I don't want to preach to 
     the people that are out there; I want to preach to the people 
     that are here by preaching first to my own heart, confronting 
     my own idols, my own demons, my own brokenness.''

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