Jesse Middendorf, a Pastor's Heart

I appreciate preachers who don't waste my time. Plenty have. But not Jesse Middendorf. His sermons were not shallow, risible, or cute. He did not traffic in the spit-shined 12-minute sermon, or the hour-long, power-pointed meandering of some 'teaching pastors.'

Those of us who heard Pastor Jesse week after week came to expect that the Living Word and the written Word, in conjunction with the spoken word, would produce an event of the Word. Who could blame us for thinking that his pulpit ministry resonated well with the Sixth Ode of Solomon? 'As the hand moves over the harp and the strings speak, so the Spirit of the Lord speaks in my members and I speak by his love.'

Leading through Character

In elevating this pastor and former district superintendent to its highest office in 2001, the church wisely recognized a person who led, not by politics, or sophistry, or intimidation, and certainly not by self-promotion. Rather, he led by the force of his character.

I have been writing for publications for about 60 years. I don?t think I?ve missed a single issue of | Writer's Digest and The Writer. One table-pounding theme that comes ringing down the corridor of the decades to writers is make self-promotion a full-time job! Get your name out there! Advertise your book and yourself. The name of the game is self-promotion. Lately, it's been get yourself 'liked' on Facebook and 'followed' on Twitter.

I assure you, self-promotion is as foreign to Jesse as desert sand is to a rain forest. Integrity and humility are married in him. A friend once said, 'Just being around him makes you want to be better.'

He leads by his character. His colleagues on the Board of General Superintendents know this. J. K. Warrick says the three words that best describe Jesse are 'Christlike, gentle, and grace-filled.' Eugénio Duarte calls him a 'Christlike servant leader.' He also shares, 'His responsible yet imperturbable spirit make him an almost indispensable partner.'

Our church ordains only | those who demonstrate 'gifts and graces' for ministry. Jesse has demonstrated many such gifts, but I cite only one here'encourager.

General Superintendent David Graves said | 'Jesse is an encourager to everyone.' Eugénio Duarte called him a 'warm encourager.' Stan Toler labeled him 'the ultimate encourager' adding, 'His ability to celebrate success in ministry as well as show empathy for those who are struggling is unparalleled.'

Holiness of Heart and Life

In his preaching and writing, holiness, love, and Christlikeness are so blended that they seem one and the same. Could be.

I reread his Holiness Today editorials. Jesse kept saying things like 'We invite people to an encounter with Christ that is so pervasive that it can alter the very core of their being. They can be reoriented from self-serving, self-centered lifestyles to lives of holy love, sacrificial, humble, loving service . . . We call it 'entire sanctification.'' (Holiness Today, January/February 2010).

Opening the 27th General Assembly in 2009, he proclaimed 'We Nazarenes are shaped by the cross . . . we embrace the cross. But we live in the power of the resurrection . . . our message: it is the will of God to sanctify us through and through.'

In a 2013 online message to pastors, Jesse Middendorf wrote that while boundaries exist, Christlike love is seen 'in the willingness to be vulnerable enough to be taken advantage of, to be rejected, even crucified. Holy love is that rugged, winsome expression of [love] demonstrated in Jesus.'

Jesse Middendorf lives what he preaches. David Graves spoke for us all saying that Jesse 'has modeled Christlikeness and our theology of holiness.'
 

Personal Roots

The person who had the most formative influence on him was his pastor father, Jesse A. Middendorf. The senior Middendorf taught his son to preach and live holiness of heart and life while avoiding the excesses of the crushing legalism that plagued that era.

Middendorf's father and the late General Superintendent Emeritus William Greathouse were lifelong friends, receiving their first district preacher's licenses in the same Tennessee District Assembly. Greathouse was Jesse's college pastor, a teacher whose classes 'shaped me powerfully,' and a friend and mentor until his death.

H. Ray Dunning's influential book, Grace, Faith, and Holiness, came at a crucial time in Jesse Middendorf's education and shoved him in the right directions.

I asked Jesse, 'What do you wish I had asked about that I left out?' He replied, 'The sacrifices of my family, especially my wife, Susan, that have made my service in this office possible.'

Fears and Hopes

Jesse Middendorf's greatest fear for our church is 'that our message becomes mired in the temptation to make survival of the 'institution' more important than the message. Without our message, we have no mission . . . Holiness is not a 'sideline' with us. It is our raison d'être.

He reports his greatest hope for our church: 'We have a rising generation of young leaders, both lay and ministerial, who will not allow the 'status quo' to define us. They are committed to an engaged holiness, that is more true to our Wesleyan roots than their parents seemed to understand. . . . We must live the doctrine of perfect love with such integrity that they can embrace our message, even while they challenge some of our methods and structures.'

Only the Term of Office Ends

The positive influence of Jesse Middendorf will not end with his term in office. One example: for years to come whenever a Nazarene minister dedicates an infant, baptizes a believer, receives members into the church, officiates at a wedding, says 'dust to dust' over a saint, dedicates a new sanctuary, conducts a healing service, or leads a Tenebrae service, the little black book that the minister has in her or his hand will likely be the volume created by Jesse Middendorf called The Church Rituals Handbook.

Wesley D. Tracy taught Christian preaching and adult education at Nazarene Theological Seminary. He also served as editor of the Herald of Holiness (precursor to Holiness Today) and the Preacher's Magazine.

Holiness Today, May/June 2013

Please note: This article was originally published in 2013. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.