Eutychus: Signed in His Absence
written by: Warren Wiersbe
A friend of mine, who is a Very Important Christian Leader, takes time to answer his mail but not to sign the finished letters. His signature is so poor that anybody could sign the letters. His secretary merely stamps the signature: “Dictated by Dr.__ but signed in his absence.” The twenty-second time I saw that stamp, I received a brilliant idea from my muse which, if it pays off, ought to give my wife and me a trip to Winona Lake Bible Conference.
I plan to market a complete set of “Sacred Stamps” that every pastor can use in his ministry and which will save him a lot of time and trouble. For example:
“Passed by the official church board but never carried out.” (This one you use on the church clerk’s reports, and also on annual reports that don’t report anything.)
This one is for sermon outlines: “Originally preached by Spurgeon, but borrowed by _.”
For use in books only: “Borrowed from __ but not returned.”
“United with the church and has not been seen since.” (This one is for membership record cards and also visitation cards. We include two of these stamps. They wear out in a hurry.)
“United with the church and I hope he/she never comes back.” (The pastor uses this on his own private records.)
“Sorry, our church does not support free-lance missionaries even if they have seen a vision.” (This one will save you a lot of letter-writing.)
I will also prepare special stamps made to order. No sooner had this exciting news gotten out when a well-known pastor wrote asking for: “Baptized by Dr. _ and not to be baptized again.” He wants to stamp this on the candidate, so I’m suggesting he use the kind of ultra-violet system they have at Disneyland.
I’ll be watching for your order.
EUTYCHUS X
(signed in his absence)
Written by Warren W. Wiersbe
Originally appeared in Christianity Today 11/16/79
Used by permission. Not to be reprinted.
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
