The Local Church: The Training Ground for Ministry

In a recent conversation with a seminary professor, we talked on a topic of great interest to me as a pastor engaged in training the next generation. He told of how he has been teaching Greek to members of his local church. He said that they started out with a class of fifty-five and ended up with six, but that decline in participation did not discourage him. He said that those six church members could now read their Greek New Testament. And they did it all without enrolling in seminary! He added that he thought the local church should be involved in training its people for gospel ministry. I agreed. Our discussion continued on the local church as the focal point of training men and women for gospel work to the nations.

His example represents the local church’s involvement in training people for ministry beyond their local congregation. The typical church’s approach with someone that expresses a call to gospel ministry has been to immediately send him to a seminary for training. While every local church may not be able to replace a theological seminary education (and I am not advocating such replacement), churches must realize that seminaries cannot replace the shaping influence of the local church community for future ministry. Instead, churches must not relegate to seminaries what local churches do best: preparing the next generation for gospel-centered ministry by mentoring young ministers in the context of church community.

The New Testament places priority on the local church and not outside institutions. The church alone is called the bride of Christ (Eph 5:22–33; Rev 19:7–9; 21:2; 22:7) and the corporate entity for fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20; Acts 1:8). Jesus Christ ordained the church (Matt 16:13–20), died and rose from the dead to secure it (Eph 5:25–27), and made it to be a kingdom of priests engaged in worship and proclamation (1 Pet 2:4–10; Rev 1:5–6; 5:9–10). So, the church best serves Christ’s mission and therefore, best prepares its workers.

Ironically, some missiologists have objected to the priority of the church in God’s mission. The late Ralph Winter insisted that the New Testament gave the responsibility of nurturing to the local church but the apostolic focus on evangelism to missionary organizations outside the church, which he called “sodalities." [1] The work of missions, in Winter’s view, belongs to sodalities not to the church. Yet his position totally bypasses Jesus Christ’s commission to the church! D. A. Carson called the Great Commission to the eleven disciples paradigmatic for all disciples. [2] The most natural means for disciple making takes place through the church, especially since Christ’s commission to make disciples calls for baptism and ongoing teaching, which are distinct responsibilities for the church. Consequently, the local church as the means for disciple making also holds the key to training ministers.

Thankfully, a number of leaders in theological education recognize the sometime-disconnect between seminary education and the reality of living out the gospel in community. Timothy George muses that he prefers a residential community for seminarians where professors and students live, work, play, and flesh “out the meaning of the gospel together." [3] In other words, he recognizes that what the church has been created to do—live, work, play, and flesh out the meaning of the gospel together—is necessary to properly shape the rising generation of Christian ministers. Robert Ferris points out that other generations maintained the wedding of community and theological training until the rise of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s influence on “theology-as-science,” or information dump, instead of spiritual formation in community. [4] Academic sterility neglects spiritual formation by isolation from local church ministry.

While theological institutions play an important role in training for ministry, it is the experience of mentoring relationships in the church living out the gospel, modeling forgiveness, service, and accountability that prepares the rising generation for the work of ministry. A healthy church not only proclaims the gospel audibly but also makes it known visibly through the way that believers live together in community. This distinction gives those involved in pastoral and missionary work a realistic rather than theoretical approach to ministry. Therefore, an organic partnership with local churches and theological institutions may best train the next generation’s ministers.

Phil A. Newton 

_______________

[1] Ralph Winter, “The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission,” Missiology 2(1) (January 1974): 121–139.

[2] D. A. Carson, Matthew 13–28 (EBC; Frank E. Gaebelein, gen. ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 596.

[3] “50 Years of Seminary Education: Celebrating the Past, Assessing the Present, Envisioning the Future,” Christianity Today 50/10 (Oct 2006): S13.

[4] “The Role of Theology in Theological Education,” in With an Eye on the Future: Development and Mission in the 21st Century—Essays in Honor of Ted Ward (Duane Elmer and Lois McKinney, eds.: Monrovia, Calif.: MARC, 1996), 102.

Charles Spurgeon and Courage in the Pulpit

One of the greatest challenges that faces every pastor is the courage to stay true to his convictions. This is especially true when those convictions, though deeply and clearly rooted in Scripture, are out of step with popular opinion or the prevailing desires of influential church members. I am sure that I am not the only pastor who has been threatened by church leaders with being "fired" if I insisted on teaching and preaching the plain meaning of certain passages of Scripture. Even more common is the subtle pressure that pastors often feel to compromise their convictions for the sake of peace. I have long ago lost count of the number of pastors I know who have suffered serious consequences simply for preaching expository sermons and calling for congregational holiness that is commensurate with the gospel.

Pastoral courage tends to be contagious and examples of faithful pastors who refused to compromise God's Word even in the face of great pressures are worthy of study by any man who desires to stay humbly courageous in the discharge of his pastoral responsibilities. One of the most notable examples of such courage is Charles Spurgeon. Though he is rightly remembered for many wonderful accomplishments and personal traits it is safe to say that had he failed to be courageous in his preaching it is very likely that his successes would have been greatly diminished.

Spurgeon never hedged the message of God's Word despite opposition, ridicule or scorn—all of which he experienced in excess. Nor did he allow controversy, or the fear of it, to silence him on any subject addressed by the Word of God. As such, he remains a wonderful example for courageous preaching for modern pastors.

As a small child his grandfather taught him never to be afraid to stand up for what he believed was right, regardless of the consequences. In the Stambourne chapel, where Spurgeon worshiped with his grandparents for the first several years of his life, it was common to sing the last line of a hymn twice. By the time he turned six, he was convinced that this was the right way to sing. Consequently, when he returned to his parents’ home and began worshipping in their church, he repeated the last line of the hymns, whether the congregation did so or not. Only after what he later described as “great deal of punishment” was he convinced otherwise.

That same willingness to stand alone informed his preaching ministry. He had no tolerance for what he called “putty-men who are influenced by everybody, and have no opinions except those of the last person they met” or the “weathercock brethren–men whose religious opinions veer with the prevailing doctrinal current in their neighborhood.” He would rather be true to God's Word and judged a curmudgeon that to walk in step with the spirit of the times and compromise the message of Scripture at any point.

At no time was his pulpit courage more obvious than in the baptismal regeneration debate of 1864 and the Down-Grade controversy in 1887-91. In the former Spurgeon knew full well that he was stirring up rattlesnakes’ den by preaching against the teaching of the Anglican Church. He told his publisher before-hand that he was about to destroy the sale of his printed sermons, because he was sure that the controversy would cost him many friends and provoke many attacks. He was half-right. He was viciously attacked, and he did lose friends, but that sermon immediately sold more 100,000 copies and ultimately more than three times that amount.

The latter controversy required even more courage because Spurgeon stood virtually alone in warning against the damning influences of higher critical ideology. Those who should have stood with him did not and many friends tried to persuade him to be silent. Spurgeon, however, had purchased truth at too high a price to sell it so cheaply. As a divinely appointed watchman for the people of God, he had to speak out, even if it meant standing alone. In a sermon in 1888, he  speaks of the timelessness of conviction and courage in contending for God’s revealed truth.

We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago . . . but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and their compeers had said, ‘The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.’ Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on . . .

It is today as it was in the Reformers’ days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it . . . Look you, sirs, there are ages yet to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today. We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.

 In an address to fellow-pastors Spurgeon reiterated his resolve to remain unbending before the modern gods of unbelief. For his stand in the Down-Grade controversy he was willing to be “eaten [by] dogs for the next fifty years” because he was confident that the cause was right and that history would vindicate him. Better to suffer the loss of life itself for the cause of God and truth, Spurgeon reasoned, than to be cast upon “that foul dunghill which is made up of cowards’ failures and misspent lives. God save both thee and me from that disgrace!”

The gospel that has been secured for us and entrusted to us at such great cost is worthy of such courage on the part of those who are stewards of it.

Tom Ascol

Spurgeon on Suffering and the Pastoral Ministry

In one of the most convicting, encouraging and challenging contemporary books I have read in many years on the pastoral ministry, Paul David Tripp (The book is titled Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry from Crossway. If you are a pastor and don’t yet own this book run—don’t walk— buy it and move it to the top of your summer reading list) reminds pastors that they are, like those to whom the preach, in the middle of their own sanctification even as they are called to preach to others. And of course, God’s Word reminds us in various places that sanctification entails suffering. One example is Paul’s sobering promise in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All that will live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Suffering is an irreducible part of the Christian life and an irreducible part of ministry in a post-Genesis 3 world. 

In the same way that basic training cannot fully prepare a soldier for the hellish nature of actual war, seminary cannot fully prepare a future pastor for the bullets and hand grenades that will be thrown at him in the local church on the field of actual ministry. If I have learned anything in my first two years as a pastor, it has been that reality. My pastoral ministry has been a lot like the scenes that unfolded on the beaches of Normandy during the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the beginning of a battle known to posterity as D-Day. As soon as the gate dropped on my landing boat, the shells began to fly in my direction. In the pastoral ministry, you will be attacked by enemies both invisible and visible, but God’s Word tells us that it is the invisible powers that commandeer and use the visible enemies to war against you. Deacon Jones may be angry with you, call you a heretic or a Bible-worshiper and demand that you be fired, but it is an unseen enemy who is using Deacon Jones as a means of opening fire on you.

Suffering will, by God’s grace, sanctify you, and it will also do something else for you that no seminary training ever could: It will prepare you to comfort and sympathize with the suffering of those your congregation. Paul had this in mind in telling the church at Corinth, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor 1:3-4)

If you are suffering pastor, it is for your sanctification. It is also God’s way of putting you in the trenches on the front line of life alongside your people so that you may sympathize with them and learn how to apply the healing balm of Gospel comfort to their many and varied wounds. Basic training cannot simulate this reality; only war will teach you that.

Few Baptist pastors suffered more acutely and suffered better than the great Charles Spurgeon; I say he suffered better, because Spurgeon’s theology of sovereign grace fitted him with spectacles to see suffering as a gift from God’s hand and to view it as a means of training the minister for sympathizing with others in the academy of God’s grace. Best of all, for the sake of those of us who have been called to minister in his wake, Spurgeon preached and wrote often about his suffering and how God has wisely designed it to intersect with Gospel ministry. Hear the penetrating words of our dear brother Spurgeon from the May 1876 edition of The Sword and Trowel:

“It is good for a man to bear the yoke of service, and he is no loser when it is exchanged for the yoke of suffering. May not severe discipline fall to the lot of some to quality them for their office of under-shepherds? How can we speak with consoling authority to a situation which we have never known? The complete pastor’s life will be an epitome of the lives of his people, and they will turn to his preaching as men do to David’s psalms, to see themselves and their sorrows, as in a mirror. Their needs will be the reason for his griefs.

As in the case of the Lord himself, perfect equipment for his work came only through suffering, and so must it be for those who are called to follow him in binding up the broken-hearted, and loosing the prisoners.

Souls still remain in our churches to whose deep and dark experiences we shall never be able to minister till we also have been plunged in the abyss where all Jehovah’s waves roll over our heads. If this be the fact – and we are sure it is – then may we heartily welcome anything which will make us fitter channels of blessing. For the elect’s sake it shall be joy to endure all things, and to bear a part of – ‘that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church’.”

As Richard Baxter put so well, pastors are dying men called to preach to dying men, a reality I never truly understood until I began to stand behind the pulpit before the same congregation week after week after week. As a dying man, often I am prone to kick against the goads of suffering and, with a wayward heart clinging to its certificate of entitlement to the American dream, I far too often fail to see God’s good purposes for me and my flock when the warfare seems to grow especially hot. Spurgeon suffered along every contour of the human experience. He was wracked with pain from physical ailments. He was harried by theological opponents both within his doctrinal camp and without. He was battered by sinful church members due to false expectations. He spent many dark nights of the soul chained in the dungeon of Doubting Castle, tortured by the Giant Despair.

Spurgeon was broken by God so he could he bind the wounds of those under his care within the church. Spurgeon’s experience as recounted through his words to pastoral students should encourage all of us who have been called to come and die alongside God’s people on the front lines of ministry also known as the local church:

“One Sabbath morning I preached from the text, ‘My God, my God, who has Thou forsaken Me?’ Though I did not say so, yet I preached my own experience. I heard my own chains clank while I tried to preach to my fellow prisoners in the dark; but I could not tell why I was brought into such an awful horror of darkness, for which I condemned myself.

On the following Monday evening, a man came to see me who bore all the marks of despair upon his countenance. His hair seemed to stand up right, and his eyes were ready to start from their sockets. He said to me, after a little parleying, ‘I never before, in my life, heard any man speak who seemed to know my heart. Mine is a terrible case, but on Sunday morning, you painted me to the life, and preached as if you had been inside my soul.

By God’s grace, I saved that man from suicide and led him to Gospel light and liberty; but I know I myself could not have done it if I had not myself been confined in the dungeon in which he lay. I tell you the story, brethren, because you sometimes may not understand your own experience, and the perfect people may condemn you for having it; but what know they of God’s servants?

You and I have to suffer much for the sake of the people of our charge . . . . You may be in Egyptian darkness, and you may wonder why such a horror chills your marrow; but you may be altogether in the pursuit of your calling, and be led of the Spirit to a position of sympathy with despondent minds.”

Jeff Robinson

The Baptist Psalmody and Abram Poindexter

When the Southern Baptist Convention met in Nashville in 1851, the hymnal that was recommended for use in all the churches was The Baptist Psalmody. When The Baptist Psalmody was published in 1850 by the Southern Baptist Publication Society, its editors, Basil Manly and Basil Manly Jr., sought to include not only the older, proven hymns of the faith, but new hymns. They compiled the collection at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and expressed their purpose for the hymnal a year before its publication in an article in the Alabama Baptist:

In accordance with a request of the Tuscaloosa Association, at its late session, the undersigned propose to publish a Hymn Book adapted to the use of Baptist Churches in the South. We design it to contain unaltered, the old hymns, precious to the children of God by long use, and familiarized to them in many a season of perplexity and temptation as well as spiritual joy. We shall also add such other hymns of more recent date as seem worthy to be associated with the former, in order to make a complete Hymn Book for public and private worhip [sic]. [1]

Among these worthy additions were several hymns by American Baptists, including many by contemporary authors from the newly formed Southern Baptist Convention. One notable contributor was Abram Maer Poindexter.

Poindexter was born into the family of a Baptist minister in Bertie County, North Carolina on September 22, 1809. He was saved in July 1831, at the age of twenty-one and soon after decided to enter the ministry. He was licensed to preach in February 1832. The following year he entered Columbian College (later became George Washington University) in Washington D.C. His studies did not last long, however; he became ill before completing his first year and had to return home.

In spite of this discouragement at the beginning, Poindexter did not lose heart. He entered the pastorate in 1835 and eventually received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Columbian College in 1843. In 1845, the year the Southern Baptist Convention was founded, he became an agent for the college.

God began to use Abram Poindexter in some marvelous ways in the new convention. It was under the powerful preaching of Poindexter that John A. Broadus surrendered to preach the Gospel in August 1846. [2] Broadus went on to become the first secretary of the Sunday School Board when it was established in 1863. In August 1848, Poindexter became the corresponding secretary of the Southern Baptist Publication Society. While serving in this office, he worked with Basil Manly and Basil Manly Jr. in publishing The Baptist Psalmody. Poindexter worked several weeks on the final revisions of the hymnal and contributed seven of his own hymns to the collection. [3] He also served as an agent for Richmond College (1851-1854 and 1866-1870), and as the assistant secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (1854-1862). The final year of his life he spent as pastor of the Baptist churches at Louisa Court House and Lower Goldmine. He became ill and died in Gordonsville, Virginia on May 7, 1872.

In an article published in January 1851, the Southwestern Baptist offered praise for Poindexter’s hymns as well as the publication of the new hymnal:

BAPTIST PSALMODY, by Basil Manly, D.D. and B. Manly, Jr:
Southern Baptist Publication Society, Charleston, S.C, p.p. 772. 

We are at last in receipt of a copy of this long looked for Hymn Book, and a handsome book it is. True we are abundantly stocked with hymn books, and some of them of fine merit; nevertheless, we welcome this to a place among the rest, and predict for it an extensive circulation in our Southern churches. 

The Baptist Psalmody is about the size of The Psalmist, and is published much in the same style. It contains 1296 hymns and spiritual songs, selected from the best lyric poets, and arranged with admirable skill. We have looked through the work with considerable care, and while we find most of our good old familiar hymns restored to their proper places-- a thing neglected in some compilations of the sort within the last few years; we are glad to see a number of new ones, of no less merit, introduced, so far as we know, for the first time to a position of such notoriety. Among these latter may be instanced several from the pen of Rev. A. M. Poindexter, and several from the pen of brother Manly, Jr. Brother Poindexter's hymns have great poetic beauty as a general thing, and well deserve a place by the side of Dodridge, Cowper, and Watt's [sic]; while those of brother Manly, in point of unction and pious fervor, are not inferior to the productions of Charles Wesley, to whose style they bear a strong resemblance. The whole book, as it lies before us, must commend itself to the cordial esteem of Baptists generally, on account of the soundness of its doctrinal views, the excellence and simplicity of its arrangement, the deep-toned fervor of its… breathings, as well as for its poetic merits. It is just what we expected from the hands of its compilers-- a hymn book for the Baptist churches of the South. [4]

Below is one of Poindexter’s hymns, a passionate prayer that God would revive His church and that He, who alone can give life, would graciously assert His power and bring salvation.

 880.

Return for thy servant's sake.  Isai. 63:17. 

1 O our Redeemer, God,
      On Thee Thy people wait;
   We faint beneath Thy chastening rod,
      Thy house is desolate. 

2 Yet are we not Thine own,
      Though now in deep distress?
   Then be to us Thy mercy shown,
      Thy mourning people bless. 

3 Spirit of God, return,
      Thy cheering light impart;
   O may Thy love within us burn,
      And warm each languid heart. 

4 O’er all assembled here
      Assert Thy gracious power;
   And to our friend and kindred dear
      Be this salvation’s hour. 

5 O Lord, our God, descend!
      Our fainting hearts revive:
   On Thee alone our hopes depend,
      For Thou canst make us live.

Ken Puls

____________________

[1] Basil Manly and Basil Manly Jr., "A New Hymn Book," Alabama Baptist, 31 July 1849, reprinted in Donald Clark Measels, "A Catalog of Source Readings in Southern Baptist Church Music: 1828-1890," (DMA diss., Louisville, Kentucky: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1986), 2:152.

[2] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Life and Letters of John Albert Broadus, (American Baptist Publication Society, 1901; reprint, Harrisonburg, Virginia: Gano Books, 1987), 52-53.

[3] Henry S. Burrage,  Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns, (Portland, Maine: Brown Thurston and Company, 1888), 343.

[4] "Baptist Psalmody," Southwestern Baptist,  8 January 1851, reprinted in Donald Clark Measels, "A Catalog of Source Readings in Southern Baptist Church Music: 1828-1890," (DMA diss., Louisville, Kentucky: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1986), 2:154.

Interview with Gregg Allison on Ecclesiology and His New Book

What follows is an interview of Dr. Gregg Allison on ecclesiology and his new book, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church. Dr. Allison is a Professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of the acclaimed Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine and other books.  He is currently the book review editor for theological, historical, and philosophical studies, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. Dr. Allison is also the secretary of the Evangelical Theological Society, in which he serves on the editorial and membership committees and regularly presents papers at its national meetings.

I would especially like to thank Dr. Allison for taking time out of his busy writing season to answer a few questions for us.

JE: What is the title, topic, release date, and publisher of your book?

GA: Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012). Release date is November, 2012.

JE: Why did you write the book (any specific occasion or felt need)?

GA: A former professor of mine and good friend, John Feinberg at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (near Chicago), as the editor of the Foundations of Evangelical Theology series, contacted me and requested that I write the volume on ecclesiology for the series.

JE: What do you think is the biggest challenge (or challenges) that the church faces today? (Specifically, the American church)

GA: The church in the United States faces many challenges today. One is doctrinal: every traditional Christian belief is under attack from both the outside—atheists, scientists, postliberals, postmoderns—and the inside—that is, from within the church, by theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, and even ordinary laypeople with a penchant to stir up trouble or who naively contribute to the problem with their unguarded writings. These doctrines that are under attack include (this is not an exhaustive list) divine sovereignty and retributive judgment, the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, the relationship of the God of Christian Scripture to Allah, the Trinity, the exclusivity of Jesus Christ for salvation, the atonement, human nature, and the future conscious punishment of the wicked in hell. The second challenge is compromise: the current evangelical church mirrors frighteningly the modern liberal society of America, with its emphasis on individualism, tolerance, personal rights, egalitarianism, gender and sexual confusion, antiauthoritarianism, and the like. The third is its traditionalism (this point does not contradict the second challenge), as seen in its emphasis on programs geared almost exclusively toward its own members, its lack of focus on genuine community, its inability to raise up and train its own leaders from within, its legalism, and the like.

JE: Did you learn anything unexpected or surprising while researching for and writing this book?

GA: What I learned became what I consider to be the major contributions I make in this book: (1) The identity markers, or attributes, of the church: the church is doxological, or oriented to the glory of God; logocentric, or centered on the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, and the inspired Word of God, Scripture; pneumadynamic, or empowered by the Holy Spirit; covenantal, or gathered as members in new covenant relationship with God and in covenant relationship with one another; confessional, or united by both personal confession of faith in Christ and common confession of the historic Christian faith; missional, or identified as the body of divinely-called and divinely-sent ministers who proclaim the gospel and advance the kingdom of God; and spatio-temporal-eschatological, or here but not here, already but not yet. (2) My view of church discipline is quite different from the common perspective. I see it as a proleptic and declarative sign of the divine eschatological judgment meted out by Jesus Christ through the church against its sinful members and sinful situations. In other words, when the church acts to discipline one of its members, it is rendering a forecast of the judgment that this member will face at the judgment seat of Christ unless that member repents, but the church’s declaration is not infallible, for the infallible pronouncement belongs to Christ and Christ alone. (3) I do some more exploration of biblical support for multisite churches. (4) I strongly affirm and warrant the biblical and historic Baptist view of the ordinance of baptism. (5)  I offer a nuanced view of the presence of Jesus Christ when the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper. There’s more, but this hopefully will wet people’s thirst for more!

JE: What are some other sources you would recommend for our readers to dig deeper into the subject?

GA:  From a different (paedobaptist) perspective, Michael Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology, is excellent. For a beginning study of ecclesiology, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods, covers the essentials in a readable style.

Jon English Lee

How Pastors Can Keep from Losing Heart: Self-Denial (Part III)

Paul did not lose heart or grow weary in well-doing because he had “been mercied” by God’s grace in Christ (4:1) and because he believed in the proclamation of the gospel as God’s ordained method (4:2). He knew from the fact that God had shown the light of the gospel in his Satan-blinded heart that God could do the same in others as well (4:3-6). So, having Christ as Lord and believing in the power of the Spirit to open blinded eyes, he persevered in hardship to fulfill his ministry to preach the Word (4:7-10)! He did not lose heart.

There is yet another reason which kept Paul from losing heart: self-denial. In other words, he had taken up his cross to die that others might live. There are several things in Paul’s attitude of self-denial which we must notice.

1. First, Christ's self-denial compelled Paul to deny himself for others. 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 says, "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you."

The shadow of the Cross fell across Paul’s soul at all times. “The dying of Jesus” for him was now his worldview. He could not forget it. He was so overwhelmed at the self-denial of God the Son for such a sinner as himself that it transformed his thinking at all times. The crucifixion of Christ for him, and his union with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom 6:1-10), caused him now to live also as one willing to die that others might live. He now lived “for Jesus’ sake,” no longer for himself, so that others might see both the death and the life of Jesus in his life and ministry. Captured by His Lord’s self-denial for himself, he could live no other way, using up his life for the sake of others.

2. Second, Paul believed in denying himself for others’ needs. 2 Corinthians 4:15 says, "For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God."

In 2 Corinthians, Paul details the sufferings he endured while bringing the good news of mercy to others (4:8-9; 6:4-10; 11:22-28). Now everything in his body and soul was filled with greater concern for others than himself. In such an attitude, there is no room for ego, self-importance, pride, impatience, bitterness, complaining, jealousy of other’s ease, or self-pity. There is only room for the self-denying joy of seeing the grace of God spread to more and more people and for the glory of God to abound from thankful lips for His grace given.

Did it cost him to pour out his life into the souls of others? Yes, it did. His outer man was decaying as he used up his time and energy, as it were, to pour eternal life into the souls of others. But strangely, as he used up his life for others, considering their needs as more important than his own, he was continually renewed in the inner man. All things in his life was for others’ sake now, as was his Lord’s for himself at all times. What mattered to Paul was that God was glorified in the spreading to others of the grace he had received. So, in the life mission of self-denial for others, considering others’ needs as more important than his own, he found the inner renewal that comes from self-denial for others and for Christ.

The irony of self-denial is that the more you give for the sake of others, the more you are renewed in the inner man. Self-denial is necessary not to lose heart in the gospel ministry. “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” said our Lord (Acts 20:35).

3. Third, hope of the future enabled Paul to deny himself in the present. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Self-denial on earth is fueled not by what one sees with his eyes but by what he sees in the future. On earth one may see sermons going unheeded, loving rebukes rewarded with hatred, sincerity rewarded with deception, loyalty returned with betrayal, self-denial rewarded with ungratefulness. Only faith can see beyond earthly trials into the future. Only the future seen by faith can cause the trials of the self-denying ministry to be called “momentary, light affliction.” The future for the pastor holds waiting “an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” to the trials of self-denial on earth. Therefore, Paul said: "But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed; therefore, I spoke,'" we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you" (2 Cor 4:13-14).

Dear brother pastor, we have many reasons not to lose heart. We have received mercy undeserved. We have been given a heavenly treasure to preach, carrying it in a very earthly vessel. And we also have been given promises in the future which spur us on to self-denial now for the good of others and for the glory and honor of the God who gave His only-begotten Son for sinners such as ourselves. We have every reason not to lose heart, especially in these momentary, light afflictions.

So, if you are growing weary in well-doing, losing heart in this God-given ministry, you are probably asking yourself: “What is wrong with me? What do I not believe?” For it is faith in the gospel we preach, and the Christ who loved us and gave Himself up for us, that renews the inner man while the outer man decays. If we looked unto Jesus for the mercy we first received, we must continue to look to Him for the power not to lose heart. Are you thinking like this while you prepare your sermons, counsel the saints, face opposition, and barely pay the bills? Where else can you go for strength not to lose heart? I know no other place than at the feet of our self-denying Lord.

Fred Malone

The Sinning of a Pure Heart

In describing the fall of man, The New Hampshire Confession stated that man “By voluntary transgression fell from that holy and happy state.” The question as to how Adam and Eve, in a holy and happy state, could be brought to sin points us to an analysis of the nature of human choice. We know that in the fallen state, people sin in light of a prevailing internal moral disposition of opposition to God. 

James reminds us, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14), or as Paul stated “you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness,” and “when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Romans 6:19, 20). 

But in those that had no such internal moral disposition—how did they sin? We certainly are faced with the reality of this phenomenon, but a completely satisfactory answer always seems to elude us. And the proposal in this post will not escape that status. The New Testament, however, gives us a few hints into the dynamic of Eve’s, and then Adam’s, sin. Then a bit of theological reflection on that event might reduce the tension of what seems to be such an unlikely event. 

Scriptural Data

Genesis 3:1-4 presents us with a synopsis of a discussion between Satan and Eve about being like God, the goodness of the fruit, and gaining wisdom. Eve found his argument convincing and ate the fruit that she was forbidden to eat. When it happened, she knew she had been deceived (“The serpent deceived me, and I ate”—3:13). Her presentation seems actually to have been the truth. In 1 Timothy 2:14, Paul stated, “The woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Even though the disobedience arose from her being the victim of deceit, she, nevertheless, was charged with transgression. 

This event again comes to Paul’s mind in 2 Corinthians 11:2-4: “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” Paul is warning against false teachers and the danger of being led away from their pure devotion to Christ, and their true knowledge of who Christ is, by such teachers. He is contrasting the authority and purity of his teaching as an apostle, as that which they had believed (a wholesome, inspired, and wholly sound doctrine), with the false speculative teachings of these self-appointed apostles. By deceit, they could be led from a state of purity and sincere, or unalloyed, devotion to Christ, to a different and, thus, corrupted and destructive position. So the case is that Eve, even as she stated, was deceived.

Theological Reflection

All human choices are voluntary- that is the actualization of a preference built on the last dictate of the understanding. The confluence of all the factors that establish understanding at any given moment cause the choice, or rather, they are the constituent elements of the choice, thus the voluntary action. In that context, a process of consideration, reflection, evaluation, and resultant preference [most of the time, in light of the massive number of choices we make every day, this happens very quickly] constitutes the choice, or will. Thus all choices, by definition are voluntary, and the voluntariness of choice makes each choice a matter of self-determination, the “self” being the moral agent that so chooses. 

The Second London Confession gives a good summary of the nature of the will: “God hath indued the Will of Man, with that natural liberty, and power of acting upon choice; that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.” All choices, therefore, are free, none of them being under compulsion, that is, none of the faculties that constitute the development of choice in a moral agent, “by any necessity of nature” as originally constituted at creation, have in themselves, a determination to either good or evil. The process of consideration, reflection and evaluation remains unimpaired. 

One of the filters that aids in processing information is the state of the affections. In the unfallen state, man was upright in affections but not immutable. Satan, therefore appealed to the understanding through a discourse. He did not find a perverse moral propensity dominating the affections, and therefore engaged Eve through plausible reasoning about the way to accomplish a desirable goal. 

God did not intervene to prohibit this interview and was under no obligation to do so, for he had granted them virtually unlimited freedom in their use of the garden and had given a clear and specific prohibition which they could have obeyed instead of listening to contradictory reasoning. As “sincere and pure” in affections, Eve had the way before her to enjoy God, through knowledge of the Son of God, supremely and without any rival, to enjoy all other things as gifts from him, because he himself has taken pleasure in giving them existence, and to enjoy them only in the manner in which he had prescribed. Her understanding in this dialogue was formed, therefore, not in the context of perverse affections but through the suspension of her own rational understanding of the positive command of God for a plausible way, more quickly attained, to enjoy all that God intended her to enjoy. 

Disobedience brought about the clearly threatened death, the immediate effects of which were perversity of affections. Perverse affections always produce a sinful intent and action, but perverse affections are not the only way in which one’s final understanding could be formed. With Eve, the fall came through deceit in the context of a discussion with a wily adversary posing as a friendly seeker of her good.  With us, we are willingly deceived by Satan because of the raging self-centeredness of our desires. We follow “the prince of the power of the air” living in the “passions of the body and the mind,” making us “by nature the children of wrath.” Paul tells us, therefore, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” (Ephesians 2:2, 3; 4:22). Corrupt desires now so dominate the process of consideration, reflection, and evaluation that our preference, our voluntary choices arising from the final understanding, are at the same time necessarily sinful. Adam and Eve in their pure hearts, were deceived; in our fallen state we do “not believe the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:12).

Tom J. Nettles

Classical Arminianism: Imputed Sin and Total Inability

I've been reading Classical Arminianism: A Theology of Salvation, by F. Leroy Forelines, professor emeritus of theology at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, TN and have really been encouraged by it.  As a Calvinist, I certainly disagree with some important aspects of this system, but there is a great deal of happy agreement on some vital issues.

For example, in the first chapter, Forelines explains what classical Arminians believe about human nature and total inability. Regrettably, some people today seem to think that Calvinism and Arminianism have taught something radically different about the nature of the fall, the effects of Adam's sin on the human race, and the fallen nature of humankind. Historically, however, the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism was not about the nature of the fall or the effects of the fall on human beings. There was overwhelming and substantial agreement in these areas.  Consider what Forelines says about the fall and human nature.

The Imputation of Adam's Sin

“Romans 5:12 definitely settles the fact that the sin of Adam is imputed or placed on the account of the whole race” (26).

“This means that we were in Adam and were identified with him in his sin. It necessitates our being partakers with him in his guilt and condemnation” (30).

“It is somewhat puzzling why people with good scholarly credentials would say that Arminius denied the imputation of Adam's sin to the race” (33).

“[Matthew J.] Pinson sets the record straight. He explains that Arminius's approach to original sin is Augustinian. He quotes Arminius as saying that 'the whole of this sin . . . is not peculiar to our first parents, but is common to the entire race and all their posterity, who, at the time when his sin was committed, were in their loins, and who have since descended from them by natural propagation.' Pinson goes on to explain that Arminius held that all people 'sinned in Adam, and are guilty in Adam, apart from their actual sins” (33, emphasis is mine).

The Total Inability of Fallen Humankind

“It is clear that man fell from a state of holiness into a state of sin (Is. 53:6; Rom. 3:23). It is clear that sin has placed man under condemnation before God (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 21:8). It is clear that fallen man cannot please God and has no fellowship with God (Eph. 2:1-3; Rom. 8:7-8). It is clear that man cannot come to God without the drawing power of the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 6:44). It is clear that a work so drastic as to be called a new birth is required for man's salvation (Jn. 3:3-7)” (16-17, emphasis is mine).

“The presence of sin in their lives still renders them unrighteous before a holy God. The power of sin in their lives makes them stand in need of the new birth” (20).

“Jesus makes it clear that it does not fall within the framework of possibilities for a sinner to respond to the gospel unless he is drawn by the Holy Spirit (Jn. 6:44)” (22, emphasis is mine).

“Pinson explains that Arminius believed that human beings are not able to seek God 'unless they are radically affected by his grace. Most interpreters have assumed that Arminius was a semi-Pelagian, thus espousing a view of freedom of the will that 'makes individuals totally able to choose God or spurn him.' Yet, Pinson argues, Arminius holds that human beings have no freedom to do anything good in God's sight” (22, emphasis is mine).

“Pinson quotes from Arminius as follows: '. . . the free will of man towards the true good is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent, and (nuatum) weakened; but it is also (captivatum) imprisoned, destroyed and lost: And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they are assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such are excited by grace.' Thus, as Pinson explains, 'fallen humanity has no ability or power to reach out to the grace of God on its own'” (22-23, emphasis is mine).

We Stand Together in Rejecting Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism

Calvinists and classical Arminians agree on the incapacitation of the human will resulting from Adam's fall. Classical Arminians are not semi-Pelagians or Pelagians. We are all Augustinians. What's the definition of Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism?

According to classical Arminian theologian, Roger E. Olson, “In 431 A.D. Pelagianism was condemned in Ephesus by the third ecumenical council of Christianity because it affirmed natural and moral human ability to do God's will apart from the special operation of divine grace. Arminius rejected this teaching, and so do all of his followers. Semi-Pelagianism was condemned by the Second Council of Orange in A.D. 529 because it affirmed human ability to exercise a good will toward God apart from special assistance of divine grace; it places the initiative on the human side, but Scripture places it on the divine side. Arminius also rejected semi-Pelagianism, as have all of his faithful followers. Arminians consider both Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism heresies.” Roger E. Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), 81 (emphasis is mine).

In summary, Pelagians taught that by nature, post-fall human beings have the capacity do all of God's will apart from special grace. Semi-Pelagians denied this, but taught that fallen human beings have the capacity to choose some good, specifically, the good necessary for salvation in Christ, apart from special grace.

Conclusion

Calvinists and classical Arminians do not disagree on the nature of Adam's fall or its effects on Adam's posterity.  We agree that Adam's sin is imputed to those in him and that they inherit a condemned status as well as a polluted nature from him by virtue of his headship.  The will of fallen humanity is so incapacitated by the fall that no salvation is possible apart from God's special saving grace.  We find happy agreement in all these areas, both sides rejecting all forms of Pelagianism and affirming Augustinianism instead.  We disagree on the nature of God's special saving grace, but that's another topic for another day.

Tom Hicks

Laying Hold of the Truth

I love God’s Word and delight in its truth. Yet too often I find that after reading my Bible or hearing a sermon, the truth, so necessary to the wellbeing of my soul, can too easily slip away. The truth that had for a moment captured my attention and my affections can quietly fade amid the clutter and noise of the day.

One of the best ways to remedy this is to practice the spiritual discipline of meditating on God’s Word. It is a discipline that takes time and intention, but one that brings great benefit to the soul. We need to carve out time to lay hold of the truth of God’s Word.

It is a bewildering paradox of our day that the Bible can be so accessible and yet so marginalized. On the one hand our technology has brought God’s Word close at hand. It’s on our phones and tablets and computers and iPods. We have almost immediate access to several versions of the Bible as well as a wealth of sermons and commentaries. But this same technology also threatens to distract us and drown out God’s Word. We have become a culture obsessed with noise and comfortable with clutter. So many sources are bringing input into our lives: TV, radio, online news feeds, Facebook, Twitter... More than ever we need to make time to meditate, to dwell in God’s Word.

Meditation is pondering the Word in our hearts, preaching it to our own souls, and personally applying it to our own lives and circumstances. It is how we sanctify our thinking and bring it into submission to Christ—taking every thought captive. Paul tells us in Romans 12:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2, ESV).

[All Scripture references are ESV unless otherwise indicated.]

In Psalm 77 Asaph uses three verbs that capture the essence of meditation. When he finds himself perplexed and troubled and cries out to God, he determines to steady his soul by looking to God and laying hold of truth. He says in verses 11 and 12:

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
And meditate on your mighty deeds (Psalm 77:11-12).

Asaph uses 3 verbs in the Hebrew to describe what it means to lay hold of truth: He says: I will remember, I will ponder and I will meditate.

He begins with remembering (zakar)—calling to mind “the deeds of the Lord” and His “wonders of old.” He intentionally takes note of truth and draws it back into his thinking. Asaph reflects on what God has accomplished for His people in the past—events and epics like the Exodus and Passover, the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the conquest of the Promised Land. He makes an effort not to forget all the Lord has done.

David also speaks of remembering God:          

When I remember you upon my bed,
And meditate on you in the watches of the night (Psalm 63:6).

In Psalm 143, when David is overwhelmed with trouble, he uses the same three verbs as Asaph, beginning with “remember.”

I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all that you have done;
I ponder the work of your hands (Psalm 143:5).

We are a forgetful people and God would have us to remember. Meditation begins with remembering, bringing back into our minds the truths and praises and promises of God.

But, second Asaph also uses a word that is translated in Psalm 77:12 “I ponder.”

I will ponder all your work,
And meditate on your mighty deeds (Psalm 77:12).

This is the verb hagah in the Hebrew. It is found in numerous places in the Old Testament and is translated as “ponder” or “meditate”:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8).

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And on his law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:2).          

When I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night (Psalm 63:6).

In Psalm 2 it is used of the nations “plotting” against God.

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain? (Psalm 2:1)

The word literally means “to let resound.” It is used in Psalm 92:3 of the sound or tones of a musical instrument as it resonates.

On an instrument of ten strings,                
On the lute, And on the harp,
With harmonious [or resounding] sound (Psalm 92:3, NKJV).

It is used also in Psalm 9:16.                                

The LORD is known by the judgment He executes;
The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.
Meditation. Selah  (Psalm 9:16).

It is not entirely clear if the use of the word here is a musical instruction for the musicians to play an interlude—letting the instruments resound—or if it is an instruction to the congregation—let this truth resound within yourselves.

We find the term also at the end of Psalm 19:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14).

In other words: Let the inward tones of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord...

This is how we want the truth of Scripture to fill us and impact us—as we hear it and sing it and pray it—as Paul tells us in Colossians 3:16, let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly! Let it dwell in us in a way that resounds and reverberates in and through our lives.

We see another use of the word in Isaiah 31:4 that helps us understand its intent. Isaiah uses the word in reference to a lion:

For thus the LORD said to me,
 “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey” (Isaiah 31:4)

The word for growl or roar is this word for meditation. Have you ever heard a lion when he roars? He does not just use his voice. His entire being reverberates. This is meditation. Letting God’s Word resound from within the very center of our being.

Meditation involves remembering, and resounding, but finally Asaph speaks of meditating.

I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds (Psalm 77:12).

This word siyach means to muse and wonder and dwell on—to think deeply about something. Used literally it means to murmur, mumble or talk to yourself.

In a negative sense it can mean “to complain.” It is the idea that something has so taken hold of your thinking that you can’t stop thinking about it. So on the negative side—it troubles you and disturbs you and draws out complaint; but on the positive side—it captivates you and enraptures your thinking so that you “dwell on” it. This is the way we want God’s truth to lay hold of us—so that we can’t but dwell on it, so that it captures our thinking and finds it way into our choices and decisions.

The Puritans thought of meditation this way as they described it as “preaching to yourself.” We take the Word of God that we hear and read, and we mull it over in our minds and then bring it to bear upon our lives in personal exhortations.

It is a word that is found often in the Old Testament, especially in the psalms.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD (Psalm 104:34).          

I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways (Psalm 119:15).          

Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day (Psalm 119:97).

When we meditate we think about God’s Word. We dwell on it and then as opportunities arise, we preach it to ourselves. We inject it into our thoughts as we make decisions, as we admonish and instruct our souls to choose right things and walk down right paths.

This is the essence of meditation. It is evoking the truth, embracing it and embedding it in our lives. It is intentionally focusing on recalling God’s truth that it might resound in our hearts and become that grid through which we sift and measure our thoughts and actions.

Meditation is a crucial Christian discipline and a vital means of grace that we must treasure and practice. But it is a discipline that takes time and effort. Accessibility can never beat intentionality. Don't assume that having God's Word close at hand means you have it close at heart. Carve out time in your day to remember, time to ponder, time to preach to yourself. The world around us can too easily choke out what is needful and good for our souls. Don’t allow God’s truth to slip away from you. Be intentional and diligent and your meditation.

Ken Puls

Investing in the Next Generation

“We are the next generation,” I recently commented to a friend after the graveside service for his father. While we admired and learned from our parents’ generation, many no longer remain to shape the “boomer” generation. Instead, we baby boomers are the next generation that now has responsibility for preparing those who follow after us to serve Christ’s church more effectively. Colin Marshall and Tony Payne rightly explain, “The gospel will only be guarded and spread as it is passed from one faithful hand to the next, as each generation of faithful preachers pass their sacred trust on to the next generation, who in turn teach and train others” [1]. Historically, a variety of faithful mentors provide good examples for us to train the next generation. 

The early church father Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 30–107) frequently took along young men when he traveled so that he might invest in their lives. In one of his epistles [2], he referred to two such examples, Philo and Rheus Agothopus, who had followed him in the cause of Christ and consequently served as models for life and ministry. He left the imprint of his walk with Christ and gospel ministry in their lives. Likewise, “Ariston and the presbyter John, [and] the disciples of the Lord” mentored a young Papias (A.D. 70–155), later the respected bishop of the church at Hierapolis [3]. His personal relationship with these early leaders in the church shaped his future gospel work.

Although Valentine Tschudi (1499–1555) studied under celebrated scholars in Vienna and Basel, he found more rewarding the mentoring of Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531). He wrote to the reformer, “You have offered me not only books but yourself also” [4]. His statement captures well the work of pastoral mentoring. The work of training and mentoring ministers for gospel work—church planting, missions, pastorates—proved so remarkable in sixteenth century Geneva that one writer quipped, “Geneva’s main export was ministers, principally heading for France” [5]. But the work through Geneva might not have taken place had Martin Bucer failed to speak into young John Calvin’s life as a mentor during his days in Strassburg, correcting attitudes and behavior unbecoming a servant of Christ.

Nineteenth century historian David Benedict considered the colonial Baptist John Gano as “one of the most eminent ministers in his day,” explaining that his itinerant gifts in gospel preaching were exceeded only by George Whitefield [6]. Yet Gano’s impact as pastor of First Baptist Church New York City and evangelist were due in no small part to the early mentoring by his pastor Isaac Eaton, and two other notable Baptist pastors that took him under their wing, Benjamin Miller, and John Thomas.

Behind the extraordinary missionary work of William Carey and the pastoral labors of Andrew Fuller lay the mentoring of Robert Hall Sr., pastor of a small congregation in Arnsby. Carey considered Hall “a jewel I could not too highly prize” [7]. Fuller considered Hall to be a spiritual father and friend, regarding his counsel more valuable than that of all of his other friends.

In a word, pastoral mentoring means investing in the spiritual and pastoral development of future leaders. I first heard the term “investing” used with reference to mentoring back in the late 1990s. One of our elders and I were riding with a missionary in France when he said that he needed to stop and “invest” in a particular man in his congregation. We glanced at each other with puzzled looks at what he meant. However, after traveling with him around his community for a few days we decided that “investing” in others spoke volumes about mentoring. 

Such investment involves several things.

First, investing (mentoring) in others carries risks. Success does not always accompany mentoring but the future fruit is worth the risk. Just think about the lowly Robert Hall Sr. who sacrificed to mentor Carey and Fuller whose ministries remain models in our day.

Second, investing (mentoring) in others requires patience. A quick course on Christian living or pastoral work lacks the ability to penetrate the mentee’s life. Mentors learn to layer truth and experience in their mentees.

Third, investing (mentoring) in others demands your life. Like Zwingli with Valentine Tschudi, we must give more than books; we must give our lives to shape our mentees.

A pastoral mentor does not need to be famous, serve a large church, or hold advanced degrees. Like many of the historical examples, he just needs to faithfully invest life and ministry in the younger generation to help prepare them to passionately serve Christ’s church.

Phil Newton

____________________

[1] The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything (Kingsford, Australia: Matthias Media, 2009), 147.

[2] Ign. Smyrn. 11.

[3] Fragments of Papias 1.

[4] J. H. M. d’Aubigné, For God and His People: Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation (Henry White, trans.; Mark Sidwell, ed.; Greenville, S.C.: BJU Press, 2000), 14.

[5] Karin Maag, Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education 1560–1620 (Aldershot, Hants, U.K.: Scolar Press, 1995), 23.

[6] A General History of the Baptist Denominations in America and Other Parts of the World (2 vols.; Boston: Manning & Loring, 1813), 2:306.

[7] quoted by Michael Haykin, One Heart and One Soul: John Sutcliff of Olney, his Friends and his Times (Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1994), 193.