“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.” – 1 Timothy 4:15

My favorite show in television history is Band of Brothers. One of the episodes depicts a counter attack that one member of Easy Company called, “The highlight of all E Company actions for the entire war.”

On the night of October 4-5, 1944 a solider in Easy Company was wounded in patrol, so a small counter attack mission was organized. By the next morning, Lieutenant Winters realized that his platoon of thirty-five men was virtually surrounded by two German companies of 300 men.  Lt. Winters goes out into the field to be alone and think things through; he decided he had no choice but to attack.  So he calls his officers and says, “Talbert, take the third squad to the right. Peacock, take the first squad to the left. I’ll take the second squad right up the middle.” Everyone got set, Winters told his men to fix bayonets. As the sun begins to rise a base of fire is laid down at his signal and off Winters goes.  Storming down in front of his men, he leads them on to an incredible rout of the surrounding Germans.

In 1 Timothy 4:15 Paul tells Timothy to minister in such a way that all will see his progress. This word “progress” (προκοπὴ) is a military term that speaks of an advancing force. Just like Lieutenant Winters bold advance led his men into battle, the pastor’s growth is to be out in front of the people and of the kind that beckons other to follow.

The church needs progressive pastors. Permit me some rather random musings on the issue.

A PASSION FOR PROGRESS

Paul doesn’t require perfection, but he does require progression. The areas in which a pastor must grow are legion and beyond the scope of what I want to emphasize in this post. If you want a potent and pithy detailing of areas in which a pastor ought to show progress see Spurgeon’s lecture “The Necessity of Ministerial Progress.” His motto is “Go Forward”: go forward in personal attainments, forward in gifts and graces, forward in fitness for the work, and forward in conformity to the image of Jesus.

If you need some apostolic inspiration and direction for Spirit-wrought progress I’d encourage meditation on these two verses:

• Progress in Life: “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” – 1 Timothy 6:11
• Progress in Ministry: “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” – 1 Timothy 4:13

But I want to meditate on a couple clear presuppositions Paul has in his progressive exhortation.

THE PATIENCE OF PROGRESS

Clearly, Paul assumes that Timothy will minister in such a way that the Ephesians can actually see and attest to progress. Churches that only see their pastor behind the pulpit at the weekly worship gathering can affirm some aspects of progress, but not many. How would they affirm progress in managing the home? What about those intangible, yet hard to discern areas of spiritual fruit? If the pastor’s people are to notice his progress in life and ministry, his ministry must be in the life of his people. Increasingly so.

A second presupposition on pastoral progress is built on the reality of fruit being time-tested. Spiritual fruit is quite indiscriminate and organic. One notices it most clearly in hindsight and that hindsight normally has a fair distance attached to it. The longest I have stayed in one church was five years and I felt it was only in year three that discernible fruit was visible. Progress in life and ministry takes time and if the church is to “see” our progress we must be with them for quite some time. Just how long can be debated, but it’s safe to say the length is longer than the average pastor’s tenure. What’s best is staying in one place for life; what progress one church ought to observe in decades of ministry!

This even raises a similar point about church membership: if a pastor’s visible progress is dependent on long ministry in the same place, the church’s ability to affirm that progress is dependent on members staying in the same place for a long period.

Pastors must be progressive in the semper reformanda sense of the term. This kind of progress will be patient, plodding, and public. “Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:16).