I’m at “The Institution”—The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—all week doing some PhD work and one of the seminars is “Patristic & Celtic Spirituality” with Dr. Michael Haykin.

On Monday we spent some time with the letters of Ignatius, and his dispatch to Polycarp has some brilliant wisdom for pastors. He writes,

I urge you, by the grace with which you are clothed, to press on in your race and to exhort all people, so that they may be saved. Do justice to your office with constant care for both physical and spiritual concerns. Focus on unity, for there is nothing better. Bear with all people, even as the Lord bears with you; endure all in love, just as you now do. Devote yourself to unceasing prayers; ask for greater understanding than you have. Keep alert with an unresting spirit. Speak to the people individually, in accordance with God’s example. Bear the diseases of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is more work, there is much gain.

If you love good disciples, it is no credit to you; rather with gentleness bring the more troublesome ones into submission.

— The Apostolic Fathers, 126.