I confess that I’m rarely satisfied with contemporary books on pastoral ministry. I usually find them lacking in the gravitas our calling requires. Sure, they may have sagacity; but as gravity before God is disappearing in our time, it’s not surprising many modern treatments of the sacred office are literary cotton candy—light and hardly filling.
For substance, then, I turn to the men of old. Men like Charles Bridges or Thomas Boston. Or I come to a contemporary author who has laid out a ministerial feast by collating the best from a particular pastor of yesteryear. Yesterday I finished such a feast, Jim Garretson’s Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry.
The Savor of Glad Gravity
The best books on prayer are those that lead you to put down the book to scuff up your knees in the work of prayer. The best books on preaching are those that lead you to fresh zeal to ascend to the sacred desk. The best books on ministry, I’m increasingly convinced, are those that fill the soul with fearful delight regarding shepherding the flock.
The adjective of fearful is appropriate because we must daily resist the devil’s temptation merely to play at pastoring. As James said, “Not many of you should become teachers, for you will be judged all the more severely.” So, we need more fear towards the ministry than we currently have. But we also need more delight in the ministry than we currently have. To hear Christ’s call to the work of man-fishing is one of the sweetest sounds this side of heaven. It means service in the word of God and shepherding the people of God. Christ’s oxen earn their wage by preaching, praying, and pastoring. It’s as though God says, “Here, let me provide for your by commanding you to labor in joy, joy, joy.” Astonishing!
The ministry is one of fearful delight. And Garretson’s book will surely ignite every pastor’s ministry with glad gravity.
[Maybe] The Most Edifying Book I’ve Read This Year
After providing a brief biography of the first professor ever hired by Princeton Theological Seminary, Garretson proceeds to ransack Alexander’s writings for the choicest selections regarding the essentials of pastoral ministry. The great value of Alexander’s teaching is his continual emphasis on “genuine and eminent piety.” Alexander said,
Let every candidate for the ministry, then, as well as everyone that has entered it, aim at high attainments in evangelical piety. Nothing so much as this will be a pledge of eminent usefulness. Nothing else is so fruitful in expedients for doing good, or so efficient in sustaining the spirit amidst the toils of self-denying and arduous vocation, or so sure to bring down upon our labours that blessing which maketh rich.
The chapter titled, “The Preparation of the Preacher’s Heart,” is the finest I’ve every read on the subject. I found it so compelling and convicting that I’ve resolved to read it afresh each week.
I could go on, but let me just leave you with the Table of Contents to whet your appetite for this feast. If you get Christmas money this week, set some aside to purchase a copy of Princeton and Preaching; it may just save your ministerial life.
