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Pastoral Ministry & Old Paths

Old Paths

“Pay careful attention to how you walk,” the Untimely Apostle said. The days are evil and few. Slippery slopes abound, so Christians must pay attention. When it comes to walking there is something comforting about an old path. The weeds have long been trampled out. The path itself was cut ages ago and has thus become nearly one with the earth.

Ah, yes. The glory of old paths.

Walking on Pastoral Paths

Pastors must pay peculiar attention to their path. If they are faithful, they will usually lead from the front. The sheep trail behind hearing the shepherd’s voice, following with trust and care. Therefore, a wise pastor won’t choose a path marked, “Contemporary,” “Culturally Relevant,” or, “Fresh.” Such things—especially in our day—are about as sturdy as an egg’s resistance to a boulder. Faddish paths tend to leave egg on the face. Wise pastors will instead choose paths of pastoral practice well trod by great men of old.

Where can we find such paths? In the books of old.

Three Glories of Old Paths

I tend to read any new book on pastoral ministry that shows up from a reliable publisher. The modern books on pastoral ministry usually only serve to increase my pining for the old ones. Maybe I’m just a soul aged before my time. Or maybe there is something different about an old book. In fact, I’d argue there are three peculiar advantages to reading earlier works on pastoral ministry:

  • Dignity. Our culture’s obsession (many a church’s obsession, as well) with casual authenticity is systematically destroying something God says every one of his elders must have: dignity. The old men radiated dignity in life, love, faith, and purity.
  • Gravity. This second point is a natural consequence of the first. My personal definition of dignity, after all, is the gravity attending godliness. There is a gravity in the old writings on ministry absent from today’s works. Pastoral ministry was serious business. Eternity hung in the balance. The pulpit was the sacred desk, not a bar table to sit behind. The prayer closet was real. The study was his home.
  • Maturity. This, for me, is probably the greatest reason to read the old books. Modern books on ministry are full of biblical awareness and personal experience. But they lack what I call “piercedness.” In my view, the new books don’t pierce like the old ones because they often come from young pastoral pens. Let me listen to a man who is decades into the ministry. Such a man has seen much and so can say much. He has piercing views in the heart. He pierces through the chaff and gives us the blessed wheat for ministry.

To the 19th Century We Go

Let me thus suggest a few 19th–century books on pastoral ministry for pastors to read. I have a theory as to why the 1800s produced such excellent reflections on ministry, but I’ll leave that for another time. Four old, trustworthy, and proven paths for ministry are:

0875521649mWords to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar. Bonar gets the first nod because he unleashes conviction aplenty in less than one hundred pages. This is a book you can—and probably should—reread every year.

9780851510873mThe Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges. Simply the best book on pastoral ministry yet written. It comes in second only because of its length (400 pages) being off-putting to some today.

0851518931mPrinceton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry by James Garretson. Oh, how I wish this one got more press! It’s far too underrated. Here’s your opportunity to sit in a seminary class on ministry with Alexander. It may be the most useful class you ever take.

41sqaNuDw7L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Pastoral Theology by Thomas Murphy. Murphy’s work is essentially his rehashing of Archibald Alexander’s teaching. This work cuts to the quick and is astonishingly expansive. It’s also available for free online.

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Defining the Requirements for Elders

What God Requires from His Men

Lord willing, later tonight The Upper Room rides again at IDC. TUR is our somewhat regular men’s gathering. It’s our standard practice to sing, eat, and then throw some topic on the table for extended discussion and prayer. Tonight we plan to answer this question, “What Does God Require from His Men?”

Knowing that the question can be answered biblically from a variety of places in Sacred Scripture, tonight’s aim is to walk through Paul’s qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3. An elder is to be an example for the church (1 Pet. 5:3), and a mold pressed into the lives of his members, so they attain a similar shape of godliness (1 Tim. 4:12). Therefore, with confidence, we can answer the above question by saying, “Look at what God requires of His shepherds.”

One thing we will do tonight in small groups is try to give somewhat ordinary, everyday definitions to Paul’s requirements. Here’s my stab at the fourteen listed in 1 Timothy 3:2-7.

[Somewhat] Colloquial Definitions for Elder Qualifications

1) Above reproach: It would be surprising (even shocking!) to discover this man fell into sin. His reputation is one of exemplary character and pervasive holiness.

2) The husband of one wife: In thought, word, and deed he is satisfied with the wife of his youth—the marriage bed is kept pure.

3) Sober-minded: He is not given to fits of passion, but is steady in mind and spirit.

4) Self-controlled: He keeps his emotions constrained with love to Christ.

5) Respectable: His typical behavior is orderly and worthy of honor.

6) Hospitable: He consistently seeks to love any and all who are strangers to him.

7) Able to teach: He knows sound doctrine and loves to talk about it, defend it, and commend it.

8) Not a drunkard: Concerning the fruit of the vine, the Spirit controls him—as He does in everything else.

9) Not violent but gentle: He is unacquainted with temper tantrums, but is a best friend of those virtues named Patience and Kindness.

10) Not quarrelsome: He seeks not to complain or argue; he instead proves true the old maxim: “Meekness is not weakness.”

11) Not a lover of money: He is not a greedy mercenary always occupied with the cash money; his storehouses overflow with heavenly treasures.

12) He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive: His children rise and with loving reverence say, “That’s my Daddy. I follow him as he follows Christ.” The glad gravity of godliness—which the Great Apostle calls dignity—seasons all his parenting.

13) He must not be a recent convert: Christ has been his constant companion and chief delight for many years.

14) Well thought of by outsiders: Those outside the church judge him faithful in all things.

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Christ in the Front, Not in the Footnotes

We Preach Christ

Preachers are covenant heralds of The King of King. “Him we proclaim.” We know “nothing except Christ and him crucified.” We declare “Jesus Christ as Lord.” “We preach Christ crucified.”

Or do we?

The Glory of Christ Front and Center

I’m not yet done with it, but Sinclair Ferguson’s The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, & Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters is routinely magnificent in its meditations on ministry.

For example, in chapter two Ferguson drives home the danger of separating the benefits of Christ from the person of Christ in preaching. He writes,

Wherever the benefits of Christ are seen as abstractable from Christ himself, there is a decreasing stress on his person and work in preaching and in the books that are published to feed that preaching. That is accompanied by a stress on our experience of salvation rather than on the grace, majesty, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is it possible that most preachers reading these pages own more books on preaching (and even on preaching Christ!) than they own on Christ himself?

If that is true (a survey would certainly be illuminating), we should probably ask a further question: Is it obvious to me, and of engrossing concern, that the chief focus, the dominant note in the sermon I preach (or hear), is ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’? Or is the dominant emphasis (and perhaps the greatest energies of the preacher) focused somewhere else, perhaps on how to overcome sin, or how to live the Christian life, or on the benefits to be received from the gospel? All are legitimate emphases in their place, but that pace is never center stage.

When I read that, I write in the margin, “Most convicting, Dr. Ferguson. Bless you.”

Don’t Put Him in the Footnotes of Your Sermon

In that paragraph quoted above Ferguson offers, in a footnote, an illustration for how we commonly let Christ’s benefits supersede a focus on Christ himself. He says,

This [separation] might be illustrated by the way in which, for example, John Owen’s work Of the Mortification of Sin has undoubtedly been read by many more younger ministers than either his Glory of Christ or Communion with God. That may be understandable because of the deep pastoral insight in Owen’s short work; but it may also put the practical cart before the theological horse. Owen himself would not have been satisfied with hearers who learned mortification without learning Christ. A larger paradigmatic shift needs to take place than only exchanging a superficial subjectivism for Owen’s rigorous subjectivism. What is required is a radical recentering in a richer and deeper knowledge of Christ, understood in terms of his person and work. There can be little doubt that Owen himself viewed things this way.

Christ the Center

Dear brother preacher, the Lord’s Day is right around the corner, and we must ask afresh, “Whom will we preach?” That’s the most important question, even more than, “What will we preach?” We preach Christ because Christ is the gospel. Let our preaching lift the chin of our congregation to consider Christ dead, buried, risen, and ascended to heaven. Let our preaching call for sinners to get into Christ. Let our preaching sound forth the sweetness of a Savior crushed in our place.

Let us not tear asunder Christ from His benefits. Let us preach the Benefactor who graciously gives His benefits to all who believe.

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Hearing the Word Preached

On The Battleground of Preaching

At IDC, we provide an “Upcoming Sermons Card” each week that lists the scheduled sermon titles, texts, and preacher for the next six weeks. I’m increasingly convinced this little card may be one of the most underrated spiritual weapons we have in the IDC arsenal—for preaching (me speaking clearly and the church hearing faithfully) is the God-ordained means of tearing down hell’s gates.

So, like any good soldier of Christ, we want to prepare for the battle, and this card can do just that. You can place it in your Bible and make a point to read through the passage we will study a few times during the week. You can pray for the person scheduled to preach. You can read over the passage during dinner with your kids so they might be ready to receive God’s word. Kids, if you can read, you too can take the card, and read the passage on your own, writing down any questions you might have. We don’t want underestimate how much good and power floods into a church prepared for the battleground of worship.

What then are some practical and concrete encouragements for church members who want to prepare for this sermonic battleground? We turn, as we so often should, to the Puritans.

It’s Quite Elementary According to Watson

Earlier today I read Joel Beeke’s little booklet, Piety: The Heartbeat of Reformed Theology. At the end he offers a series of exhortations for growing in piety and—as it should be (Rom. 10:14-16)—faithfulness to hearing God’s word preached comes first. Beeke says, “The Puritans in particular relished good sermons. They attended church faithfully, took careful notes, and often talked and prayer their way through the sermon afterward with their children. These practices were the fruit of Puritan pastors teaching their people how to listen to sermons.”

Beeke then turns to the most excellent Thomas Watson and offers the following “Watsonian” encouragements for diligence in hearing God’s word preached:

  1. Prepare to hear the Word by bathing your soul in prayer.
  2. Come to the Word with a holy appetite and a tender, teachable heart.
  3. Be attentive to the preached Word.
  4. Receive with meekness the engrafted Word (James 1:21).
  5. Mingle the preached Word with faith.
  6. Strive to retain what has been preached and pray about the Word proclaimed.
  7. Put the word into practice; be doers of it.
  8. Beg the Spirit to accompany the Word with effectual blessing.
  9. Familiarize yourself with the Word by sharing it with others.

Thriving on the Battlefield

Faith comes by hearing; life comes from God’s word. Satan is prowling around at all times looking to eat up the seed or snatch it away from a light grip. Preaching is the cosmic battlefield of the ages. How are you helping your people to prepare for the battle?

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He’s Got it Right

“It is our calling [as pastors] to woo and win souls to Christ, to set him forth to the people as crucified among them, to present him in all his attractive excellencies, that all hearts may be ravished with his beauty, and charmed into his arms by love.” — John Flavel

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Shepherding the Children

Let the Children Come to Me

For the last six months or so I’ve been tinkering away at constructing a theology of children. One of the many practical implications of such a study bears down on ordinary shepherding. I’ve come to realize that a fair amount of my eldering over the past few years has been more truncated than it ought to be.

Simply put: it’s easy to focus on the adults of a family and neglect the kids. Part of this is because many parents don’t bring their kids into gathered worship, so I don’t have that supernaturally precious time to shepherd them from the sacred desk. But even in pastoral visitation, I realize how much time I spend speaking with adults and how little time I spend with the children.

I think the Savior would say, “Dear brother, this should not be so.”

I know for sure that the revered Samuel Miller would say so.

Letters to a Young Pastor

In 1827, Samuel Miller published Letters on Clerical Manners, a collection of fourteen different letters he wrote to a student recently graduated from seminary and about to enter gospel ministry. The book is a fascinating glimpse into antebellum Presbyterian ministry and all the idiosyncrasies of the time (for instance, Miller regularly admonishes the student not to spit in public or when in the pulpit). The contextual hilarity, however, belies an astonishing amount of convicting wisdom.

Pay Particular Attention to Children

Miller’s sixth letter is all about pastoral visitation and the third point exhorts pastors to “be particularly attentive to children and young people.” Miller writes, “I have often wondered that a duty so obvious, and recommended by so many considerations, should be so much overlooked by discerning members.”

Here are a few statements that stand out on the subject I would invite you to prayerfully consider how to apply in your pastoral context:

  • Can any thinking man fail to remember, that children are the hope of the church?
  • Impressions made in the morning of life, are generally among the most permanent and ultimately beneficial?
  • Instructions given, and sentiments then imbibed, though they may long lie dormant in the mind, often rise into life and fruitfulness, when he who gave them has gone to his eternal rest?
  • Can it be forgotten, also, that all experience testifies the importance to a minister himself, of paying particular attention to the youth of his charge? It forms a bond of union between him and them which time, instead of severing, will rather strengthen.
  • O, if ministers could fully anticipate the sweetness of children growing up to honor you as a father in Christ, a regard to their own happiness would unite with the purest benevolence, in impelling them to unwearied care in watching over the children of their charge, and in embracing every opportunity to enlighten their minds, and to win their hearts in favor of all that is good.
  • Assiduous attention to children, are among the most direct and sure avenues to the hearts of parents. It often happens, indeed, that parents are more deeply gratified, by kind efforts to promote the welfare of their children, and are more lastingly thankful for them, than for the same kindness bestowed on themselves.

Endeavor in Every Place

What then, my dear ordinary pastor friend, are you doing to shepherd the little lambs in your fold? Never forget that Christ called for the little children to come to Him. Let us do the same. May you take Miller’s exhortation to “endeavor to gain their attention, to win their hearts [for Christ]” to your heart this coming Lord’s Day.

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The Puritans & Preaching

Perhaps no individual has influenced me so profoundly as that modern-day Puritan Joel Beeke. He first introduced me to experiential preaching, the necessity of personal piety, the glory of prayer, and the vitality of the Holy Spirit.

A few months ago Beeke delivered the keynote messages at Westminster Theological Seminary’s 2015 Preaching Conference. The following two messages will edify any preacher and, I trust, stir him up the renewed earnestness in gospel ministry. The panel discussion at the end with The Mortification of Spin team (70,000 listeners every week!?!) is also quite useful. If you only listen to part of it make sure to listen to the first section where the brothers each share their call into ministry—most encouraging!

“The Priority of Preaching for the Puritans”

“Preaching Like the Puritans—or Not?”

Panel Discussion with Joel Beeke and Mortification of Spin

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A Gospel Worship Revolution

Gospel Worship

Last week Christianity Today virtually declared an end to the worship wars. According to the authors, “the waning of the worship wars” is part of a “decades-long trend in American religion away from an emphasis on belief and doctrine and toward an emphasis on experience, emotion, and the search for a least-common-denominator kind of worship in a time of ever-less salient denominationally specific liturgical and theological content.”

I think their conclusion is right. The worship wars are over. Now, in this post, I raise my theological glass to the hope of “worship revolution.”

A Waking Gospel Revolution

Since the turn of the century, the resurgence of gospel-centrality in the larger evangelical is well documented and undeniable. What we’ve seen is a re-centering of the gospel for the Christian life and some congregational life—particularly preaching. But new horizons of gospel centrality must be explored: How does the gospel shape church polity? How does the gospel change church staffing? How does the gospel transform the tone, not just the topic, of preaching? And, how does the gospel inform worship?

More specifically, “how should the gospel inform the design, implementation, and leadership of a gathered worship service?”

When Doctoral Studies Get Quite Practical

That was the question recently posed to me in a doctoral seminar on “Planning and Leading Christian Worship.” My research and subsequent writing revealed something of a gap in the conversation. It revealed an ordinary way most scholars (and thus many pastors) articulate the liturgical practices of the church that I fear can quickly go the way of obscuring the gospel.

Building on the work of James Smith on human beings as “liturgical animals,” I submit that we “a liturgical gospel rhythm” in our worship.

There are, to be sure, many books that have sought to answer how the gospel shapes worship (see here, here, and here). What’s missing, however, is a deeper reflection on the matter and manner of true gospel worship. In other words, what elements must be present for the liturgy to deserve the modifier of “gospel”? What tone must be present if it’s truly gospel-centered?

Revelation-Reception-Response

I’m still ruminating on all these things, but the paper below reflects my initial conclusions. After spending some time asking if the gospel actually should shape our worship gatherings I move on to propose (only points two and four are somewhat unique):

  1. Scripture is the rule of gathered worship.
  2. Revelation-Reception-Response is the rhythm of gathered worship.
  3. Covenant renewal is the form of gathered worship.
  4. Celebratory reverence is the tone of gathered worship.

Those four points represent what I’m calling a “liturgical gospel rhythm” for ordinary churches.

So, if you’re interested and have some time, download the paper below and let me know what you think.

Download “Revelation, Reception, & Response:
A Liturgical Gospel Rhythm.”

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The Purposes of Gospel Ministry

The “grand aims [of gospel ministry] are to exalt Jehovah, the Creator, Redeemer and Judge of the world; to overthrow the power of Satan, the prince of all evil; to save mankind from sin and hell; to banish vice and all other evil from the earth; to bring true happiness to the lost children of Adam; to build up a glorious Church amidst the ruins which sin has wrought; to prepare citizens for the heavenly world who shall behold and share the infinite blessedness of the Son of God. Surely it must be a calling of no ordinary importance which God has appointed for such ends.” – Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology, 7.

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Personal Reformation In 2016

M'Cheyne

It’s customary on this first day of a new year for many Christians to find fresh challenge from Jonathan Edwards’ famous Resolutions. If you’ve never read them before, go ahead and read them now. You may just find your heart strangely warmed.

There is another model of resolve I think pastors, in particular, should attend to on this day of beginnings: Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Personal Reformation.

Pursuing Him Until The End

In the last year of his life (M’Cheyne died at 29) M’Cheyne, as Bonar says, “wrote down, for his own use, an examination into things that ought to be amended or changed” in his life and ministry. M’Cheyne introduces his document in this way,

It is the duty of ministers in this day to begin the reformation of religion and manners with themselves, families, etc. with confession of past sin, earnest prayer for direction, grace and full purpose of heart.

I am persuaded that I shall obtain the highest amount of present happiness, I shall do most for God’s glory and the good of man, and I shall have the fullest reward in eternity, by maintaining a conscience always washed in Christ’s blood, by being filled with the Holy Spirit at all times, and by attaining the most entire likeness to Christ in mind, will, and heart, that is possible for a redeemed sinner to attain in this world.

The document has two parts: 1) Personal Reformation, and 2) Reformation in Secret Prayer. The whole thing is only nine pages and worth reading often. On the small chance you can’t get to the original whole, I’ve reproduced his main points below along with some delectable nuggets of counsel and conviction.

Personal Reformation

1. To maintain a conscience void of offense. I am persuaded that I ought to confess my sins more. I think I ought to confess sin the moment I see it to be sin; whether I am in company, or in study, or even preaching, the soul ought to cast a glance of abhorrence at the sin. If I go on with the duty, leaving the sin unconfessed, I go on with a burdened conscience, and add sin to sin.

I ought to confess the sins of my confessions—their imperfections, sinful aims, self-righteous tendency, etc.—and to look to Christ as having confessed my sins perfectly over His own sacrifice.

  • I ought to go to Christ for the forgiveness of each sin.
  • I ought never think a sin too small to need immediate application to the blood of Christ.
  • I must not only wash in Christ’s blood, but clothe me in Christ’s obedience.

2. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. I am persuaded that I ought to study more my own weakness. I ought to have a number of Scriptures ready to be meditated on to convince me that I am a helpless worm. I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian—that I have overcome this or that lust so long—that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace—so that there is no fear; I may venture very near temptation—nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. I might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit a power of resisting fire, so as not to catch the spark.

  • I ought to labor for the deepest sense of my utter weakness and helplessness that ever a sinner was brought to feel.

It is right to tremble, and to make every sin of every professor a lesson of my own helplessness; but it should lead me the more to Christ. . . . If I were more deeply convinced of my utter helplessness, I think I would not be so alarmed when I hear of the falls of other men.

  • I ought to study Christ as a living Savior more.
  • I ought to study Christ as an Intercessor.
  • I ought to study the Comforter more.
  • I ought never to forget that sin grieves the Holy Spirit—vexes and quenches Him. If I would be filled with the Spirit, I feel I must read the Bible more, pray more, and watch more.

3. To gain entire likeness to Christ. I ought to get a high esteem of the happiness of it. I am persuaded that God’s happiness is inseparably linked in with His holiness. Holiness and happiness are like light and heat.

  • I ought not to delay in parting with sins.
  • Whatever I see to be sin, I ought from this hour to set my whole soul against it, using all scriptural methods to mortify it—as the Scriptures, special prayer for the Spirit, fasting, and watching.
  • I ought to mark strictly the occasions when I have fallen, and avoid the occasion as much as the sin itself.
  • I ought to flee all temptation.
  • I ought constantly to pour out my heart to God, praying for entire conformity to Christ.
  • I ought statedly and solemnly to give my heart to God.
  • I ought to meditate often on heaven as a world of holiness.

Reformation in Secret Prayer

I ought not to omit any of the parts of prayer—confession, adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession.

I ought to pray before seeing any one. I feel it is far better to begin with God—to see His face first—to get my soul near Him before it is near another. . . . In general, it is best to have at least on hour alone with God, before engaging in anything else.

I ought daily to intercede for my own family, connections, relatives, and friends.

I ought to daily intercede briefly for the whole town.

I ought to have a scheme of prayer, also the names of missionaries marked on the map.

I ought to intercede at large for the above on Saturday morning and evening from seven to eight.

I ought to pray in everything.

I ought to pray far more for our Church, for our leading ministers by name, and for my own clear guidance in the right way, that I may not be led aside, or driven aside, from following Christ.

I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner.

I ought not to give up the good old habit of prayer before going to bed.

I ought to read three chapters of the Bible in secret every day, at least.

I ought on Sabbath morning to look over all the chapters read through the week, and especially the verses marked.

A Life Being Completed

M’Cheyne apparently didn’t complete his rumination on piety and prayer. I’ve often thought, “How true this is of all God’s people!” Is it not true that our pursuit of communion with God and conformity to His Son is always in progress this side of heaven?

May you grow this year in appreciation of the M’Cheyne School mantra: “It’s not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Christ.”