PASTORAL MINISTRY-CONSIDERATIONS-GENERAL
Courage...is
the indispensable requisite of any true ministry... Courage is good everywhere,
but it is necessary here. If you are afraid of men and a slave to their
opinion, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them... But do not
keep on all your life preaching sermons which shall say not what God sent you
to declare, but what they hire you to say.
Quoted in: Who Will Be Saved? Edited by: House, Paul and Thornbury,
Gregory. Crossway, 2000, p. 101.
Take heed to yourselves, because the tempter will more
ply you with his temptations than other men. If you will be the leaders against
the prince of darkness, he will spare you no further than God restraints him.
He bears the greatest malice to those that are engaged to do him the greatest
mischief. As he hates Christ more than any of us, because He is the General of
the field, the Captain of our salvation, and does more than all the world
besides against his kingdom; so does he hate the leaders under Him, more than
the common soldiers: he knows what a rout he may make among them, if the
leaders fall before their eyes.
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 1, Section 2.
And now, brethren, what have we to do for the time to
come, but to deny our lazy flesh, and rouse up ourselves to the work before us.
The harvest is great, the laborers are few; the loiterers and hinderers are
many, the souls of men are precious, the misery of sinners is great, and the
everlasting misery to which they are near is greater, the joys of heaven are
inconceivable, the comfort of a faithful minister is not small, the joy of extensive
success will be a full reward. To be fellow-workers with God and his Spirit is
no little honor; to subserve the blood-shedding of
Christ for men’s salvation is not a light thing. To lead on the armies of
Christ through the thickest of the enemy; to guide them safely through a
dangerous wilderness; to steer the vessels through such storms and rocks and
sands and shelves, and bring it safe to the harbor of rest, requires no small
skill and diligence.
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Section 2.
Burned and wasted we must be; and is it not fitter it
should be in lighting men to heaven, and in working for God, than in living to
the flesh? How little difference is there between the pleasure of a long and of
a short life, when they are both at an end! What comfort will it be to you at
death, that you lengthened your life by shortening your work? He that worketh much, liveth
much. Our life is to be esteemed according to the ends and works of it,
and not according to the mere duration... Will it not comfort us more at death,
to review a short time faithfully spent, than a long life spent unfaithfully?
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Part 2.
John Broadus
(one of the founders of the Southern Baptist Seminary and the author of the
most influential book on preaching ever written in America) was lecturing his
class just nine days before he died when he paused and said: “Gentlemen, if
this were the last time I should ever be permitted to address you, I would feel
amply repaid for consuming the whole hour endeavoring to impress upon you these
two things: true piety, and, like Apollos, to be men ‘mighty in the
Scriptures.’” Broadus then paused and stood for a moment with his piercing eyes
fixed upon the class. Over and over he repeated in that slow but wonderfully
impressive style that was distinctively his, “Mighty in the Scriptures, mighty
in the Scriptures.”
Kent Hughes
Acts: The Church Afire, Crossway Books, 1996,
p. 247.
Not a few
preachers’ kids have been catapulted into rebellion because their fathers
squeezed their lives to fit their parishioners’ expectations. What a massive sin against one’s children!
Kent Hughes
Disciplines of a Godly Man, Crossway Books,
1991, p. 49.
Ordained
ministry is a serious and strenuous calling that requires form a man a radical
refusal to set any limits on what God may demand of him.
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 95.
Jonathan
Edwards was a zealous pastor who never forgot for a moment that his own family
was a part of that flock, and that he had been appointed to be a shepherd to
these sheep also, those within his own fold. He was ever concerned for the
salvation of the souls of men, all men, not overlooking those closest to him.
He never for one moment assumed that his own children were of the elect. George
Perry Norris describes him as a “tender brooding parent.”
Edna Gerstner
Jonathan and Sarah: An Uncommon Union, Soli Deo Gloria, p. 133.
When all were
in their places Father said grace and, excusing himself, left the family to
retire to his study. He frequently spent thirteen hours a day studying. He managed
this amazing amount of time by husbanding every hour of the day. He usually
arose at four in the morning, indulging himself in the later rising time of
five in the winter. In this way he was far along in his studies while the
household slept. He preferred to eat alone, usually
certain foods which he had by experimentation discovered kept his mind and body
most sprightly. This morning he did not eat the rich menu which Venus set
before the rest of the household, the home-cured bacon and the delicious hot
breads. But at the end of the meal, he rejoined his family for morning
devotions.
Edna Gerstner
Jonathan and Sarah: An Uncommon Union, Soli Deo Gloria, p. 192.
A pastor’s
books are as essential as the furniture of his home.
Derek Prime and Alistair Begg
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 116.
I know of
nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life
than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still
to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last
hour. It is only such who in the
ministry shall be saved.
C.H. Spurgeon
People’s
lives are beaten down enough. They don’t need more of it from the pulpit.
Richard Ganz
Preaching
Grace
Spiritual
authority depends more on care given than on power wielded.
Dan Doriani
The
Life of a God-Made Man, P&R Publishing, 2001, p. 148.
The word work
forbids loitering and the word ministry lording.
John Boys
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 190.
We cannot sit
back and wait for the sheep to lead. A
few will, but by and large they are looking to us for direction, feeding, and
leadership by our stepping out courageously in faith.
Curtis C. Thomas
Practical Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books,
2001, p. 95.
As Christian
leaders we will be required to admonish and rebuke. In fact, a good deal of
time may be spent doing this work. It is an important aspect of ministry not to
be neglected because it is used by God to rescue people from sin and deception.
You will never know until heaven the full extent of good you have done for
others by rebuking them about sin or warning them about false doctrine.
Alexander Strauch
Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 142, Used by
Permission.
Our
enemy knows that when he strikes the shepherd, the sheep will scatter (Matt.
26:31), and church leaders – even as the Lord Himself – are Satan’s special
targets. The more faithful and fruitful a pastor is, the more his people need
to pray for his strength and protection. He is more subject to the devil’s
schemes to make him discouraged or self-satisfied, hopeless or superficially
optimistic, cowardly or overconfident. Satan uses every situation – favorable
or unfavorable, successful or unsuccessful – to try to weaken, distract, and
discredit God’s gifted men in their work of “equipping of the saints for the work
of service” (Eph.
4:12).
John MacArthur
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 384.
Sadly, some
pastors leave because of a hireling mentality. They leave their churches
precisely because there are problems. When the wolf comes and tears into
the sheep, they find it uncomfortable to be there and they move on. I don't say
this is always the case, but it may be true more often than we like to think.
It appears that they wish to turn the church over to the wolves who are at first only nipping at them. They run because they
are hirelings who do not love the sheep.
Jim Elliff
Pastors
Moving to Other Churches: Why?, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org.Used
by Permission.
There is
something about throwing oneself into the everyday affairs of the church, into
the routine business of doing "church work," that is deceptive. It soothes our conscience and makes us feel
we are in the right state of mind spiritually.
But proximity to God's work is no substitute for submission to the grace
of God.
Bill Arnold
The NIV Application Commentary - 1 and 2
Samuel, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com,
2003, p. 77.