fit for service…
[Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from Bullinger’s Decades and have been lightly adapted.]
Full disclosure: I’m not going to talk about Bullinger’s view of the keys today. Bait and switch. False advertising. Foul ball. Whatever. Go read it for yourself. It’s too complicated (and frankly too anti-Catholic: Matthew 16.18 is talking about Peter people) to summarise in this post. But I will be talking a lot about the office of ministers of the word of God. So the advertising wasn’t completely false…
What sort of man should be a pastor? It doesn’t seem like a terribly complicated question. Granted, there are clearly all sorts of men who oughtn’t be pastors, but that’s usually more obvious in hindsight than ahead of time. So who should be a pastor? Is there anything we should be looking for in those who are entrusted with the care of our souls? Does scripture give us any clues as to what sort of men we should be looking for?
Unworthy persons are often ordained; such as are uneducated or not very sound, or those who are sufficiently educated but don’t know how to communicate with others, or those who are simple and good Christians but unfit and unskilful pastors. They may have been enticed to the office of pastor through favour or bribes, but they provoke the most heavy wrath of almighty God upon themselves, and they make themselves participants in all of those sins of which their incompetence is the author, for they do not faithfully carry out the responsibilities which are committed to them. Our forefathers called this sin simony, an offence punishable with nothing less than shameful reproach and everlasting death.
What sort of man would make a good pastor? Those of us who are pastors, what sort of men should we be? How do we know we’re up for the task? Are we the right shape for service in Christ’s vineyard? To care for his tender lambs?
Now we will declare what manner of men we ought to ordain as ministers: truly not just whoever wants the office, but the very best of men of sound religion, furnished with rich learning, exercised in the scriptures, perceptive in the mystery of faith and religion, strong and reliable, serious, sacrificial, diligent, faithful, careful, modest, known by a recognisably holy character, lest through their corruption of life and feeble name and reputation the whole ministry falls into disrepute, and they who were meant to build up wholesome doctrine pull it down with their wicked lives.
This description sets a high bar for ministry. How few of us would feel this accurately characterizes us…. And yet, what does Bullinger see as the core of ministry?
It remains to explain to you what I began with in this treatise, that is, the office of the ministers that are ordained in the church. I can show you very simply what this office is: to govern the church of God, or to feed the flock of Christ.
This is the dominant metaphor for pastoral ministry in scripture: to shepherd the flock of God. This is 1 Peter 5. This is Acts 20. This is Jesus’ instructions to Peter in John 21. Care for Christ’s sheep. This is what it means to be a pastor, why we even use the word pastor. Hence when we’re looking for potential ministers (or what we as pastors ought to be), this is what we ought to be looking for: can this man care for Christ’s sheep?
I was part of a recurring conversation among some pastors several years ago (okay, it was recurring because I kept bringing it up!). How are we meant to interpret the qualifications for ministry in the pastoral epistles? What are these qualifications? Should we even see them as qualifications, or would it actually be better to look at the lists in 1 Timothy and Titus as dis-qualifications, that failing to possess these qualities bars a man from ministry rather than being a complete list which presents the ideal minister?
Rather than looking at a man’s life to see if he’s free from any obvious and massively disqualifying sins (a tick-box use of the lists in the pastoral epistles which is all too common today), we ought instead to be looking for those who have the heart and character of a shepherd, a 1 Peter 5.1-3 focus on a personal lifestyle, a character bent, a habitus or disposition which will certainly commend itself through the lists in the pastorals but also certainly includes much more than what sins a man’s life is currently free from. Fundamentally, can this man care for Christ’s sheep?
Bullinger complains that in the appointment of ministers often
there is a greater regard for the belly than the ministry. Those who have a say in choosing ministers provide better for those who are called priests and truly are not than for the church of God and the salvation of souls. But this means all things go to pieces in the church, and the flock of God is oppressed with the weight and ruin of the shepherds.
Too often a whole raft of other qualities is prioritised rather than the shepherding heart. Some churches want a community organiser, someone who can lead or get things done. Others want a preacher; preaching often defined by the ability to give a solid exposition or commentary on the text. Others want a counselor, one who makes them feel comfortable and seen within the church. Still others want a feisty personality, one who will shake things up a bit. I think what most churches in our day actually want is a chief evangelist, for surely that will solve Christianity’s endemic decline.
And the qualities that make a good shepherd are quietly neglected, sidelined, ignored…
…to the neglect of Christ’s sheep.
When the church forgets what scripture says about the qualities that make a faithful shepherd, the sheep suffer. When pastors sin, it’s the sheep who suffer. When pastors fail out of ministry, it’s the sheep who suffer. When the church abandons the truth of God’s word as the defining rule for life and ministry, it’s the sheep who suffer.
Granted, many of these sheep who suffer do so through either their own culpable ignorance or their active disregard for sacred scripture. But it’s still the sheep who suffer. Can we feel no pity for those who are scattered on the hillside? Do we have none of our Savior’s compassion for those wandering without a shepherd to care for their souls?
Who is fit for service tending Christ’s lambs? The godly and gifted man who longs to care for Christ’s sheep. I would have this question asked at every ordination if I could, do you absolutely and wholeheartedly ache to care for those your Savior will entrust into your hands?
Bullinger also points to the use of catechisms as indispensable for the discipleship of the church.
Surely no profit or fruit ought to be looked for in the church in which those who hear the word preached are not also completely instructed in the principles of religion by catechising. They don’t know what the pastor of the church is talking about when he speaks of the covenant, the commandment, the law, grace, faith, prayer, or the sacraments. Therefore, if in anything then in this ought greatest diligence to be used.
On preaching, preachers are instructed that
Unless the scripture is appropriately applied, respect given to place, time, matter, and the particular persons in every church, and towards the end that the church may be edified rather than that the teacher seem better educated or more eloquent, the pastor’s exposition of the canonical books of scripture shall be fruitless to the people…. Meat is unprofitable unless it’s divided and cut into parts. Here the householder knows what portions he should give to every one in his family, not being primarily concerned about what every one wants, but instead, what is most profitable for every one.
There are many churches in which toddlers are given raw steaks and told they’re mature for it (ahem…expository preachers). They haven’t a scooby what to do with it in the first place, and the failure is the pastor’s for not applying God’s word to his sheep. In other churches (ahem…relevant churches), the sheep are fed gruel. And the leadership would wonder why everyone looks so malnourished, that is, if they actually bothered to take a look at the flock. Both disconnected doctrine and excessive exegesis or linguistics and overly ‘applicational’ and frankly dumbed down treatments of already pretty basic teaching are failures of feeding, even if they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum from each other and the churches in which they’re found look nothing alike. Neither church (or pastor) helps grow healthy sheep.
There’s so much more in this sermon, but there’s one final question Bullinger answers that I want to look at. In our time we hear both from those who hate all authority and from those who want pastors to speak with overzealous authority. Pastoral tyranny and pastoral neglect are both the order of the day. Churches in which the pastor says too much and churches in which the pastor says too little. The abuse of authority and the complete neglect of authority…both are so common in our day. How on earth are we to think about the right use of authority in the church? The realistic focus in Bullinger’s treatment on pastors is refreshing.
For what can a minister of the church do in the church, when his authority is altogether lost? Authority is therefore absolutely required in pastors. Many complain that they lack this authority, and they try to get it through I can’t tell what kinds of props like titles and ceremonies. But authority isn’t gained through such light and flighty things. It is rather obtained by the grace of God, through the love of truth and uprightness of life; if happily God touches men’s hearts so that they understand that God works his purposes in the church through his ministers as his instruments, if the people understand that ministers do the work of the Lord with ferventness of spirit and not coldly, not fearing anything in a good cause, no, not the wicked and mighty men of this world (but boldly resist such); and yet that they do nothing from hatred or malice, but do all things from fatherly affection, with good courage, reliability, and wisdom; if there’s joined together not a hypocritical but a holy and upright life together with honest, modest, and appropriate behaviour, then all wise men shall understand that there is ample authority gained for a godly minister.
So, back to the original question, who is fit for service caring for our Savior’s sheep? The one in whom God’s grace is at work. So there’s hope for ordinary shepherds like me. Keep close to the Chief Shepherd, keep a humble and godly heart, and he’ll accomplish all that the sheep need through us.
Next, on prayer
