For any interested, I have just posted my thoughts on 5 papers I heard at the recent meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature at PastoralEpistles.com. Most of the papers came from a non-evangelical feminist perspective, so the value to most of my readers would simply be knowing what some people are saying these days.
Lord Peter Wimsey & Biblical Studies
I am catching up with everyone else by finally reading one of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels (actually listening to it thanks to the free audio at Librivox). It is an entertaining story with several insightful comments on life.
This morning I was captivated by the section below from Chapter 7 in which the detective, Parker, and Wimsey discuss “modern” commentators. This is a shrewd criticism from Sayers of academic biblical studies (not unlike C. S. Lewis’ comments in “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”). Too much in biblical studies is concerned with pursuing communities and documents we are not sure even existed while people miss Christ and “the household” of faith which are clearly there.
Lord Peter spent the afternoon in a vain hunt for Mr. Parker. He ran him down eventually after dinner in Great Ormond Street.
Parker was sitting in an elderly but affectionate armchair, with his feet on the mantelpiece, relaxing his mind with a modern commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. He received Lord Peter with quiet pleasure, though without rapturous enthusiasm, and mixed him a whisky-and-soda. Peter took up the book his friend had laid down and glanced over the pages.
“All these men work with a bias in their minds, one way or other,” he said; “they find what they are looking for.”
“Oh, they do,” agreed the detective, “but one learns to discount that almost automatically, you know. When I was at college, I was all on the other side – Conybeare and Robertson and Drews and those people, you know, till I found they were all so busy looking for a burglar whom nobody had ever seen, that they couldn’t recognize the footprints of the household, so to speak. Then I spent two years learning to be cautious.”
“Hum,” said Lord Peter, “theology must be good exercise for the brain then, for you’re easily the most cautious devil I know. But I say, do go on reading – it’s a shame for me to come and root you up in your off-time like this.”
“Now Thank We All Our God”
For Thanksgiving I am posting one of my favorite hymns of thanks. It was written in the 17th century by Lutheran pastor, Martin Rinkart, after his city had endured horrible death and devastation in the midst of the Thirty Years’ War (at one point he was leading 50 funerals a day). Yet, the city was spared from total destruction and in response he penned this hymn. The story is briefly told at NetHymnal, and more thoroughly in Douglas Bond’s, Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and bless’d peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
(Translated by Catherine Winkworth)
Andrew Fuller, Blessings of Preaching through Books
In the dedication of his Expository Discourses on the Book of Genesis
If this is your practice, too, may this encourage you. If it is not your practice may this entice you to it.
MY DEAR BRETHREN,
It is now upwards of twenty-two years since I first took the oversight of you in the Lord. During the last fifteen years, it has, as you know, been my practice to expound amongst you on the Lord’s-day morning some part of the Holy Scriptures, commonly a chapter. From all that I have felt in my own mind, and heard from you, I have reason to hope these exercises have not been in vain. They have enabled us to take a more connected view of the Scriptures than could be obtained merely by Sermons on particular passages; and I acknowledge that as I have proceeded, the work of exposition has become more and more interesting to my heart.
I have not been in the habit of writing Dedications to what I have published; but in this instance I feel inclined to deviate from my usual practice. Considering my time of life, and the numerous avocations on my hands, I may not be able to publish any thing more of the kind; and if not, permit be to request that this Family book may be preserved as a Memorial of our mutual affection, and of the pleasures we have enjoyed together in exploring the treasures of the lively Oracles.
You will consider these Discourses as the result of having once gone over that part of the Scriptures to which they relate. Were we to go over it again, and again, such is the fulness [sic] of God’s word, that we should still find interesting and important matter, which had never occurred in reading it before; and this should encourage us not to rest in any exposition, but to be constantly perusing the Scriptures themselves, and digging at the precious ore.
As the Exposition was delivered in public worship, it was not my wish to dwell upon particular words, so much as to convey the general scope and design of the Scriptures. Whether I have in any considerable degree caught the spirit which runs through them, is too much for me to decide: but this I can say, that such has been my aim. I know by experience, that, with respect to this, when I have been the most spiritually-minded, I have succeeded the best; and therefore conclude, that if I had lived nearer to God, the work had been better executed. But such as it is, I commend it to the blessing of God, and your candid acceptance.
And remain,
Your affectionate Pastor,
THE AUTHOR
Kettering,
October 19, 1805.
–Andrew Fuller’s dedication to his book Expository Discourses on the Book of Genesis
Benjamin Keach as Pastor
Benjamin Keach was one of the leading Baptist pastors in England in the 17th century. In the memoir included in a 19th century reprint of his book, The Travels of True Godliness, the following assessment of his ministry is included (it is an excerpt from Crosby’s History of English Baptists). This is an excellent summary of ministry including his personal care of individual souls and faithful preaching- preaching which was not flowery or “showy” but solid and straightforward.
He discharged the duties of his pastoral office with unwearied diligence, by preaching in season and out of season, visiting those under his charge, encouraging the serious, defending the great truths of the gospel, and setting them in the clearest light. He was not addicted to utter hard censures of such as differed from him in lesser matters, but had a love for all saints, and constantly exercised himself in this, to keep a conscience void of offences towards God and towards man. He showed an unwearied endeavor to recover the decayed power of religion, for he lived what he preached; and it pleased God so to succeed his endeavors, that I doubt not but some yet living may call him their father, whom he hath begotten through the gospel. He affected no unusual tones, nor indecent gestures in his preaching…his style was strong and masculine. …if his sermons had not the embellishments of language, which some boast of, they had this peculiar advantage, to be full of solid divinity; which is a much better character for pulpit discourses, than to say they are full of pompous eloquence, and flights of wit. It was none of the least of his excellent qualifications for the ministerial work, that he knew how to behave himself in the house of God, in regard of the exercise of that discipline which is so necessary to a Christian society.
Hezekiah Harvey, Personal Dealing with Souls
I have previously mentioned an address I had the opportunity to give which drew together key portions of my biblical and historical argument for the centrality of the oversight of souls in pastoral ministry. That presentation is now a chapter in the book, Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism
Over the last few weeks I have been posting quotes which I would have loved to have included in that chapter as they are further confirmations of this theme. In the chapter I cite leading 19th century Baptist pastor Hezekiah Harvey from his book, The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties, but I have recently come across another valuable quote from him on this topic:
“[The responsibility of a pastor includes] Wise and faithful dealing with the individual souls of his charge. Paul went ‘from house to house,’ from soul to soul: he ‘ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears,’ and he proposes this as an example of ministerial fidelity, requiring the pastor to be ‘instant in season, out of season.’ Evidently he did not regard the work of a minister as done when performed only in the study and the pulpit: it included personal dealing with souls.” (p151-2)
H. Harvey, The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties, Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1879
May we see the flourishing of this sort of pastoral ministry.
Segler on the Care of Souls
Here is a strong comment from 1960 by widely published Baptist pastor Franklin Segler on the centrality of the care of souls in pastoral ministry.
“The care of souls is central in the church’s ministry. Therefore, pastoral care is a primary function of the pastoral office. No part of the pastor’s ministry is of greater importance than this ministry to individual persons and families. Helping other persons to grow up in Christ is the very essence of the Christian ministry. Ministering to persons in need is the primary objective of the pastoral ministry. Ideally, preaching and the care of souls are the two major functions of the pastoral office. Phillip Brooks insisted that the work of the preacher and the pastor belong together and ought not to be separated. The preacher who is not pastor grows remote, and the pastor who is not preacher grows petty.
History witnesses to the centrality of the care of souls in the church.” 165
“As leader in worship, the pastor is more than an actor performing for his public; he is a guide in the nurture of souls. As a preacher of the gospel, he speaks to the condition of people as he knows them in the community and in the life of the church. His preaching is always “pastoral preaching…” 167
“…the care of souls is always the pastor’s concern, whatever the area of his functional ministry.” 168
Franklin M. Segler, A Theology of Church and Ministry
McConnell on Pastoral Care
I like to post here comments from various eras affirming the importance of shepherding and caring for the flock in day to day life. So here is a quote from McConnell’s Manual for Baptist Churches (1926):
The pastor should be a student of men and books. He should know the people intimately and enter into their life purposes and aspirations. He should study ways to serve them intellectually, socially, materially, and spiritually. He should take an interest in all that they do, their business success, their entertainment, their general welfare. Nothing which affects the people should escape his interest and watchful care. He should comfort the sorrowing, help the poor and needy, seek to assist the unemployed, warn the careless, and help the prosperous in their efforts to be spiritual. When death enters a home, his should be the most consoling words. When financial disaster falls on a family, he should show them that life is more than gain, and lead them to appreciate what they have left, show that it is worth more than money. (87)
Bible Translation Forum
Gospel Coalition has teamed up with BibleGateway.Com to provide a forum on Bible translation. Various Bible professors have provided answers to specific questions on translations and a few are posted each day. Currently the question being addressed is “What makes a translation accurate?” Today my answer to the question was posted. Answers from Denny Burk and George Guthrie have previously been posted.
For Pastors of Smaller Congregations
Here is a good word from 80 years ago. Let us shepherded the flock of God, seeing them as those bought with the blood of God (Acts 20:28), regardless of their number.
The pastor should look after the spiritual needs of the church which honors him by electing him to this high and responsible office. Maybe the church is small. Let him remember that his Master spent his ministerial life training twelve men and that one of them was a hypocrite and failed to take the training. A pastor should thank God, from a sincere heart, for the privilege of being pastor of eleven members in a church. He should give them the Word both publicly and privately, stirring up in them a keen appetite for the bread of truth and serving it to them in a helpful, attractive, and interesting way. (86)
– F.M. McConnell, McConnell’s Manual for Baptist Churches (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1948; Originally printed 1926)