The Ultimate Aim of Pastoral Overisght

In any task one must keep in view the ultimate end or purpose. This is true for pastoral ministry as well. In the final assignment for my pastoral ministry class I always ask students to state the ultimate aim of pastoral ministry. Richard Baxter provides a good answer to this question: “The ultimate end of …

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Richard Baxter Poem on Facing Death

The “Poem of the Week” on my office door this week is Richard Baxter’s “Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care,” which I encountered while re-reading Packer’s Knowing God. It is a powerful testimony of trusting God, come what may. The hymn was published in 1681 in Baxter’s Poetical Fragments, where it is accompanied by this …

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Doug Baker, “McDonaldization” and Pastoral Ministry

Doug Baker, editor of The Baptist Messenger, has written a helpful article on how programs have come to dominate church life and ministry titled “Against the McDonaldization of the SBC.” Drawing from Richard Baxter, Doug hits some key points on how program efficiency too easily becomes the goal rather than community and ministry.  Here is …

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Charles Williams on Pastoral Ministry

I am currently preparing for the Founders’ Day Address at Union this Friday where my topic will be Charles Bray Williams who taught at Union from 1926 to 1939. He had previously served as founding professor of Biblical Greek at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1905-1919), President of Howard College (now Samford; 1919-1921) and Professor of …

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Student Responses to Baxter, 2

I am once more teaching my Pastoral Ministry class and having students read Baxter’s Reformed Pastor. Last time I posted some student responses to reading this book. Here are a few more from this years’ interaction. “I have never understood, the way I do now, the weight and burden of taking on the responsibility of …

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Packer on Baxter’s Directory

The following lengthy quote is from J. I. Packer’s introduction to Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory.. The task of writing an encyclopedia entry on Baxter has given me opportunity to delve some more into the man who in the eyes of many embodies the oversight of souls. This quote provides a great contrast between the pastoral …

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