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 …
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 …
What essential for a pastor? Much could be said in answer to this question. Wayne Oates several years ago stated this: “…the consummate requirement of him [a pastor] is that he depend devotedly upon the Chief Shepherd for his own spiritual sustenance and live in the buoyant expectation of his continual manifestation of himself. Titus …
In 1743 the Philadelphia Baptist Association adopted as a statement of their discipline Benjamin Griffith’s treatise, “Concerning a True and Orderly Gospel Church.” In this treatise is the following description of the duty of pastors (emphasis added, and reformatted): The minister being thus put upon his work, proceeds (1.) to preach the word of God …
In Augustine’s Confessions his description of Ambrose as a pastor is instructive. He mentions how Ambrose is taken up with ministering to the needs of his people (“to whose infirmities he devoted himself”) and then stealing time for study (Book 6.3). His first mention of Ambrose’s labors provides a model portrait for pastors: And to …
Carl Trueman continues to sound the trumpet of real pastoral oversight. His latest post is right on target and deserves a wide reading. His points echo the key concerns of this blog. Here is one quote in hopes of enticing you to read the entire post, “Life Together- Or Not”: “First, I am immensely grateful …
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In John Gill’s exposition of Matt. 13:52, he gives a good description of the work of the pastor: “…of which indeed Christ is properly the householder and master, but Gospel ministers are deputies and stewards under him, and under him preside over the household, and have the government of it, provide food for it, and …
Reading The Return of the King (third volume of The Lord of the Rings) to my boys a comment from Halbarad, a Ranger and kin of Aragorn, struck me as paralleling pastoral ministry. Speaking of the Shire, the peaceful land of the Hobbits, he said: “Little do they know of our long labour for the …
Calvin commenting on 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 states well the importance of hard work in pastoral ministry and what our work actually is. In the first place, he says that they labor. From this it follows, that all idle bellies are excluded from the number of pastors. Farther, he expresses the kind of labor when he …
Here is a good warning to preachers against exalting ourselves before the church: “For that man is an enemy to his Redeemer who on the strength of the good works he performs, desires to be loved by the Church, rather than by Him. Indeed, a servant is guilty of adulterous thought, if he craves to …