{"id":552,"date":"2009-10-05T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T16:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=552"},"modified":"2013-06-20T13:45:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T17:45:54","slug":"the-oversight-of-souls-pastoral-ministry-in-southern-baptist-and-evangelical-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"The Oversight of Souls: Pastoral Ministry in Southern Baptist and Evangelical Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week Union will be hosting the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uu.edu\/events\/baptistfuture\">&#8220;Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism&#8221;\u009d conference<\/a> which I have mentioned here previously. As part of that conference I will be giving a paper under the title of this post. My aim will be to argue that the oversight of souls is the heart of pastoral ministry. As part of that argument I have been gathering quotes from pastors over the centuries that exemplify this goal.<\/p>\n<p>One great source is the letters of Samuel Rutherford (available in <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=u6YrAAAAYAAJ&amp;dq=letters+of+samuel+rutherford&amp;source=gbs_navlinks_s\">complete text on Google Books<\/a>). Letter 225 is particularly powerful as he writes to his beloved church while he is away from them in exile in Aberdeen. Here are two excerpts from that letter:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=u6YrAAAAYAAJ&amp;dq=letters%20of%20samuel%20rutherford&amp;pg=PA438&amp;ci=158%2C291%2C799%2C460&amp;source=bookclip\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=u6YrAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA438&amp;img=1&amp;zoom=3&amp;hl=en&amp;sig=ACfU3U2jQoHagSxoCQOU2Lt7BmvmOWVbhA&amp;ci=158%2C291%2C799%2C460&amp;edge=0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=u6YrAAAAYAAJ&amp;dq=letters%20of%20samuel%20rutherford&amp;pg=PA439&amp;ci=73%2C619%2C785%2C448&amp;source=bookclip\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=u6YrAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA439&amp;img=1&amp;zoom=3&amp;hl=en&amp;sig=ACfU3U09KwQahB-LgWiY-fosbztw25ZYdQ&amp;ci=73%2C619%2C785%2C448&amp;edge=0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is the heart of a pastor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week Union will be hosting the &#8220;Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism&#8221;\u009d conference which I have mentioned here previously. As part of that conference I will be giving a paper under the title of this post. My aim will be to argue that the oversight of souls is the heart of pastoral &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=552\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;The Oversight of Souls: Pastoral Ministry in Southern Baptist and Evangelical Life&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,26,179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2991,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/2991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}