Yesterday I posted Covenant Theological Seminary’s reason for being: “The purpose of Covenant Theological Seminary is to glorify the triune God by training his servants to WALK in God’s grace, MINISTER God’s Word, and EQUIP God’s people—all for God’s MISSION.” Part 1 is to walk in God’s grace. Today is part 2.
I served on the staff of a church a number of years ago that called it’s ordained staff Ministers. I know waht they meant, but still, this always made me a bit uncomfortable in what it may have communicated to the congregation, because in my understanding of the Bible, every Christian is a minster. No, everyone is not a minister in the sense of being a pastor, but each is a minister. Some minister to children. Others are ministers of setting up chairs or serving coffee. We have our music ministers, sound and lighting team ministers, greeting team ministers, nursery ministers, etc. Every believer is a minister because the word minister simply means servant, or as a verb, to serve.
To apply this back to pastor types, we minister, or serve people, by teaching and applying the Word. This means that a pastor is in some sense the resident theologian of the covenant community. He must give himself to study and preparation for explaining and applying the truth of the Scriptures, focusing on the redemptive message of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus and how the gospel’s implications bear upon the lives of God’s people. Of course the contexts will vary from Sunday morning, large group preaching, to small group discipleship, to marital and grief counseling, etc.
In a nutshell, the pastor is to be a teacher of sound doctrine. A preacher of the gospel. There are many distractions to keep us from this calling. Good things, but not necessarily our things. As Melvile demonstrated in Moby Dick, the harpooner must stay focused on his role, or else there will be no kill. So, brothers, let’s be harpooners with the gospel. Devoted to this task. Focused. Effective.
As Paul told his disciple Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13, ”Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” So study and pray, pastor, and get ready to release the spear.
McKay, I also know that tension. Sometimes I am drawn to Luther and his dualist view on calling. Sometimes I am drawn to Assisi and his invitation to preach the Gospel “with words when necessary.” But usually I’m drawn to Dash Incredible who said, “When everybody’s special, nobody is.” The idea of calling (as coming from the outside) and vocation (as coming from a more internal and circumstancial place) is very much at the fore of my thoughts regularly.
Thank you for sharing.
Joel