Robert Haldane observed in his commentary on the twelfth chapter of Romans that Paul had a special way of using his authority.
When it comes to authority, we might have some assumptions about Paul. We would assume that Paul would only have a commanding tone in his speaking because he possessed the right of authority. We would expect that his syntax would be always in the imperative mood.
But Haldane observed that Paul didn’t use his authority that way. Paul said, “I beseech you” or “I appeal to you” (Rom 12:1). Haldane wrote:
Those whose authority was avouched by mighty signs and wonders, whose very word was command, strive frequently to express commands as entreaties.
Commentary, 566.
Haldane’s observation is that the apostles were not insecure about their authority, even though their authority had been clearly demonstrated. Yet the apostles could choose to entreat people and appeal to them by way of persuasion, rather than command. They didn’t need to be defensive. They had the liberty to persuade when they had the right to command.
This observation is helpful for pastors to know. Often, according to the authority of God’s word, there is the need to exercise authority and make commands (as Scripture requires). At the same time, the aim of persuading by entreating ought to be the norm.
This is where the pastoral requirement of gentleness comes to the forefront (Ti 3:2). Gentleness is persuading, entreating and compassionate, even when the right to command exists.
Paul would nevertheless urge Timothy, “Command and teach these things” (1 Timothy 4:11). These leaders had the right to command and exercised that right. But when they had the opportunity, they would “express commands as entreaties”.
The guiding ideas for bringing change to the leadership culture and structure of the church will be to re-engage with the realities of the Pastoral Epistles. Some quick emphases will be:
1 Tim 3.1-7
Men who are Aspirational (v 1).
Male, not Female
Character qualifications dominate
Well-Ordered Home Life
Not a Novice Convert
Can teach (could be private or small group mostly, not just preaching/teaching).
2 Tim 2:2 “Entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”
Seek Trustworthy Men
Seek Teachable and Teaching Men
Have in view a Four Generation Ministry
But where do you start?
Here is a simple (but challenging) plan for implementation.
1. Men’s Mentoring Ministry — The Pillar Men
Prioritize the younger men, since they are moldable, teachable, and still have uncluttered aspirations.
De-prioritize the older men who are not already like-minded, since they are set in their views, less teachable, and their aspirations tend to be clouded by other competing motives.
Nevertheless, esteem any older man who is godly since his character will be a living template for younger men.
This is not done to disregard women, but done as the baby step in a process of reformation. Once pillar men are in place, you can work to reform the women’s ministry.
The Men’s Mentoring Ministry can’t be an “Elder-in-Training” ministry because otherwise, you will give men unrealistic expectations.
Yet out of this crop of men, God will raise up the called, qualified men who can be elders.
Those who aren’t elders will be “pillar men”. They will be godly men with healthy marriages and homes, who are doctrinally informed, but maybe lack teaching ability, or are unable to ‘do the work’ of a shepherd (demands of work, family, etc)
Among the ‘pillar men’, you will have your deacons, ministry leads, and general supporters of biblical reformation in the church.
2. Make Pillar Men strong churchmen.
Every pillar man should be
a member (“meaningful membership”)
Serving in a ministry
Joining every committee, consultation, or any opportunity for the congregational voice to participate. (Don’t ignore the handbell choir committee or the quilting committee. These ‘non-teaching’ committees can have massive influence in a church!).
If you can’t insert pillar men to have influence on committees and ministries, then the pastor should personally engage those unaligned committees and ministries, while gradually isolating the influence of those unaligned groups.
For example, a pastor chose to preserve a senior ladies’ bible study on Sunday mornings rather than dismantling it, even though they completely changed their Sunday School set up. He didn’t give it large influence, but isolated it without shutting it down. This kept him from having a needless fight, distracting him from the changes he wanted to do.
3. Turn your like-minded staff into unofficial helpers for committees that they don’t have a right to be on.
For example, the Associate Pastor offers to type stuff up or send emails or bring food for a committee or board meeting that they are not entitled to sit on or influence officially.
The goal is to orient the board toward favourable change by persuading them with hospitality first, and argument later on.
Hospitality toward unaligned ministries/structures is the first plan of approach for soliciting change. I.e. Hospitality accrues relational capital. It prioritizes people first, then persuades them with principles later.
4. Use internships to add to your depth of like-minded pillar men.
One way to bring in men who are potentially elder qualified is to offer internships with financial remuneration.
A single seminary/post-seminary guy can be brought in for an internship that is under one year long. But in that year (or 6 months, or 4 months), he brings youthful energy, support for your vision, and the appearance in the church that the ministry draws high quality men.
Persuading your church to adopt your elder-leadership model, will require them to be excited about the appearance of new life, young leaders, etc. Although ‘youth movements’ can be viewed in mere worldly terms, this practical emphasis might assist you in overcoming opposition from ‘the old guard.’
Target young men from bible colleges and seminaries, even from outside your country.
Recruit from TGC Africa/Korea/ Latin America/ Brazil/ Australia churches?
Recruit from trusted seminaries?
Recruit from bible colleges?
Find the like-minded guy from a church in your denomination?
Why would a young guy do the internship?
If there was enough money for him to eat and pay rent, he would jump at the chance to get church experience with a city church, and a likeminded pastor.
Offer clear learning outcomes to the potential intern.
Highlight the personal investment from the Senior Pastor. This will make the internship worthwhile.
The intern can work at any number of needed jobs in the church, but the investment in him from the pastor will be the payoff.
5. Change the culture of the church to prepare for constitutional changes
More men, becoming pillar men, creates a new voting block in the church.
Pillar men on committees (even seemingly meaningless ones) give organizational support for your vision/plan.
When you go to vote or change the constitution, etc., you may still have a big fight. But you won’t be alone. You won’t be using a constitutional battle as the first attempt to persuade the old guard. Rather it will be the final stroke of persuasion in a systematic approach.
When the constitutional fight comes, you will have many pillars who will personally support you and help you to stick to it. This is essential for big changes like you’ll propose.
And even if you, the Senior Pastor, gets fired, you will have established a growing new culture of pillar men who can support the next pastor to bring the change that is needed.
If you are a man who would like to be invested in to become a ‘pillar man’, then consider coming to Calgary, Canada and joining the church that I pastor. Reach out to me through our website at info [{at}] calvarygrace.ca
We also offer accredited theological education through Union School of Theology, with the Graduate Diploma in Theological Studies and the Masters Degree in Theological Studies. Although we are located in Canada, both degrees are accredited with the UK university system. They are church-based, with pastoral mentorship. Contact me if you are interested in joining us beginning in September 2020.
“Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels?” That’s the question I asked my elders last night. I was asking to see if they felt stuck, and not making progress in their ministry, marriages, families, and vocations.
As devotional meditation at the beginning of our elders’ meeting (we always start with prayer and the Word of God), I looked at the issue of “making progress” in Paul’s letters.
For Your Progress and Joy
My first question was to get at what was our reason for being in ministry at all. I asked the men, “Why do we remain and continue in this ministry?” That question is prompted by Philippians 1:25. Paul gave the answer in that verse when he said:
“for your progress and joy in the faith”
Phil 1:25
The Greek word for progress is prokopen (προκοπὴν). The idea likely had an early sense of cutting or slashing forward, but the word gained wide usage to mean simply ‘advance’ or ‘progress’.
So like Paul, the pastors can consider that their purpose for being in ministry at this time is for the progress and joy in the faith of others.
Progress in Sanctification
Another way of putting it is to think that pastors serve the church to promote their progressive sanctification. As pastors shepherd people, they will make progress:
from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18).
from immaturity to presenting “everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:28)
So the pastors’ ministry is to serve in this Pauline way for people’s personal, joyous, progressive sanctification in the Christian faith.
The Progress of the Gospel
The personal progress which pastors promote for individual Christians doesn’t remain alone. That individual progress is part of the wider progress of the gospel. Paul outlined in the first chapter of Philippians, that various circumstances in his life were actually designed for the gospel’s progress. The ESV translates this same Greek word (prokope/ προκοπὴν) not with ‘progress’ but ‘advance’ in Philippians 1:12.
As much as we may care for the sanctification of the individual Christian, we can never lose sight of the fact that God is advancing the gospel, and pastors must shepherd people to carry that gospel forward. So as we “equip the saints” (Eph 4:12), we will see the gospel progressively advanced in the ever expanse reaches which Jesus commanded (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).
Pastors Must Make Progress
In order to serve the progress of others, we need to make progress. Paul exhorted Timothy to undertake a plan of personal development in gospel-born teaching and living. He commanded Timothy saying:
Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. (προκοπὴν)
1 Tim 4:15
As pastors, we aren’t aiming to display our learning, or show off our preaching, or parade our piety. Nevertheless, people should be able to see our progress. They should see that we are changing and growing. They should see that as our lives change, the church changes, and the entire ministry landscape changes, we are making progress.
Some of the areas we should make progress in are:
persevering through trials old and new.
theological knowledge leading to worship, or courage, or humility
skill in handling ministry, preaching, relationships, the brevity of time
Progress in Life and Teaching
There are many areas that Paul outlines in his pastoral epistles, which pastors ought to make progress in by God’s grace. A great summary of them all is stated by Paul in the following verse when he concludes:
Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1Ti 4:16
These are wide categories. When Paul warns to keep watch on “yourself” it is all of life, inside and out. When he focusses on “the teaching” he intends both the expansive content of the faith as well as the growing ability to communicate it better.
As we ended this meditation on pastors making progress, for the progressive sanctification of Christians and the progress of the gospel, I asked two application questions. Consider them in your own life:
In what area would you like to make some progress this coming year?
In what area do you feel you’ve made progress in this last year.
Returning from vacation, pastors might be jolted with the reminder that they can’t do their job. Or at least they will see that they can’t do all that their job demands of them. The needs of people are so many and so deep that only God’s supply can meet the demand.
So what is the pastor to do? Does he simply pray that God will enable him with supernatural capacity to meet every need in the church? Prayer for God-given empowerment is good, but if we seek it to meet every need, we will shift from being a servant to being a messiah.
People Are Gifts
What pastors and congregations need to realize is that God has already answered such prayers by providing gifts, supernatural gifts to the church. I’m not talking about the extra-ordinary apostolic gifts of miracles and prophecy which God sent to vindicate the foundation-laying apostolic message. I’m talking about God giving blood-won sinners who have been Spirit-empowered to serve God and one another. God has given people as supernatural gifts to the church.
In the gift lists of Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, we see that God has given a diversity of gifts to the church by setting individuals in vital union with Jesus Christ and each other.
The marvel of this miraculous union shows God’s practical provision. Each believing person does not merely have a gift but is a gift. That means that no matter who they are, what their background is, or what their personality type might be, a sinner saved by grace is themselves a grace-gift to the church. They have a role to play. As they play it, everyone else will benefit. As Paul told the Ephesians:
“When each part is working properly [Christ]makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love
Eph 4:16
In the modern church, this has come to be known as every member ministry. The description attempts to clarify that church members, all of them, have a role to play in the ministry, not just the clerical class.
Caring For Souls
One area where every member ministry is critical, but often overlooked is in soul care. Today many people in Protestant churches still think that the only person who can help them is the pastor. It is as if they think that the pastor has a special direct line to God. Or they think that the pastor is the leading expert who alone has the professional expertise. Or they think that the pastor is paid to be on-call for their spiritual needs, so they want to get their money’s worth.
Unfortunately, a lot of bad thinking sounds more like the unbiblical priestly models of Roman Catholicism, or the consumeristic therapy models of modern secular counselling. The two results that such an approach will achieve is either pushing pastors to become more like ‘professionals’ or it will push them to burn out.
The Reformer Martin Bucer addressed this point:
The care of souls makes so many demands that even in small congregation it cannot be properly exercised by just one or a few…there is so much involved in the true care of souls that even those who are the most skilled in this ministry; if they are alone or few in number, will not achieve very much; because all skill and ability comes from God, who desires to carry out this his work in his church by means of many and not by means of few.
Martin Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, 58
To get ‘the many’ involved in ministry, pastors will have to do a number of things which will take effort, but the result will be better soul care for the congregation.
Equip
Pastors must start by obeying Ephesians 4:12 and aim to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ.” This means teaching the saints the content of the faith, but also equipping them in such a way that they know the work of the ministry they are to do, and that they have the chance to do it. To equip the saints, they need both direction and teaching.
Direction
I think pastors can be good at teaching the content of the Christian faith but can assume that people in the church will automatically know how to minister to each other from that doctrinal foundation. I know for myself that I’ve had to be more explicit in helping people make connections between their role in the body of Christ and their responsibilities in the work of the ministry.
Teaching
To equip people well requires all of the best elements of teaching. People need the content, examples, illustrations, analogies, steps and opportunities to practice. This kind of teaching takes a lot of work on the part of pastors. It is the part of my own experience that I find the most difficult. Teaching doctrine is easier, but it can be harder to help a member become a needs-aware role player in the body of Christ.
Unity
If pastors work at equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, the result as Paul argues through the fourth chapter of Ephesians will be unity. A church that “builds itself up in love” will be supernaturally unified through the relationships of its visible members. As Bucer put it:
In this work of building [God] wishes to have and make use of many tools, so that he may raise many of his own to honoour and hold them all the more firmly together…None of his members must be idle, and there must be the highest degree of unity and order among them, each one must depend on and be depended on by the other; thus everything must be one and in common, beginning and continuing by means of common activity.
Martin Bucer, Concerning the True Care of Souls, 58
Don’t Just Do It Yourself
As pastors (and church members) return from summer vacation, they can be tempted to slip into the thinking that says if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. But if we give in to that, we will burn out. Silo ministry will only expose how dysfunctional we are. Yet when we live according to God’s design, we will rejoice that he has gifted the church with many hands. Many hands make light work.
I’ve been using a program called Grammarly lately. It tells me that I write more words per week than 99% of its users. Maybe it tells everyone that (which wouldn’t fit the math), but it seemed to verify that I write a lot of words each week.
Now it might be because I have to prep a sermon every Sunday. And yes, my sermons are longer than some, but not too long I hope.
There is another reason why I write a lot. It’s because being a pastor means that you have to write in different formats for different audiences. The writing has to be regular and it must be done well.
So what are some of the other things pastors should be writing? To start with, let’s look at the pastor as a letter-writer.
1. Letters
There is a long Christian tradition of letter writing that goes back to the New Testament epistles. Many pastors wrote extensively to their congregation, to outsiders and to other pastors. Their collective letter writing can be a devotional gold mine. The letters of Augustine, John Calvin, Samuel Rutherford, John Newton or Martyn Lloyd-Jones all have their own godly character and pastoral wisdom.
Today the way that most pastors engage in letter writing is through email. Unfortunately, email is often seen as a blight in our lives. Yet for all that, it is still the way that people communicate in long written form.
Can email be redeemed? Someone will suggest that we go back to writing handwritten letters as a way to escape email. This is a possibility for some of your correspondence. However, in our modern-day, pastors will still be using email and church members will expect it.
The way to redeem email is to commit to writing well. Thoughtfully crafted letters which are scripturally soaked and prayerfully inspired can be spiritually meaningful for the recipients.
Pastors can work at writing better quality emails in the spirit of the great letter-writers of the past.
2. Devotionals
Frequently pastors are asked to share a mini-meditation on Scripture. This might be at a staff meeting, an elders meeting, a home visit, a potluck or small group. It’s not a sermon, but you have to be able to pray, preach or die at a moment’s notice.
It’s helpful for pastors to write down brief skeleton outlines of biblical passages they are reading devotionally. Maybe there is a single insight they can draw out, whether a principle or other application. You never know when that nut you’ve squirrelled away will be needed!
3. Position Papers
When some pastors leave seminary, their academic muscles get atrophied. But if they are faithful in their calling, they will usually have to employ rigorous study and careful precision to produce position papers on doctrinal issues their church is debating.
Certainly, some pastors will write often about theological issues beyond their own congregation. But even the pastor focussed only on his own patch will have to draft these careful essays on theology. There are many contentious issues that may require an essay like this, whether it involves the church’s views on alcohol use, views on worship music, or views on the millennium. In any of these cases, a church statement will require some careful writing.
4. Summaries of Events
In counselling or church discipline situations, there may need to be written communication that expresses more formal language. This requires a lot of care because when there is a conflict between a pastor and someone else, it is important to be able to communicate clearly. This is also the reason why face-to-face meetings are so important during conflict. At the same time, written documentation and clear communication in writing are often necessary. Pastors need to learn how to write these kinds of summaries, statements of church action or other letters during disagreements. The careful pastor will be able to restate issues fairly, concisely and winsomely. But it takes practice.
5. Discipleship Resources
The pastor will accumulate a lot of bible study material through his years of preaching. It is helpful if he is able to repackage them into training resources for the future. He can create Sunday school classes, small group bible studies, blog posts, booklets, e-books and more.
By re-cycling these materials, he doesn’t merely retread the same sermons to the same congregation. Instead, he re-purposes them for different uses by editing, collecting and regrouping them. When pastors are re-using good material they are simply being good stewards of the resources God has given them.
6. Worship Resources
Some pastors will have musical or poetic ability. So they will be able to write hymns for congregational worship. The hymns may not be any good. Or they may end up being suitable for a different generation’s tastes. But good hymnody is a sign of spiritual life in a church. Pastors with songwriting skills can apply themselves to write hymns and help Christian worship. If no one else will sing them, at least the pastor can!
Not every pastor may be good at hymn-writing, but they will all have to work at liturgy crafting. Even if they used a set format a pastor will have to fill in the blanks. He will have to choose which texts to use, and which prayers to pray. Even if the liturgy has unscripted elements, the outline overall will employ basic categories such as a call to worship, a time of repentance and assurance of pardon, a pastoral prayer, prayer for the Word preached and a benediction. This weekly liturgical writing is something that all pastors must do and oversee, even when it is a team effort.
Public pastoral prayers can be a regular piece of spiritual writing for a pastor. He may jot down notes on the back of his bulletin, or he may craft a written prayer beforehand. There are different courses for different horses and every pastor will have his own way of preparing to pray pastorally for his congregation, the nation and the advance of the gospel. Whatever the preparation, likely there is some pre-prayer praying and writing going on.
Writing to Make Disciples
Of course, some of the greatest theological writings have come from pastors. These great men of God have used their pastoral ministry as the seedbed for their other theological writings. In all of it, their aim was to disciple believers in the churches.
Pastors are writers. But they write more than sermons. Pray for your pastor that he would grow as a preacher, but also as a godly writer in all the channels that are necessary.
I remember the first time someone called me the “first lady” of my church. Thirteen years ago, I was a brand-new church planter’s wife on vacation in California, and coming from a Canadian context, I had never heard a pastor’s wife referred to in this way before. I didn’t know whether it was an honor bestowed or a burden to bear, but it made me uncomfortable.
Many of us feel pressure to fulfill this nebulous role of “pastor’s wife.” For church-planting wives, the lines between “wife” and “support staff” can be blurry. What does it mean for us to be our husband’s “helper” (Gen. 2:18) and intimate “companion” (Mal. 2:14), and yet not be a “co-pastor” with him? Do we need to be a ministry asset in order to be a good pastor’s wife? And how do we discern when we cross the line from helping to meddling?
In church planting, it can be hard to discern where our husbands’ personal concerns end and the church’s business begins. Sometimes my husband’s burdens necessarily become mine, but I’ve learned to hesitate before jumping in. I am not called to pastoral ministry like he is, and I am not supernaturally equipped for the role in the same way that he is. God has made me fit for a different role in His kingdom, and knowing the difference between my and my husband’s responsibilities is essential for my personal sanity, the health of the church, and the harmony of our marriage.
Not My Responsibility
In my early years as pastor’s wife, I was confused about the nature of wifely support. Church planting can be lonely work, and I felt that if I was not constantly “in the know” and bearing every burden with my husband, I was neglecting my God-given role to help him. This was a mistake.
When God made Eve a helper fit for Adam, there was an implied unity. They had a common goal to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28), but Eve was not Adam’s clone. She had her own unique role to fulfill in God’s kingdom. This unity and diversity is also true of the Church. It is one Body but has many members. We each have different gifts, “according to the grace given us” (Rom. 12:4–6). A pastor’s wife has different gifts (and a different role!) from her husband.
Many of us struggle in a church planting scenario because we are running too much in our husbands’ lane. Even if no one puts pressure on us, it’s easy to take on too much responsibility. We may imagine that if we do A, B, and C correctly, we can make our husband’s ministry a success, but that is not a burden that God means for us to bear.
Biblically speaking, there are only two offices in the Church, and “pastor’s wife” is not one of them. Because of this, I’m wary of any special expectations being put on a pastor’s wife. We are called to be our husbands’ helpers, lovers, and companions (Titus 2:4), and at the same time, we are free to fulfill our unique roles in the Body. Keeping this distinction in mind is helpful because it protects us from false guilt on the one hand and overstepping on the other.
When His Burden Becomes Mine
Pastoral ministry is not a 9 to 5 job, and it’s not the kind of job you can leave at work. Emergencies, staff management, and difficult counseling situations can drain a man of his spiritual, emotional, and physical resiliency. Every so often, the job affects my husband deeply, and when that happens, his burdens necessarily become mine.
During difficult seasons especially, your husband likely needs his wife more than he needs a body to fill ministry gaps. Because you are uniquely called to be your husband’s wife, your ministry to him is invaluable. Someone else can do the bulletins or kids’ crafts at church, but only you can be his wife.
For my husband and I, knowing when he should share with me is often more important than how much he should share. For example, 10 p.m. is not a good time! He will sleep like a baby after unloading all his burdens on me, and I will be up all night stewing on his pain and discouragement.
When he does share his burdens with me, I’ve found it’s almost always better to say less and pray more, especially when I am initially hearing about difficult church dynamics. My initial gut reaction to want my husband vindicated is rarely helpful to voice, but thankfully, the gospel puts everything in perspective. It’s only in light of God’s love for us that I am able to diffuse my martyr mentality and say something that’s actually helpful.
The apostle Peter holds Sarah up as an example of mature femininity precisely because she was “a holy woman who hoped in God,” and he says we are her children if we “do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Peter 3:5–6). When we respond to difficult church dynamics with bold-faced hope in God’s promises, it helps our husbands. This doesn’t mean we are unable to empathize or grieve ministry losses with them, but it does mean that we don’t give in to the temptation to bitterness and suspicion. We don’t fume, rant, or speculate about people, and we don’t stir up sinful responses in our husbands. Instead, we let our speech and demeanor testify to the hope we have in Christ.
Our ministry will inevitably overlap with our husbands’ ministry because of the oneness of our union (Mark 10:8), but it’s important to understand the distinction between our role and theirs. Some pastors’ wives take on a more public ministry role in the church and others are quiet, behind-the-scenes prayer warriors. Whatever your gifts and disposition are, none of us should attempt to bear the weight of pastoral ministry. Instead we are free to love our husbands and serve the Church in whatever ways God has gifted us to serve.
