Pride of Office and Humility of Person

Great care is needed by those who are under-shepherds of God’s flock  to balance pride and humility.  The below, from a paper entitled “Duties of the Pastor: Expectations and Evaluations” recently presented by Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller, addressed that concern in an engaging way.

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The vocation of pastor, then, is simple, but this does not mean that it is easy.  The Scriptures warn us of the difficulty.

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.  (1 Timothy 3:1)

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.  (James 3:1)

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.  (Hebrews 13:7)

I’ve wondered if the Lord has arranged the work of the pastor to ensure nobody is actually good at it.  Simply considering the way personalities work faces us up to this.  The guy who likes to spend hours concentrating on study of ancient texts normally does not like to stand in front of people and talk.  The guy who likes to sit in meetings and make sure everything is arranged just right normally does not like his evenings interrupted with emergencies.  A pastor is required to be an introvert and an extrovert, creative and disciplined, a good listener and a good speaker and a good writer, a logical thinker with great emotional empathy, holy and relatable.  In other words, no one is good at it.

Wrestling with this difficulty works itself out in a handful of different directions.  There is a pride of office and a humility of person that is often confused.  The pastor who understands rightly the great authority of his office becomes proud of his person, and subsequently receives any compliment or criticism into his person.  On the other hand, there is the pastor that knows his shortcomings and his inability to bear the office with the dignity it requires, and reacts by reducing the office to something more manageable.  Both are wrong.  The Scriptures would call us to a pride of office and humility of person, taking the teaching and work seriously, but not ourselves.

This is why St. Paul’s discussion of sufficiency comes up so often in the discussion of the work of the pastor:

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.  For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

Disciple-Making and Worship

Recently, David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church, identified weaknesses in what has become a de facto church-plant model and summarized it this way:

Beyond this there are little variations: a video clip here, a testimony there. But the look, feel and even the doctrine of these church plants are virtual carbon copies of one another. We haven’t had this much conformity in worship since the days of medieval Catholicism.

At first, that may appear to be a good thing.  After all, Jesus prayed for the unity of the Church (John 17:11).  However, may I suggest that the reason church plants all look the same is because the “mother” congregations are already using this organization; or those starting the plants are using the model as a way to break with traditionalism.  Pragmatism drives the push for this model: if it works, we need to catch the wave and follow suit.  It is a stage presentation meant to draw people into the building, not make disciples; or if they are being made, growth is sporadic or anemic.  What presuppositions drive the poor disciple-making practices?

In modern Evangelical parlance, the Christian life is a two-step process: 1) hear the gospel and believe, and 2) become a disciple by according to whatever biblical markers are used as systematized by a particular denomination.  These two are more properly referred to as justification and sanctification.  While scripture certainly does speak of them separately, they are not regarded so much as two steps for the believer, but as two works performed by the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.  But believers are disciples.  We can see this when we look at our Lord’s closing instruction to the eleven:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (John 28:18-20)

A disciple is made by being baptized and taught.  There is no extra step.  You are a disciple, or you are not.  This is the same process used in Jesus’ ministry as He went out proclaiming “Repent, for kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17).  Those who repented were baptized (John 3:22, 26; 4:1-3) and taught, thus immediately becoming disciples.  We see this played out on the Day of Pentecost as Peter preached a sermon provoking repentance:

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.… So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.  (Acts 2:37-41)

Later in Acts, the growth of the Church is referred to as an increase in disciples, not as an increase in believers (Acts 6:1-2, 7).  These continued as disciples, though we do see that some turned back as when Jesus’ teaching became hard (John 6:60-66).  One can argue whether their faith was genuine, however all who were baptized and taught were called disciples as they actively followed Christ.

The two-stage approach of the Christian life has caused a mindset that all activities on Sunday morning be designed to bring people into the building and help them be comfortable.  If sin, righteous, and judgment are mentioned, they are presented as something keeping you away from a close, loving relationship with God; and while that is technically true, it leaves open the thought that the listener can try harder to improve the relationship by being a better person.  The truth is that only because of the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus can anyone hope to enter into or grow in those things promised through the gospel.

If Christ is to be preëminent, why are clear Law and Gospel texts in song and sermon being replaced with texts that are about me and my life?  Why are people and programs promoted more than the Savior?  Should not Sunday worship be a complete immersion into all that God has wrought in Christ?  Isn’t that where the disciple is most enlivened?  Rather than a place of comfort, the worship service should be a place where Christ is presented, openly and boldly, for all to feed on and for which we return our praise.  Disciples are being formed and fed on Sunday morning.  When the full force of God’s Law is delivered, both believer and unbeliever will squirm in their need; and when the full sweetness of the Gospel is offered, both will see the abundance of grace for sin.  Though the response may vary, the offer is clear.  Whatever someone’s spiritual condition, Christ’s atoning work will have been proclaimed and the Almighty Triune God will have been exalted.

Why am I pressing this?  Let's face facts: many of those who sit in the pews on a given Sunday will not read their Bibles or study any catechetical material for the remainder of the week.  These need substantive spiritual nourishment from the shepherd of the local flock, since he is the only biblical source of their knowledge.  The remainder will eat in pastures of varying nutritional value—some beneficial, another sweet to the taste but souring the stomach, and possibly a few swallowing poison.  Here, too, the shepherd has a lead role, guiding the flock to where good pasture can be found.  The Chief Shepherd warned of both goatherds and wolves who care nothing for the sheep save for fleecing or chewing them up.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.  And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.  (1 Pet 5:1-4)

Solemnity in the Pastoral Office

For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.  He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.  He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.  (Ti 1:7-9)

During the Reformation, Martin Luther responded to the Pope’s insistence that Lutheran ordination was invalid.  In the Smalcald Articles, Part III Article X, Luther agreed that Rome’s ordination authority might be acceptable, if the bishops rightly discharged their office and omitted “all comedies and spectacular display of unchristian parade and pomp.”*  Luther goes on to describe these bishops as

worldly lords and princes, who will neither preach, nor teach, nor baptize, nor administer the Lord’s Supper, nor perform any work or office of the Church, and, moreover, persecute and condemn those who discharge these functions….

A blistering description, but now ask yourself, “Am I reading a description of church authority in the sixteenth century or the twenty-first century?”  The descriptors Luther used for bishops abusing their office is equally appropriate in American Evangelicalism.

From Ed Young to Perry Noble, Chuck Pierce to Brian Houston, those who should be shepherds of God’s flock have increasingly promoted buffoonery in the name of Christ.  What has been for centuries recognized as a work to be approached with fear and trembling is once again trending in a dangerous direction—handed over to gifted, innovative communicators rather than faithful exegetes. The Word and worship of God is “packaged” to appeal and work toward the central theme of the preacher’s message.  Whether that message is derived from the text, from a desire for self-promotion, or from somewhere between, when theatrics drive the appeal, the gospel suffers.

Pastoral ministry is inherently a work of sober-mindedness (1 Ti 3:2).  He preaches not to appeal but to speak the truth of Law and the Gospel.  Paul told Timothy:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  (2 Ti 4:1-2)

Timothy was to be as faithful in delivering the message as the apostle had been.  Every preacher following Timothy has had that same commission.  Alistair Begg recently preached a message on this passage that addresses the solemnity and centrality of the office, along with the primacy of Scripture.  O, that pastors be as Isaiah and see themselves before a holy God bemoaning their sinfulness and need for cleansing; and gladly and joyfully remember the free, abundant grace of Christ that has cleansed them and preach what the Lord has so freely given.


*  References to corruptions that were being practiced in the Medieval church.

Get Over Yourselves

For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. (Titus 1:7-8)

Frequently, the priestly office and Levitical rank are a cause of pride for one who does not know how to hold an ecclesiastical position of honor. How many, after being made elders, have forgotten humility! It is as though they were ordained specifically in order to stop being humble. Indeed, they ought to have pursued humility more, because they had acquired a position of honor—as Scripture says, “The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself.”* And it is the assembly that chooses you; lower your head more humbly. They have made you a leader; do not be puffed up. Be among them like on of themselves. It is fitting to be humble, fitting to be lowly, fitting to flee from pride, the chief of all evils. Examine the Gospel: See with what kind of condemnation the Pharisee’s pride and boasting are attacked. “The Pharisee was standing and praying as follows within himself‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, wicked people, adulterers, and even like this tax collector; I fast twice a week.’” But the tax collector, on the other hand, standing humbly and quietly at a great distance, “did not even dare raise his eyes…and he was saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’” And the tax collector “went down to his home justified.’”†

Origen of Alexandria: Exegetical Works on Ezekiel, 9.2.3

* Sirach 3:18. Note that the early fathers had differing views on the status of apocryphal works in relation to the 66 books which were generally accepted and officially recognized at Nicaea.
† Luke 18:11-14.

Copy That!

In radio speak there is a phrase, “Copy that!” to inform the broadcaster that you received the message.  Maybe that should be used by church leaders in response to God.  What do I mean?

There is a prescribed ancient practice that should be undertaken when recognized for spiritual oversight of a local assembly.  As Moses addresses the people of Israel before crossing over into the land of promise, he gives instructions to kings recognized over the people.  As first order of business upon coronation, the king

shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.  And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.  (Deut 17:18-20)

This is a remarkable requirement: the king is to make his own copy of Torah to read and study.  Moses’ instruction appears to state that “he king himself copy the covenant out by hand to impress it more deeply upon his memory.”*  Israel, as a nation called of God, was to be distinct from other nations in its administration,† therefore the administrative head needed to be on top of what He requires.  Since the king was not required to understand the minutia of Levitical practice, only the book of Deuteronomy would need to be copied, as it sufficiently summarized all the Lord required of the his people.

Of course, we cannot directly equate the king of Israel to the pastors or overseers of a local assembly, but the practice of hand-copying a document would cause the message to be instilled into the copier’s life.  There is no way the message could not have an affect.  Our overseers (plus deacons and any other teachers) should do the same.

You may ask why I would want a New Testament leader to write out the book of Deuteronomy.  First, the Pentateuch is the foundation of the Bible.  If our leaders do not know those five books intimately, they do not understand the purpose of the church as the Body of Christ and how it functions.  Those books are basic.  Second, I do not trust those in position to study it on their own, or if they do, that it be done properly.‡ Although these men may be otherwise trustworthy, they are still susceptible to sin and skirting sound doctrine.

This is a taxing requirement, but God’s people are to be led and served by those who can rightfully handle the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15), shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet 5:2), and speak/serve in the strength as God supplies (1 Pet 4:10-11).  They need to know the basics of the Bible, and such a practice would help.


*  Raymond Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy, 180 .  He continues that this may simply be ordering the ruler to makes sure scribes create a copy for him, however the force of the language seems more pointed.
†  J. G. McConville, Deuteronomy, 295.
‡  I am not being negative but understanding how the latent sin nature interferes with our intentions.

Pastoral Care by Overseers

The following is nothing new but is an excellent understanding of the pastoral care to be performed by overseers/elders in the local church.

But like a compassionate shepherd, and a diligent feeder of the flock, search out, and keep an account of your flock.  Seek that which is wanting (Matt 18:12), as the Lord God our gracious Father has sent His own Son, the good Shepherd and Savior, our master Jesus, and has commanded Him to “leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains, and to go in search after that which was lost, and when He had found it, to take it upon His shoulders, and to carry it into the flock, rejoicing that He had found that which was lost” (Luke 15:4-6).  In like manner, be obedient, O overseer, and seek that which was lost, guide that which has wandered out of the right way, bring back that which is gone astray: for you have authority to bring them back, and to deliver those who are brokenhearted by remission.  For by you does our Savior say to him who is discouraged under the sense of his sins, “Your sins are forgiven you: your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 5:20; Matt 9:2; Mark 5:34).  But this peace and haven of tranquility is the church of Christ, into which you, when you have loosed them from their sins, restore them, as being now sound and unblamable, of good hope, diligent, laborious in good works.  As a skillful and compassionate physician, heal all such as have wandered in the ways of sin; for “they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.  For the Son of Man came to save and to seek that which was lost” (Matt. 9:12; Luke 19:10).  Since you are therefore a physician of the Lord’s church, provide remedies suitable to every patient’s case.  Cure them, heal them by all means possible; restore them sound to the church.  Feed the flock, “not with force and harshness, as lording it over them” (Ezek 34:4), but as a gentle shepherd, “gathering the lambs into your bosom, and gently leading those which are with young” (Matt 20:25; Isa 40:11).

Apostolic Constitutions, II.20