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Christ Gaining Our Trust, Being Present in Places He Hates

‘You must learn that Christ is no mere censor, but a Saviour who saves us by gaining our trust and confidence more and more, and letting us live our total life in Him. He is much more concerned about where we are going, than about how far on we have got.’ This chap’s Christ was a drill sergeant and he thought that was what I was advocating. No: I was thinking of a Christ who would be with him when he went off the deep end and betrayed his fallen self and made an ass of himself, and, in private, denied his own, true, holy nature. A Christ who was always kindly, always there, not to his sin, but to him. Who was willing to be dragged to places and into thoughts that He hated, because He loved him and would not let him go.

-William Still, The Work of the Pastor, Kindle Loc. 553

This is probably one of the best quotes in the book. An appropriate text is 1 Corinthians 6:15, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!”

Since we are united to Christ as believers, Christ is said to dwell in us, and us in him. Hence, he is ever-present with us. Hence, he goes places with us that he himself hates. This will cause you to react in one of two ways – either to run from him, or to run away from where you are trying to take him.

And all the while, says Still, he is teaching us more and more to trust him. All the while he is teaching us to confide in him – seeking our confidence. This is how he sanctifies us.

Realistic Pastoral Interaction

1) Don’t cast your pearls before swine

One’s dealings, then, with stray, casual, nominal souls, on any other basis than that of a fairly steady and solid diet of the Word of God, are bound to be on a comparatively superficial level: one gives bits of human advice here and there, trying to see life as lived on their level, and no more than challenging them to consider life on a deeper level. Do you see what I mean? You give them the Christian witness, if they will tolerate it at all, but where they don’t want it, you do the best you can for them on their own level and leave it there. The Christian minister needs a mental filing cabinet of many drawers, and he is constantly placing, replacing and rearranging people in it. While in one sense he offers only one standard of life, in another sense he can only help people on the level upon which they want help. After all, you will not convert people against their wills, and you will not make people feed their souls on the Word of God against their wills.

-William Still, The Work of the Pastor, Kindle Loc. 452

Jesus allowed people, when He had challenged them, to choose their level. That is why He let the rich young ruler go. You must discern what people are after, and not waste a lifetime running after those who are vain and empty, selling them a Christ they don’t want. Give them the help they ask for, if you can legitimately do so, and probably give them a spiritual dig with it, a challenge – and let them go. For you will find that the ministry of the Word of God by the Spirit not only solves many difficulties, but raises many more, and most of your time will be spent in helping those who have been faced with new problems through the Word. Many things you cannot say in public, and some things you say generally will need clarification or specific application in private afterwards to people’s personal condition or situation (Loc. 459).

2) Temper your optimism

Some meddling ministers want to sort out everybody. God is not so optimistic. There are some who will die mixed-up personalities, and they may be true believers. (In some ways perhaps I am that, and have no hope of ever sorting myself out. Indeed, my salvation is to live with my oddities and partly put up with them, not to say help other people to put up with them, and partly rise above them to show that grace is better employed wrestling resignedly, realistically, cheerfully with our problems than demanding from God heavenly solutions on earth.) Don’t try to do the impossible. Know your limitations, and know what God is seeking to do in the world and what part in it He wants you to play (Loc. 488).

3) Don’t be afraid to defer

It is most important to try to discover with difficult spiritual and psychological cases whether their problems are beyond you or not, and if they are, to leave them to others better equipped and qualified. I have spent many grueling hours through the years with those who have nearly broken me, of whom it has been said at last by better authorities than I, that they were not very hopeful cases. Not that they would be useless in society, but that their problems were too deeply ingrained, too innate for full solution on earth, at least with our present knowledge. I am far more ready now to give up with difficult people than I used to be, and hand them over to those better fitted to deal with them. And some of these are now doing good service within certain limits, although their friends may not know that they are full of problems inside, and so will be happy enough to live and work with them. But they are not what ambitious evangelical ardour had hoped they would become. With fuller understanding, and taking a leaf out of Christ’s own Book, we become more realistic about people (Loc. 502).

4) Don’t be afraid of small-talk; presence matters

In visiting, the extremes are that one may try to do too much in a visit, or too little. I think that one of the greatest mistakes Christians, and particularly Christian ministers make, is to underestimate the presence and working of the Holy Spirit in their lives. When you visit a home, God enters it, or should. This doesn’t mean that you instantly begin to pontificate or preach. When Jesus met the woman of Samaria, He asked for a drink from her, and so the conversation unfolded, and a revival followed! Christ can be known in the homeliest things, can proceed with His work and can be drawn out to do it from the homeliest beginnings. Indeed, He does not need to draw attention to Himself at all. Some people gain the strength they need from their minister by his calling to see how they are, making a few homely remarks, and going his way without any attempt at what some would call pastoral ministration. Some of you will not agree with this, but that does not disturb me (Loc. 589).

 

The Preacher’s Self-Counseling

Unless the Word of God works for you, and solves the problems of your own life (I do not mean perfectly, but in the sense that you know where you are in relation to them), how can you expect that you will be able to make it work for others?

-William Still, The Work of the Pastor, Kindle Loc. 280

Do you use the Scriptures in order to deal with your own problems? Your own pain? Your own suffering? Does that actually work in your life? Are you familiar with the Scriptures enough to allow them to work? If not, don’t be surprised if people aren’t being helped by your preaching.

  • 2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

The Work of the Pastor: Preparing Sheep for Sacrifice

The pastor by definition is a shepherd, the under-shepherd of the flock of God. His primary task is to feed the flock by leading them to green pastures. He also has to care for them when they are sick or hurt, and seek them when they go astray. The importance of the pastor depends on the value of the sheep. Pursue the pastoral metaphor a little further: Israel’s sheep were reared, fed, tended, retrieved, healed and restored – for sacrifice on the altar of God. This end of all pastoral work must never be forgotten – that its ultimate aim is to lead God’s people to offer themselves up to Him in total devotion of worship and service.

William Still, The Work of the Pastor, Kindle Loc. 142.

This book by William Still is officially the best I’ve ever read on pastoral ministry. This opening description of the life of a pastor is stunning – the pastor’s aim is to prepare sheep for slaughter – to lead God’s people toward personal sacrifice and ultimate devotion to God.

The Interviews: Lessons from the Enduring and Unfamous

I recently interviewed two ministers for a class project. The interviews turned into much more than interviews. They turned into long conversations, and, I hope, friendships. I won’t go into specifics here, only lessons. I want to share how and why these men caused me to praise God.

I decided that I wanted to interview older ministers who had stayed the course in the ministry. Between the two men that I chose, I was listening to the wisdom gleaned from over 100 years of experience in gospel ministry. Both were ordained in the 1950’s, both have continued to fight the good fight, both are running the race right on to the end. This, in itself, made the time and effort to interview these men worth it. Here were two men who endured, and remain joyful, and continue to minister into their 80’s. Neither of them sought (or gained) wealth, neither of them had the slightest desire to be famous, neither of them even sought to be relevant (in the worldly sense of the term). They were simply faithful, and remain faithful. God bless them and all men like them.

Of all the things God taught me in these interviews, the main thing was the power of endurance. More than ever I long for nothing more than to be called to a church that will have me for the rest of my life. George Bush didn’t invent staying the course, and he didn’t ruin the idea or practice of doing so. Staying the course, at least to me, still means something.

Honor is due to those who endure, not just to those who sparkle. We should honor such men much more than we do.

The other primary lesson I learned is that ministry is intricately tied to personality. God gives diverse gifts. You can’t escape it. I talked to two men who have lasted for so long, two men whose theological beliefs are essentially identical, and yet their practices were very different. They dealt with people very differently, they preached differently in some respects, and yet they both capably ministered to the flocks the good Shepherd entrusted to them.

I am a big believer in imitation. I believe that discipleship, stripped down, is imitation of Jesus through imitation of those who are like Jesus. But these interviews reminded me that, under Christ, you must, in some sense, be your own man. If I tried to follow the advice of both men I would be called schizophrenic. They were that different. But both were faithful, and I don’t judge one to be more faithful than the other. They both proclaimed the Word of God and cared for the souls of men. At the end of the day, what more could you ask? You must take those two things, which go hand in hand and cannot be separated for a pastor – proclamation and soul-care – and do them with all you might according to the gifts that God has given you, within the bounds of his Word.

Young ministers, Do not rush into the ministry without counsel, without the wisdom and prayers of godly, Christ-loving men who have run the race before you. Don’t seek the famous, seek the godly and enduring.

I felt a call to gospel ministry 12 years ago. I began preaching 12 years ago. But I was not ready to pastor a flock (I also happened to be 20 years old). Could God edify men through my preaching? Yes. Could he win the lost through my preaching? Yes. But I would not have been able to care for a flock on a regular basis. ‘Not a novice, lest he be puffed up with pride and fall into the snare of the devil.’ Paul wrote that for a reason. Seek counsel from those wiser, and holier, than you. And while you’re at it seek their prayers – not prayers for your success, but prayers for wisdom and holiness.

Nearly every morning, when I wake up and begin my morning prayers, I thank God that I woke up a Christian. It wasn’t a dream. I didn’t wake up to find the old me had reappeared in the night. Grendel had not appeared and slaughtered while the king slept. God’s mercies in Christ are new every morning, and he slumbers not nor sleeps. Take the time to look at older men and women who have endured. Study their endurance. Pray for your own: ‘Here’s my heart, O take it seal it, seal it for thy courts above.’ God’s sustaining power is amazing.

Requirements for Pastoral Preaching (John Owen)

What are some issues that the pastor must be concerned about if he is to be an effective preacher week in and week out? In chapter 5 of The True Nature of a Gospel church, John Owen sets forth ‘sundry things [that] are required unto this work and duty of pastoral preaching’:

1. Spiritual wisdom and understanding in the mysteries of the gospel…

2. Experience of the power of the truth which they preach in and upon their own souls…

3. Skill to divide the word aright…and this consists in a practical wisdom…to find out what is real, substantial, and meet food for the souls of the hearers – to give unto all sorts of persons in the church that which is their proper portion…

4. A prudent and diligent consideration of the flock over which any man is set, as unto their strength or weakness [etc.]…

5. Zeal for the glory of God and compassion for the souls of men.

(Works of John Owen, vol. 6, pp. 76-77).

You could remember the main points using the acronym PREACH. These are things that you should pray for and seek to cultivate in your life and ministry:

(1) Passion for God’s glory
(2) Right application of the Word,
(3) Experience of the power of the Word for yourself,
(4) Apprehension the gospel,
(5) Consideration of the flock, and a
(6) Heart for people