Bible and Mission

The Church 10: Pastoral Duties, as Richard Baxter Saw It In 1656, Richard Baxter, a puritan minister in England, produced reflections on pastoral ministry in a work entitled The Reformed Pastor . [1]   His discussion of pastoral duties remains relevant, even challenging, today.  It comes in three parts that overlap.  They are: (1)    Teaching every person, disciplining persons in the church, and uniting with others for the work of the Lord; (2)    personal pastoral care; (3)    specific duties of pastoral ministry. What follows is a brief description of this advice on pastoral ministry in Baxter’s own words (apologies to readers who are not acquainted with English in the 17 th century, but some help will be given).  Readers may wish to ask two questions while reading this: (1) What sort of Biblical basis is there for Baxter’s admonitions? and (2) How might his admonitions helpfully challenge our understanding of ‘churc...

Why Foreign Missions? 20p: A Gospel of Transforming Power Paul speaks of the Gospel as the ‘power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith’ (Rom. 1.16).  Why is it that Paul does not say that the Gospel is the 'forgiveness of God for salvation'—why the ‘power of God for salvation'?  This question is relevant not only for understanding Paul's Gospel; it is also a most relevant question for our day as well. There is an inadequate Evangelical theology that narrows the Biblical understanding of both sin and redemption.  On the one hand, it understands sin in terms of behaviour and actions and not also in terms of thoughts, the heart, passions, dispositions, and orientations.  The Anglican confession of sin correctly presses our understanding of sin to include more than behaviour: We acknowledge and repent of our many sins and offenses, which we have committed by thought, word, and deed, against your divine majesty, provoking most justly your ...

The Church 8: Practicing the Presence of Pastoring A missing component in many churches today is, well, pastoring!  Pastoring is all about the practice of being present in people’s lives.  The word ‘pastor’, after all, is related in Greek to the word ‘shepherd’, and if there is one thing shepherds are known for it is being present with their sheep.  To illustrate the point, I will give three examples of pastoral ministry that address the importance of presence—presence with the people. One story of pastoring that stands out in my mind is of a pastor I have known for many years.  The story is illustrative of his whole approach to pastoral ministry.  Once he visited a woman from the church at her home.  Her husband never attended the church and, as I recall, was something of a ‘deadbeat’.  When the pastor visited on one occasion, the man simply stayed in the bedroom watching television.  The pastor knocked on the bedroom door and entered th...