This is the second in my new series on issues related to pastoral theology which I introduced last week.

There has been, in my experience, an unfortunate and undesirable shift in much of the Western church in my lifetime; a shift from emphasising character to focussing on competency. 

I think of the leadership group in a Glasgow congregation who, when I asked them what sort of man they were looking for to be their next Pastor immediately replied, and I quote, “As long as he has a PhD we will be happy”. 

I think of the then Principal of one of the largest evangelical Bible Colleges in UK who told me that due to the influence of secular academics, he was producing, and again I quote, “Pastors with PhDs but who can’t pray.”

I think of a man in pastoral ministry who, within five minutes of meeting him, I knew for sure was completely unsuitable for the work, simply because of his character. He turned out to be a bully who lorded it over his congregation and fellow leaders and the result was that that congregation closed down.

There is no doubt but the overriding emphasis of the Scriptures on a man’s suitability for ministry is on his character. Give me a man with ‘average’ preaching abilities but a self-evidently godly character over a brilliant preacher with serious character flaws, any day.

The Pastor’s Priority

Robert Murray McCheyne famously said, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness” (Prime, 2004, p. 35)

In almost every other sphere of life, every other vocation or profession, there can be a mismatch and disconnect between your personal life and your professional competence.  You can be philanderer and yet a brilliant surgeon, for example.  Not so in pastoral ministry!

In the key passages of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:3-9 the unmissable emphasis is on character, not competency. As Alec Motyer wrote, “The New Testament does not give a job description but a character reference.” (qtd in White, 1988, p 19)

“They are…predominantly moral, and consist of attributes of character rather than of gifts and endowments of mind.  The latter also to some extent are included, in so far especially as they might be required to form clear perceptions of truth and duty, to distinguish between things that differ, and in difficult or perplexing circumstances to discern the right, and know how to maintain and vindicate it.  Yet, withal, it is the characteristics which go to constitute the living, practical Christian, which together go to make the man of God, that in this delineation of pastoral equipments are alone brought prominently into view.  And whatever else the church may, in the changeful circumstances of her position and history, find it necessary to add to the number, in order to render her responsible heads fit for the various work and service to which they are called, the grand moral characteristics here specified must still be regarded as the primary and more essential elements in the qualifications of a true spiritual overseer. (Fairbairn, 1874, pp. 145-146)

I often used to wonder why, in a list of character traits, Paul includes one which seems to be competency focussed – “able to teach”. (1 Timothy 2) And then it dawned on me; a man who is able to teach is a teachable person! If you don’t have a teachable spirit and a desire to keep learning, then you are not fit for teaching others.

“Despite the fact that we call ourselves “evangelicals” and claim to be biblical in our approach, we fall far short of the biblical standard in this matter. Although the Bible often states the kinds of things that elders, pastors, or overseers do, nowhere does it specify the talents we may expect in them. Nowhere does it state that they must be exceptional managers, visitors, pulpiteers, or teachers. Although they need those qualities to perform their duties, the Bible’s major emphasis is in an entirely different direction; instead of insisting on how well a person is able to perform a certain function, it focuses instead on what kind of a person he is.”(Anderson, 1985, p. 4)

Martin expounds and applies 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:3-9 in the following way (Martin, p. 73ff), highlighting the following requirements:

• this non-negotiable, uncompromising standard [of blamelessness] “must be” present and maintained; the Greek word is dei – a necessity
• blamelessness – the Greek word is anepilēmpton – above reproach
• unquestioned sexual integrity = mias gunaikos andra = a one-woman-man
• exemplary domestic piety
• graces essential in a pattern of self-control – nephalios, meaning sober and temperate
• sound judgement – sophron, meaning sensible, prudent
• graces essential to good relationships with people – not quarrelsome, contentious
• not a lover of money
• graces indicative of an aggressive love for people – philoxenos, literally a lover of strangers
• graces essential for effective leadership of others
• graces essential for maintaining a good testimony before the unconverted
• graces issuing from tried experience which in some measure will neutralise vulnerability to pride

And the Pastor’s Priority must be

The Pastor’s Pursuit

In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul urges Timothy to “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” and surely the order is both significant and vitally important.

In 1 Timothy 4:8, he says to Timothy, a converted man and a serving Pastor, “train yourself for godliness”.  In other words, we much never be complacent with the progress we have made in our Christian lives or the level of maturity we have achieved.

As Richard Baxter put it:

“Content not yourselves with being in a state of grace, but be also careful that your graces are kept in a vigorous and lively exercise, and that you preach to yourselves the sermons which you study, before you preach them to others.  If you did this for your own sakes, it would not be lost labour; but I am speaking to you upon the public account, that you would do it for the sake of the Church.  When your minds are in a holy, heavenly frame, your people are likely to partake of the fruits of it.  Your prayers, and praises, and doctrine will be sweet and heavenly to them.  They will likely feel when you have been much with God: that which is most on your hearts, is like to be most in their ears.  I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience, that I publish to my flock the distempers of my own soul.  When I let me heart grow cold, my preaching is cold; and when it is confused, my preaching is confused…If we feed on wholesome food, either errors or fruitless controversies our hearers are likely to fare the worse for it.  Whereas, if we abound in faith, and love, and zeal, how would it overflow to the refreshing of our congregations, and how would it appear in the increases of the same graces in them! 

“O brethren, watch therefore over your own hearts; keep out lusts and passions, and worldly inclinations; keep up the life of faith, and love, and zeal…Above all, be much in secret prayer and meditation.  Thence you must fetch the heavenly fire that must kindle your sacrifices. (qtd in Logan, 1986, pp. 68-69)

Or in the words of Spurgeon:

“Recollect, as ministers, that your whole life, your whole pastoral life especially, will be affected by the vigour of your piety.  If your zeal grows dull, you will not pray well in the pulpit; you will pray worse in the family, and worst in the study alone.  When your soul becomes lean, your hearers, without knowing how or why, will find that your prayers in public have little savour for them; they will feel your barrenness, perhaps, before you perceive it yourself.  Your discourses will betray your declension.  You may utter as well-chosen words, and as fitly-ordered sentences, as aforetime; but there will be a perceptible loss of spiritual force.  You will shake yourself as at other times, even as Samson did, but you will find that your great strength has departed.” (Spurgeon, 1954, p. 14)

Or Al Martin:

Important Scriptures:

• Proverbs 4:23
• Romans 15:2-3, 7
• 1 Corinthians 9:26-27
• 2 Corinthians 8:9
• Philippians 2:1-11
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6-7
• 1 Timothy 3:1-13; 4:12; 5:22
• Titus 1:3-9
• 1 Peter 2:21

Sources:

Bonar, A. A. (1966). Robert Murray M’Cheyne: Memoir and Remains. London: Banner of Truth Trust.

Fairbairn, P. (1874). The Pastoral Epistles. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

Hulse, E. (1986). The Preacher and Piety. In S. T. Logan, Preaching (pp. 62-90). Welwyn: Evangelical Press.

Lenski, R. C. (1937). The Interpretation of St Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House.

Logan, S. T. (1986). Preaching. Welwyn: Evangelical Press.

Martin, A. N. (2018). The Man of God  Vol 3. Pastoral Theology.   Montville: Trinity Pulpit Press

Prime, D. a. (2004). On Being A Pastor. Chicago: Moody Publishers.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1954). Lectures to my Students. London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott.

White, P. (1988). The Effective Pastor (Ross-shire, UK, Christian Focus, 1998),. Tain: Christian Focus.