I started a pastoral internship at my church. One assignment was to read The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson, check out my review here, and to write a reflection paper on the book. Mine is below.
Faithfulness to the gospel is success. A pastor never needs to go beyond or add to the gospel. The gospel should be preached in every sermon with biblical theology. “Jesus fed five thousand. Then he began preaching the gospel of himself, and the crowd fled. Perhaps constantly measuring is not such a good idea.” (Wilson 86). A pastor cannot measure his success by the number of people attending, or even by how well he is loved by the congregation. It is not his church, but is Christ’s body. He is not a professional in charge of the body but rather an under-shepherd watching over and feeding the sheep. It is the gospel that saves people, not the pastor with his leading, creativity, or excellent preaching. [1 Corinthians 2:1-5] Because of this, it is always God who gets the glory in the pastor’s ministry. This should free a pastor to lead with confidence in joyous freedom because it is up to God to do the work. [1 Timothy 4:10-16].
Effective leadership is leading from the place of security in Christ. A pastor is to walk in the truth that God sees Christians “with approval and delight as one clothed in the righteousness of Christ.” (Wilson 29) [Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:9] Pastors should be returning to their approval in Christ daily to avoid the two extremes of self pity and puffed up pride. If we are always empty, feeling unimportant, and joyless then we aren’t drinking from the living water only found in Christ. [John 4:10, John 4:13-14] Conversely, a pastor can listen to the praises of the people, or forget that God is causing the good in his church, and get puffed up with pride. That pastor is drinking from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires. [1 John 2:16-17]
Being faithful in preaching the gospel means preaching Jesus from your whole bible. [John 5:39] To be faithful to the text of scripture you need to be in the text. “Putting some Scriptures in your sermon is not the same thing as preaching the Scriptures.” (Wilson 119) Once again we run from the pride that we are making it happen and we ask whose words are we charged with proclaiming? Not our own but those of the Bible. God’s words. It is also from his authority that we speak to preach the scriptures. [2 Timothy 3:16-17] Using scripture as support for our ideas is rejecting the infallible authority the scriptures should hold in our lives, preaching, and ministry. Instead we should preach what is already in the scriptures, the living word of God.
This book was encouraging and sobering for me. I have never thought the call of a pastor is a light thing, but seeing the staggering statistics in the beginning of the book about pastors was pretty intense. It gave me pause and made me think really hard about what it will be like if I do become a pastor like I am planning to. So in one sense it made the call of the pastorate extremely intimidating and in another sense this book was very encouraging in the way it kept hammering home that it is God who does the work. While I should never stop learning and growing and always strive to do my best, I don’t need to be someone I’m not. A shepherd, not a rock star or a CEO. Someone who is desperate for God to do the work through him everyday. For God to get the glory. There was so much solid wisdom in this book that I really appreciated. I loved the encouragement that true success is faithfulness. I can do that. I also liked how he shared wife and family first; church second. I loved seeing Jared’s intentionality with this in how he didn’t give his family Mondays because they are the worst day of his week. His views on biblical theology were really good too. We are under the Bible and shaped by it, not vice versa. It was a really good book for pastors but also a great book for someone who is becoming a pastor like me. I would definitely use it again for interns in the future.
4 There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Romans 5:9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Timothy 4:10-16
10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
11 Command and teach these things.
12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
16 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.
John 4:10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
John 4:13-14
13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
1 John 2:16-17
16 For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-is not from the Father but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
John 5:39
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The Pastor’s Justification
The justified pastor, and Christian, is someone who is justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to God’s glory alone [Ephesians 4:4-7]. “We are not saved buy any combination of God’s grace and our effort.” (Wilson 135) The pastor should find freedom in this to be his total depravity self. He should press on in authentic shepherding, rather than in trying to be some made up paragon of a pastor. He should work hard on faithfully preaching the Gospel week in and week out rather than striving for some unreachable ideal of what a pastor should be. The imperfect pastor is as secure as Christ is and should pastor in that reality. Because of this gifted justification, his ministry is epic in season and out of season. On his best days and his worst days, if he is being faithful to the Gospel, he is successful.Faithfulness to the gospel is success. A pastor never needs to go beyond or add to the gospel. The gospel should be preached in every sermon with biblical theology. “Jesus fed five thousand. Then he began preaching the gospel of himself, and the crowd fled. Perhaps constantly measuring is not such a good idea.” (Wilson 86). A pastor cannot measure his success by the number of people attending, or even by how well he is loved by the congregation. It is not his church, but is Christ’s body. He is not a professional in charge of the body but rather an under-shepherd watching over and feeding the sheep. It is the gospel that saves people, not the pastor with his leading, creativity, or excellent preaching. [1 Corinthians 2:1-5] Because of this, it is always God who gets the glory in the pastor’s ministry. This should free a pastor to lead with confidence in joyous freedom because it is up to God to do the work. [1 Timothy 4:10-16].
Effective leadership is leading from the place of security in Christ. A pastor is to walk in the truth that God sees Christians “with approval and delight as one clothed in the righteousness of Christ.” (Wilson 29) [Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:9] Pastors should be returning to their approval in Christ daily to avoid the two extremes of self pity and puffed up pride. If we are always empty, feeling unimportant, and joyless then we aren’t drinking from the living water only found in Christ. [John 4:10, John 4:13-14] Conversely, a pastor can listen to the praises of the people, or forget that God is causing the good in his church, and get puffed up with pride. That pastor is drinking from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires. [1 John 2:16-17]
Being faithful in preaching the gospel means preaching Jesus from your whole bible. [John 5:39] To be faithful to the text of scripture you need to be in the text. “Putting some Scriptures in your sermon is not the same thing as preaching the Scriptures.” (Wilson 119) Once again we run from the pride that we are making it happen and we ask whose words are we charged with proclaiming? Not our own but those of the Bible. God’s words. It is also from his authority that we speak to preach the scriptures. [2 Timothy 3:16-17] Using scripture as support for our ideas is rejecting the infallible authority the scriptures should hold in our lives, preaching, and ministry. Instead we should preach what is already in the scriptures, the living word of God.
This book was encouraging and sobering for me. I have never thought the call of a pastor is a light thing, but seeing the staggering statistics in the beginning of the book about pastors was pretty intense. It gave me pause and made me think really hard about what it will be like if I do become a pastor like I am planning to. So in one sense it made the call of the pastorate extremely intimidating and in another sense this book was very encouraging in the way it kept hammering home that it is God who does the work. While I should never stop learning and growing and always strive to do my best, I don’t need to be someone I’m not. A shepherd, not a rock star or a CEO. Someone who is desperate for God to do the work through him everyday. For God to get the glory. There was so much solid wisdom in this book that I really appreciated. I loved the encouragement that true success is faithfulness. I can do that. I also liked how he shared wife and family first; church second. I loved seeing Jared’s intentionality with this in how he didn’t give his family Mondays because they are the worst day of his week. His views on biblical theology were really good too. We are under the Bible and shaped by it, not vice versa. It was a really good book for pastors but also a great book for someone who is becoming a pastor like me. I would definitely use it again for interns in the future.
Scriptures References
Ephesians 4:4-74 There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Romans 5:9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Timothy 4:10-16
10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
11 Command and teach these things.
12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
16 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.
John 4:10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
John 4:13-14
13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
1 John 2:16-17
16 For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-is not from the Father but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
John 5:39
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Comments
Post a Comment