Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls (eBook)

Introduction

The Contemporary Pastor and the Classical Tradition

I (Shawn) remember the first time that a local church’s philosophy of ministry collided with my vision of theology. I was an associate pastor at the time and it was a surreal moment as I realized how many cultural assumptions in this local church did not match my evolving theological vision. During this season, I was unaware of the classical tradition of the church.1 Unable to change the culture of this local setting, I became quite discouraged—jaded in many ways. I settled for a less-than-ideal church culture and resolved to live with my pastoral and theological idealism.

On another occasion, I remember walking down the hall of an emergency room to visit a church member. She had been recently admitted and was hooked up to a ventilator by the time I arrived. These machines essentially enabled her body to remain functioning for hours. We later discovered that she had a stroke earlier in the morning and presumably died at that moment but had been revived. Several friends and church members would come throughout the day to kiss her forehead, whisper in her ear, and mourn at her feet. Merely two weeks before her death, I visited her in the hospital, where she recounted how the gospel had transformed her life. As I sat near her while she lay dying in her hospital bed, I was reminded of two different realities: the beauty of Jesus’s work of transforming lives and the burdens of pastoral ministry. That day, her pastors and friends from our church family sang hymns around her bedside (written hundreds of years before this very moment), prayed for her, and read Scripture with her as she slowly passed from this life into the presence of Jesus.

These stories highlight a certain tension within pastoral ministry: how does a theological vision shape pastoral ministry? The complexities of Christian theology ought to be reflected in the cultural life of the local church and the shepherding duties of its pastors. But a quick glance at local churches and denominational structures may reveal a host of problems—abuses of leadership, an inappropriate adoption of CEO models, minimizing theological depth in the name of reaching the lost, a diminishing value of church membership, confusion regarding the qualifications and role of a pastor, and much more. It takes a skilled and winsome pastor to observe and speak into these patterns and present a rich vision of Christian theology for the church.

Coleman and I are quite happy to watch a philosophical shift toward older traditions within the Protestant landscape as believers feel disillusioned with modern models of ministry. As several Christian thinkers focus on classical traditions, a ressourcement—that is, a mode of theology that listens to voices from different eras in order to learn from, be shaped by, and resource them for modern expression—is occurring within the Protestant theological culture.2 Henri de Lubac, a French Jesuit in the twentieth century, said, “Every time, in the West, that Christian renewal has flourished, in the order of thought and that of life . . . it has flourished under the sign of the Fathers.”3 We hope the resurgence of classical traditions is not a fad but a true recovery of spiritual and theological vitality for the modern church. We hope patristic and medieval ressourcement is more than a growing trend and serves as the philosophical and theological medicine that will help cure shallow evangelical practice.

Though Christians pursue formal and informal theological training to serve local churches, we are aware that pastors are neck-deep in the throes of pastoral ministry. We also understand that burnout in pastoral ministry is a real and present danger. Often it comes about when we are operating at a spiritual deficit rather than surplus. Pete Scazzero observes that “spiritual deficits typically reveal themselves in too much activity. Unhealthy leaders engage in more activities than their combined spiritual, physical, and emotional reserves can sustain.”4 As budgets need to be met and attendance numbers need to grow, pastors may be tempted to explore ministry gimmicks or shortcuts to meet these practical concerns. But what you use to win people, you will probably use to retain people. If we primarily entertain churchgoers, we will need to continue entertaining in order to keep them around.

Coleman and I believe that ministers should instead use the depth of the Scriptures, a vision of the Trinitarian God, and wisdom from the classical traditions as the foundation of local and global ministry. Pastors should help people see the beauties of God as displayed in Scripture and active in the life of the historic church and show them how the triune God is the source of all things and how the ancient creeds of the church tether us to an orthodox vision of God. These three anchors—Scripture, Trinitarian theology, and church history—stabilize the church’s moorings in an ever-shifting world. We echo what Trevin Wax has observed:

The ancient Christians worked for decades on arriving at a place of clarity concerning the nature of Christ’s identity, not because they were obsessed with the smallest of details or had a propensity toward theological wrangling, but because they knew orthodoxy wasn’t some dry, abstract definition—it was a portrait of a real and living God.5

Pastors and their people must dwell in the life of God for the good of their souls and the good of the world.

As we watch the modern and late-modern experiments fail to satisfy our souls, we believe the recovery of classic Christian traditions should increase. According to L. O. Mills, “the history of pastoral care is largely unclaimed and unknown” today.6 Additionally, Andrew Purves suggests, “Contemporary pastoral care is, by and large, uninformed by historical practice.”7 As a result, pastors are not taught what the church’s theological heritage says about pastoral ministry.8 But this heritage has much to teach us.

Discovering a Classical Vision of Pastoral Ministry

Early in ministry, Shawn and I often heard, “The pastor is supposed to do such and such” regarding various extrabiblical tasks. Several people had expectations that were not rooted in a biblical vision of the pastoral office. It certainly took time for us to learn (and continue to learn) how to remain teachable to some and lead others toward a biblical vision of the pastoral office. But, in general, too many items have been added to the pastor’s job description. According to Scripture, the pastor first and foremost prays (Acts 6), shepherds his people (1 Pet. 5), lives a virtuous life in the Spirit, and upholds sound teaching in local settings.

While writing this chapter, I (Coleman) overheard two women describing their church experiences over the last few years. One heard a feel-good message and was then herded out of the sanctuary; she did not feel known or seen. The other said she wanted to be in a church that was more rooted in the community. Both were expressing the desire to attend church in the town where they live, be integrated with others in the community, and be known by their church family and its leaders. This casual conversation in a suburban coffee shop in north Texas over iced lattes perfectly represents why we wrote this book. While we don’t want to idolize a specific vision of church life, we do want to bring the ancient voices of the church fathers to bear on this topic. We offer a simple vision of a pastor who prays, tends to people’s souls, and preaches the life-giving word of God. This kind of pastor pursues virtue, contemplation, and slowness. He equips the church and shepherds people’s souls. He cultivates communal and individual liturgies. He leads a local church that, though unknown to the rest of the world, is vital to the surrounding neighborhoods. Overall, the classical pastor is the quiet pastor who displays a peaceful temperament and ministers to souls in his local setting.9

In order to do this, the classical pastor contemplates and proclaims the beauties of the triune God, the gospel, and the Scriptures, using this to walk with people through their current life into the next. He takes these beauties and shows people how to find joy and happiness in God during this life. In a single day, he may walk with someone who shared the gospel for the first time, someone who criticizes his last sermon, someone whose marriage he officiated but who is now on the verge of divorce, and someone expressing an interest in missions work. Such pastors administer the riches of God to address the complexities of various situations in his congregants’ lives, model godly living, and equip others for ministry. Navigating this pastoral life is, as the fathers said, the “art of arts.”10

More precisely, a classical vision for ministry is characterized by the following marks:

1. Classical theology: classical pastoral ministry confesses a theology that rests on the historic confessions of the church—including the three Western creeds (the Nicene, Athanasian, and Apostles’ creeds) and the Chalcedonian Definition—and...