ANSWERING THE CALL (2 Tim 2:15; Eph 4:11-13)
Dr. Paul Manuel—An Ordination Charge—2010
A minister should stand out as being especially spiritual. In fact, his piety should set an example for those in his congregation.
As you have probably already discovered, a minister has many opportunities to serve his congregation, and people will call upon you for help with needs that are not part of your regular job description, from snow shoveling to grocery shopping to dog sitting. Most of your time, however, or at least the most time the majority of people will see you, is when you are preaching or teaching, and if you want to make the most of that time, you would do well to heed the Apostle Paul's instructions to a young pastor named Timothy, as he issues...
I. The Call to Competence (2 Tim 2:15)
It is a familiar admonition from Paul's second letter to his protégé, but it is one that bears review as you commit yourself to a particular kind of service in God's kingdom.
Paul makes three points that every minister should heed but that few, too few, actually regard. Paul does not try to soft-peddle the challenges a minister's task poses but states clearly the place a dedication to understanding God's word must have. He begins by stating that...
As a teacher, I never gave pass-fail courses, because I thought they promoted mediocrity by encouraging students to do the bare minimum, just what they needed to get by and no more. Evidently, as far as Bible study is concerned, Paul thinks the alternative is incentive enough to bring out the best in Timothy.
Listen again to the contrast here.
Suppose you have a regular, private time of reading and meditating. Is that not enough to satisfy God? ...While having personal devotions is an important and valuable discipline, Paul has something else in mind, something more rigorous than finding a thought for the day, because he also says...
For clergy, studying the Bible was probably easier to do in seminary because it was a requirement. Without that artificial incentive, the other demands of ministry—visitation, funerals, committee meetings—tend to reduce the time ministers have or give to Bible study. Sometimes our formal education covers so many diverse areas, it includes few Bible courses and almost nothing about developing the skills needed outside the classroom. That leaves the task of honing those study tools to us, and it is something we neglect to our peril and to our potential shame.
This is all pretty sobering. Should not a charge to the candidate be upbeat? Why not focus on the more enjoyable parts of ministry, like the fellowship meals? I could have approached this charge to the candidate from other angles, but I chose this emphasis on the importance of God's word because I have seen a particular appreciation for it in you. You have demonstrated a desire that is all too rare. So, as Paul charged Timothy, here is my charge to you...
II. The Call to Completion (Eph 4:11-13)
This is also a familiar passage, but it is always good to remember where we are heading as a church, and how we are to get there. Please turn to...
The second thing Paul says about spiritual gifts concerns their variety...
What if you do not have one of the gifts on this list? What if you are not an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist? Are you out of luck...or off the hook? ...As I said, Paul is addressing his remarks here to the leaders of the Ephesian church, and the list of spiritual gifts he offers is illustrative not exhaustive. He gives other lists in other letters that include other gifts7—serving, encouraging, mercy—and there is no reason to assume that even a compilation of those lists would provide a complete catalogue of spiritual gifts. In other words, even if you are not an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist, Jesus has another area of ministry particularly suited to you.
The Ephesians must do more than Mark the Spirit's gifts, they must recognize the role they have in the church to...
After preparing your gift, Paul mentions in v. 12 the next area that exercise of your gift should affect...
After performing your gift, Paul mentions in v. 12 the next area that exercise of your gift should affect...
After I completed what my wife called my 'terminal degree,' which was a not-so-veiled threat were I to pursue yet another degree, I returned to the church in which I grew up to take the pulpit there, and that congregation decided to ordain me. When I appeared before my ordination council, one of the members, the minister of a large church, asked me what my vision was for the church there. The question struck me as odd, until I realized that he wanted one of the trendy slogans designed to appeal to the public and to encourage increased attendance, the kind of pithy statement that might appear in a Yellow Pages ad, something like...
I do not recall my exact answer to his question, except that it was along the lines of Paul's statement here, and it is one I would recommend to your church, that you are a people with this goal...
As a new minister, you have embarked on a wonderful adventure. One of the constant challenges you will face, as you have probably discovered already, is balancing the various demands of the pastorate with your careful preparation and presentation of God's word. You will not always have as much time as you would like. You may think the all-night sessions of your seminary days are over, but they are not. If your experience is anything like mine, you will often have to burn the midnight oil Friday evening, because there were other tasks during the week you could not ignore.... Welcome to the ministry.
To those in the congregation, keep in mind the limitations of your pastor. The church leaders must be especially cognizant of this. He will do as much as he can... and more, sometimes more than he should. Do not let him sacrifice his health or his family. In the long run, that will not be good for the congregation. This means that the congregants themselves must take an active role in making the church accord with Paul's instruction. If you do, then you will be Answering the Call Paul issues: for the minister, a call to competence, and for the congregation, a call to completion. May you all reach unity in the faith and maturity in the savior.
A SS teacher needed some supplies from a cupboard that was seldom used and was secured with a lock. He didn't know the combination, so the minister offered to give it a try. He placed his fingers on the lock's dial and raised his eyes heavenward for a moment. Then he confidently spun the dial and opened the lock. Seeing how impressed the SS teacher was with this demonstration of faith, he smiled and confided... "The numbers are written on the ceiling."As a new minister, you will probably have opportunities to impress the members of your congregation. That will not happen often, so take advantage of those occasions whenever they arise.
As you have probably already discovered, a minister has many opportunities to serve his congregation, and people will call upon you for help with needs that are not part of your regular job description, from snow shoveling to grocery shopping to dog sitting. Most of your time, however, or at least the most time the majority of people will see you, is when you are preaching or teaching, and if you want to make the most of that time, you would do well to heed the Apostle Paul's instructions to a young pastor named Timothy, as he issues...
I. The Call to Competence (2 Tim 2:15)
It is a familiar admonition from Paul's second letter to his protégé, but it is one that bears review as you commit yourself to a particular kind of service in God's kingdom.
2 Tim 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.Paul's counsel here about Bible study should be foundational for everyone in pastoral ministry.1
Paul makes three points that every minister should heed but that few, too few, actually regard. Paul does not try to soft-peddle the challenges a minister's task poses but states clearly the place a dedication to understanding God's word must have. He begins by stating that...
A. Bible study is exerting.It is work and, as such, it requires constant effort in order to understand what God has revealed. So Paul says, "Be diligent." There are ways you can streamline the process, but the task is still not easy.... Then why bother? There are prepackaged sermons and lessons that require little effort to use. The pastorate is demanding enough. Why make more work for yourself? ...The answer is in Paul's second point...
B. Bible study is exciting.It is worthwhile and rewarding.2 Best of all, as Paul states here, it enables us who proclaim God's word to fulfill our highest aspiration—to please God. Of course, not everything is exciting in the same way. So it is with Bible study.
- It is exciting in a positive way, because it pleases Him, when we give diligent attention to what He has said.
- Otherwise, it may be exciting in a negative way, because it displeases Him, when we do not give His word proper attention.
As a teacher, I never gave pass-fail courses, because I thought they promoted mediocrity by encouraging students to do the bare minimum, just what they needed to get by and no more. Evidently, as far as Bible study is concerned, Paul thinks the alternative is incentive enough to bring out the best in Timothy.
Listen again to the contrast here.
2 Tim 2:15 ...present yourself approved...a workman who does not need to be ashamed....As in a pass-fail course, there are two options, but these options have more serious consequences: Be approved by God or be ashamed before God.... There is no alternative, no middle ground, no incomplete you can make up later.3 ...What a cheerful prospect—are you sure you want to do this?
Suppose you have a regular, private time of reading and meditating. Is that not enough to satisfy God? ...While having personal devotions is an important and valuable discipline, Paul has something else in mind, something more rigorous than finding a thought for the day, because he also says...
C. Bible study is exacting.It demands that we seek as clear and precise an understanding as possible—"accurately handling"—because we are dealing with the truth, more importantly, the truth about God, which we must understand ourselves before we can communicate it to others. Most personal devotional time fosters a general idea about what God has said, but that is not enough for ministers of His word. Our grasp of scripture must be ever-growing, ever-improving, ever-refining, and that requires ever-exacting study.
For clergy, studying the Bible was probably easier to do in seminary because it was a requirement. Without that artificial incentive, the other demands of ministry—visitation, funerals, committee meetings—tend to reduce the time ministers have or give to Bible study. Sometimes our formal education covers so many diverse areas, it includes few Bible courses and almost nothing about developing the skills needed outside the classroom. That leaves the task of honing those study tools to us, and it is something we neglect to our peril and to our potential shame.
This is all pretty sobering. Should not a charge to the candidate be upbeat? Why not focus on the more enjoyable parts of ministry, like the fellowship meals? I could have approached this charge to the candidate from other angles, but I chose this emphasis on the importance of God's word because I have seen a particular appreciation for it in you. You have demonstrated a desire that is all too rare. So, as Paul charged Timothy, here is my charge to you...
2 Tim 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.Having considered the call to competence that Paul issues to Timothy, we will turn now to the congregation, for there are also aspects of ministry you all must consider, such as Paul's instruction in his letter to the church at Ephesus, where he issues...
II. The Call to Completion (Eph 4:11-13)
This is also a familiar passage, but it is always good to remember where we are heading as a church, and how we are to get there. Please turn to...
Eph 4:11 [Christ] gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.In this passage, Paul is addressing the church leaders at Ephesus, instructing them to...
A. Mark the Spirit's gifts....both their source and their variety. First, as to their source...
...not by us but by Christ. While we may indicate a preference, as Paul says elsewhere...1. They are assigned.
1 Cor 12:31a ...earnestly desire the greater gifts....the decision about who gets what ultimately belongs to Jesus. Our task as leaders is to identify gifts when they arise in others and to encourage their development.4 This is what you are doing today with this ordination. You are stating publicly that you recognize what Christ has given you as a congregation, a pastor and a teacher.
The second thing Paul says about spiritual gifts concerns their variety...
...different, and we must not assume a person who has one gift necessarily has another gift. As Paul also says elsewhere...52. They are assorted.
1 Cor 7:7b ...each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.This means that just as you recognize your new minister's particular abilities, the areas of ministry for which God has equipped him, so you must recognize his limitations. These are not necessarily things he cannot do6 but things others should do. In this way, you allow him to focus on the specific tasks to which God has called him.
What if you do not have one of the gifts on this list? What if you are not an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist? Are you out of luck...or off the hook? ...As I said, Paul is addressing his remarks here to the leaders of the Ephesian church, and the list of spiritual gifts he offers is illustrative not exhaustive. He gives other lists in other letters that include other gifts7—serving, encouraging, mercy—and there is no reason to assume that even a compilation of those lists would provide a complete catalogue of spiritual gifts. In other words, even if you are not an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist, Jesus has another area of ministry particularly suited to you.
The Ephesians must do more than Mark the Spirit's gifts, they must recognize the role they have in the church to...
B. Manage the Saints' growth.This is not just for church leaders—the pastor or the elders or the deacons—this is also for rank-and-file members. Just as the Spirit assigns each believer a gift, so each believer must develop and use his gift for the good of the church body. In v. 12, Paul mentions three areas that an exercise of the gift you have should affect. To begin...
...and this is the role of church leaders, "the equipping of the saints." If every believer has a spiritual "gift from God," as Paul states, then you leaders must help believers in the congregation identify their gifts and understand how they can develop them to make the use of their gifts most effective. Some people will be content to sit on the sidelines and will have no particular desire to increase their involvement in the church. Encourage them, as you are able, but identify and focus your efforts on those who want a role in the advancement of God's kingdom.1. It entails preparing.
After preparing your gift, Paul mentions in v. 12 the next area that exercise of your gift should affect...
...and this also is the role of all believers, leaders and laity alike. It is "the work of service," the application of your gift in some area of ministry. The options here are as varied as the gifts themselves. Think for a moment: What opportunity has God placed before you for service, whether in the church or in the community as a representative of the church? It may be something for you alone or jointly with others. ...Whatever it is, there is a good possibility it relates to your gift.2. It entails performing.
After performing your gift, Paul mentions in v. 12 the next area that exercise of your gift should affect...
...the church, that is, "the building up of the body of Christ." Often people think about church growth in terms of increasing the size of a congregation, adding members. Paul's view of the purpose of spiritual gifts, though, is more about character than it is about composition, more about quality than quantity. That is good news for us as Seventh-Day Baptists because most of our congregations have fewer than fifty people in attendance at any service. This does not mean we should not attempt to grow in size, merely that we should not fixate on numbers to the neglect of what is more important which, as Paul identifies in v. 13, is to...3. It entails promoting.
C. Meet the Savior's goal.What does Jesus have in mind for the church...for your church? Is it more programs or greater outreach? Will it need more staff or a larger budget? ...It requires none of these. In fact, it requires nothing that is out of reach for any congregation, not matter its size—just two things...
...in what we believe as well as in what we know, and...1. He wants unity.
The goal of the church, of your church, is that you "all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Here, your new minister plays a major role as he preaches and teaches, but the goal of promoting unity and maturity is not on his shoulders alone. Those who are older in the faith have a responsibility to help and encourage those younger in the faith.2. He wants maturity.
After I completed what my wife called my 'terminal degree,' which was a not-so-veiled threat were I to pursue yet another degree, I returned to the church in which I grew up to take the pulpit there, and that congregation decided to ordain me. When I appeared before my ordination council, one of the members, the minister of a large church, asked me what my vision was for the church there. The question struck me as odd, until I realized that he wanted one of the trendy slogans designed to appeal to the public and to encourage increased attendance, the kind of pithy statement that might appear in a Yellow Pages ad, something like...
Westminster Presbyterian: A going church for a growing community
- or—
First Baptist: The fighting fundamentalists
I do not recall my exact answer to his question, except that it was along the lines of Paul's statement here, and it is one I would recommend to your church, that you are a people with this goal...
Striving for unity in the faith and maturity in the savior.
As a new minister, you have embarked on a wonderful adventure. One of the constant challenges you will face, as you have probably discovered already, is balancing the various demands of the pastorate with your careful preparation and presentation of God's word. You will not always have as much time as you would like. You may think the all-night sessions of your seminary days are over, but they are not. If your experience is anything like mine, you will often have to burn the midnight oil Friday evening, because there were other tasks during the week you could not ignore.... Welcome to the ministry.
To those in the congregation, keep in mind the limitations of your pastor. The church leaders must be especially cognizant of this. He will do as much as he can... and more, sometimes more than he should. Do not let him sacrifice his health or his family. In the long run, that will not be good for the congregation. This means that the congregants themselves must take an active role in making the church accord with Paul's instruction. If you do, then you will be Answering the Call Paul issues: for the minister, a call to competence, and for the congregation, a call to completion. May you all reach unity in the faith and maturity in the savior.
For a pdf including Endnotes, see here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Relevant and civil comments are welcome. Whether there will be any response depends on whether Dr. Manuel notices them and has the time and inclination to respond or, if not, whether I feel competent to do so.
Jim Skaggs