[M]inisters are a merchandize one cannot lay one’s hands on as easily as it were to be desired.
John Calvin, Letters Volume 4, Page 320.
Heralding the Response-Demanding News
[M]inisters are a merchandize one cannot lay one’s hands on as easily as it were to be desired.
John Calvin, Letters Volume 4, Page 320.
What is one of the reasons why people don’t go to church? It is that the preaching is so lifeless. Even the idea conjured up by the word ‘sermon’ involves something tedious or mind-numbing.
So pastors have to get back to the simple source for spiritual life in their churches, that is seeking the Spirit of Christ in their preaching. Calvin made the point clearly:
As long as the law is preached by the external voice of man, and not inscribed by the finger and Spirit of God on the heart, it is but a dead letter, and as it were a lifeless thing (1)
But then the same applies to the hearer. Are you seeking Christ, so that the Spirit can awaken life within you? More than that, the Spirit can create new life within you, causing you to be born ‘from above’.
It is the great untried opportunity of this age. Yet it’s only a sermon away.
(1) John Calvin , Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 297.
In the Draft Order of Visitation of the Country Churches January 11, 1546 [1], there are some points made about what to watch for in assessing the ministries of pastors.
The first order of business was to make sure that the pastor maintained, “proper uniformity of doctrine in the whole body of the Church of Geneva.” This was done by having two Genevan pastors visit the country churches in order to, “enquire whether the Ministry of the place have accepted any doctrine in any sense new and repugnant to the purity of the gospel.” So the churches weren’t little labs where pastors could exercise their speculative experiments. They were expected to be fairly conservative, that is, unchanging in their doctrine.
Not only was the doctrine to be in line with the other Genevan churches, there was an expectation that the minister would preach with wise applications. He wasn’t to preach, “anything at all scandalous, or unfitting to the instruction of the people because it is obscure, or treats of superfluous questions, or exercises too great rigour.” In applying his expositions, the pastor wasn’t grinding axes or riding hobby-horses. How many ‘Calvinist’ pastors today are guilty of ‘exercising too much rigour’.
The pastor wasn’t the only one who was held accountable. The congregation was urged to be diligent not only in attending church services, but “to have a liking for it, and to find profit in it for Christian living.” Many congregations need to be reminded of their responsibility to support the pastor’s ministry, and to like it.
Pastors were supposed to be engaged in ministry outside of the pulpit, through visitation of the sick and counselling. Specifically pastors were to confront those who needed it, as well as applying counsel to prevent patterns of sin.
The last element that was examined was whether the pastor had a testimony marked by integrity. Basically, did the pastor live as an example to others, leading “an honest life”? Also, the pastor’s reputation was checked to see if people viewed areas of his life as lacking self control (“dissoluteness”) or being flaky (“frivolity”). Finally,the pastor needed to have a harmonious relationship to the congregation. And above all of these he needed to have his family life in order.
These priorities are quite basic. But how often do pastors fail to maintain these basic emphases? May God grant us mercy to fulfill our duties.
[1] JKS Reid, Calvin: Theological Treatises, (SCM Press, 1954), 74