Recently Leadership Magazine commissioned a poll of a thousand pastors. The pastors indicated that 12 percent of them had committed adultery while in ministry – one out of eight pastors! – and 23 percent had done something they considered sexually inappropriate. Christianity Today surveyed a thousand of its subscribers who were not pastors and found the figure to be nearly double, with 23 [...]
Pastoral Ministry
The Character of a Minister of the Gospel
Knowing that he has been drafted, fitted for ministry, entrusted with a message, and sent out in the name of the Lord, the minister ought to demonstrate the proper authority in his every action. It is not a proud or arrogant authority, nor a tyranny, nor a selfish domination; all of these would be a [...]
55 Questions for a Prospective Pastor
The following is an excellent list of questions for potential pastors. I remember when, as a young Independent Baptist, sitting through a Q&A session on a Sunday night where the “hot topics” were the man’s position on rap music or whether he thought special music should be sung with or without an accompaniment tape! I [...]
Letters to Young Ministers – The Cultivation of Personal Piety by J.W. Alexander
IT is scarcely possible to treat of some subjects without running into commonplaces: their very importance has made them trite, just as we observe great highways to be most beaten. The question has been much discussed, whether a minister should ever preach beyond his own experience. In one sense, unquestionably, he should. He is commissioned [...]
Letters to Young Ministers – On Devotion to the Work of the Ministry by J.W. Alexander
WHEN I look back on the years which I have spent in the ministry, I cannot but think that much benefit would have arisen from such honest and plain advices as most of my elder brethren could have given me. It is this which induces me to offer you the hints which follow. These must [...]
The Divine Origin and Institution of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
THE Church is the mirror, that reflects the whole effulgence of the Divine character. It is the grand scene, in which the perfections of Jehovahare displayed to the universe. The revelations made to the Church—the successive grand events in her history—and, above all—the manifestation of the glory of God in the Person of Jesus Christ—furnish [...]
The Dignity of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
THE Divine original of the Christian Ministry has already opened a view of its dignity far above any earthly honour or elevation, and such as the infidel scoff can never degrade. An institution—introduced into the world, and confirmed to the Church, with such solemn preparation—conversant with the interests, and entrusted with the charge, of immortal [...]
The Uses and Necessity of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
BECAUSE the nature of things consisting, as this doth, in action, is known by the object whereabout they are conversant, and by the end or scope whereunto they arc referred; we must know that the object of this function is both God and men: God, in that he is publicly worshipped of his church; and [...]
The Trials and Difficulties of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
OUR Lord’s illustration of the necessity of a previous counting of the cost in important undertakings forcibly applies to the Christian Ministry. Too often has the neglect of serious and prayerful calculation given awful power to the temptation to draw back from so momentous a work. Indeed no previous contemplation can give just apprehensions of [...]
The Comforts and Encouragements of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
IT is of the utmost importance to grasp the whole compass of the Christian Ministry. The view of one side only of the prospect (whichever side that may be) must necessarily give an imperfect and inaccurate representation. Painful and habitual experience constrains us to be with our people ‘in weakness, and in fear, and in [...]
The Qualificaitons of the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
MR. NEWTON’S important remark may be considered as an axiom-’None but he who made the world can make a Minister of the Gospel.’ He thus proceeds to illustrate his position (for it cannot be thought to need any proof) -’If a young man has capacity, culture and application may make him a scholar, a philosopher, [...]
On Controversy by John Newton
Editor’s note: A minister, about to write an article criticizing a fellow minister for his lack of orthodoxy, wrote to John Newton of his intention. Newton replied as follows: Dear Sir, As you are likely to be engaged in controversy, and your love of truth is joined with a natural warmth of temper, my friendship [...]
The General Causes of Want of Success in the Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
THE prophet’s complaint-’Who hath believed our report?’ has applied to every successive Ministry in the Church. It was echoed in reference even to the Ministry of Him, who ‘spake as never man spake;’ who retained a listening multitude hanging upon his lips, and ‘wondering at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.’ It [...]
Richard Baxter – A Corrective for Reformed Preachers by Edward Donnelly
Why Baxter? His theology was not entirely sound. His desire to promote church unity sometimes betrayed him into seeking common cause with those who were far removed from the biblical faith. Although an able controversialist, he confesses: ‘I am too much inclined to such words in controversial writings which are too keen, and apt to [...]
A Word about Pride to all but Especially to Ministers of the Gospel by Richard Baxter
Taken from the book ‘The Reformed Pastor’ One of our most heinous and palpable sins is PRIDE. This is a sin that hath too much interest in the best of us, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men. Yet is it so prevalent in some of us, that it [...]
