Pastoral Ministry in History

By James F. Stitzinger [1]

Associate Professor of Historical Theology

The biblical pattern for pastoral ministry derives from both testaments of the Bible. Deviations from that pattern crept into the church during the second century A.D., and continued, becoming increasingly severe into the Medieval period of the church. Nevertheless, isolated groups continued their efforts to follow the biblical pattern. These included Chrysostom and Augustine in the early church and the Paulicans, Cathari, Albigenses, and Waldenses during the Medieval period. The Reformation period witnessed a broader return to the biblical pattern through the magisterial reformation of Luther, Calvin, and others and through the Anabaptist reformation. During the Modern period, Puritan leaders such as Baxter, Perkins, and Edwards have led a return to biblical principles in pastoral ministry. Bridges, Morgan, and Allen were nineteenth century examples of biblical ministers. The late twentieth century has produced others, including Lloyd-Jones, Adams, and MacArthur.

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In God’s gracious sovereignty, He chose to reconcile believers to Himself through Christ. In His marvelous plan He has committed to them the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18), based upon His Word of reconciliation (5:19). The office and function of the pastor has a key role in this ministry as he proclaims the mystery of godliness. His functions have a close association with the church, the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim 3:15–16).

The duty and privilege of pastoral ministry has resulted in the development of the discipline of Pastoral Theology within the broader framework of Practical Theology.[2] It has also produced a long procession of individuals who have filled the pages of church history in responding to God’s call to be faithful pastors and ministers of the truth. Sadly, traditions[3] not measuring up to the standards of biblical scrutiny have skewed and embellished much of what has been called ministry.

A plethora of mind-sets and often conflicting traditions emerge in a study of pastoral ministry in history, though all traditions claim a lineage going back to the apostolic age. In every generation some have sought to return to the basic fundamentals of primitive biblical ministry. This pursuit of the “true church” or primitivism has led Littell and others to speak of the concept of the “Believers’ Church.”[4] Such a church included people of various ages and regions who followed the same principles of commitment to apostolic truth. These are believers who “gathered and disciplined a ‘true church’ upon the apostolic pattern as they understood it.”[5] The truth for these people was an ongoing pursuit, not a closed book in a “sectarian” sense. It was one which “wanted fellowship with all who bore the Name and lived the covenant of a good conscience with God.”[6]

Other committed believers like these within the wider framework of church history have sought above all else the true, pure, primitive church. They have sought a church and a ministry patterned after the theology and practice of the book of Acts and the NT Epistles. Such individuals and churches have appeared in various forms and have come from various settings, but all display a desire to return to a vibrant, biblical church and ministry. Some have journeyed further in their plans than in their practice. Some have advanced further than others in their quest for biblical ministry.

This chapter focuses upon a history of those who have sought to teach and practice biblical pastoral ministry. Examinations of efforts to follow biblical ministry patterns rather than accepted tradition and recurring ministry practices can serve as a helpful guide to a future generation with the same goals. Such historical study provides valuable insights through enabling Christians and churches to learn from the past. Though history is not the unfolding of an unalterable tradition or a hermeneutical principle for interpreting ministry, “the flow of time bears divine sovereignty and providence on its wings and constitutes a general, not special, revelation of God himself.”[7] Only the Bible can teach the true theology of pastoral ministry, but the working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of church leaders through the centuries can inform this theology and its practical implementation. The following subsidiary material will provide such information.

The Biblical Period

Many have noted the elusive and complex nature of pastoral theology that makes the discipline hard to define.[8] As Tidball points out, part of this “elusiveness stems from the multitude of labels which exist in this area and which seem to be used without any agreement as to their exact meaning or relationship.”[9] As a further reason, he points out that the difficulty “stems from the fact that so many sub-disciplines of practical theology are spoken of as if they are pastoral theology.”[10] The historical development of the doctrine of the church in general and of practical theology in particular, have no doubt contributed to this elusiveness since tension has surrounded this whole subject from the outset of church history.[11]

Thomas C. Oden, in expanding his definition of pastoral theology, observes the following:

Pastoral theology is that branch of Christian theology that deals with the office, gifts, and functions of the pastor. As theology, pastoral theology seeks to reflect upon that self-disclosure of God witnessed to by Scripture, mediated through tradition, reflected upon by critical reasoning, and embodied in personal and social experience.[12]

Throughout history, it is precisely when the weight of tradition, critical reasoning, and experience have come to bear upon pastoral theology that it has been most likely to drift from its biblical moorings. In reality, it is impossible to say that one has no tradition or critical thinking on this subject. It is therefore imperative that one begin, continue, and end with the Scriptures in a study of true pastoral ministry.

The place to begin is with an investigation of the various aspects of primitive biblical ministry as they relate to the office and functions of pastors. A brief summary of the biblical data can serve as the basis for identifying historic efforts to reproduce that kind of ministry.

Old Testament

A history of pastoral ministry must begin in the OT. The theme, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps 23:1), expresses the pastoral role of God with His people. Tidball describes this image as “the underlining paradigm of ministry,” and points out that it contains “references to the authority, tender care, specific tasks, courage and sacrifice required of the pastor.”[13] Many passages, including Gen 49:24; Isa 53:6; Ps 78:52–3; 80:1, contribute to the development of this theme. The OT often describes Israel as sheep who need a shepherd (Ps 100:3; cf. also Ps 44:22; 119:176; Jer 23:1; 50:6).

The theme of God’s love contributes to the shepherd theme too: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jer 31:3). God demonstrates His love for Israel in vivid imagery with Hosea’s marriage to a harlot (Hos 1:2). Though Israel spurned His love, God continues loving, as He says in Hos 11:1: “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.”

In the end God is there to “heal their apostasy…[and] love them freely” (Hos 14:4). The OT abounds with statements of God’s love for His people. Another is in Isa 43:4–5: “Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you…do not fear, for I am with you.”[14]

Associated with the love of God is His disciplining of those He loves (Prov 3:11); His holding accountable of those whom He loves (Ps 11:7); and His command that men love Him in return (Deut 6:5). Also associated with the divine pastoral concern is the profound theme of God’s mercy (i.e., loyal love, Ps 62:12; Isa 54:10; 55:3)[15] God’s compassion (Ps 145:9), and His delight (1 Sam 22:20). Combined with this are numerous examples of servant leaders’including Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, and David’who demonstrated the faithfulness of God as they accomplished His work through faith (Hebrews 11).

Thus the OT provides an important basis for understanding the office and function of the pastor. The Shepherd Himself displays his Fatherly care, love, mercy, discipline, compassion, and delight toward His people whom He desires to love and fear Him with a pure heart. The image of a shepherd also demonstrates God’s authority and faithfulness, as well as the necessity and implications of obedience to Him. Servant leaders exemplify both strengths and weaknesses as God uses them to carry out His sovereign plan in human history.

New Testament

The NT builds on this OT foundation as it reveals the Chief Shepherd, Christ, in all His wisdom, glory, power, and humility (John 10:11, 14; 1 Pet 5:4). The person and work of the Great Shepherd culminates in His death (i.e., the blood of the eternal Covenant, Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25) and resurrection. The Good Shepherd gave His life for His sheep whom he calls to Himself (John 10:11–16). These “called out” ones are His church. Christ, as Head of the church, leads His church (Eph 1:22; 5:23–25) and shepherds it. He calls pastors as undershepherds to function and give oversight under His authority (1 Pet 5:1–4).

Both as a doctrine (1 Corinthians 12) and through living example, the NT reveals the nature of the church and all its members and activities. It also furnishes clear teaching about church officers and their functions. The role and duties of a pastor as presented in the NT are the basis of all future biblical ministry in history.

Five distinct terms refer to the pastoral office: (1) elder (presbuteros), a title highlighting the administration and spiritual guidance of the church (Acts 15:6; 1 Tim 5:17; Jas 5:14; 1 Pet 5:1–4); (2) bishop or overseer (episkopos), which emphasizes guidance, oversight, and leadership in the church (Acts 20:28; Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:2–5; Titus 1:7); (3) shepherd or pastor (poimēn), a position denoting leadership and authority (Acts 20:28–31; Eph 4:11) as well as guidance and provision (1 Pet 5:2–3; cf. 2:25); (4) preacher (kērux), which points to public proclamation of the gospel and teaching of the flock (Rom 10:14; 1 Tim 2:7; 2 Tim 1:11); and (5) teacher (didaskalos), one responsible for instruction and exposition of the Scriptures. Such teaching is both instructive (1 Tim 2:7) and corrective (1 Cor 12:28–29).

Scripture is quite clear that these descriptive titles relate to the same pastoral office. The terms “elder” and “bishop” are synonymous in Acts 20:17 and Titus 1:5–7. The terms “elder,” “bishop,” and “shepherd” are synonymous in 1 Pet 5:1–2. The leadership role of elders is also evident in the shepherdly activity of Jas 5:14. As clearly noted by Lightfoot, in biblical times “elder” and “bishop” were synonymous terms.[16] It was not until the rise of sacerdotalism in the second century that bishops took the places of the apostles and presided over groups of elders.[17]

First Tim. 5:17 and Heb 13:7 associate the terms “teacher” and “preacher” with each other. Ephesians 4:11 connects shepherds (pastors) with teachers, as do 1 Tim 5:17 and Heb 13:7. These last two passages furnish no exegetical grounds for separating the work of governing from that of teaching.[18] Consequently, the conclusion must be that pastoral leadership in the church included preaching, teaching, oversight, and shepherding. The parity of the titles look to a single role, the office of pastor.

In addition to these five terms, a number of descriptive words shed light on biblical pastoral ministry. These include “ruler” (1 Thess 5:12; 1 Tim 3:4–5; 5:17), “ambassador” (2 Cor 5:20), “steward” (1 Cor 4:1), “defender” (Phil 1:7), “minister” (1 Cor 4:1); “servant” (2 Cor 4:5), and “example” (1 Tim 4:12, 1 Pet 5:3). The NT also tells the pastor to preach (1 Cor 1:17), feed (1 Pet 5:2), build up the church (Eph 4:12), edify (2 Cor 13:10), pray (Col 1:9), watch for souls (Heb 13:17), war (1 Tim 1:18), convince (Titus 1:9), comfort (2 Cor 1:4–6), rebuke (Titus 1:13), warn (Acts 20:31), admonish (2 Thess 3:15), and exhort (Titus 1:9; 2:15).

So the Scriptures are clear regarding the office and functions of the pastor. The biblical pattern is simple, describing a Spirit-filled man who gives oversight, shepherding, guidance, teaching, and warning—doing all with a heart of love, comfort, and compassion. All of these functions are evident in the first-century church. Purity (including church discipline), primitivism (NT simplicity), voluntarism (no compulsion to join), tolerance (no persecution of those who disagreed), evangelistic zeal (missionary activity), observation of biblical ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s supper), emphasis on the Holy Spirit, and dynamic ministry (involving both pastor and people)—not tradition, hierarchy, and corruption—marked the church at this early stage.

In time, however, a more complex and embellished church doctrine and practice replaced this early church simplicity.[19] This development had direct bearing on the nature of pastoral ministry as it reflected a similar change in scope and complexity of the pastoral role. The remainder of this chapter will identify major examples of those who approached biblical pastoral ministry following the pattern of the first century church.

The Early Christian Church 100—476

From its earliest days, the Christian church has moved from simplicity to complexity as it has drifted from a spontaneous living organism to a more settled institution.[20] This ever dangerous institutionalism arose simultaneously in the second generation of many widely separated churches. No more vivid example exists than that of the second-century church which developed strong ecclesiastical traditions[21] as it came to view the “bishop” as the successor to the Apostle.[22] This trend progressed into the fourth century, causing the church to enter more and more into an era of “speculation on the law and doctrine of the church.”[23] The rise and development of sacerdotalism, with its elevation of clergy to the status of priests, in effect, made the minister an instrument of the saving grace of God as he participated with God in the salvation of human beings.[24] This development of the threefold ministry of bishops, elders, and deacons represented a serious departure from simple NT ministry.

In contrast to this general trend, several strong proponents of biblical ministry existed during this period. Polycarp (c. A.D. 70—A.D. 155/160) wrote,

And the presbyters also must be compassionate, merciful towards all men, turning back the sheep that are gone astray, visiting all the infirm, not neglecting a widow or an orphan or a poor man: but providing always for that which is honorable in the sight of God and of men….Let us therefore so serve Him with fear and all reverence, as He himself gave commandment and the Apostles who preached the Gospel to us and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Lord.[25]

The spirit here is one of humble and loving service, with no seeming regard for the hierarchical relationship of bishops and elders.

Clement of Alexandria (c. A.D. 155—c. A.D. 220) has written in a similar vein, emphasizing that ministers are those who are chosen to serve the Lord, who moderate their passions, who are obedient to superiors, and who teach and care for sheep as a shepherd.[26] He also observed that “bishops, presbyters, deacons…are imitations of the angelic glory, and of that economy which, the Scriptures say, awaits those who, follow the footsteps of the apostles, having lived in perfection of righteousness according to the Gospel.”[27] Origen (c. A.D. 185—c. A.D. 254), his pupil, assigned a similar role to the one representing Christ and his house (the church) and teaching others of these truths.[28] This emphasis contrasts sharply with that of Cyprian (c. A.D. 200—c. A.D. 258), the well known Bishop of Carthage who apparently limited his discussion of pastoral theology to the elevation of the bishop to the level of an apostle.[29]

The powerful pen of John Chrysostom (c. A.D. 344/354—A.D. 407) contributed significantly to the early church’s understanding of the pastoral position.[30] He developed the role and functions of a pastor both in his commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles and in his Treatises. His statements about the nature of ministry are very biblical:

There is but one method and way of healing appointed, after we have gone wrong, and this is, the powerful application of the Word. This is the one instrument, the finest atmosphere. This takes the place of physic, cautery and cutting, and if it be needful to sear and amputate, this is the means which we must use, and if this be of no avail, all else is wasted: with this we both roust the soul when it sleeps, and reduce it when it is inflamed; with this we cut off excesses, and fill up defects, and perform all manner of other operations which are requisite for the soul’s health.[31]

To this Chrysostom adds the necessity of living by example with the ambition that the Word of Christ would dwell in men richly.[32] His statements warm the heart as perhaps the most useful expression of pastoral ministry during the period, but they also reveal signs of the monastic stranglehold fast coming upon the organized church of his day.[33] The monastic understanding of pastoral ministry was soon to have a profound effect upon church leadership.

Another important spokesman from this period is Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354—430). Often best known as a theologian and preacher, Augustine devoted his life to pastoral ministry. Soon after his ordination he wrote to Valerius, his superior,

First and foremost, I beg your wise holiness to consider that there is nothing in this life, and especially in our own day, more easy and pleasant and acceptable to men than the office of bishop or priest or deacon, if its duties be discharged in a mechanical or sycophantic way; but nothing more worthless and deplorable and meet for chastisement in the sight of God: and, on the other hand, that there is nothing in this life, and especially in our own day, more difficult, toilsome, and hazardous than the office of bishop or priest or deacon; but nothing more blessed in the sight of God, if our service be in accordance with our Captain’s orders.[34]

Augustine’s ministry included many well-articulated biblical functions, including those of apologist, administrator, minister to the afflicted, preacher and teacher, judge, and spiritual leader.[35] Much to his credit, he spent considerable time and energy in personal biblical ministry. Pastoral interaction and ministry appear to be at the heart of his book, The City of God, as he deals with those who challenge God’s divine city with an earthly city.[36] At the same time, however, Augustine brought into the church a leprosy of monastic tradition involving both men and women (nunnery), thereby laying the groundwork for the Augustinian Rule.

Independent groups are a final source of biblical ministry patterns during this period. As Gunnar Westin points out, “The process of development which transformed the original Christian congregations to a sacramental, authoritarian Church took place during the latter portion of the second century….This change did not take place without protest.”[37] Many church historians have dismissed as “heretics” those churches that opposed the institutionalized church—a campaign often called “The Free Church Movement.”[38] Though some of these groups struggled with doctrinal purity, a closer look reveals that the heretical label in most cases was primarily due to their unwillingness to be loyal to the received tradition of the fathers,[39] not to significant doctrinal weakness. A thorough investigation of these independents is difficult, because only the works of those who wrote against them have survived, for the most part. So some sensitivity in examining these writings is necessary. Such groups include the Montanists (c. A.D. 156), Novatians (c. A.D. 250), and Donatists (c. A.D. 313), all of whom left the official church of their day to pursue the pure church.[40] An inclusion of these groups in the present discussion is not an attempt to demonstrate their consistent soundness of doctrine, but to point to their common commitment to the gospel and a primitive church with a primitive biblical ministry.

It is beyond the scope of this survey to explore these groups in depth, but the comments of Philip Schaff regarding the Donatists—a group strongly opposed by Constantine after A.D. 325—are noteworthy:

The Donatist controversy was a conflict between separatism and catholicism; between ecclesiastical purism and ecclesiastical eclecticism; between the idea of the church as an exclusive community of regenerated saints and the idea of the church as the general Christendom of state and people.[41]

The critical issue for the Donatists was the purity of the church and the holiness of its pastors. This resulted in a more biblical ministry.[42]

As the church of the NT passed through its early centuries and became the official or organized church, it frequently departed from simple NT patterns. Nonetheless, strong voices both inside and outside this church called for a biblical ministry.

The Medieval Period 476—1500

The general structure of the western medieval church focused on the authority and celibacy of its clergy. Many leaders had retreated to the ascetic life of the monastery to escape the worldliness of the Christianity of their day. The pattern of authority centered in Rome with the first pope, Gregory the Great (540—604), assuming power in 590.

Though Gregory’s papacy plunged the church into deeper political involvement and corruption, he also contributed a positive influence on the pastoral ministry of its clergy. In his Book of Pastoral Rule, he addressed many issues, including qualifications and duties of ministers as well as listing thirty types of members with rules of admonition for each.[43] He addressed the poor, the sad, the foolish, the sick, the haughty, the fickle, and many others. This monumental work became a textbook of medieval ministry,[44] yet Gregory’s own preoccupation with political implications of the papacy caused him to neglect the souls of men while caring for his estates.[45] The rise of the papacy produced complete corruption as popes, in their devotion to an increasingly pagan agenda, resorted to any available means to reach their goals. The monastic church, now fully developed, experienced tremendous corruption as well. In balance, however, Payne points out,

Though there was widespread spiritual famine in many nominally Christian lands and notorious corruption in high places, the theologians, the mystics and the reformers of the Middle Ages are further evidence of the Holy Spirit within the Church. They came, almost without exception, from the ranks of the clergy.[46]

During the thousand-year period from Nicea to Wycliffe, ministry took place in spite of the church more than because of the official church.

Even more than in the early period, biblical ministry occurred among elements of the Free Church which were and are commonly regarded as heretics.[47] Groups such as the Paulicans (c. 625), Cathari (c. 1050), Albigenses (1140), and Waldenses (1180) demonstrated a strong passion for a pure church with biblical ministry. As Bainton notes, these “very definitely were not heretics but only schismatic, and schismatics only because [they were] cast out against their will.”[48] The Paulicans, in their important manual The Key of Truth, speak of a simple church built on “repentance and faith,” and refer to what was “learned from the Lord” about the church. “Good shepherds,” whose responsibilities included ruling, shepherding, preaching, caring, and administration of the sacraments, were its leaders.[49] The following prayer offered at the time of an elder’s election to office reflects the nature of Paulician ministry:

Lamb of God, Jesus, help us and especially this thy newly-elected servant, whom thou hast joined unto the number of thy loved disciples. Establish him on thy Gospel vouchsafed to thine universal and apostolic Church, the sure and immovable rock at the gate of hell. And bestow on him a goodly pastorship, to tend with great love thy reasonable flock…. Keep this thy servant with thine elect; that no unclean spirit of devils may dare to approach him.[50]

The Waldenses, who by 1184 had separated from the Church of Rome and formulated their own church and ministry, exhibit a similar theme of simple biblical ministry. Allix notes that “their ministers exercised these holy functions, extraordinarily to the edification of their people.”[51] Their long history of pre-Reformation Christianity in the Piedmont reflects a relatively pure and uncorrupted form of primitive Christianity.[52]

The beliefs and practices of the Albigenses, whose church was in southern France by 1190, also exemplified this theme of purity. They experienced heavy persecution and frequent misunderstanding from others. Commenting on their ministry, Allix writes,

It appears therefore that the discipline of the Albigenses was the same that had been practiced in the primitive Church: they had their Bishops, their Priests, and their Deacons, whom the Church of Rome at first held for schismatics, and whose ministry she at last absolutely rejected, for the same reasons that made her consider the ministry of the Waldenses as null and void.[53]

Perhaps the greatest voices for biblical ministry were those of the pre-Reformation reformers. These called for true biblical ministry in a day when such convictions often required men to die for their views.

John Wycliffe (1324–1384), the leading Oxford scholar of his day, clearly addressed the issue of biblical ministry in his 43 Propositions.[54] His writings “restrict the charter of the preacher to the expounding of Scripture,” and state that “priests should exercise their primary function, namely, pastoral care. They should not lurk in cloisters.”[55] His most powerful statements are in his book On the Pastoral Office, where he states,

There are two things which pertain to the status of pastor: the holiness of the pastor and the wholesomeness of his teaching. He ought to be holy, so strong in every sort of virtue that he would rather desert every kind of human intercourse, all the temporal things of this world, even mortal life itself, before he would sinfully depart from the truth of Christ….Secondly, [he] ought to be resplendent with righteousness of doctrine before his sheep.[56]

John Huss (1373–1415) followed Wycliffe’s rich emphasis on biblical ministry by calling for a pure church and ministry. In his writings are many examples of this teaching. He said, “The church shines in its walls, but starves in its poor saints; it clothes its stones with gold, but leaves its children naked.”[57] Gillett summarizes his teaching:

In the early church there were but two grades of office, deacon and presbyter; all beside are of later and human invention. But God can bring back his church to the old pattern, just as the apostles and true priests took oversight of the church in all matters essential to its well-being, before the office of pope was introduced.[58]

He further taught, “Not the office makes the priest, but the priest the office. Not every priest is a saint, but every saint is a priest.”[59] Spinka offers his summary of Huss’ position: “His reform program may be summarized by defining it as restitutionalism—the return of Christ and His apostles as exhibited in the primitive Church. He contrasts the Church militant with the true spiritual Church—the body of Christ.”[60]

The writings of William Tyndale (1494–1536) reveal a similar commitment to primitive biblical ministry.[61]

In summary, the Middle Ages, though dominated by a powerful and corrupt institutional church, was a period when many rose up to challenge that body because of their pursuit of the truth. This should encourage present-day servants in their quest to rediscover true pastoral ministry. The effort may be extremely difficult in the face of strong traditions, but it is both necessary and possible.

The Reformation Period (1500—1648)

The Protestant Reformation was of great importance in the history of the church and the development of its ministry. Flowing out of late-Medieval piety, mysticism, and scholarship,[62] its focus was upon reforming the existing church according to biblical principles. It was more accurately the “Magisterial Reformation,” since the reformers retained the mind-set of the magistrate who compelled individuals in matters of faith. This state-church concept contrasted sharply with the free-church thinking of true Anabaptists—distinguished from a larger group of Anabaptists—who attempted to build a new church based on the Bible.[63] This important difference has led an increasing number of historians to focus on the “Radical Reformation” as “a major expression of the religious movement of the sixteenth century.”[64] Williams identifies this “Radical Reformation” as the “Fourth” Reformation in distinguishing it from Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism.[65] Although acknowledging doctrinal differences within the fourth reformation, Williams observes,

Though Anabaptists, Spiritualists, and Evangelical Rationalists differed among themselves as to what constituted the root of faith and order and the ultimate source of divine authority among them…all three groups within the Radical Reformation agreed in cutting back to that root and in freeing church and creed of what they regarded as the suffocating growth of ecclesiastical tradition and magisterial prerogative. Precisely this makes theirs a “Radical Reformation.”[66]

In seeking an understanding of the contribution of the Reformation to biblical ministry, one must look to both the magisterial reformers (Luther, Bucer, Calvin, and Knox) and the free church (true Anabaptists). The former worked under the banner of reformatio (reformation) while the latter had restitutio (restitution) as its banner. Both offer important insight.

The Magisterial Reformation

An examination of the reforms implemented by Martin Luther (1483—1546) and John Calvin (1509—1564) reveals that they differed in degrees of progress toward the biblical pattern of church ministry. In the final analysis, both maintained a magisterial church-state system, believing that any reformation should ultimately result in a Christian state.[67] The two distinguished between the visible and the invisible church, viewing the invisible as the church made up of the elect only.[68] Their view of the visible church, created by a magisterial church-state, precluded a simple doctrine of church and ministry. The difference between the two men was that Luther tended to retain in the church the traditions not specifically condemned in Scripture and Calvin tended to include only what Scripture taught explicitly about church ministry.[69] This difference is evident in the corresponding traditions of worship emerging from these founders, Lutheranism worship being very embellished and incorporating ritual and the Reformed mind-set reflecting more simple church settings.

According to general recognition, Martin Luther’s doctrine of the church and ministry was complex and changed progressively throughout his life.[70] In his “Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation” (1520), Luther called for the pulling down of the three walls of Romanism and Popery, and offered proposals including reform to establish a simple national church with parish priests of godly character.[71] The implementation of that church was more complex than Luther first envisioned,[72] but contained the key elements of the preaching of the Word, the sacraments of baptism and the altar, the keys of Christian discipline and forgiveness, a called and consecrated ministry, public thanksgiving and worship, and suffering, the possession of the Holy Cross.[73] He stressed ministry of the Word as the duty of pastors and of all believers. In particular, the functions of pastors included the ministry the Word, baptizing, administration of the sacred bread and wine, binding and loosing sin, and sacrifice.[74] He put great emphasis on pastoral care, which always related directly to the ministry of the Word.[75]

Martin Bucer (1491–1551), an important disciple of Luther and a teacher of Calvin, had an important ministry in Strasbourg. Tidball rightly calls him the “Pastoral Theologian of the Reformation”[76] because of his extensive work in developing the office and work of the pastor. In his “De Regno Christi,” Bucer identified three duties of a pastor: (1) a diligent teacher of the Holy Scriptures, (2) an administrator of the sacraments, and (3) a participator in the discipline of the church. The third duty had three parts: life and manners, penance (involving serious sin), and sacred ceremonies (worship and fasting). A fourth duty was care for the needy.[77] Bucer wrote,

Those pastors and teachers of the churches who want to fulfill their office and keep themselves clean of the blood of those of their flocks who are perishing should not only publicly administer Christian doctrine, but also announce, teach and entreat repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and whatever contributes toward piety, among all who do not reject this doctrine of salvation, even at home and with each one privately….For the faithful ministers of Christ should imitate this their master and chief shepherd of the churches, and seek most lovely themselves whatever has been lost, including the hundredth sheep wandering from the fold, leaving behind the ninety-nine which remain in the Lord’s fold (Matt 18:12).[78]

Calvin’s contribution to a biblical understanding of pastoral ministry is tremendous. Though often viewed as primarily a theologian and exegete, Calvin was also a pastor and churchman.[79] He devotes the fourth book of his Institutes to the church, speaking of the necessity of the church’s function:

In order that the preaching of the Gospel might flourish, He deposited this treasure in the church. He instituted ‘pastors and teachers’ [Eph 4:11] through whose lips He might teach His own; he furnished them with authority; finally, He omitted nothing that might make for holy agreement of faith and for right order.[80]

He used the title “mother” to illustrate the importance and place of the church:

For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels [Matt 22:30]. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all our lives.[81]

Calvin found the duties of a pastor throughout the Bible. Specifically, he observed that “the teaching and example of the New Testament set forth the nature and work of the pastorate in the calling and teaching of the apostles.” This, he said, makes a delineation of ministerial work in the church an important aspect of theology.[82]

Previous writings have described the fourfold office of pastor, teacher, elder, and deacon in Calvin’s Geneva.[83] Calvin placed strong emphasis on the preaching, governing, and pastoring: “A pastor needs two voices, one for gathering the sheep and the other for driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means for doing both.”[84] Furthermore, “Paul assigns to teachers the duty of carving or dividing the Word, like a father dividing the bread into small pieces to feed his children.”[85] Calvin’s concern was the profit and edification of the hearer. To this he added the important tasks of administration of the sacraments and visitation of the sick. This philosophy developed into a church polity in Geneva that was difficult and complex due to Calvin’s understanding of the visible church and a Christian magistracy.[86] It resulted in a kind of Christian theocracy in Geneva because of the intersection of religious and civil authorities in implementing the polity.

The most biblical of the outworkings of Calvin’s ecclesiastical and civil views did not emerge until much later, since Calvin never rose above the magisterial state-church he inherited from Romanism. Woolley observes, “Calvin was influenced by Rome even while helping to counteract Rome,” and “The greater fruitage of Calvin’s ideas elsewhere than in Geneva is due to the fact that in other areas they were not subjected to implementation by the civil state to the same degree as was true in Geneva.”[87] It was the issue of civil intolerance, brought about by the state-church such as existed at Geneva, that caused the Anabaptists to seek a more primitive and biblical church and ministry than what the Magisterial Reformers provided. This was an unfortunate flaw in the otherwise profound efforts of Calvin to purify, clarify, and systematize the truth of scriptural teaching regarding the ministry and other areas.

One cannot consider the Reformation period without describing the legacy of biblical ministry from John Knox (1514–1572). Following Calvin’s lead, Knox developed a manual for the English-speaking church of Geneva which he pastored from 1556–1559.[88] In addition, his letters and pastoral records reflect a rich understanding of commitment to preach the Word with great passion, deep interest, and care for the spiritual welfare of men.[89]

The Anabaptist Reformation

Anabaptism draws heavily on the work and influence of Luther and Zwingli in its contribution to biblical understanding of the church and its ministry. As hinted above, within the larger number known as “Anabaptists” was a smaller group whose root of faith was the Scripture, constituting them as the “true Anabaptists.”[90] This included men like Conrad Grebel (1495–1526), Michael Sattler (1490–1527), Balthasar Hubmaier (1480–1528), and Menno Simons (1496–1561). Though influenced by the theology of the magisterial reformers, these men went further in their efforts to re-institute a primitive, biblical church and ministry. In describing the nature of their ecclesiology, Bender remarks, “The Anabaptist idea of the church is derivative, based on the deeper idea of discipleship, which of course also implies an active covenanting into a brotherhood, without which discipleship could not be realized.”[91]

As a general rule, the Anabaptists rejected the idea of an invisible church, viewing the church as a voluntary association of regenerated saints. They sought to restore the idea of a primitive NT church free from magisterial entanglements. This allowed the practice of church discipline, but meant that the church did not have a right to force its views on anyone or persecute those who opposed. Friedmann identifies the following characteristics of the Anabaptist church: (1) a visible covenantal community of believers, (2) a shared brotherhood practicing brotherly love, (3) a commitment to exclusion (ban) as an act of brotherly love, (4) a church of order where members submit to authority, (5) a suffering church under the cross, (6) a church practicing voluntarism or the liberty of conscience, and (7) a church practicing the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.[92]

Within this primitive church structure, Anabaptism taught a simple ministry style. Michael Sattler described this ministry as follows:

This office [of Pastor] shall be to read, to admonish and teach, to warn, to discipline, to ban in the church, to lead out in prayer for the advancement of all the brethren and sisters, to lift up the bread when it is broken, and in all things to see to the care of the body of Christ, in order that it may be built up and developed, and the mouth of the slanderer be stopped.[93]

Conrad Grebel held a similar position in his brief but important work,[94] as did Balthasar Hubmaier—the scholar and pastor of Waldshut and Nikolsburg—in his major contribution.[95] The “Discipline of the Church,” an Anabaptist document from 1528, summarizes their position:

The elders and preachers chosen for the brotherhood shall with zeal look after the needs of the poor, and with zeal in the Lord according to the command of the Lord extend what is needed for the sake of and instead of the brotherhood (Gal 2; 2 Cor 8, 9; Rom 15; Acts 6).[96]

Timothy George reports that Menno Simons[97] said on his deathbed that nothing on earth was as precious to him as the church.[98] This well summarizes the Anabaptist commitment to the primitive church and its ministry. Many paid the ultimate price for this love.[99]

The above discussion reveals that the Reformation era refocused the church on a biblical structure for the ministry. The Magisterial Reformers made significant progress in their reformation of the church. Among the Radical Reformers are those who carried through this commitment in seeking to re-institute a consistent biblical ministry.

The Modern Period 1649—Present

The modern era has many examples of those who have sought a biblical church ministry. Some of them have drawn on the heritage of progress toward a biblical ministry by the Magisterial Reformers. The survey of this chapter can cite only a few outstanding examples of biblical ministry.

One such pastor was Richard Baxter (1615—1691), the early Puritan divine. He is best known for the book, The Reformed Pastor, which he wrote in 1656 during a nineteen-year pastorate in Kidderminister, England. The book concentrates on Acts 20:28 in developing his philosophy of ministry. He deals with the pastor’s labors, confessions, motives, constraints, and dedication. The work is profoundly deep and intensely spiritual as it flows from the heart of a humble pastor to other pastors:

I do now, in the behalf of Christ, and for the sake of his Church and the immortal souls of men, beseech all the faithful ministers of Christ, that they will presently and effectually fall upon this work….This duty hath its rise neither from us, but from the Lord, and for my part…tread me in the dirt.[100]

The larger Puritan movement advanced the church through its clear focus on the Word of God. Though never becoming a distinct and unified denomination, the Puritans nevertheless exerted considerable influence on many others. Anglicanism labeled most English Puritans nonconformists, yet the British Puritans were unable to establish their own churches as American Puritans were able to. Even in America, though, they identified with various denominations rather than forming their own church. Leland Ryken concludes:

There was, to be sure, a theoretical Puritan consensus on most issues involving worship and the theory of what a church is. Puritanism also bequeathed at least one permanent legacy, the phenomenon of a “gathered church” separate from the state and with an accompanying proliferation of independent churches.[101]

Ryken identifies several important aspects of the Puritan concept of the church. First, calling the extravagance and elaborate tradition in the church an inadequate authority for religious belief, Puritans reasserted the primacy of the Word, resorting to the “strongest control at their disposal, the Bible. They vowed to limit all church polity and worship practices to what could be directly based on statements or procedures found in the Bible.”[102] Second, Puritans viewed the church as a “spiritual reality.” “It is not impressive buildings or fancy clerical vestments. It is instead the company of the redeemed,” dissociated from any particular place. Certain activities and relationships—including preaching, sacraments, discipline, and prayer—define the church.[103]

Third, The Puritans elevated the lay person’s role in the church and participation in worship. Many Puritans gravitated toward either Presbyterian or Congregational polity which provided for lay responsibility within each congregation in choosing ministers.[104] Fourth, the Puritans embraced simplicity in various parts of worship. These included, orderly and clear organization, curbed ceremony and ritual, simplified church architecture and furnishings, simplified church music, simplification of the sacraments, and a clearly defined goal of worship.[105]

In this very biblical church setting the teaching and practice of true ministry was commonplace. The Puritan pastor was to preach, to minister the sacraments, and to pray. Preaching was primary, but closely associated was a godly life.[106] In his “Of the Calling of the Ministry,” William Perkins (1558–1602) describes the minister as first, an “Angel” or “Messenger of God”—that is, the “Messenger of the Lord of Hosts” to the people. He is, second, an “Interpreter”—that is, “one who is able to deliver aright the reconciliation, made betwixt God and man.” “Every minister is a double Interpreter, God’s to the people and the people’s to God.”[107] To this he adds the necessity of being a “godly minister,” and urges men to dedicate their sons to this, the highest office:

For the Physician’s care for the body, or the Lawyer’s care for the cause, are both inferior duties to this of the Minister. A good Lawyer may be one of ten, a good Physician one of twenty, a good man one of 100, but a good Minister is one of 1000. A good Lawyer may declare the true state of thy cause, a Physician may declare the true state of the body: No calling, no man can declare unto thee thy righteousness, but a true minister.[108]

This same pastoral perspective of Perkins characterized many future Puritans after him. “The great names of the Puritan era, John Owen, Thomas Brooks, Richard Sibbes, Robert Bolton, Thomas Manton, Thomas Goodwin and William Gurnal, all adopted this pastoral perspective in their writing of theology.”[109] The colorful ministry of William Tennent and his Log College in Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, is also worthy of note.[110]

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), known so well as a profound philosopher and theologian, was also a pastor. He wrote,

More especially is the uniting of a faithful minister with a particular Christian people as their pastor, when done in a due manner, like a young man marrying a virgin….The minister joyfully devoting himself to the service of his Lord in the work of the ministry, as a work that he delights in, and also joyfully uniting himself to the society of the saints that he is set over…and they, on the other hand, joyfully receiving him as a precious gift of their ascended Redeemer.[111]

Westra states that Edwards knew the biblical name Jonathan meant “Jehovah’s gift” and

prayerfully dedicated himself to being “Jehovah’s gift” to the souls of his care; he did so wholeheartedly convinced that a faithful minister as a means of grace can be “the greatest blessing of anything in the world that ever God bestows on a people.”[112]

One needs only to read the Puritans to see that they provide some of the finest pastoral theology of the modern period.

After the Puritan era, Charles Bridges (1794–1869), a pastor in England for 52 years, wrote his respected The Christian Ministry. He combined a deep and accurate knowledge of Scripture with great spirituality and humility to produce a classic work worthy of careful reading. In a word, he feels that the “sum of our whole labor in this kind is to honor God, and to save men.”[113]

Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892), primarily known for his preaching rather than his daily functions in the pastorate, taught his students the principles of preaching;[114] nevertheless, he viewed the ministry as centered around serving the spiritual needs of his people. He wrote, “Ministers are for churches, and not churches for ministers.”[115] Significantly, the controversies surrounding Spurgeon’s ministry have everything to do with the application of his theology to pastoral duties, such as to evangelism in particular or philosophy of ministry in general.[116]

Nineteenth-century pastors, including G. Campbell Morgan (1863–1945)[117] and missionary Roland Allen (1868–1947), provided other important examples of faithful ministry.[118] The long teaching ministry of Benjamin B. Warfield (1851–1921) at Princeton Theological Seminary (1887–1921) was a great positive influence in promoting biblical ministry.[119]

Since the twentieth century began, theological liberalism has found its way into every major denomination and replaced the passion for biblical ministry in many instances with an agenda of the social gospel.[120] The rise of New Evangelicalism[121] in 1958, with it intentional accommodation of error, along with its subsequent tributaries[122] into pragmatic ministry, was another step away from biblical ministry.[123] Much true biblical ministry in recent years occurs in smaller denominations or churches which have continued the Free Church tradition.[124] The nature of such ministry is obscure and often difficult to identify because of a lack of adequate documentation.

During the last half of the twentieth century, several prominent examples of biblical ministry are worthy of note. The unusual way God has used these men is the reason for citing them. It is not that they have been the only ones.

One prime example is D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1939–1981). Lloyd-Jones was well respected as an expository preacher, but he was also a devoted and faithful pastor. His biography is full of examples of both preaching and shepherding.[125] He was first a preacher, advocating the irreplaceability of biblical preaching, a right relationship with the congregation (the pew is never to dictate the message, but the preacher must listen to his people), and an adequate preparation of the preacher in all areas.[126] He also had a reputation as a pastoral counselor. Murray records, “Next to the pulpit, Dr. Lloyd-Jones throughout his ministry was constantly engaged in seeking to help individuals.”[127] Interestingly, he viewed people as in need of spiritual rather than psychological help.[128] Besides, Lloyd-Jones was a pastor to pastors as he sought to instill in them what God had taught him.[129]

Another example of biblical ministry is that of Jay Adams, long-time professor at Westminster Theological Seminary and a pastor. Adams has contributed greatly to current understanding of biblical ministry in several areas. In each case he has built his understanding of pastoral theology firmly on his biblical and exegetical theology. His first major focus was counseling where he developed a biblical model of “Nouthetic Counseling”—note the Greek word noutheteō—and emphasizing the need to confront sin with biblical teaching.[130] He has also developed a series of textbooks on pastoral theology, covering pastoral life, pastoral counseling, and pastoral leadership. The foundation of all these is his firm commitment to sound biblical theology.[131] He has written,

The directions that one’s practical activities take, the norms by which he operates and the motivation behind what he does must emerge from a biblical theological study of the Scriptures. The pursuit of Practical Theology, therefore, must be seen as the study and application of the biblical means of expressing one’s theology.[132]

In recent years, Adams has devoted his thinking to biblical preaching and its importance in ministry.[133] All his teachings have had a profound effect in redirecting ministry toward the biblical pattern.

Another important example of biblical ministry is John MacArthur, Jr. MacArthur defines the term “Shepherdology” as (1) the study of shepherding, (2) the science of leading a flock, (3) a method of biblical church leadership.[134] He develops this term by understanding all ministry to flow from the teaching of Scripture.[135] The book The Anatomy of the Church represents a significant contribution to a biblical philosophy of ministry in defining the church as (1) the skeletal structure—unalterable doctrines or non-negotiable truths; (2) the internal systems—proper spiritual attitudes; (3) the muscles—spiritual activities which include preaching and teaching, worship, discipleship, shepherding, and fellowship; and (4) the head—the person and work of Christ.[136] This model has become the basis for biblical ministry in many churches. MacArthur is continuing to contribute significant works challenging the church not to drift away from the truth. The most significant of these compares the Down-Grade controversy of Spurgeon’s day to the pragmatism of many contemporary evangelical churches.[137]

His contribution is most valuable because he is a committed expositor, a theologian, and a pastor. He is one who has chosen to write and address significant issues in a way that the entire church can understand. God has used him to build a significant church in the Spurgeon tradition, then to start schools for the training of a future generation of servants and preachers and to author significant works dealing with important theological issues facing the church today.

Conclusion

This is but a brief history of biblical pastoral ministry. Such accounts are often based on those ministries whose record remains for future generations to examine. There are many faithful ministers who have also sought a biblical ministry and whose accomplishments only heaven has recorded. The future examination of each man’s ministry (1 Cor 3:13–15) and the recounting of faithful ministry for God’s glory will be a time of great rejoicing in heaven. Today’s pastors can find great encouragement and receive great challenges by examining the lives and convictions of faithful ministers of the past. May this generation and future generations of Christ’s servants commit themselves to the purest form of primitive, biblical ministry so that when history records their efforts, they may say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7, emphasis added).

Notes

1. The source of this essay is the volume entitled Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, John F. MacArthur, Jr., ed. (Dallas: Word, 1995).
2. Thomas C. Oden notes, “Pastoral theology is a special form of practical theology because it focuses on the practice of ministry, with particular attention to the systematic definition of the pastoral office and its function” (Pastoral Theology, Essentials of Ministry [San Francisco: Harper, 1982] x).
3. In early church history Christians understood “tradition” as “revelation made by God and delivered by Him to His faithful people through the mouth of His prophets and apostles.” It was something handed over, not something handed down, and was thus in accord with divine revelation. In the period since the early church, “tradition means the continuous stream of explanation and elucidation of the primitive faith, illustrating the way in which Christianity has been presented and understood in past ages. It is, that is, the accumulated wisdom of the past” (“Tradition,” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2nd ed., ed. by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone [Oxford: University Press, 1983] 1388). The latter approach to tradition has allowed much deflection from simple, primitive, biblical ministry.
4. In Franklin H. Littell, “The Concept of the Believers’ Church,” in The Concept of the Believers’ Church, ed. by James Leo Garrett, Jr. (Scottdale: Herald, 1969), 27–32, the author delineates at least six basic principles or marks of the “Believer’s Church” which represent common themes in various churches. They include (1) the Believers’ Church, although outwardly constituted by volunteers, is Christ’s church and not theirs; (2) membership in the Believers’ Church is voluntary and witting (done deliberately); (3) the principle of separation from “the world” is basic, although it has often been misinterpreted; (4) mission and witness are key concepts for the Believer’s Church, and all members are involved; (5) internal integrity and church discipline are stressed; and (6) the proper concept of the secular in relationship to the sacred. The primary example of an application of this last theme is to a state church in which government attempts to control all ideology and thinking, thus limiting human liberty.
5. Franklin Hamlin Littell, The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism (New York: Macmillan, 1964) xvii.
6. Littell, “Concept” 25–26.
7. Marc Mueller, “What is History” (unpublished chapel lecture, The Master’s Seminary, Sun Valley, CA, Feb 16, 1989), 5.
8. E.g., Derek J. Tidball, Skillful Shepherds: An Introduction to Pastoral Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986) 18.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Note the divergence of views as reflected in Louis Berkhoff’s development of the doctrine of the church (The History of Christian Doctrines [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, n.d.] 227–41).
12. Oden, Pastoral Theology 311.
13. Tidball, Skillful Shepherds 54.
14. See Leon Morris, Testaments of Love: A Study of Love in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 8–100; also Norman Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (New York: Schocken, 1964), 131–42.
15. The Hebrew wordחֶסֶד (ḥesed) has been variously translated with meanings such as “mercy, love, loyal love, unfailing love, constant love, strong, faithful love, lovingkindness” (Morris, Testaments of Love 66–7). The ḥesed or mercy of God as He covenants with His people to love them and to be faithful to that love always is a rich and profound study that furnishes important insight into true pastoral activity (see Nelson Glueck, Hesed in the Bible [New York: KTAV, 1975]; see also Snaith, Distinctive Ideas 94–130).
16. J. B. Lightfoot, “The Christian Ministry,” in Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1953) 196-201. Though Lightfoot himself became Bishop of Durham in 1879 and remained strongly committed to the Anglican tradition, his work remains of primary significance in understanding primitive church ministry and subsequent embellishments in church history.
17. Ibid., 95-99, 193–96. Both biblical and early patristic data support this conclusion (see John Gill, Body of Divinity [reprint, Atlanta: Lassetter, 1965] 863-64; A. E. Harvey, “Elders,” JTS ns 25 [1974]:326.
18. See Lightfoot, Philippians 195.
19. Adolph Harnack, History of Dogma (Boston: Roberts, 1897) 2:77.
20. William A. Clebsch and Charles R. Jaekle, Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective (New York: Harper, 1967), 11–31; cf. also Carl A. Volz, “The Pastoral Office in the Early Church,” Word and World 9 (1989):359-66; Theron D. Price, “The Emergence of the Christian Ministry,” RevExp 46 (1949):216-38; B. H. Streeter, The Primitive Church (New York: Macmillan, 1929); T. W. Manson, The Church’s Ministry (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1948).
21. Hans Von Campenhausen, Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the First Three Centuries (Stanford: Stanford Press, 1969) 149-77. He describes this process as the apostolic teaching and traditional teaching “taking in more and more material, historical, legal, and dogmatic” (151).
22. The hierarchy of bishop, presbyter, and deacon became known as the “threefold ministry.” As an endorsement of the doctrine of “apostolic succession,” these layers of authority furnished the groundwork for the Papacy (see Dom Gregory Dix, “The Ministry in the Early Church,” in The Apostolic Ministry, ed. by Kenneth E. Kirk [London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1946] 183-304, esp 186–91).
23. Ibid., 177. See also Fenton John Anthony Hort, The Christian Ecclesia (London: Macmillan, 1914), 224.
24. See Benjamin B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955) 52-68.
25. Polycarp, “Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians,” 6, in J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers (London: Macmillan, 1926) 179.
26. Clement of Alexandria, “The Stromata, or Miscellanies,” vi:xiii, vii:vii, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 2:504, 535.
27. Ibid., vi:xiii, 505. Though Clement mentions the threefold ministry, he does emphasize it or call attention to a special authority of bishop.
28. “Origen against Celsus,” v:xxxiii, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982) 4:557–58.
29. Cyprian, “The Epistles of Cyprian,” Epistle lxviii:8, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981) 5:374–5; cf. also Cyprian, “The Treatises of Cyprian,” Treatises, i:5–6, ibid., 5:5–6.
30. St. Chrysostom, “Treaties concerning the Christian Priesthood,” A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. by Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) FS IX:25–83.
31. Ibid., 64.
32. Ibid., 64-65. See Tidball’s excellent description of John Chrysostom in Skillful Shepherds, 154–63.
33. Note Chrysostom’s statements about reclusion, ibid., 74–77. Monasticism began with Antony of Egypt just before Chrysostom’s time.
34. Augustine, “Letters of Saint Augustine,” Letter xxi:1, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. by Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans) FS 1:237.
35. See Joseph B. Bernardin, “St Augustine the Pastor,” in A Companion to the Study of St. Augustine, ed. by Roy W. Battenhouse (New York: Oxford, 1955) 57-89.
36. Augustine, The City of God, Book 1 in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. by Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 2:1.
37. Gunnar Westin, The Free Church through the Ages (Nashville: Broadman, 1958) 9.
38. Ibid., 1-8.
39. Jaroslav Pelikan (The Growth of Medieval Theology [600-1300], vol. 3 of The Christian Tradition [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978] 3:17–18) writes, “The quality that marked Augustine and the other orthodox fathers was their loyalty to the received tradition. The apostolic anathema pronounced against anyone, even ‘an angel from heaven,’ who preached ‘a gospel contrary to that which you have received’ by tradition was, as in the East so also in the West, a prohibition of any kind of theological novelty…. One definition of heretics could be ‘those who now take pleasure in making up new terminology for themselves and who are not content with the dogma of the holy fathers.’“
40. See the discussion by Westin, Free Church 9–23; see also, E. H. Broadbent, The Pilgrim Church (London: Pickering and Inglis, 1931), 10–48; Donald F. Durnbaugh, The Believers’ Church (New York: Macmillan Company, 1968) 3-40.
41. Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, in History of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968) 3:365, cf. also 366–70.
42. See W. H. C. Frend, The Donatist Church, A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa (Oxford: Clarendon, 1952) 315-32.
43. Gregory the Great, “The Book of Pastoral Rule,” in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church ed. by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) SS 12.
44. Roland H. Bainton, “The Ministry in the Middle Ages,” in The Ministry in Historical Perspectives, ed. by Richard Niebuhr and Daniel D. Williams (New York: Harper, 1956) 98.
45. Ibid., 86.
46. Ernest A. Payne, “The ministry in historical Perspective,” The Baptist Quarterly 17 (1958):260-61.
47. Note the easy use of the term “heretic” even by evangelical historians, e.g., J. D. Douglas, The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978). The issue of perspective is always relevant when charging someone with being a heretic.
48. Bainton, “Historical Perspective” 108.
49. The Key of Truth, a Manual of the Paulican Church of Armenia, ed. by Fred. C. Conybeare (Oxford: Clarendon, 1898) 76-77, 106–11.
50. Ibid., 112.
51. Peter Allix, Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont (Oxford: Clarendon, 1891) 238 f.
52. See “Waldenses” in Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties and Schools of Religious Thought, ed. by John Henry Blunt (London: Longmans, 1891) 616-21; cf. also W. Jones, The History of the Waldenses (1816), 2 vols.
53. Peter Allix, Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of the Albigenses, new ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1821) 207.
54. John Wycliffe, cited in Documents of the Christian Church, ed. by Henry Bettenson (London: Oxford, 1963) 173-75.
55. Wyclif, Select English Writings, ed. by Herbert E. Winn (London: Oxford, 1929) 41, 68.
56. John Wyclif, “On the Pastoral Office,” in The Library of Christian Classics: Advocates of Reform, ed. by Matthew Spinka (London: SCM, 1953) 32, 48. In this discussion Wycliffe speaks of the primitive church and its importance on several occasions (e.g., 40).
57. John Huss, cited by E. H. Gillett, The Life and Times of John Huss; or the Bohemian Reformation of the Fifteenth Century (Boston: Gould, 1864) 1:285.
58. Ibid., 1:248.
59. Ibid.
60. Matthew Spinka, John Hus, A Biography (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968) 19. See also, Matthew Spinka, John Hus’ Concept of the Church (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966). On Simony (1413), and On the Church (1415) are among Huss’ own works.
61. See S. L. Greenslade, The Works of William Tyndale (London: Blackie, 1938) 181-96. Tyndale’s statements are in sharp contrast to those of his late-Medieval contemporaries; see Dennis D. Martin, “Popular and Monastic Pastoral Issues in the Later Middle Ages,” Church History 56 (1987):320-32.
62. See Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform 1250–1550, an Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe (New Haven: Yale, 1980) xi-xii, 1–21; Heiko A. Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967); idem, The Dawn of the Reformation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992) 1-83.
63. Littel has a good development of this important distinction in Sectarian Protestantism, xvii-xviii, 65–66, 73. Philip Schaff writes, “The Reformers aimed to reform the old Church by the Bible; the Radicals attempted to build a new Church from the Bible. The former maintained the historic continuity; the latter went directly to the apostolic age, and ignored the intervening centuries as an apostasy. The Reformers founded a popular state-church, including all citizens with their families; the Anabaptists organized on the voluntary principle, select congregations of baptized believers, separated from the world and from the State” (History of The Christian Church, Modern Christianity, The Swiss Reformation [reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969] 8:71).
64. George Huntston Williams, Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers, vol. XXV of The Library of Christian Classics (London: SCM, 1957) 19.
65. Ibid., 19. This distinguished Harvard scholar further develops the same distinction and the term “Magisterial Reformation” in George H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962) xxiii-xxxi. See also Roland Bainton, “The Left Wing of the Reformation,” Journal of Religion 21 (1941):127.
66. Ibid., 22. See also Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Modern Christianity, The German Reformation (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967) 7:607.
67. Williams, Radical Reformation xxiv; cf. also, Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers (Nashville: Broadman, 1988) 98.
68. See R. L. Omanson, “The Church,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984) 231.
69. Williams notes this regulatory principle in The Radical Reformation xxvii. See also: Francois Wendel, Calvin (New York: Harper and Row, 1963) 301-2.
70. Gordon Rupp, The Righteousness of God, Luther Studies (London: Hodder, 1953) 310-28.
71. Martin Luther, “An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate,” in Three Treatises (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1947) 9-44, 47, 98.
72. George, Theology 86–98.
73. Rupp, Righteousness of God 322.
74. Martin Luther, “Concerning the Ministry” (1523), in Luther’s Works, Church and Ministry, ed. by Conrad Bergendoff, gen. ed. Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1958) 40:21–29.
75. Martin Luther, “Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony” (1528), in Luther’s Works, Church and Ministry 40:269–320.
76. Tidball, Skillful Shepherds 184,
77. Martin Bucer, “De Regno Christi,” Melanchthon and Bucer, in The Library of Christian Classics, ed. by Wilhelm Pauck (London: SCM, 1969) 19:232–59.
78. Ibid., 235.
79. For an excellent development of this side of Calvin, see, W. Stanford Reid, “John Calvin, Pastoral Theologian,” The Reformed Theological Review 42 (1982):65-73. Cf. also Jim van Zyl, “John Calvin the Pastor,” The Way Ahead (a paper read to the 1975 Carey Conference, Haywards Heath: Carey, 1975) 69-78.
80. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, in The Library of Christian Classics, vols. 20–21, ed. by John T. McNeill, trans. and indexed by Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960) iv:1:1 (21:1011–12).
81. Ibid., iv:1:4 (21:1016).
82. Reid, “John Calvin” 65–66.
83. See George, Theology 235–49; cf. also, John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism (New York: Oxford, 1954) 214-21; John Calvin, Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Advice, trans. by Mary Beaty and Benjamin W. Farley (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991).
84. John Calvin, The Epistle of Paul to Titus, in Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, ed. by David W. Torrance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964) 361.
85. John Calvin, The First and Second Epistles of Paul The Apostle to Timothy, in ibid., 314.
86. Note the excellent work of Harro Hopfl, The Christian Polity of John Calvin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
87. Paul Woolley, “Calvin and Toleration,” in The Heritage of John Calvin (Grand Rapids: Calvin College and Seminary, 1973) 138, 156.
88. John Knox, “The Form of Prayers and Ministration of the Sacraments, Used in the English Congregation at Geneva, 1556,” in The Works of John Knox, ed. by David Laing (Edinburgh: James Thin, 1895) 4:141–216.
89. W. Stanford Reid, “John Knox, Pastor of Souls,” WTJ 40 (1977):20-21.
90. Note the classifications of Littell, Origins 163, and Williams, Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers 28–31.
91. Harold S. Bender, “The Anabaptist Theology of Discipleship,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 23 (1950):26; see also Harold S. Bender, The Anabaptist Vision (Scottdale: Herald, 1944).
92. Robert Friedmann, The Theology of Anabaptism (Scottdale: Herald, 1973) 122-43.
93. “The Schleitheim Confession, 1527,” in William Lumpkin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Valley Forge: Judson, 1969) 22-30.
94. Harold Bender, Conrad Grebel c. 1498–1526 (Goshen: Mennonite Historical Society, 1950) 204-8.
95. Balthasar Hubmaier, Theologian of Anabaptism, trans. and ed. by H. Wayne Pipkin and John H. Yoder (Scottdale: Herald, 1989) 386-425. A careful study of these writings reveals his deep commitment to sound preaching as well as strong pastoral commitment.
96. “Discipline of the Church: How a Christian Ought to Live (October, 1527),” in Anabaptist Beginnings (1523–1533), ed. by William R. Estep (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1976) 128.
97. In a letter to Gellius Faber on the church and it ministry, Menno offers the following signs of the church: (1) the unadulterated doctrine of the divine Word, (2) the Scriptural use of the sacraments, (3) the obedience to the Word of God, (4) the unfeigned love of one’s neighbor, (5) the confident confession of Christ, and (6) the bearing of Christ’s testimony in persecution (Menno Simons, “Reply to Gellius Faber,” The Complete Writings of Menno Simons [Scottdale: Herald Press, 1956] 739-41).
98. George, Theology 285.
99. William R. Estep (The Anabaptist Story [Nashville: Broadman, 1963]) gives a fair account of many Anabaptists persecutions.
100. Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (London: Epworth, 1939) 58.
101. Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints, The Puritans As They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986) 112.
102. Ibid., 112-13.
103. Ibid., 115-16.
104. Ibid., 119, 123–24.
105. Ibid., 121-23.
106. Puritans associated theology with spirituality. See J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, the Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 1990) 11-17.
107. William Perkins, The Works of that Famous and Worthy Minister of Christ in the University of Cambridge, M. William Perkins, 3 vols. (Cambridge: 1608—1609) 3:430–31.
108. Ibid., 435-36.
109. Tidball, Skillful Shepherds 200. See also P. Lewis The Genius of Puritanism (Haywards Heath: Carey, 1975).
110. See Archibald Alexander, The Log College (reprint, London: Banner of Truth, 1968); Archibald Alexander, comp. Sermons of the Log College (reprint, Ligonier, Pa: Soli Deo Gloria, n.d.).
111. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols. (reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974) 2:19–20.
112. Helen Westra, “Jonathan Edwards and the scope of Gospel Ministry,” Calvin Theological Journal 22 (1987):68; cf. also Edwards, Works 2:960.
113. Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry (reprint, London: Banner of Truth, 1959) 8.
114. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954).
115. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The All Around Ministry (reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1960) 256.
116. Iain H. Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1966) 45-46, 99–101, 153–65.
117. G. Campbell Morgan, The Ministry of the Word (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919), and Jill Morgan, A Man of the Word, Life of G. Campbell Morgan (New York: Revell, 1951).
118. He is especially known for his works on indigenization of missions, see Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church (London: World Dominion, 1960).
119. Benjamin B. Warfield, “The Indispensableness of Systematic Theology to the Preacher,” in Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield—II, ed. by John E. Meeter (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1973) 280-88. He writes, “Systematic Theology is, in other words, the preacher’s true text-book” (228).
120. See B. J. Longfield, “Liberalism/Modernism, Protestant (c. 1870s—1930s),” in Dictionary of Christianity in America, ed. by Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990) 646-48.
121. Edward John Carnell, The Case for Orthodox Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1959), and Roland Nash, The New Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963) 13-17.
122. See Richard Quebedeaux, The Young Evangelicals, Revolution in Orthodoxy (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), and Richard Quebedeaux, The Worldly Evangelicals (New York: Harper and Row, 1977).
123. See John F. MacArthur, Jr., Ashamed of the Gospel, When the Church Becomes Like the World (Wheaton: Crossway, 1993). See also John F. MacArthur, Jr., Our Sufficiency in Christ (Dallas: Word, 1991).
124. See Ernest A. Payne, Free Churchmen, Unrepentant and Repentant (London: Carey, 1965).
125. Iain H. Murray, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The First Forty Years, 1899–1939 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1982), and Iain H. Murray, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Fight of Faith, 1939–1981 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1990).
126. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971) 26, 143, 165.
127. Murray, Fight of Faith 403.
128. Ibid.
129. Ibid., 697-713.
130. Jay Adams, Competent to Counsel (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1970) 41-50. Behind this approach is a solid theological foundation, xi-xxii. Adams also draws from the presuppositional apologetics of Cornelius Van Til, The Defence of the Faith (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1955).
131. Jay E. Adams, Shepherding God’s Flock (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986) 1.
132. Ibid, 2.
133. Jay E. Adams, Preaching with Purpose (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982) xiii, 114.
134. John F. MacArthur, Jr. Shepherdology, A Master Plan for Church Leadership (Panorama City: The Master’s Fellowship, 1989) 3. This is now available in a revised edition entitled The Master’s Plan for the Church (Chicago: Moody, 1991).
135. Ibid., 3-5.
136. Ibid., 9-64.
137. MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel xi-xx. See also John MacArthur, Our Sufficiency in Christ 25–43.