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The Inner Man of Pastors: Six Glimpses into God’s Design
“Men cannot do the one thing most necessary and most miraculous in our existence . . .”
It’s an arresting claim, and warranted. And all of us, women and men, congregants and pastors, mothers and fathers, will do well to take note. So, what is this most necessary and miraculous ability?
The author, pastor Kevin DeYoung, continues,
Men . . . will not nurture life in the womb; they will not give birth to the propagation of the species; they will not nurse an infant from their own flesh.
Women have wombs. Men do not. And it’s no isolated feature, but one of the most stubborn, obvious manifestations of the glorious God-designed differences between men and women that run from head to toe, from physiology to psychology. First, God had his design and plan, then he built men and women accordingly. That is, with their shared and complementary callings in view, God constructed the first man and later his wife. And his design and building of men and women is not limited to their bodies, but extends, fittingly, to their psyches, or souls.
With the bodily ability to gestate, give birth to, and nourish new human life comes natural domestic proclivities and graces. With men’s taller, stronger, faster, womb-less bodies comes a kind of steadiness. Men do not experience in their own bodies the glorious interruptions of periods and pregnancy and childbirth and nursing. God designed men to venture out first from the home, to shoulder the greater risks, to bear the heavier burdens of protection and provision, and when necessary to engage in combat. Technology might give us guns to equalize women’s bodies against men, but technology cannot alter the God-fixed capacities of the soul, whether for war or for being mom.
God built women, not men, to be mothers. And God built men, not women, to be pastors. And this line of work — unlike athletics, farming, and war — puts the emphasis especially on the soul.
Souls of Grown Men
Fitted to the man’s calling, God built men’s souls with particular capacities to rise to external challenges, address community-wide obstacles, make personal sacrifices for the good of the whole family and society, draw other men into the mission, and think for, care for, provide for, and protect the whole for the long haul. God made the souls of men to rise to the severest of threats, endure the sharpest of criticisms, and bear up, sometimes for painfully long seasons, under great duress. And to raise a hand, or sword, against a foe, not for sport but for the safety of family and friends.
If someone responds, “Well, I know all sorts of men whose inner person does not seem to be rugged and resilient; I know men who are manifestly more weak-souled than their wives,” my answer would be, Of course, I know of them as well. But men who are immature and ill-formed, due to sin, are not examples of divine design (or models to follow). The fact remains: God made men with the particular capacity to rise to this calling. Not all women yet have enough maturity of their female psyche to be worthy mothers, but that doesn’t mean that a mature man should try to be mom. Nor that mature women should try to be pastors.
In saying “the particular capacity to rise to this calling,” we note the plasticity of men’s souls (that is, their minds, emotions, and wills) to grow and develop over time, and in doing so become more masculine, and fit to their calling. God made men for this, but they don’t come turnkey. As the body needs growth and conditioning, so too the inner man needs forming.
Glimpses of a Manly Soul
Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 serves as a remarkable window — from one mature man, and apostle, to a team of mature men, and local church elders — into how God built men to be pastors. Consider six such glimpses of the mature man’s inner man in Paul’s charge to the pastors.
1. Self-Sacrifice for the Whole Flock
We see Paul’s own self-sacrifice in his willingness, even eagerness, to risk his life “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24), as well as in his expending his own time, energy, and strength in “working hard” to “help the weak” (Acts 20:35). Paul gives of himself; he pours out his own life to give life to others. He expects the same of the elders.
“Good mothers sacrifice themselves for their children; good men sacrifice themselves for women and children, and other men.”
Now, mothers do this too, for their children. It is not self-sacrifice that is uniquely masculine but self-sacrifice for the whole, or as Paul says in verse 28 for “all the flock.” God designed an order to the self-sacrifice that gives and sustains life among his people. We rightly do not expect women to sacrifice themselves for men. Good mothers sacrifice themselves for their children; good men sacrifice themselves for women and children, and for other men. And the self-sacrifice of men for the whole flock, according to nature, empowers women to self-sacrifice for their children.
2. Public Teaching of the Whole Flock
Today we often focus on the glory of public teaching, on the platform, in the moment, but overlook the immediate and long-term costs to the faithful public preaching and teaching of God’s word.
Again, that important phrase “all the flock” is in view. We are not talking here about all teaching. In some sense, all Christians teach (Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 5:12). And mature women teach — specifically, younger women to their children, and older women to the younger women (Titus 2:3–5), as well as men in private settings (Acts 18:26). But the public teaching of “all the flock” — including women, children, and fellow men — God expects of men. And he designed their souls specifically with the capacity to grow into this mantle, and take the criticisms that come with it, and endure in it, even thrive in it, not for a moment or spurts but over time. Which relates to the next glimpse.
3. Declare Hard Words and Call for Repentance
Such public teaching of God’s word, while appearing to be mainly privilege to some eyes, can be a heavy burden and responsibility — that is, when preaching “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) and not just the parts that go down easy in this generation. Twice in Acts 20 (verses 20–21 and 27) Paul testifies to “not shrinking from declaring” because he felt a real temptation to shrink back. How many pastors today, tragically, do shrink from declaring God’s “whole counsel”?
But God built the souls of men to be able to rise to such a burden, and gladly bear the weight of publicly, courageously, and carefully declaring hard words (Acts 20:20) — and calling for repentance (Acts 20:21). Elsewhere Paul refers to such exhorting and charging as fatherly, rather than motherly. In 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Paul speaks of his motherly heart for the church and eagerness to give his own self to nurse it. Then just two sentences later, he mentions his words of challenge as fatherly: “like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:11–12).
Lest we fall into narrow stereotypes, both the beginning and end of Paul’s speech (Acts 20:18–19, 36–28) are not ruggedly masculine (in caricature) but express virtues that many might think of as more feminine. He mentions serving “with tears” while among them, and kneels to pray with them, weeps with them, and receives their embraces and kisses — and then, in a more manifestly masculine act, the pastors accompany their dearly loved brother to the ship to send him off to the certain conflict and suffering that await.
Christianity is a teaching movement, requiring its pastors and elders to say clearly what it is and is not, what it espouses and does not, what are its ethics and not. That requires the cutting of distinct, sharp lines on the issues that are most offensive and embattled in every age. The setting of such boundaries is masculine work — not that women are unable to do it, but God built the souls of men to rise to this, and thrive in this, over the long haul.
4. Persist in Daily Vigilance
Acts 20 is one place, among others (2 Timothy 4:2, 5), where the apostles call for particular alertness, daily vigilance, and “not ceasing night or day” in the formal leaders of the church. “Be alert,” Paul says in Acts 20:31, “remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.” While calling all the flock to readiness for his return, Christ himself acknowledged the challenges to being “always ready” that come with the glorious dynamics of childbearing (“Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!” Matthew 24:19; Mark 13:17; Luke 21:23).
God chose to couple glorious dynamics of body and soul with the rhythms of pregnancy, birth, and nursing. And in complement to these dynamics, God designed men’s bodies and souls for steady-state, less dynamic persistence. We might even say, “the far more boring” bodies and souls of men — leading to a fifth glimpse.
5. Combat Wolves Without and Within
God built men with bodies and souls primed to be conditioned for combat. Note well: training is required. Just because a man is grown doesn’t mean he is ready for battle. Strength, skill, and stamina need development. Combat makes requirements of the body and psyche. And men need to learn when to attack (and not), and whom to combat (and not), and how to attack (and not), as well as ready themselves for the emotional toll of war.
Paul warned the Ephesian pastors that wolves were coming for their flock — from without and from within. “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29–30). God made the souls of men in particular to rise to the unpleasant and essential work of protecting the flock from wolves, with its emotional and physical costs.
Now, professing Christians and churches who do not believe in the existence of wolves — or in divine judgment and eternal hell and total depravity — will not find “combating wolves” to be a compelling reason for the calling of men to the office of pastor-elder. But Paul believed in wolves. Jesus believed in wolves (Matthew 7:15; Luke 10:3). If we take the Scriptures seriously, we too might see that the threat of false teaching, and the necessity of pastors protecting the sheep from wolves, perhaps shows plainest of all God’s building of men for the pastorate. God made men to be conditioned for this calling.
6. Embrace the Most Threatening Risks
In places where Christianity is not outlawed, and its leaders do not face immediate risks to persecution and death, we might soon forget that the church’s formal leaders are typically its first martyrs. To be an officer in the early church was less a privilege to enjoy and more a risk to embrace. The pastor-elders were marked men when persecution arose. And so it is today in some places in the world.
God made men to put themselves forward as enemy targets, to be the ones who take not only the lash of criticism but also the first literal lashes of persecution when they come.
We glimpse such holy masculinity in the apostle when he declares, “Now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me” (Acts 20:22–23). Many valiant Christian women have risen to, and would rise to, embrace persecution for the name of Christ. And God built men, and pastors in particular, to put themselves forward for the first attacks.
Give It Time
We could name other distinctively masculine traits, even in Acts 20, but let’s leave it at six for now, and conclude with just a brief word about ability, which is often a flashpoint in these discussions. Some today are quick to emphasize what some women are able to do, and often better than some men: women can take risks, women can take initiative, women can teach in public, women can say hard things and address error and call for repentance, women can embrace suffering for the name of Christ and good of his church.
“Preaching is not for all men, nor for most men, but this work and calling is for men.”
Such discussions often have a momentary focus: in any given moment, a woman can prep and give a sermon, take on a threat, confront an error. But what’s typically lacking is the broadening of our considerations from what’s possible in a moment to what’s fitting for the long haul. She may well be able to do what’s required of pastors in a day, or for a few weeks or months, perhaps even a few years, but will she really do it ably, and thrive, with joy, for years, for decades, for a lifetime? Is it fitting to her nature as God designed it?
God built the souls of men with the capacities to rise to the calling of the pastor-elders, and even thrive in it, over the long haul. Pastoring is not for all men, nor even for most men, but this work and calling is for men. Long before Christ put it in the mouths of his apostles, he wove it into the fabric of his creation, including our bodies and souls. And if we don’t find nature’s teaching convincing enough, that’s no grounds for overturning Scripture’s.
God built men to be pastors.
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That Kind of Happy: The Wide Eyes of a Psalm 1 Man
When I applied for seminary, I had the naive notion that I would graduate (after just four years) having essentially mastered the Bible. I knew, of course, that I would keep reading it for the rest of my life, even daily, but I figured by then I would be brushing up on what I’d already seen, not hiking up the mountain anymore.
Less than a week into my first semester, that naive notion mercifully crashed, took on water, and drowned. And from its grave, a new hunger emerged, a happy realization that I would never exhaust this book, that if I kept reading, I would see more year by year, not less. Not only could I not master this book in four years, but I came to see that I couldn’t in forty years — or four hundred, for that matter, if God gave me centuries. No, my time in seminary was a serious education in how to be gladly mastered by the Book, ready to be awakened, chastened, exhorted, and thrilled by it for as long as I live.
The iceberg on which my naivete sweetly crashed and sank was one of the happiest men I’ve ever met, a pastor who has served for decades, and devoted many of those years to teaching naive men like me to study, live, and teach the word of God. Now a decade removed from seminary, I firmly believe that nothing I learned was more valuable than witnessing, week after week, a humble, joyful, wide-eyed Tom Steller open the Bible with us.
That Kind of Happy
By the time I started seminary, I had memorized Psalm 1:1–2, but meeting Pastor Tom brought two of the words in particular into fuller, more tangible life: blessed and delight.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Walking through Scripture with Pastor Tom, verse by verse, even phrase by phrase, was like tasting honey for the first time. When King David says that the rules of the Lord are “sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb,” we know that honey is sweet, even if we’ve never had any. But actually tasting honey for ourselves makes a verse like Psalm 19:10 really sing. That’s what happened as I watched Tom Steller savor Ephesians. He was (and is!) the blessed man, and his delight in the word was nearly tangible. He’s that kind of happy.
“He treasured what he saw far more than how he might be seen.”
Who knows how many times he had been through Ephesians in his life? And this wasn’t even his first time teaching the book. Yet he came to class expectant, on the edge of his seat, like a five-year-old just before the ice cream comes. You left class wanting to read your Bible more because you wanted to see more of what he saw, to feel what he felt, to live and pastor like he did.
That Kind of Humble
Over time, digging into chapter after chapter with Tom, we slowly uncovered the quiet secret to his joy in Bible reading: humility. Even after reading these verses for years, studying these verses for years, even teaching these verses for years, he came to class to learn — to see what he had not seen (or to correct what he thought he had seen). Don’t be mistaken, he had deep, durable convictions, but he held those convictions with an equally deep and durable humility.
No verse was too familiar. No question seemed threatening. No alternative translation or interpretation was discarded too quickly. In his fifties, he took as much or even more joy in the insights a twentysomething stumbled upon. He wanted to see everything there was to see in these chapters, and he didn’t care how he saw it or who saw it first, whether a fellow pastor or professor, one of his students, or a second grader. He treasured what he saw far more than how he might be seen.
In this rare freedom from pride, he modeled what John Piper says about supernatural, soul-stirring Bible reading:
When the Spirit works in the reading of Scripture, we are humbled, and Christ is exalted. Our old preference for self-exaltation is replaced with a passion for Christ-exaltation. This new passion is the key that throws open a thousand windows in Scripture to let in the brightness of God’s glory. (Reading the Bible Supernaturally, 248)
That’s what it was like in Tom’s classroom, flooded with light. Each week, more windows appeared, opening up some fresh and vivid view of God. Because he never assumed he’d seen it all, even in his favorite chapters and verses, he saw more than most could. And then more again the next day.
The Unblessed Man
Providentially, I met a second pastor during that first week of seminary, a retired pastor who served at the food shelf where I worked. While he was kind and generous, he and Tom were dramatically different pastors (and Christians). Getting to know them, I learned that their many and varied differences had their root in one underlying divergence.
“You left class wanting to read your Bible more because you wanted to see more of what he saw.”
One day at the food shelf, after the staff finished reading our daily chapter of the Bible together, I was talking to the retired pastor about something we read that morning. At some point in the conversation, I asked what Bible reading looked like for him at this stage of his life, imagining that retirement might afford even more time to slow down, meditate, and enjoy Scripture. I’ll never forget what he said next (and where I was sitting when he said it):
Oh, I don’t read the Bible much anymore, just the couple days I’m here at the food shelf. I’ve read it all many times before. Now that I’m retired, I can focus on other things.
Here was a man who had devoted his vocational life to Christian ministry, and yet the Bible had grown old, unappealing, even unnecessary. God himself has spoken in ink and paper and wonder, and yet somehow he’d seen enough.
While Pastor Tom woke up, day after day, to new and wider windows, this man pulled the shades. If Tom’s bright eyes were a towering lighthouse of hope and reward for an aspiring pastor, this man’s dim eyes were an ominous cloud of warning.
Minutes from the Mountains
The retired pastor incriminated himself, exposing a shameful, arrogant ignorance — and yet he’s not the stranger I wish he were. We may not say out loud what he was so willing to say, but we betray ourselves whenever we race past or rush through this book. Satan stands beside all our windows, distracting us, interrupting us, taunting us, entertaining us. His warped lenses make the oceans of Scripture look like thimbles and the lions like kittens. He turns awe-inspiring mountains into molehills.
But even at his murderous best, Satan’s fighting uphill. The brilliance and beauty of the Bible shines through even the heaviest blackout curtains. If we slow down enough to see what’s there, with the Spirit’s help, we’re just minutes from sunlight and grandeur, from reality and vitality, from hope and joy. Wisdom promises this kind of Bible reading to those who come humble and hungry:
If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:3–5)
I hope you have a Tom Steller somewhere in your life, someone who throws open windows for you in Bible reading, someone who won’t stop looking and asking and listening, someone who helps you over tall hurdles, out of deep ruts, through thick forests, someone who loves watching you see more — and seeing more through you.
And I hope you, like me, get to be his kind of happy.
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The New Pastor’s Library: My Ten Favorite Books for Ministry
What would you give to attend a conference where bygone giants of the faith — men like Richard Baxter, Charles Bridges, and Charles Spurgeon — spoke about pastoral ministry? The tickets would sell out in just seconds.
We love to consider the coming day when we will meet our favorite long-departed preachers around the throne of the Lamb. But until then, we already enjoy access to their wisdom through the body of writings they have left us. We can trust such faithful men to guide us through the voyage of pastoral ministry, for they never cease to point us to Scripture as they offer precious insights from the past. The classics are classic for a reason.
I am grateful for the wealth of resources that God has provided to aid ministers and theological students in their spiritual growth. During my lifetime, I have read almost every major classic Reformed book on pastoral ministry. If, however, I were to choose only ten books on pastoral theology to have in my library, I would pick the ten listed below.
In this list, I have reluctantly bypassed several excellent books on preaching because I wish to emphasize those works that treat pastoral ministry in general. May the Lord bless you, dear brothers, as you walk with these pastors of days past and lean on them to counsel you in “the old paths” (Jeremiah 6:16 KJV).
1. The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
The Christian Ministry is my all-time favorite treatise on pastoral ministry. In this exceptional work, Charles Bridges (1794–1869) provides a comprehensive survey of poimenics (pastoral theology) deeply steeped in scriptural faithfulness, conveying a tender fear of God flowing out of personal experience.
In this work, Bridges considers the nature of the ministry, the calling to and the qualifications for ministry, and the difficulties involved. Of particular importance is his treatment of causes for the lack of success in the ministry. He closes with a thorough outline of the minister’s pastoral and preaching labors. This work is outstanding in its biblical faithfulness, experiential warmth, and searching application. He also has an invaluable (and quite rare!) section on experiential (“experimental”) and discriminatory preaching.
No minister of the gospel should bypass this book, for it will immensely aid and enlighten him in both his personal life and his public ministry. I cannot recommend this book highly enough; I would urge you to purchase and read it before any other book on this list.
2. Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon’s (1834–1892) piety, love for Christ, insights into human nature, intense spirituality, realism, healthy sense of humor, and practical wisdom saturate every lecture in this priceless anthology. For Spurgeon, faithful preaching and pastoral ministry are simply the overflow of vibrant piety and heartfelt spirituality. Spurgeon was an experiential pastor who emphasized the union of head, heart, and hands in the Christian life and stressed vitality over method in pastoral ministry. Here, he deals with some unique topics, like posture and gestures in preaching. Some of his comments are very entertaining, but each is laced with remarkable wisdom. He is weighty and thorough, as always.
Above all, read his lectures on “The Minister’s Self-Watch,” “The Preacher’s Private Prayer,” “The Minister’s Fainting Fits,” “The Minister’s Ordinary Conversation,” “The Holy Spirit in Connection with Our Ministry,” and “The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear.” Every theological student and minister — both young and old — would benefit from reading and rereading these.
While I’m writing about Spurgeon, can I cheat a bit by making this a double selection? If so, I would encourage you to read his All-Round Ministry as well. It is packed with Spurgeonic wisdom (and sprinkled with humor), well-suited even for seasoned pastors.
3. The Christian Pastor’s Manual by John Brown
This collection of pastoral insights from John Brown (1784–1858) is the best compilation I have read on practical pastoral ministry. It features contributions from ministers such as Philip Doddridge, Abraham Booth, Isaac Watts, John Newton, and Thomas Scott. These authors investigate the character, calling, duties, difficulties, and dangers of the Christian minister.
My favorite part of the volume is John Jennings’s chapter on discriminatory and experiential preaching titled “Particular and Experimental Preaching” — a piece that ably reflects the Puritan homiletical tradition. For self-examination, young ministers can profitably peruse Isaac Watts’s “Questions Proper for Young Ministers Frequently to Put to Themselves.” This compilation offers particularly edifying reading for frequently overlooked aspects of pastoral ministry.
4. Pastoral Theology by Albert N. Martin
This magisterial three-volume set emerged from lectures that Albert Martin (1934–) delivered in the late twentieth century (1978–1998) at Trinity Ministerial Academy in New Jersey. After Pastor Martin retired and moved to Michigan, I had the privilege of encouraging him to adapt his recorded lectures into a volume on practical theology. He did even better than I hoped! After having his messages transcribed, he revised them with painstaking detail; then he flew out to New Jersey to deliver his revised and improved lectures for the final time — the sum of which filled three hefty volumes instead of one.
One need not agree with every detail of Martin’s advice to appreciate his seasoned pastoral wisdom. His seven axioms in the first volume are perhaps the best work ever done on the foundations of pastoral ministry. His work in all three volumes is engaging, practical, and comprehensive. In my view, this set is the best twenty-first-century survey of pastoral theology from a practical and historical-theological perspective. With relevance and application to contemporary life and ministry, Martin brilliantly draws from the full range of Reformation-era and Puritan theology on the pastorate. This set will become one of the most definitive pastoral theologies in the Reformed world for many years to come.
5. Lectures in Pastoral Theology by Robert James George
This three-volume set from the pen of Reformed Presbyterian minister Robert James George (1844–1911) is overshadowed perhaps only by Albert Martin’s Pastoral Theology. This work is ideal for those looking for an older, thorough pastoral theology that provides wisdom for every area of ministry. Here, George emphasizes the character, calling, and duties of ministers. He focuses as well on piety, especially in his chapter titled “Personal Acquaintance with God.” In my opinion, this is the best comprehensive work on pastoral theology written in the twentieth century.
6. Hints and Helps in Pastoral Theology by William S. Plumer
Everything of Presbyterian pastor and scholar William S. Plumer (1802–1880) is worth its weight in gold, and this book is no exception. It may not be as thorough as one could wish, but his hints and helps are invaluable to the minister. Plumer discusses topics like piety, ministerial character, evangelism, pastoral duties, assessing one’s call to missions, and what he calls the “matter” and the “manner” of preaching. This book is an excellent read.
7. Pastoral Theology by Thomas Murphy
With comprehensive scope, Thomas Murphy (1823–1900) — the erstwhile pastor of Frankford Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia — analyzes the nature, history, sources, and necessity of poimenics as a discipline. He covers the life of the pastor in the closet, study, and pulpit, as well as in shepherding, leadership, and church ministries. He also stresses the importance of piety, and provides practical directions for cultivating it through the means of grace.
8. The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter
Taking Acts 20:28 as his point of departure, Richard Baxter’s (1615–1691) work is heart-stirring, convicting, and enlightening. He sharply rebukes lukewarmness in the ministry, declaring that “a sleepy preacher will hardly awaken drowsy sinners” and exhorting the pastor to preach “as a dying man to dying men.”
The Reformed Pastor is full of memorable phrases. The last third of the book is an exhortation with practical directions for personally catechizing the congregation in pastoral visits. Above all, Baxter demonstrates that faithful care for the flock begins with the pastor’s consistent walk before God. This work is not only Richard Baxter at his best; it is Puritan poimenics at its best as well.
9. Homiletics and Pastoral Theology by William G.T. Shedd
William G.T. Shedd’s (1820–1894) volume on homiletics and pastoral theology is a historical standard and has been widely used for scores of years. In his discourses on homiletics, Shedd treats matters as varied as style, sermon choice and planning, and extemporaneous preaching. Most importantly, he considers the spiritual, intellectual, and social character of the minister. This is a basic but trustworthy guide to poimenics.
10. Pastoral Theology by Patrick Fairbairn
In my younger years, I read Patrick Fairbairn’s (1805–1874) rather dense tome with great profit. Here, he considers the nature of pastoral ministry, the call to the ministry, the life of the pastor, and the duties of the pastor, such as catechesis and visitation. Find here a timeless work from the height of nineteenth-century Scottish evangelicalism.
Take Up and Read!
Someone might peruse this list and exclaim, “What pastor has time to read ten books on pastoral theology?” As a busy pastor, seminary professor, and conference speaker, I certainly understand time limitations. So, allow me to make a suggestion: Start with just one book for this year — the first one on this list that you haven’t yet read. And then consider making it a goal to read at least one book a year on pastoral theology (aside from your other reading). If God preserves you, you really could read dozens of volumes over the course of a lifetime of ministry.
If God has called us to serve him as a minister of the gospel, we have a responsibility to develop our knowledge and gifts to be the best pastors we can be. Books give us access to the thoughts of some of the best pastors who have ever lived. Let’s take advantage of the wisdom they found in the word of God in their many trials and temptations. Take up and read!