The Pastor's First Love

Donald N. Bastian

Description

Wise and practical essays on the pastor as shepherd, preacher, worship leader, and professional

Sujets

• Contemporary worship
• Shepherding
• Professional
• Pragmatism
• Worship
• Pastor
• Shepherd
• Pastoral
• Essay
• Preacher
• Profession

Informations

• Publié par: BPS Books
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781927483503
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE PASTOR’S
FIRST
LOVE
THE PASTOR’S
FIRST
LOVE
And Other Essays on a High and Holy Calling
Donald N. Bastian
Copyright © 2013 by Donald N. Bastian
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in 2013 by BPS Books Toronto & New York bpsbooks.com A division of Bastian Publishing Services Ltd.
Paperback ISBN 978-1-927483-46-6 ePDF ISBN 978-1-927483-49-7 ePub ISBN 978-1-927483-50-3
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available from Library and Archives Canada.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ® , NIV ® . Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. ™
Cover design: Gnibel Text design and typesetting: Daniel Crack, Kinetics Design, kdbooks.ca
T o our dear children, Carolyn, Donald, and Robert, and to our special needs son, John David; and to the three married children’s spouses, Doug, June, and Jan, all fellow believers, all active in the world and in the church, and all having blessed us, each in a unique way
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
PART I THE PASTOR AS SHEPHERD
1 The Pastor’s First Love
2 What Does It Mean to Be Ordained?
3 A Week in the Life of Pastor John Doe
4 Exploring the Pastoral Task from 30,000 Feet
5 Seven Characteristics of Effective Pastors
6 Ten Tips for Young and Soon-to-Be Pastors
7 Your First Thirty Days at a New Church
8 The Blessing of Church Order
PART II THE PASTOR AS PREACHER
9 What Congregations Want Most in a Pastor
10 How One Preacher Prepares a Sermon
11 Six Questions Preachers Can Ask Themselves About Their Sermons
12 Writing Your Way to Clearer Preaching
13 Advice I Have Gathered About Preaching
PART III THE PASTOR AS WORSHIP LEADER
14 Leading Worship
15 The Elements of Worship
16 We Cannot Avoid Worshipping
17 Three Ways We Worship God
18 Some Pointers on Aesthetics in Worship
19 The Elements of a Worship Service
20 Serving Holy Communion
21 What Makes a Funeral Christian?
22 Weddings: A Pastor’s Great Privilege
23 The Hallmarks of a Christian Wedding
24 Standing Up for Marriage
25 Preventing Shaky Marriages
26 The Case for Church Weddings
27 Conducting a Wedding Rehearsal
PART IV THE PASTOR AS PROFESSIONAL
28 Ministerial Ethics
29 Honesty in the Pulpit
30 Sexual Integrity in the Ministry
31 What Do Table Manners Have to Do with It?
Conclusion : From a Kitchen Chair to the Pulpit
PREFACE
F OR more than a dozen years I’ve been going twice a year to Northeastern Seminary on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, New York. Each time, I meet for a four-hour session with a class of seminarians. My assignment is to share pastoral insights that I’ve gained across a lifetime of ministry, first as a pastor and then as an overseer of pastors: we talk about such issues as what makes a pastor effective, how to conduct a wedding rehearsal, and ethics in the pastoral life.
The students represent a broad spectrum of ages and experience. Some are already ordained and are working to complete a Master of Divinity degree. Some are recent college graduates. They also represent a broad spectrum of church traditions, from Eastern Orthodox to Free Methodist to Pentecostal to Independent. Without fail, the class is always interactive and lively. The students are eager to hear what pastoral life is like from the viewpoint of a practitioner of many years. The hours we spend together fly by.
I sometimes share how my own awareness of God’s call to pastoral ministry began soon after my conversion to Christ at sixteen years of age. At first it was more like a generic call: simply a sense that I should give my life to full-time ministry. Only when I attended seminary more than a decade later did that call come into focus as a clear call to pastoral ministry. Starting with those seminary years I served three churches for a total of twenty-one years. First I served a student pastorate, then a growing mid-sized church in Western Canada, and then a college church in Illinois for thirteen years. In 1974 I was elected by my denomination to the office of bishop, a role that I held for nineteen years. Two decades have followed since retirement, during which time I have continued to preach, teach, and write.
During my more mature years of ministry, I committed to writing, for a variety of uses, some of my pastoral insights. After providing a collection of some of these to the students at Northeastern Seminary, as a basis for our discussions, I was inspired to write this more comprehensive book on pastoring.
I say “I was inspired,” but I must add that members of my family also encouraged me in the writing. I would like to acknowledge them here.
In the narrative portion at the close of this book I include information about the contribution of Kathleen, my wife of sixty-five years, to our pastoral ministry together. She is not ordained, nor does she fancy herself a public speaker, though when asked to speak, she comes through with flying colors. But from our first pastoral assignment to the present she has stood ready to contribute from behind the scenes.
The congregations we ministered to have loved Kathleen for her faithfulness to the Lord and his people, her special ability to put an aesthetic touch on the everyday environment wherever we have gone, her culinary and administrative contributions to kitchen ministries, and her skill in teaching children.
Our best friends know that she is my behind-the-scenes coach on everything from preaching to appropriate dress and manners. Her standards have always been high and her commitment to my labors steady and unshakeable.
I also add a hearty word of gratitude to our children, for their loyal contribution to my ministry. Carolyn is now a retired schoolteacher, Don, a publisher and editor, and Robert, a laryngologist. John David is our special needs child, who has not been with us since he was three. The three older children experienced the usual bumps and scrapes that growing up delivers, forged their way into independent and wholesome adulthood, and in it all brought blessing to our home and the churches we served.
Similar recognition goes to their spouses, Doug, June, and Jan, respectively. Their commitment to Christ and his church, and their dedication to the Christian ideals we hold dear, have meant that their fingerprints, too, are on this book.
I express special appreciation to our son Don, for his coaching as I have drawn this book together. We share the same first name and essentially the same concerns for the well being of Christ’s church, particularly for the enrichment of the pastoral function of preaching.
I am fully conscious of the limitations of what I have written. But I send it forth with the confidence that pastors and laypersons alike will find something in it to point them in a clearer direction, encourage greater diligence, or prompt heartfelt gratitude to God for the honor of serving him.
D ONALD N. B ASTIAN
INTRODUCTION
W HAT is the cornerstone of pastors’ calling and work? Is it their enjoyment of, or excellence in, preaching, or pastoral care, or giving leadership to a company of the Lord’s people? As important as these basic pastoral duties are, if they come first for pastors, their ministry at best will be worthy of a glowing obituary and at worst will lead to disillusionment. The stakes are simply too high for ministry to be powered by an inordinate love of self or even of one’s calling. What is it, then? The cornerstone of all effective pastoral activity is the pastor’s first love, a love for the Master, Jesus Christ.
My intention in this book is to inspire pastors young and old to a life of greater pastoral effectiveness, but only insofar as the impetus of what they achieve is their love for Jesus Christ. Loving him – or loving him back, really, because he loved us first – is what carries pastors through to the end of the race.
You will find in this book a collection of thoughts and convictions gathered across the years on the exercise of the pastoral office. Some of the subjects I take up may have become eclipsed in some evangelical gatherings, for example, the meaning and use of benedictions, or preparing oneself to serve holy communion, or giving the pastoral prayer its rightful place. I even have a piece on the “Amen” in worship.
In fact, the spread of material is organized under the topics of the pastor as shepherd, preacher, worship leader, and professional. I conclude the book with a description of my call to the ministry and the basic facts of my ministry across a lifetime with my wife, Kathleen, who also was committed to this task.
I hope this book will fall into the hands of seminary students, or first-time pastors, or even seasoned pastors who, under the pressures of modern life, have lost their relish for their calling but carry on dutifully. It may even be helpful to bright-spirited young people not yet committed to the course God may be marking out for them