The Loveliest Place: the Beauty and Glory of the Church by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL067050/REL074000/REL012120
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

The proving grounds for each qualification are three separate spheres of influence: his home and family (vv. 4–5), his spiritual maturity (v. 6), and his community (v. 7). Within these three contexts, this man’s character is continually and consistently scrutinized and proven. When men are placed into a pastoral role without having met these qualifications, immeasurable harm befalls the church.

Churches radiate the beauty of Christ only when they are faithful to appoint men who themselves are beautiful in character and holiness. We all have heard and read devastating stories of churches that lose all credibility and destroy their witness because they appoint men to leadership positions who fail to meet the above qualifications. That is not to say that churches must find perfect men to serve. There are no sinless leaders. Instead, the church needs to find men who, through proper testing and refining, demonstrate that they meet the biblical injunction and qualifications to serve.

Martin Bucer, a disciple of the magisterial Reformer Martin Luther and teacher of John Calvin, was called the “Pastoral Theologian of the Reformation” because of his extensive meditation and teaching on the pastoral role within the church. In his De Regno Christi, Bucer identifies three duties of a pastor: (1) to diligently teach the Holy Scriptures, (2) to administer the sacraments, and (3) to participate in the discipline of the church. The third has three parts: life and manners, penance (involving severe sin), and sacred ceremonies (worship and fasting). A fourth duty is to care for the needy.1 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).2

To be a biblically faithful pastor and faithfully beautify the church, one’s heart must beat in rhythm with the heart of Christ, both privately and publicly. There is no room for error in doctrine or failure in holiness.

Bucer’s work Concerning the True Care of Souls is perhaps his most thorough analysis of pastoral ministry. There he says:

From this it is evident that there are five main tasks required in the pastoral office and true care of souls. First: to lead to Christ our Lord and into his communion those who are still estranged from him, whether through carnal excess or false worship. Secondly: to restore those who had once been brought to Christ and into his church but have been drawn away again through the affairs of the flesh or false doctrine.

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