Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Maxwell on Pastoring

Barry Maxwell is a good friend and thoughtful pastor. I recommend his blog. His most recent post is excellent as he discusses his own struggle with the difference between what the Bible calls us to as pastors and what the current church culture expects of us. This is important, valuable stuff. He also interacts with a recent article by Michael Horton in Touchstone Magazine. I was going to recommend that article as well, but I’ll now just point you to Barry’s musings.
Here is part of my response to his post:
You are right Barry. Continue in that way and continuing helping all of us resist the siren song of the culture which seeks to seduce us to false views of ministry. It must have felt odd for the Reformers to shake off the ways that had become so familiar to their setting when they returned to a more biblical path. It will feel odd to us too,
and if we are in the least bit humble we will wonder, as you have done here, if we're on the right track or have simply lost our minds. We must be diligent to encourage one another in this path. And who knows, maybe for our children this biblical path will not seem so strange.

4 comments:

B.J. Maxwell said...

Thanks, Ray. My thoughts were ignited in part by a fellow local pastor's disgust of Baptist associational politics. What used to unite churches confessionally and hold them accountable has become an executive behemoth. They meet to meet. They plan to plan. They look the look.

I'm finding, however, more and more pastors who just want to get together over donuts, seek counsel, discuss Scripture and pray for one another and our churches. Might a reformation of Baptist association be on the horizon? Pastors helping pastors pastor.

Ray Van Neste said...

You are right about much of what associational life has become. In many case we simply do not need the services of both the association and the state convention. Mike Day made a compelling argumnet along this line at the Bapt ID conference at UU- http://www.uu.edu/audio/Detail.cfm?ID=288

I do think change is coming as more and more pastors find no use in things as they have been and are more interested in what can help them pastor.

Ronald Long said...

Both of these are helpful for someone as young as I am to see where other pastors have been, and do have no desire to return.

I've grown up around a Southern Baptist mentality to grow for growth's sake. A change would be refreshing.

Tim said...

Ray, I will have to concur. Having come to e Reformed thinking within the past couple of years the Biblical model that we now follow does seem ailen to a small degree. We must continue as well as encourage and be encouraged along the way.