Some interesting thoughts from Tim Keller this morning over at the Gospel Coalition blog. I’d be interested in your thoughts on the role of the teaching pastor in pastoral care. Is Tim’s critique justified?
“I have often seen many men spend a great amount of time on preparing and preaching lengthy, dense, expository messages, while giving far less time and energy to the learning of leadership and pastoral nurture. It takes lots of experience and effort to help a body of people make a unified decision, or to regularly raise up new lay leaders, or to motivate and engage your people in evangelism, or to think strategically about the stewardship of your people’s spiritual gifts, or even to discern what they are. It takes lots of experience and effort to know how to help a sufferer without being either too passive or too directive, or to know when to confront a doubter and when to just listen patiently. Pastors in many of our Reformed churches do not seem to be as energized to learn to be great leaders and shepherds, but rather have more of an eye to being great teachers and preachers.”
You can read the whole post here.
I grew up in a bible church (nondenominational) where the pulpit was filled by a strongly academic teacher. As a local body grows in size, it seems to be that others in the body are more responsible for pastoral/personal ministry.
I agree with Keller that time needs to be spent raising up future leaders and also interacting both with the flock and outsiders to maintain an understanding of the current pulse of the culture.
Although my background greatly affects my answer to this question, I feel that Keller’s approach is a wise one to consider.