Tag: preaching

In The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter challenges pastors to lead their congregations in light of the responsibilities of the calling of God and the proclamation of the gospel.

One of these responsibilities is the exercise of church discipline. Many of us would prefer to leave this idea of church discipline with Baxter in the 1600s, as though we have progressed far beyond such antiquated notions of holiness and sanctification, which are obviously personal and optional preferences akin to Baxter’s hairdo and clothing choices.

Baxter advocates for initial private attempts by the pastor to bring a sinner to repentance, acknowledging the need for particular skill in the matter and sensitivity to the particular temperament of the offender.  Even so, Baxter emphasizes the need to “shake their careless hearts” with respect to the sin that they commit.   Baxter anticipates the objection that his hearers would surely raise, and which might as well have been prepared for those in our own time who don’t immediately agree with the concept of biblical church discipline. Those protestors would suggest “there is little likelihood that public reproof will do them good,” and that instead they would be “enraged by the shame of it.”

In response, Baxter proposes primarily that it is of little consequence to suggest that God’s “ordinances” (commands) are useless. The utility of a command from our perspective is not the test, but rather our faithfulness to obey it.   Further, Baxter argues that there is great utility in “shaming of sin and humbling the sinner,” and in a time such as ours in which “self-esteem” is put forth as the god who led us out of the land of Egypt, and in which we maintain a contra-Pauline philosophy that sin should abound so grace may abound all the more, he could be speaking to our hubristic generation, directly.

Baxter also addresses the fact that discipline is not only for the offending believer, though the goal is repentance and restoration to church fellowship, but that it is also for the witness and testimony of the church. For if the church proclaims the sufficiency of the gospel for salvation, and asserts that those who are in Christ are new creatures transformed by the grace of God, lives that remain unchanged and bound in sin testify more loudly than those proclaimations and assertions.    Church discipline is not easy, or popular, yet for Baxter the reformed pastor is duty-bound to so disciple the flock.

Richard Baxter first published The Reformed Pastor in 1656, but stepping on toes and tipping sacred cows was apparently known then, too.

Baxter pulls no punches in describing The Reformed Pastor , and pays particular attention to hitting would-pe pastors with the reality of their responsibility to shepherd the flock.Before going further, I should say to those who might recoil at the idea that Baxter, or I, suggest that all pastors must be Reformed, or that his instructions and guidance are only for those pastors who are Reformed, that the “reformation” Baxter refers to is not theological, but practical. Baxter does not address the pastor who has Reformed theology, solely, but all those who should be reformed, practically, which a quick perusal of the contents of his book would persuade us includes pastors of all theological stripes.

Baxter focuses on the biblical admonition to “take heed the flock” (Acts 20:28), and gives pastors specific things that heeding the flock involves. The pastor should:

First, “know every person that belongs to our charge.”

Here Baxter reminds pastors that the charge and responsibility are not simply to manage the flock as a whole, but to care for each individual who is a member of it.

Second, “be acquainted … with the state of all our people…their inclinations and conversations.”

The pastor’s care for each individual goes beyond simply knowing his name and whether he contributes to the offerings regularly.

Third, know the “sins of which they are most in danger.”

This requires that the pastor not merely preach on sin generally (if he overcomes the spiritual inertia and cultural pressure to do even that), but also be aware of the particular sins and temptations that plague individuals, specifically.

Fourth, know “what duties they are most apt to neglect.”

It might seem that this is the easiest component of “taking heed the flock,” at least in the areas of attendance and giving, but once a congregation exceeds a certain size, even this measure of spiritual duties becomes difficult to maintain. Further, Baxter’s encouragement would include other, less visible spiritual duties, such as Bible reading, prayer, and evangelism.

Baxter concludes this admonition by reminding the pastor that “if we know not their temperament or disease, we are not likely to prove successful physicians.”

Are Baxter’s notions antiquated? Impossible? If the pastor is not doing these things, or ensuring that they are done, who is actually shepherding the flock?