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I think Peter gives us the answer if we’re willing to see it. In a word, it’s plurality. If you’re not familiar with that word, hang in there. Plurality is just a way to describe the scriptural evidence that church leadership in the New Testament was a shared endeavor.7 In the lingo of the twenty-first century, it’s known as team ministry.
Gentlemen, Peter is modeling something for every generation of pastors. People will suffer, and they’ll need to hear the voice of earthly shepherds reminding them of the Chief Shepherd’s care.
When you exhort people who are suffering or serving, remind them of the Savior. Bear witness to his suffering for them, speak splendidly about his return to get them, counsel boldly about his power to change them.
In any case it saddens my heart when men lose churches and churches lose men. Because Peter reminds us that one day the Chief Shepherd will appear, and will give crowns of glory (1 Pet. 5:4) to his faithful servants. Nothing is more important for keeping men in ministry than the reminder that the Savior will come again! Until then, men must stand tall and be prepared to answer this question: Can you shepherd？
From all our congregations a bitter cry should go up unto God, unless conversions are continually seen. If our preaching never saves a soul, and is not likely to do so, should we not better glorify God as peasants, or as tradesmen？ What honour can the Lord receive from useless ministers？ The Holy Ghost is not with us, we are not used of God for his gracious purposes, unless souls are quickened into heavenly life. Brethren, can we bear to be useless？ Can we be barren, and yet content？3
means of grace at his disposal. Brothers, if you aspire to emulate the Prince of Preachers, don’t look first to the man’s pulpit or his programs. Look to his passion. Here’s Spurgeon’s: If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.5
A call to ministry is a call to labor among the lost.
Pastor Mark Dever, who models this pastor/evangelist burden as well as any pastor alive, lays it out clearly: I generally know, when someone goes into the ministry because they like to work only with Christians and to do church things, that this person probably isn’t called. The person who is usually best is the person who is quite good in a non-Christian work environment but who is willing, for the sake of the kingdom, to be called back “behind the lines” as it were, to spend his life supplying those who are on the front lines of ministry. As a pastor, I am in a position that is both
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Yes, prayer for the lost is important. Every pastor should pray for the lost. But that’s not what this passage is commanding. We’re being summoned to do it. Strategizing on how the church can be more evangelistic is essential as well, but that’s not what this is talking about. It’s not about advising or lecturing or reading about it. It’s simpler than that. Just do it.
During England’s civil war, Oliver Cromwell’s troops faced a shortage of precious metals to help the war effort. Cromwell sent them to search the land—they needed to find metal somewhere. Word eventually reached him that the only available metal was in statues of saints in the churches. Cromwell delivered his now famous reply: “Well, melt down the saints and put them in circulation.”3 And so they did.
Now if preaching is a pastoral priority (and it is), then doing the work of an evangelist overflows into our preaching. This is where the lost come to us. God loves the world so much that he agitates some right into a Sunday service. There they sit, uncomfortable, disoriented, and afraid to make some protocol mistake in front of a bunch of religious people. But they’re right there, having voluntarily surrendered their time long enough to hear what you have to say. What will they hear from you？
Here’s an interesting word choice for Paul: work. The Greek word for work means, well, work! Activity, labor, initiative—it’s all included.
Last year I took a class at a local college. One reason I did this was to connect with what the lost are thinking about these days. So I ended up sitting right behind a girl who introduced herself as an atheistic lesbian. We don’t get many of those in our elders meetings. It was pure joy getting to know her. Eventually I was even able to talk about the gospel with her. But it took some work. I still ponder what she was telling her friends about me. Freaks me out a little bit.
