More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness”;
“How awful a weapon in the hand of God is a holy minister.”
watchful eye over yourself, for generally speaking as is the minister so are the people.”2
Paul’s words may seem rather presumptuous or even proud. But they are not. He recognized that one of his primary tasks was to follow Christ so closely and uncompromisingly that he provided a clear example for his fellow believers to follow.
Peter teaches that elders’ principal task is to be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3).
Joy is the rational state of the Christian in view of his spiritual position in Christ.
Wise shepherds and teachers look for their reward then, and not now.
We must make it plain by our attitude and our teaching that our gifts are only gifts among other gifts.
As we teach the necessity for works of service, we must also provide opportunities for them.
As part of our pastoral care, we should seek to identify the gifts of each member of the flock and to encourage them.
An unrelenting foe demands unrelenting spiritual watchfulness through prayer. Satan delights to make casualties of those who have encouraged others to fight the good fight of faith.
Every time we find it difficult to maintain prayer, we will be helped by remembering that this is simply an indication of its key importance in the spiritual battle.
Satan, who knows that prayer is our supply line, our means of drinking deeply at the wells of salvation. He wants us to forget that the throne of God has become a throne of grace for us.
We must not pray for people only when they are ill! Spurgeon made this point in a somewhat amusing way when talking to pastors: “When a man is upstairs in bed, and cannot do any hurt, you pray for him. When he is downstairs, and can do no end of mischief, you do not pray for him. Is this wise and prudent?”
If a subject is worth discussing, it is worthy of prayer—that is the best rule.
God wants us and our fellowship with Him more than He wants even our pastoral and teaching ministry, important as it is.
God the Son is the supreme object of the Father’s love, and we are never more in harmony with God than when we delight in His Son and love Him.
The most powerful influence we can have upon people is example. The strength of our example—of which we ourselves are seldom, if ever, aware—comes from the reality and sincerity of our inner and secret life with God.
Moral failures, which can so tragically ruin a man’s testimony and terminate his ministry, invariably stem from neglected daily fellowship with God. Walking daily in the light increases sensitivity to the first approaches of temptation and sin and strengthens our capacity to resist it by the power of the Spirit.
Whatever bothers us is a subject worthy of prayer. Whatever causes us anxiety is to be cast upon Him.
you: Richard Baxter’s The Saints’ Everlasting Rest; Andrew Bonar’s Heavenly Springs; John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Holy War; Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Memoirs and Remains; William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life; Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living and Dying; Samuel Rutherford’s Letters; Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the Soul of Man; and A. W. Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy.
If any man will preach as he should preach, his work will take more out of him than any other labour under heaven.
If we are constantly pouring out without pouring in, we will soon cease to pour out anything that is of value to others.
Our study is not an end in itself: Its purpose is the proper feeding of Christ’s flock.
In teaching we aim to give people an understanding of God’s truth. Beginning often with the first principles of a doctrine, we will make sure that people grasp it as best they can in all its aspects. Then in preaching we make an appeal to people’s wills, as well as to their emotions, to respond to the Word that they have now understood through teaching.
Expository preaching should not mean lack of variety—rather it should bring infinite variety!
There is no chance of fire in the pews if there is an iceberg in the pulpit!
A good teacher, like John the Baptist, clears the way, declares the way, and then gets out of the way.
We need to be in Genesis 1 and 3 as well as in John 1 and 3.
Pastoral care is at one and the same time the most demanding and rewarding task there can be.
Pastoral care has as its objective the fulfillment of the goals we established in chapter 3: the feeding of the flock, the proclaiming of the whole will of God, the presenting of every believer perfect in Christ, the preparing of God’s people for works of service, and equipping them to be fishers of men.
What is important is not how many visits we have achieved, but how effective they have been in furthering these objectives. Quality is more important than quantity.
Our love for the flock should be like that of a father for his children (1 John 2:18, 28). Their concerns and needs should be constantly in our minds and upon our hearts.
It is the difficult who need loving most. Sometimes they are difficult simply because no one has really made the effort to love them.
When people know that we love them, they will accept what we say, even when it has to be a rebuke.
New Testament qualifications for church leaders link spiritual usefulness in the home with spiritual effectiveness in the body of Christ.
for most undershepherds tend to be workaholics.
If we keep our mornings free for study and preparation—apart from pastoral emergencies—we will keep on top of that priority task. If we reckon on devoting most afternoons to pastoral work, with one or two set times for talking with people, either at church or at home, we will keep most of our pastoral work within bounds.
People may have too high a view of the minister’s importance or too low. People may consider that the whole success of the church’s endeavors is tied up with his performance, and they look to him rather like football supporters look to a football coach—if the team does not win, then he ought to be replaced.
As Charles Simeon said when misrepresented, “My enemy, whatever evil he says of me, does not reduce me so low as he would if he knew all concerning me that God does.”
Martin Luther declared trials and temptations to be a minister’s best teachers.
We need to be sitting at our desks as punctually as anyone in an office, and to organize our calls as systematically and carefully as a doctor on his rounds.
Difficulties are no ground for leaving God’s people; they may simply underline the need God’s people have for an under-shepherd.
First, if they knew us as we know ourselves, they would never make so much of us—in fact, the opposite.
we should try to make people forget us and remember our Master; we should always be saying in effect, by life and by lip, “Look at Christ! Look at Him!” If we do not do that, no matter how successful people feel us to be, we are failures.
