Pastoral Ministry Quotes

“He does not divulge how he votes in elections, and he is reluctant to appear on panels when the program is about political aims or ends. He should remember that he ministers to persons and families who represent a variety of political persuasions. Therefore, the pastor does not join the campaign of any candidate for public office.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Thus, while Paul teaches the full involvement of all women in the public worship of the church as intercessors, as disciples of their risen Lord, and as holy people together with the angels, he forbids them to be teachers in the church.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“As bishop and shepherd, the pastor is a spiritual watchman who oversees the doctrine and life of the congregation. This truism of pastoral practice compels close attention to the lives of the baptized. Only when they are careful to live in newness of life out of their Baptism can they care for their fellows in the way of true church discipline.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“It is not like the dissolution of a business partnership, but rather like a painful amputation or mutilation of a living body.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“If the cohabiting relationship be regarded as another ‘form’ of marriage, then the prohibitions attached to marriage in the area of adultery and divorce must apply too.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“the commitment which a man and a woman make before witnesses to remain faithful to one another, both as sexual partners and in mutual support, until death do them part.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“How wonderful if they prepare together, confessing mutually known failings, only to rush to the Lord’s Table for His blessed forgiveness of their sins, together! And then they try and try again.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Marriage, as interpreted by faith, is the total commitment of one man and one woman to each other in a uniquely divinely ordered relationship comprising mutual consent, love, sexual union, and fidelity not only to the partner but to God’s whole created order (institutio divina).”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“The Reformer saw the constitutive element, not in love alone, nor in consensus, nor in sexual union. Important as these factors are, Luther accents the couple’s relationship to Christ, which means that their marriage is God’s order for them, for their family, and for the community of humanity touched by their marriage and family.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“This does not mean that the specific locus “De justificatione,” considered by itself, is all that the Lutherans consider indispensable. Rather, they regard the entire corpus doctrinae as bound up inextricably with justification. All doctrines have their place in this doctrine. All doctrines stand or fall with the doctrine of justification.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“The biblical and confessional understanding of church fellowship—unitas, united in faith in Christ, and concordia, agreement in doctrine and practice—finds clearest expression in a congregation of Christians.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“For this sacrament of fellowship, love, and unity,” he wrote, “cannot tolerate discord and disunity. You must take to heart the infirmities and needs of others, as if they were your own. Then offer to others your strength, as if it were their own, just as Christ does for you in the Sacrament.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“God will not be gracious and forgive a man’s sin unless he also forgives his neighbor.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“To commune at a church’s altar is the highest expression of confessing oneness with what that church teaches.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“The wrath of God is ongoing and permanent, and there is no relief or refuge except at the foot of the cross of Christ.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“The Office of the Ministry is missional as surely as it is dominical and apostolic. The disciplines of the office—preaching the Gospel, baptizing, teaching—are inherently missional.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“The indiscretion may entirely dismantle his candidacy for any pastorate or public role in the church’s administration. In this event, he must resign and seek another profession.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“the pastor is a man of the Gospel. As such, he gives heed to the Gospel pointing to the cross where Christ bears our sins away (1 Pet 2:24).”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“With diligent focus on the Word of God, the pastor becomes the theologian the Holy Spirit will make him.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“The pastor-theologian shepherds souls. He communicates all that the Scriptures disclose and teach concerning God and man (Acts 20:20, 27). Not every interaction with the people is “theological,” but when shepherding God’s people, a theological response satisfies in many instances.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Not all theologians are pastors by calling, but pastors cannot be anything other than theologians in residence for their congregations.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Barring removal from the pastoral office by death, a pastor shall continue to serve until his capacity—energy, vitality, alertness, sound judgment, wisdom—wanes, and he is no longer able to meet the demands of the Call and fulfill the pastoral ministry. Then, advisedly, he announces that he is retiring from the active pastorate.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Then, in some circumstances, the public ministry and many related duties for edifying and strengthening the congregation may have outgrown the gifts and abilities of a pastor, rendering him no longer competent to serve the pastorate where he was called years ago. He cannot cope, and continuing is a struggle. Still, authorities should not act hastily. Before reaching a point when demands of the ministry severely outweigh competencies, a pastor will assess the situation. Perhaps he may request and accept assistance that would bring strength to his pastoral ministry. Or he may seek another ministry and consider another Call.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Neither call nor ordination confer a status, an indelible character, worthiness or some quality that enables the one so called or ordained to fulfill the office. Neither call nor ordination, make the one called or ordained “a repository of sacral or numinous power.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“A pastor arrives at certainty that the Scriptures hold God’s foundational principles for pastoral ministry not by his own ruminating but only by the testimonium Spiritus Sancti internum, the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice

“Confessing that the pastoral office is dominical, we assert a metanarrative. The pastoral ministry is not a human construct; rather, it was instituted by Christ, who sent His apostles to execute this ministry.”
― Richard H Warneck, Pastoral Ministry: Theology and Practice