Problems for Pastors to Study by E. K. Slade

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 12, 1916

Problems for Pastors to Study

By E. K. Slade

E. K. SLADE

A MINISTER should be both a pastor and an evangelist. The original meaning of the word “pastor” is, One who cares for or feeds the flock. An evangelist is one who carries the message of salvation to the unsaved, and leads them to accept salvation.

In our ministerial work in connection with churches, it is very important that these two phases be properly proportioned. Those who are newly brought to a knowledge of the truth, and who are not well established by the evangelistic labors, need much of such help as is bestowed by the true pastor. The flock must be fed. It must be tenderly fed, and well established within the fold. It should be borne in mind, however, that Christians must not expect always to be under the pastor’s care, for they in turn are to enter into such labors as will lead others to a knowledge of the truth and to the way, of life.

The popular idea concerning the work of the minister in the great churches of the land is that he is primarily a pastor. It is thought that no church can well exist without a pastor. The members of such churches, instead of becoming active missionaries and entering into such a ministry as is committed to every believer, feel that they must be ministered unto throughout their whole Christian career. Churches thus dependent upon the pastor are certainly coming short of the Lord’s purpose concerning his children.

The pastor who accepts a position more as an occupation than as a calling, who formally performs his duties from week to week as a mere hired servant, is coming far short of the gospel plan concerning the true pastor and soul-winner.

In our own work we are confronting a great danger. It is a temptation to the church as well as to the pastor to lapse into this deplorable condition that we witness in other churches. There are many believers, especially in our city churches, who feel that they must have a pastor to minister to them, and there are many pastors who are inclined to lapse into this ineffective form of ministry. There is a tendency on the part of both people and preachers to permit this sort of thing to come into existence, which contributes so much to the formal, lifeless church, and so little to the developing of men and women to become true ambassadors for God in the work that he has given us to do in the world.

The experience that is related of a man who had been pastor of a prominent church in Richmond, Va., for twelve years, will be of interest, and may serve to be a note of warning to those who are inclined to lapse into this condition. In submitting his resignation to his church board, he writes in part as follows:—

“A good part of my life has been devoted to this pastorate. I should like to spend the next decade in one place, as the past one has been spent here. Looking at the church, the prospect for enlarged and permanent usefulness is not bright. The arguments that I remain as pastor confirm my views that the church is contented, is ‘at ease in Zion.’ You are satisfied, but I am not. Coldness and formalism chill my heart. The Sunday school is the most important department of the church, but I have been unable to enlist many of our most prominent members in this phase of the work. The prayer meeting is the spiritual thermometer of church life, and I have tried in vain to secure the attendance of many of you. Our great evangelistic opportunity is the evening service, but many men and women whose presence would be an inspiration to the pastor and a powerful example to the unsaved, never attend this service. In short, these, my good friends, simply attend church Sunday mornings. This is only making religion respectable.”

“My life is too short to spend it where I can secure no better coöperation. This I say frankly, but in love, for I do love every one of you. During the early years of this pastorate, some were enthusiastic who are now indifferent. Another pastor may awaken them. At first, when you did not know me, I advanced cautiously; but now you ought to believe unhesitatingly. On the contrary, some of you have been willing for me to spend and be spent while you looked on, or touched the work lightly. Religion, with me, is serious, and service is a sublime obligation. I cannot wait upon your conservatism. The King’s business requires haste. It would be standing in my own light, and in the way of the kingdom of God, for me to stay here simply because you want me to, and because it is easy.”

Those who have the oversight of the work in our large conferences will keenly appreciate the experience of this pastor, whose church represents the condition of many churches about us presided over by less conscientious pastors. It should serve as a means of arousing our workers and our people.

It becomes necessary to locate ministers in our large cities, and it is logical and proper that they should be placed in charge of our city churches. It does not follow, however, that they are to be there simply as pastors. In every city church there is more or less pastoral work to be done, but the primary work of a Seventh-day Adventist minister placed in charge of city work and a city church, is to carry on a strong evangelistic campaign, and to enlist and organize his flock to coöperate with him in such work. In efforts of this sort, the minister becomes a strong evangelist as well as a pastor. His pastoral duties will be to feed his flock and to establish those newly brought into the church, but his great evangelistic burden will be to carry the message to the thousands about him who are not acquainted with it. Our churches will need the aid of the ministers in trying to avert the danger of repeating the experience of the church cited above; and our ministers will need the aid of the churches in their efforts to avoid the same danger.

Mt. Vernon, Ohio.