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To finish well… A word to Pastors (pt. 1)

According to research shared from Barna Group, 29% of pastors thought about quitting during the pandemic. Our local paper, the Wilkes Journal Patriot, ran a national article reflecting on the difficulty of the pandemic year for pastors, and how some had stepped away. Anecdotally, I know of several pastors who have stepped away from ministry of their own accord or were encouraged to leave by their churches. Also anecdotally, the associate pastor at our church shared that 5 of the 7 close ministry friends he has worked with over the past 20 years are no longer in vocational ministry.

Personally, the past 15 months have been challenging and at times overwhelming. I understand the sentiment and concerns for many of these pastors who have stepped away. But I long for something more. I long to finish well.

In this post, I’m writing to pastors and church leaders. My aim is to encourage you to apply some of the strategies for finishing well. In a subsequent post, I’m going to write to churches and church members encouraging you to support and encourage your pastors and ministers on their journey.

In his book, The Making of a Leader, J. Robert Clinton reflected on several barriers to leaders finishing well. They are:

  1. Finances-their use and abuse
  2. Power-its abuse
  3. Pride-which leads to downfall
  4. Sex-illicit relationships
  5. Family-critical issues
  6. Plateauing

The strategies below will not specifically address each of these barriers. But they will help us as leaders to build habits and character traits into our lives that will help us finish well.

No leader plans not to finish well, but leaders who finish well make plans to finish well.

Leaders don’t finish well accidentally.

Strategy #1. Create spiritual habits that keep you close to Jesus. If you examine the barriers above, many of them relate to sin issues. Fame, flirtations, and finances have been the downfall of many pastors/leaders better than us. Avoiding sin issues that disqualify leaders requires spiritual habits that keep us close to Jesus. We need to read and study the Bible devotionally, to pray dependently, to preach the gospel to ourselves regularly, and to confess and repent consistently. When we drift from Jesus, we will drift into sin.

Strategy #2. Keep your family a priority. Some ministers are forced to step away from ministry because ministry itself became an idol and destroyed their families. The leader who wants to finish well must prioritize healthy family relationships and interactions. Eat meals together. Talk. Have a family devotional time. Do fun things together. Go on holidays and vacations.

Strategy #3. Stay physically active and healthy. Vocational ministry is largely sedentary. Sitting, writing, reading, counseling, and relational interactions are not physically active parts of the job. Physical activity helps me sleep better and encourages better eating habits. Physical sloth encourages poor health habits. Take walks. Go running or hiking. Play an active sport. Physical activity is a natural stress relief and longterm health benefit.

Strategy #4. Never stop learning/growing. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 2 Timothy 4:13: “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” Paul was in the latter days of his ministry, but he still wanted to read, study, learn, and grow. I was convicted by the reality referenced in Clinton’s book that many ministers don’t burn out of ministry, they plateau. Develop a reading and study plan. Write. Take a course. By continuing to grow and learn, we remain pliable and teachable as pastors/leaders.

Strategy #5. Develop friendships and accountability. I need people in my life to look me in the eye and call me out for folly or sin. God has graciously given me several people who will regularly speak truth into my life and ask the hard questions. If you don’t have these people in your life, pray that God will give them to you. Finishing well means that God has protected you from foolishness and sin, and often God protects us by using friends as our accountability. Get in a discipleship group. Find an accountability partner. Open up to your spouse.

Strategy #6. Ask for help. You can’t do everything you are responsible for. You need help whether that help comes in the form of staff members, assistants, or lay leaders. Pastors (leaders) that last are pastors (leaders) who don’t try to do it all. Delegate. Train others. Disciple fellow workers and leaders. Turn over key tasks and responsibilities. During the pandemic, our church has remained strong because we have so many key leaders (staff and lay) who have taken ownership of everything from technology to cleaning to other protocols.

Plan to finish well.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Word of the Week: Canon (Special Revelation)

The “canon” of Scripture is a term related to special revelation. For the next several posts, the term will come underneath the subject of special revelation. Stay tuned for terms like inspiration, inerrancy, authority, sufficiency.

As a reminder, special revelation is God’s specific revelation of himself to us. The Bible is the product of God’s special revelation. In one sense, special revelation preceded the written word. Consider God speaking with Abraham and Moses. Those conversations were special revelation. That they were recorded in the Old Testament now makes them special revelation written down for generations afterward to read. Jesus Christ is also God’s special revelation of himself to us. How we know anything about God specifically comes through the words God gave us in the Bible.

So, what is the Bible? We are going to try to answer this question over the course of this post and subsequent posts.

The Bible is the Word of God, special revelation, that addresses God, us, and redemption. It is made up of 66 books over 1500 years with 40 different authors. 

The term “canon” means “straight rod.” Canon carries with it the idea of the “rule of faith.” This means that the canon of the Bible (66 books in total, 39 in OT and and 27 in NT) provide the rule of faith that guides our practice as followers of Jesus. 

In one sense there are 2 canons—the Old Testament and the New Testaement. The Old Testament was the rule of faith under God’s original covenant with Abraham. As the Word of God, it still holds validity and importance. We cannot ignore or modify the words of God according to our wants and wishes.

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

God, through Moses in Deuteronomy 4:2

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” 

Jesus, in Matthew 5:17

However, because of the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus, the OT does not function as our primary “rule of faith.” That belongs to the NT. We are to interpret the OT in light of the NT. In so doing, we discover the importance of the law, prophets, and writings as foreshadowing Jesus and the gospel and filling in important aspects of God’s character and nature.

The OT canon came down from Hebrew Scriptures, translated into the Septuagint (the OT in Greek language), and was used and adopted by the earliest Christians. As early as 170 AD (outside of the NT testimony), Melito of Sardis wrote about the OT list of books. Other early Christians like Origen, Athanasius, and Augustine had similar lists (occasionally referring to an additional book or including an OT book within another one: Ezra/Nehemiah, Jeremiah/Lamentations).

The NT canon was adopted prior to the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Criteria for NT books being included in the canon are as follows:

Apostolic authority. Authorship must be an apostle or someone writing from the perspective of an apostle. This criteria also relates to dates within the first century. Writings claimed to be written by an apostle, but obvioulsy written in the second century and beyond were never accepted by the church at large.

Orthodoxy. The books must conform to orthodox positions regarding Christ and God. Some writings claimed authorship by apostles, but their views were not orthodox. Heretical views, such as advocated in Gnosticism or other heresies were excluded from the canon.

Catholicity. The books of the NT had to be accepted by the church universal: in time, geography, and people. Obviously, this criterion does not require every single congregation in the early church to affirm canonicity, but it does require universal or general acceptance. For example, a single congregation’s acceptance of a letter/book would not be sufficient for inclusion in the canon. The 27 books of the NT were being used as a “rule of faith” for the church prior to Nicea. At Nicea, the council affirmed what the church had already accepted. 

These criteria guided the early church to canonize the 27 books of our NT. Some may question the process of canonization. But if God can inspire Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15), then he can certainly guide the process of canonization. We will explore the doctrine of inspiration in subsequent posts.

In the canon of Scripture, we have the foundation documents of Christianity, the charter of the church, the title-deeds of faith. For no other literature can such a claim be made. And when the claim is made, it is made not merely for a collection of ancient writings. In the words of Scripture, the voice of the Spirit of God continues to be heard. Repeatedly, new spiritual movements have been launched by the rediscovery of the living power which resides in the canon of Scripture—a living power which strengthens and liberates.

F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, 283.

F. F. Bruce connects canonicity to a foundational truth. The Bible is powerful and authoritative. It is life-changing and redemptive. This does not surprise the Christian, for if the Bible is the Word of God, it should be life-changing and redemptive.

What does it mean to have a canon of Scripture for believers today? Here are several takeaways for todays’ word of the week:

  • We don’t get to adjust the Bible; we must adjust to the Bible. (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18)
  • If we can trust that the Bible is inspired and the canon came from God, we can trust the Bible. 
  • If we can trust the Bible, then the Bible is our authority for life and practice. 

One of the primary reasons for these theological word of the week posts is to connect theological truths to daily Christian living. If the Bible is God’s special revelation of himself to us, then it is authoritative in our lives. We must learn from it, submit to it, and apply it.

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