My Philosophy of Pastoral Ministry

1. Counsel on Parenting

When preparing this paper, reflect on the parenting information provided. Write some instructions for parents, perhaps as guidelines you might refer to later, when you are asked for advice on how to handle various parenting issues. Address the following under appropriate headings in your paper:

• Provide general guidance for parents of a particular age group (your choice-infants, toddlers, grade-school, teens, etc.) (15 points)
• Provide counsel for age appropriate discipline and teaching methods for parents of the child with behavior problems in the home (10 points)
• Provide general guidance for parents who are dealing with a child with behavior and/or academic problems in school, including how you might handle a referral to someone trained to work with problems you are not equipped to advise on, such as ADHD, autism, a child needing a math tutor, etc. (10 points).
• Provide encouragement for fathers to be involved with their children (10 points). Not that your instructor is picking on fathers, but this seems to be a big need in our country today.
• Provide encouragement for mothers and fathers to love one another AND their children (10 points).

DO NOT WRITE IN FIRST PERSON. Also, be sure to incorporate Scripture and 4 other scholarly resources (This will count as 15 points). Do not copy and paste long passages of Scripture; you can cite them instead. You may refer to Dobson, but look up some other references using our online library. Random websites are unacceptable and are not peer-reviewed scholarly articles. Avoid giving your personal anecdotes, since this is an academic paper.

You need to use footnoting, and support your statements with references to the class books, the Bible and outside sources (you need to use four references as a minimum, not including your Bible, and refer to scholarly sources such as a published article or book chapter; websites are not acceptable). There should be five pages in the body of the paper, plus be sure to use the current Luther Rice cover page and sources cited page, bringing the page count to seven (7) as a minimum. You can find a template with this information under the tab labeled Center for Research and Writing on the left of your screen. This template includes page numbers, heading guidelines, and hints and tips.

Please be sure to review the rubric for this paper to determine how your paper will be evaluated.

When you submit your paper as an attachment, it will be sent to SAFE ASSIGN, a plagiarism checker, automatically. In 45-60 minutes, a report will be generated. The amount of quoting you have done should be at 30% or less. You can also see the results of the plagiarism checker. Make any changes you need to make and resubmit. Your second submission will be graded.

Grading Rubric for Parenting Paper

2. “My Philosophy of Ministry”
   Research Paper: Each student will write a paper (9 typed, double-spaced pages) entitled “My Philosophy of Pastoral Work.” From the list below, complete of the 7 headings to include in the paper. The student should incorporate information from class information, textbooks, outside reading, and his/her own perspective into an organized discussion of pastoral philosophy. Papers MUST follow the rules of style in A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Turabian, 9th edition, including title page, table of contents, and bibliography.

   The Bible’s Role in Pastoral Ministry

   · The Pastor and the Spiritual Disciplines

   · Focusing on the Family: Second Only to God

   · Fishing for Men: Pastoral Evangelism

   · Preaching the Word: Pastoral Preaching

   · The Pastor and Church Administration

   · Shepherding the Flock: Nurturing the Congregation

Please rewrite you own research and idea using by the upper format.

Philosophy of Pastoral Ministry:

All scripture references and quotations in this paper are from NASB.

1. Biblically, what is a pastor?

Biblically, a pastor is a person set apart to serve other people, in a congregation or assembly, as an elder and/or overseer. A pastor is a shepherd. He is the person entrusted with the care of other peoples’ souls. In the caring of other people’s souls, the pastor ministers or extends mercy to his followers. Categorically Apostle Paul appears to say that a pastor is a servant of a new covenant between God and man, when he writes in 2 Corinthians 3:6,

“who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now, according to Jeremiah 31:31-34, Lord declared what He would do in the new covenant, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; on their hearts and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

And because it is the Lord’s declaration, it fits very well with the Psalmist in Psalms 23:1-6 when he declared,

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousnessFor His name’s sake.Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
Youhave anointed my head with oil;My cup overflows.Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,And I will dwell in the house of the Lordforever.”

From the Psalmist, we can see the Lord is the “shepherd” from which we get the word Pastor. The Lord Himself is the Shepherd of His people. He meets both their physical, Spiritual, and as Jeremiah states in Jeremiah 3:15, “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding,” a pastor is a gift to the congregation. The Lord also the same promise in Jeremiah 23:4, “I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.”

And this promise seems to be the gift fulfilled in Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians in chapter 4:11 where he states, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

2. Who is qualified to be a pastor? Who is not? Why?

A person who qualifies to be a pastor is one who first, has come to the saving knowledge of Christ. This knowledge should be exemplified through sound doctrine and practice his personal life and as he relates with other believers and even no believers. Secondly, according to 1 Timothy 3:1-4 that person should have a genuine desire to serve and lead others in their walk with the Lord.

In addition to having faith in Christ, desiring to serve as a pastor, the person must also exhibit an exemplary character as an individual but also as he leads and manages his household and how he parents his children. Because without a good example from the leader/Pastor of a congregation, the flock would go astray in the matter of doctrine and practice.

John MacArthur stated it this way, “a man qualified to be a pastor exhibits the leadership and integrity of life to lead people to salvation and service to God by having done it or being in the process of doing it in his own home. He should be known as having children who believe as they are able to comprehend the truths of scripture and who live to its principles, having a simple faith that emerges into a saving faith at some point. Those children become important proof of his spiritual leadership.” As the saying goes, “charity begins at home” so is the leadership of a congregation. If the pastor’s home is not in order, with unruly children, there cannot come a good example to those the pastor leads.

1 Timothy 3:5 seems to indicate that a person who does not manage his own household well will not be able to manage the congregation. So, that makes a person unqualified. Of course, one could argue for those who are serving but without families to take care of, but the point here is a person desiring to serve the Lord in the capacity of a Pastor, should have an exemplary life both in public and private. He should also be in a position to minister effectively to the different needs among his followers, some of which have to do with family/parenting challenges. In this case, a person without a family may find themselves in a position of inadequacy in terms of experiential wisdom that may be needed to address the issue beforehand. You can not give what you do not have.

Another disqualification for anyone wanting to become a pastor relates to the office of the Pastor itself. As we can see from Apostle Paul’s epistle in 1Tim 2:12, 3:2, “…husband of one wife…” It means the office of the Pastor/Overseer/elder is restricted to men only. This is because this is a position of authority. But that does not mean a woman can not do other ministry responsibilities in a Church context. It rather means the primary responsibility to lead/shepherd and guide God’s people falls squarely on the shoulders on qualified men in that congregation.

John MacArthur, in his book, Pastoral ministry; How to shepherd biblically quotes a statement from John Wycliffe’s works(1324-1384) on this subject and especially as is pertinent to the status of a pastor, “There are two things which pertain the status of a pastor: the holiness of the pastor and the wholesomeness of his teaching. He ought to be holy, so strong in every sort of virtue that he would rather desert every kind of human intercourse, all the things of this world even the mortal life itself, before he would sinfully depart from the truth of Christ…Secondly, he ought to be resplendent with righteousness of doctrine before his sheep.” (Pg 36).

3. What are the pastor’s primary responsibilities?

There are three explicit commands in John 21:15-18that explains the primary responsibilities of a pastor. The first one is to, “Tend the lambs.” It seems to imply to supervise the affairs of those who would be entrusted to him. It might also be in order or fit the description being a good steward of those that would be under his charge. The pastor is directly responsible for his flock in that sense.

The second command is to “shepherd the flock.” This is in line with the Psalmist in Psalms 23:1-3. Where the author is describing how the Lord as the chief shepherd is He who leads his people to greener (spiritual food) pasture and “makes them lie down besides still waters.” It is the pastor’s responsibility to make sure his followers receive full nourishment and also help me to find rest in the Lord. Through sound biblical teaching/preaching and exposition.

The third aspect of the Pastor’s responsibility is that of “Tend my Sheep.” This is like the first one of tending the lamb but seems with extra emphasis on maturity. The Pastor is duly responsibility to help his followers to mature in the Lord and to help them not to wander off or drift back especially in times of severe trials and life challenges. Many are times when “mature” believers will slide into complacency or compromise just because the Pastor is not up the to task to rebuke or correct them. This may happen when the pastor is younger that the person he needs to correct. That is why Paul exhorts Timothy, 1 Tim 4:11-12, to be an example to the believers…and not to let anyone look down on him because of his age.

In addition to tending the sheep, feeding the lambs, the pastor serves as a prophet/teacher. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring that the followers receive the spiritual food and counsel. This is through diligent expounding of scriptures and refuting of false teaching and wrong doctrines. Bruce A. Ware in Shepherding God’s Flock book by Benjamin .LMerkle put it this way, “Not only must the elders be able to teach the trustworthy message they have received but they also must be able to refute those false teachings that would contradict the faith and bring harm and destruction to those who would embrace those teachings. Elders(Pastors), in a word, must exercise both an offensive and defensive strategy in their teaching of the flock.”

The Pastor also serves as a priest. In connection, the role of teaching or prophecy, the pastor as a priest in a congregation is to pray, intercede and present the congregation daily to God. As a priest, he exhorts the followers to daily come before God, seek His will and pursue holy and blameless lives.

Lastly but not least the pastor also serves the leader. With this responsibility, the pastor gives overall oversight and vision for the congregation. With the help of other elders, deacons and staff and with the Lord’s guidance through the Holy Spirit, the pastor charts the course of the congregation. This involves raising up other leaders within the church, through mentorship and other empowerment opportunities. Men and women who would eventually serve the Lord in different capacities.

4. Is there such a thing as a call to pastoral ministry? Why or why not?

Yes, there is a call to pastoral ministry. Because the Church is a people of God set apart for Himself, yet they face several challenges in life and are still this side of heaven, God is pleased to call out specific people(men) into positions of leadership of the flock as shepherds. These men are servants of the LORD and fellow man. These men exercise delegated authority from the Lord Himself.

John MacArthur writes in his book, Pastoral ministry; How to shepherd biblically that, “Beyond the call of all Christians to use their spiritual gifts, God extends a call to the vocational ministry of leadership. Realizing that every believer should be involved in ministry, we will use the term the ministryin the present context to refer to a specific type of service rendered to the church by a particular group of leaders.” In this statement, we notice the call the pastoral ministry is not same as the call to salvation and not the general call to Christian service but rather specifically to the vocation of Church leadership, shepherding and oversight.

This call to vocational call can be broken down into two major parts. The internal call, the external call. The internal call is normally the inner working of the Holy Spirit, the gifting, the enabling and the arousing of a desire or a longing to lead/shepherd a congregation, in the heart of the man being called to vocational ministry. The external calling normally is the second stage of the vocational call, where the man being called is assessed and affirmed by the elders.

It is profoundly important for a pastor to that this calling to this specific ministry office. Because the assurance that comes with this call is what keeps the pastor going even in the hardest of ministry times, which often come. When hard times knock on the pastor’s door, even the closest of friends may desert him and it is in those moments that he would have to solely rest on the assurance that God is the one who called and entrusted him that ministry responsibility, and only God can carry him through the tough times. In response to the question, ‘“How important is the assurance of a special call?” Sugden and Wiersbe said, “The work of a ministry is too demanding and difficult for a man to enter it without a sense of divine calling. Men enter and leave the ministry usually because they lack a sense of divine urgency. Nothing less than a definite call from God could ever give a man success in the ministry.”’

5. How do you evaluate your own personal calling to pastoral ministry at the present time and why?

My personal calling to pastoral ministry can be traced from October 2013. I received a gracious call from the Chairman of the Executive committee Butema BaptistChurch informing me of the Church’s decision to appoint me as the Lead Pastor and overseer, a normal size church. The pastor at that time was resigning his responsibilities as senior pastor of our Church in the following month. Of course, by that time I was already a believer, married, with a family, and in ministry.

They awaited my response with eagerness and joy because they believed in me and my salvation testimony, as my testimony in the Church, and in the community, was and still is very humble before them. I approached the call with prayer and honesty. We felt like it was an honor and a high level of trust from the Church Executive committee and the congregation to consider me for such a level of leadership and responsibility. I rejoiced at the call and i took time to pray for God’s confirmation to my heart, especially about this call, whether the Lord would go with me. I  also shared the idea with a number of friends, Church elders and prayer partners, most of whom said it really depends on what the LORD says(confirms) to me.

After some weeks of prayer, seeking the Lord and intercession about this call, it became very clear that God was calling me to Pastoral ministry and Leadership, but the timing was yet to come. I felt it was not just going to fill up the vacancy, but to be very sure that the Lord was leading me to serve in that specific role of a pastor to our congregation. Whereas some of our church leaders wanted me to start immediately, in my personal assessment and some comments from other mature Christians familiar with this type of ministry, I felt I was yet to have the specific skills of rightly dividing the word of truth before the congregation. I did not have any training for this enormous and yet gracious task.

So, with that realization i communicated to the Church, thanking them for the honor and trust they have in me as a child they helped raise in their midst, and as a co-worker and now as leader. In my communication, I expressed my need for me to acquire the necessary training for the task such that I am“approved”. I am still serving on the Church executive committee and I am available to them from time to time for ministry purposes and advise.

However, before this call came, I started getting an impression on my heart to consider pursuing Pastoral ministry training. As I continued to work for several years among pastors and church leaders some of whom were more trained than I, the Lord has impressed on my heart to look in the direction of Pastoral Ministry and Leadership in the days ahead, to prepare accordingly to pastor a local Church by seeking necessary training. For Apostle Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4:7-8 “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value inevery way, as it holds promise for the present life and for the life to come”. And in 2 Timothy 2:15 Apostle Paul says “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”.

I contacted several Bible schools in and outside Uganda seeking this specific training in theology and Pastoral ministry training. I am so thankful to God for the opportunity He has blessed me with, to come to Moody to acquire the knowledge and skills I am learning, through course work, practical Christian ministry activity at Pacific Garden Mission. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve specifically because it enables me to utilize and apply immediately the great theological truths in the texts of Scripture together with the skills I am learning, of studying the text, preparing a sermon, preaching a sermon, ministering to people’s spiritual needs and helping people draw closer to God as they listen to the gospel. I am looking forward to the next stage of being officially approved/affirmed by the Church through ordination especially after my pastoral training here at Moody. I have a clear sense of calling to pastoral ministry because I desire to preach the word of truth, I want to help people come to the saving knowledge, grace of our Lord Jesus. And also to help walk with people through discipleship.

6. Describe the basic qualifications for pastoral ministry.

A man desiring to become a pastor must meet the qualifications as stated in 1 Tim 3:1-7. And Titus 1:5-9. These include: Aspiration to serve and lead in the capacity as a pastor, above reproach, respectable, having a good reputation, temperate  and hospitable. He should be able to teach/preach among other responsibilities.

7. Explain the nature of pastoral ministry.

There are three components of the nature of pastoral ministry. These include first, a “Sense of ‘Calling.’ Which we have seen above, the internal and external calling. And normally the internal calling prescribes self-examination or assessment of the already realized Spiritual giftedness and abilities. Also, this assessment many times reveals the personal weaknesses. And if a pastor grips a genuine knowledge of self, then he is a better position to harness his strengths and work on improving on the areas of his weaknesses right from the start.

Secondly, pastoral ministry entails a thorough and diligent execution of Biblical Responsibilities which includes the ministry of the word and prayer, fellowship, sound doctrine to mention but a few. It also calls the pastor to be aware of the “Congregational Expectations.” For instance, members of a congregation value meeting with a pastor in a way that does not compare to anyone else. Because he is the spiritual leader. A pastor’s visit to a hospital speaks volumes of a “good shepherd” to the patient as compared to when the pastor sends another person in his place.

Lastly, the nature of pastoral ministry comprises of pastor’s theological understanding of the nature and structure of the church he is leading. It also requires the pastor to understand and articulate the vision and mission of the church and way of life of members of the congregation.

Work cited:

MacArthur, John. The Macarthur Study Bible. 1st ed. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2006. Print.

MacArthur, John. Pastoral Ministry. 1st ed. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005. Print.

Merkle, Benjamin L and Thomas R Schreiner. Shepherding God’s Flock. 1st ed. Print.

John Koessler Pastoral Theology lecture notes Spring 2016.