Reformed Pastoral Ministry, Preaching, and Missions — Unit 1: The Minister of the Word

Key Verse

"Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you." (1 Timothy 4:16, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why the Reformed tradition calls its pastors "ministers of the Word" and how this differs from a priesthood standing between God and people.

2. Describe the inward call and the outward call to ministry, and name the tests the church applies to both.

3. List the main qualifications for an overseer in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

4. Describe Calvin's four offices and the place of the teaching elder among them.

5. State the Reformed view that the offices of minister and elder are held by qualified men, name the Reformed bodies that differ, and describe the wide service of women in the church.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative. It holds that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and it receives the great confessions of the Reformation as faithful summaries of what the Bible teaches. When it says "we," it means these churches.

Other Christians see some of these matters differently. We state their views fairly and then give our answer, because Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The history of the Reformed churches is told in Course 1, and the doctrines are set out in Courses 2 and 3. This course asks a practical question: what does a Reformed pastor do, and how does he do it?

What Is a Minister?

The English word "minister" means servant. It translates the Greek word diakonos and related words, which Paul uses of himself and of Apollos: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?" (1 Corinthians 3:5). A minister is not a lord. He serves Christ, and through Christ he serves the people.

The Reformed churches also use the word "pastor," which means shepherd. Paul tells the elders of Ephesus to "shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). Peter gives the same charge in 1 Peter 5:1-4, and reminds elders that Christ is the Chief Shepherd. The New Testament uses three words for one office: elder (presbyteros), overseer (episkopos) and shepherd (poimen). We hold that these words describe the same men. Paul calls the Ephesian leaders elders in Acts 20:17 and overseers in Acts 20:28. In Titus 1:5-7 he uses "elder" and "overseer" for one office.

Why do we say "minister of the Word"? Because the center of this service is the Word of God. Paul charges Timothy, "Preach the word!" (2 Timothy 4:2). The minister opens Scripture, explains it, applies it and lives by it. He also administers the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, which are the Word made visible. His work stands or falls with the Bible. Where he speaks what Scripture says, he speaks with God's authority. Where he goes beyond Scripture, he has no authority at all.

The Reformed Answer to the Priesthood

At the time of the Reformation, the ordinary priest in Western Europe offered the Mass, heard confession and gave absolution. The people depended on him for access to God. The Reformers answered from the book of Hebrews. Christ is the one great High Priest who offered Himself once for all (Hebrews 7:26-27; 10:11-14). There is "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Every believer has access to God through Him. Peter calls the whole church "a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9).

So the Reformed churches do not have priests in the Roman Catholic sense. This does not make the ministry unimportant. Christ gave "some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry" (Ephesians 4:11-12). The minister has a real office, but it is an office of service. He does not stand between a believer and God. He points the believer to Christ.

Some historians say the Reformers only replaced one kind of authority with another, and that the Protestant minister in his pulpit became the new priest. Reformed ministers did have great influence, and some abused it. Our answer is that Reformed doctrine limits the minister's authority. It is ministerial, not lordly. He may speak only as the servant of the Word. The people are commanded to test his teaching, as the Bereans did when they "searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). Peter forbids elders to be "lords over those entrusted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). Where a minister demands obedience beyond Scripture, he has left the Reformed path.

The Call to Ministry

No one should take this honor to himself. "And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was" (Hebrews 5:4). Reformed teachers, following Calvin's Institutes (Book 4, chapter 3), speak of two parts of the call.

The inward call

The inward call is a conviction in the man's own heart and conscience. He desires the work: "If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work" (1 Timothy 3:1). He loves God's Word and God's people. He wants to serve even when it costs him. This desire is not enough by itself. Many men have sincere feelings that are mistaken, and some feelings come from pride or from a wish for a position.

The outward call

The outward call comes from the church. The elders and the people recognize the man's gifts and character, and they call him to serve. In the New Testament, elders were appointed in the churches (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), and Timothy received a gift "by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership" (1 Timothy 4:14). In Reformed churches today, a man is examined by the elders of the presbytery, who test his doctrine, his character and his ability to teach. If he passes, he is ordained with prayer and the laying on of hands.

The two calls belong together. A man who says "God has called me" but whom the church does not recognize should wait and ask why. A church that calls a man who has no desire for the work does him and the people harm. The Reformed tradition therefore never leaves the call to feeling alone. It also tests the gifts: can he teach the Bible clearly? Do believers grow under his teaching? Is his life consistent with what he says?

Some Christians, especially in Pentecostal and independent circles, place the weight on a personal experience of God's call, such as a dream, a prophecy or a sudden certainty. God may use many means to move a man's heart, and we do not deny it. But Scripture gives the church a public task of examination. The Spirit who calls the man also gives the church the wisdom to test him.

The Character of a Minister

Paul gives clear lists of what an overseer must be. In 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 he names qualities such as being blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, hospitable, able to teach, not violent, not greedy, a good manager of his own household and not a new convert. Titus 1:9 adds that he must hold "fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."

Notice what the lists contain. Most of the qualities are about character, not talent. Only one, "able to teach," is a skill. A brilliant speaker with a poor character is unfit. A man of good character who cannot teach is also unfit for this office, though he may serve the church in other ways. The lists also say much about the home. Marriage as God made it, one man and one woman, is honored in these lists, and the minister's household is part of his witness. If a man cannot manage his own household, Paul asks, "how will he take care of the church of God?" (1 Timothy 3:5).

Our key verse puts two things together: "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine." The minister watches his own life and his teaching. If he neglects the first, his teaching is empty. If he neglects the second, his life cannot help the people. God alone saves, but He uses the faithful minister as His means. Unit 4 returns to this theme.

A Learned and Humble Ministry

The Reformed churches have always cared about teaching. Calvin founded the Academy of Geneva in 1559 to train ministers, and Reformed churches in many lands have built seminaries since. The reason is simple: the minister must explain the Bible, and he must know it well. Paul tells Timothy, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). This means study of the text, of its languages where possible, of the whole Bible, and of what the church has believed.

Some respond that the apostles were "uneducated and untrained men" (Acts 4:13) and that the Spirit needs no schooling. We agree that God is not limited by degrees. Many faithful pastors in Latin America and Africa have served with little formal training, and we honor them. But the same Acts 4:13 says people "realized that they had been with Jesus," so these men had been taught by Him for years. Paul himself was highly trained, and he told Timothy to give attention to reading, exhortation and doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13). The answer is not to despise learning or to worship it. Self-study, mentoring by older ministers and courses such as this one are all ways to meet the same need.

Humility goes with learning. Paul calls himself "the least of the apostles" (1 Corinthians 15:9).

The Four Offices in Calvin's Geneva

In his Ecclesiastical Ordinances of 1541, Calvin set out four offices for the church in Geneva: pastors, teachers (also called doctors), elders and deacons. The pastors preached and administered the sacraments. The teachers taught doctrine and trained the next generation. The elders, with the pastors, watched over the life of the church. The deacons cared for the poor and sick. Calvin found this pattern in passages such as Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11.

Later Presbyterian churches kept the pattern with changes. In many of them the offices are two: elder and deacon. Elders are of two kinds, teaching elders (ministers) and ruling elders. Paul says, "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine" (1 Timothy 5:17). Many Reformed churches read this verse as showing that all elders rule, and some also labor in preaching and teaching. How elders and deacons work together is covered in Course 4 under "Government by Elders: teaching and ruling elders" and "Deacons and the Ministry of Mercy." Here it is enough to say that the minister is never alone. He serves with other elders who share the oversight and who hold him accountable.

Some churches teach that one pastor should lead alone. Our answer is the pattern of Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5, which speak of elders in the plural in each church.

Who May Hold the Offices?

The conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches, such as the Presbyterian Church in America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the United Reformed Churches, teach that the offices of minister and elder are open to qualified men. They base this on 1 Timothy 2:12 and 3:2, where Paul speaks of the overseer as "the husband of one wife," and on the pattern of male elders in the New Testament, which they trace to creation order in 1 Timothy 2:13. This is the view we teach as the tradition's own.

Some Reformed bodies read these texts differently. Several mainline Presbyterian and Reformed churches ordain women as ministers and elders. They argue that the New Testament honors women who prophesied, taught and led, such as Priscilla, Phoebe and Junia, and that the gifts of the Spirit are not limited by sex. We state this view fairly. The conservative churches answer that these women served in real and honored ways, but that Paul reserves the oversight and authoritative teaching of the congregation to qualified men. A fuller treatment is in Course 4, "Office and Gender in the Reformed Churches."

Whatever one's view of office, all agree that women have always served widely in the church. Women prayed and labored beside Paul (Romans 16:1-6; Philippians 4:2-3). Older women are told to teach younger women (Titus 2:3-5). Priscilla and Aquila together explained "the way of God more accurately" to Apollos (Acts 18:26). In our churches women teach children and other women, lead missions and mercy ministries, serve as deaconesses where the church recognizes them, write, translate, counsel and pray. A church that wastes the gifts of its women is poorer.

Pastoral Application

A small church in a town near Guadalajara has lost its pastor. The elders find a young man named Daniel, who teaches the youth, loves the Bible and says he feels called. Daniel has no training. Some members want to make him pastor at once because "he has the fire." Others say he must first go to a seminary in another city, which his family cannot afford.

A wise session would take these steps. First, they would hear Daniel's own account of his desire. Second, they would examine his life: his marriage, his work, and how he treats people. Third, they would test his teaching by asking him to preach. Fourth, they would arrange study with an older minister, using courses such as those at CTS, before he is ordained. Fifth, they would pray and wait. This protects Daniel as well as the church. A hasty call has ended many ministries. A patient call, tested by the church, gives a young man a firm place to stand.

Summary

The Reformed minister is a servant of Christ and of His Word. He is not a priest who stands between a person and God, because Christ is the only Mediator and every believer has access to Him. The call to ministry has an inward part, a desire given by God, and an outward part, the church's examination and ordination. Paul's lists in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 focus on character, with ability to teach as the one skill. Our key verse tells the minister to watch both himself and his doctrine. The Reformed churches value a learned ministry while honoring faithful men without formal schooling. Calvin's four offices of pastor, teacher, elder and deacon give the church a shared government. The conservative Reformed churches reserve the offices of minister and elder to qualified men, while some Reformed bodies ordain women, and all affirm the wide service of women in the church.

Further Reading

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book 4, chapters 1-3.

• John Calvin, Ecclesiastical Ordinances (Geneva, 1541).

• Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (1656).

• William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying (1592).

• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapter 25, and the Form of Presbyterial Church-Government.

• Second Helvetic Confession (1566), chapters 17-18.

• C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, a Reformed Baptist voice on the minister's life and call.

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