Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 106:424 (Oct 1949)
Article: The Minister as Pastor Part 2
Author: Charles F. Ball

BSac 106:424 (Oct 49) p. 464

The Minister as Pastor
Part 2

Charles F. Ball

(Continued from the July-September Number, 1949)

The most vital work of the minister is the work of the pulpit. Of that there is little question. The strength of a church is in ratio to the strength of its sermons and its teaching of the Word of God. But the work of the ministry is not exhausted when we have preached. Indeed, there are some today who erroneously feel that preaching is only an insignificant part of the whole.

In some quarters ritual and ceremony are emphasized to the detriment of the proclamation of the Truth. There is danger that Protestants will forget that theirs is a preaching church—born in preaching, based upon it and nourished by it. Central in the Protestant scheme of things is the Word of God and its message to men. Central in the Romanist program is the altar with its form and ritual. One appeals to the eye, the other to the mind and the heart. Many of the architectural trends and the worship programs of modern churches lean more to the priest than to the preacher. Since no altar is to be found in all the New Testament or anywhere in the apostolic church it is a difficult thing to see how it has grown to such importance in the modern church, or what is the source of our zeal to make it central. It is evidently inspired by the Vatican, if introduced through the appeal of some of our lovers of pageantry. The modern use of “worship centers” as an aid to the church service is another distressing sign, an evidence that the church of today wants to forsake the pulpit for the altar.

Search the New Testament through and it will be seen

BSac 106:424 (Oct 49) p. 465

that preaching is prominently set forth as the greatest task of the minister. We should, therefore, give it its proper dignity in our churches. Important as that office of preaching is, however, and vital as it is to the church’s growth and welfare, there are other ministries which have been honored of God and which must be considered in any true picture of our responsibility. I refer especially now to the pastoral relationship. Such a task is not exclusive of the preaching function, of course. It is related to that work closely. It will enrich the preaching as nothing else can do. Blessed be the church that has a preacher who is a pastor, and conversely blessed be the church that has a pastor who is a preacher.

The subject of the pastoral relationship is so vital and so large that it should be considered separately, therefore we give one lecture to it now. Of all the names bestowed upon a clergyman there is none more expressive of the warmth and richness of his office than the name pastor. To call him a bishop, a priest, a preacher...