pastoral ministry

Our mandate from the Lord is hardly what you'd call complicated. "Go and make disciples."

Difficult, perhaps. But not exactly complicated.

The church is not there to make a noise, or to make a fuss, or to make a nuisance, or to make a big impression.

It's disciples we are to be making.

Not just converts. Not just members. Disciples.

People who are learning to follow Jesus and live life under his lordship. People who are growing in their knowledge of him, in their likeness to him, and their fruitfulness for him.

And it doesn't happen magically.

The formation of disciples is a long and demanding task. It requires a steady resolve on the part of the pastors, a teachable spirit on the part of all of God's people, and a framework within which it can happen in the life of a congregation.

It's that which we've been working on for a while. A 'framework' for pastoral ministry which is deliberately geared to securing that growth in Christ.

Most of this morning was spent on this matter again. Meeting with one or two others, who are closely involved in the thing, to work on this 'framework' again.

It involves a bit of a change of our outlook, I guess, on the part of both pastors and people.

A change of outlook on the part of pastors, because I suspect that we've not all been thoroughly clear in our minds that pastoral ministry has that growth in spiritual maturity as its aim: and even when it has been clear, I suspect we've not all been terribly clear about how such growth is promoted in those we are seeking to pastor.

A change of outlook on the part of God's people, because I suspect that commitment to Christ has not always clearly been seen in these terms of submitting our lives to the Lordship of Jesus and making ourselves thus accountable to those who are 'over us' in the Lord.

I suspect, as I say, that such a notion as that will be quite a shock to the system for some. It'll involve for some, I suspect, a radical change of perspective.

But we don't have an option. This is our calling in Christ as the people of God. To go and make disciples.

So we have to have an appropriate 'framework' for pastoral ministry.

We have to have pastors equipped to minister in this distinctively pastoral manner.

And we have to cultivate within our people this clear understanding that their coming under the Lordship of Jesus involves this commitment to growth - a long and costly path of true discipleship.

Transformation is at the heart of the gospel.