The craftsmanship of ministry

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Looking after souls is a work that requires immense skill and intense carefulness. Whether preaching or discipling, or suffering, the minister of a congregation has his work cut out for him by the Lord, who will check over the progress he makes to see how well it matches the design He provided. This was the metaphor William Veitch saw in Paul’s advice to Archippus in Colossians 4:17. In the following excerpt, as a pastor himself, Veitch appeals to his fellow pastors to be constantly conscientious and diligent, listing some of the areas of ministry which require particular heedfulness.

Receiving and fulfilling the ministry

Because heedfulness is necessary in managing the ministerial work in so many ways, all of us who bear this office ought to take heed to our ministry. This is the voice and call of this text to every one of us, and especially with respect to the two things in the latter part of the words.

Did we start rightly?

The first is to take heed how, and from whom, we received this ministry — whether it was from the Lord Jesus Christ or not. Paul speaks of the ministry which Archippus “has received in the Lord” (Col. 4:17). Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Head of the church, and it is His prerogative to set up and send out office-bearers to His church. “And He said unto [Ezekiel], Son of man, I send thee unto the children of Israel” (Ezekiel 2:3), that is, “I who sit upon the sapphire throne,” as you have it in Ezekiel 1:26, “and who have all power in mine hand.” Christ is invested with all power in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18), which is why He sends forth office-bearers to all nations.

For this end, we must ensure that we have come in at the right door. For there are some, as Christ tells us, who call themselves shepherds, yet they do not come in at this door, but climb up another way (John 10:1). If we are right ministers of Christ, we must come in at three doors — the door of an internal call of God on the soul, the door of the external call of the people, and the door of a lawful sending and the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

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