The Pastor As Scholar

What is the link between the academy and the pulpit? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I have been reading the works of J. Gresham Machen for a class and last night, I was reading some of his sermons and was noticing how in-depth they were. He comes from a Calvinistic perspective so I didn’t agree with everything, but I knew he was working to substantiate his points. The sermon was rigorous and yet Machen spoke with a pastor’s heart.

I went to bed that night wondering why that was and I decided ultimately that there is a need for pastors to be scholars. If not a scholar, at least training in higher education to give the best of your mind to the church. Many people think that all that is needed to be an effective pastor is to just have a lot of passion for the things of God.

However, Scripture tells us in the epistles especially about the qualifications of a pastor. A pastor must be equipped in sound doctrine and be able to refute those who contradict. While some of these are said for deacons and elders, surely if they apply to the lesser offices of the church, they apply to the greater.

If you don’t have a strong background of information, you will more often than not draw from your own experiences and your own life to preach a sermon. How many times can a sermon end and you know a lot about the life of the person behind the pulpit, but you don’t know as much about Jesus? That doesn’t mean that you can never talk about your life experience, but it shouldn’t be your main source.

After all, if you have to speak sometime, you will draw out of whatever you have. If all you have is yourself, then you are going to have a shallow sermon. If you have a deep reservoir of theology, Christology, apologetics, church history, philosophy, Scripture, etc. then you will have plenty to draw from.

Years ago I attended a church where we had the educational hour before the sermon, which was like our version of Sunday School. There was more than one Sunday when two minutes or so before class began, no exaggeration, they didn’t have a teacher, and they would ask me to get up and suddenly speak on something, for an hour. No problem. I remember one Sunday I said, “Not a problem. We’ll talk about the five ways of Aquinas.”

If you have this kind of background, you can do this kind of thing. Whatever you think of Tim Keller, and I don’t say this as endorsement or condemnation, he did say something once that someone knew when he hadn’t prepared a lot for his sermon because he would talk a lot more about C.S. Lewis. That is an example of what is being talked about here. Many a pastor could have talked about himself and his own life, but Keller saw himself as well enough acquainted with Lewis, and he might be, that he could speak about him instead.

Every pastor in church needs to have either gone to seminary and got an education or is going to seminary. We are training up our people to fight a war and we don’t need just people who feel good. We need people who know what they’re fighting for and why. We need pastors who are scholars to equip laymen to be warriors.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

I Don’t Have Time For Apologetics!

Do you have the time to study the apologetics you need to learn? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I had said that we would talk about the time constraints that people have with apologetics. Many of you are saying “I work a 9-5 job and I get home and there are kids to take care of and then it’s off to bed and I do the same thing the next day. I just don’t have time.” I hear you, but let’s consider some other aspects of your life.

Do you have time, for instance, to watch a sporting event that you want to watch? Do you have time to go and exercise at the gym? Do you have time to binge watch that series you want to see on Netflix? Do you have time to spend an hour scrolling Facebook and commenting on discussions that we know are pointless? The question is not really so much of time, but the question is one of importance. How important is this to you?

Now of course, you might not have the time to read a big big book, but you can read something small. Many books that can help you are about 100-200 pages. That’s not as intimidating as you think. If you can read about 10 pages a day, you’ll be doing well. No one is expecting you to read 3-4 books every week.

There are also other ways to help you out. If you have a long commute, get an audio book. Read it on the way. If you have a good lunch hour and you’re by yourself, bring a book with you and read it. If you take the kids somewhere and you just have to watch them, bring that book with you. Get in a little bit.

The question is not if you have enough time, but how are you going to redirect your time? I’m not asking you to cut back on time with your spouse or time with your children, but you probably have more discretionary time than you realize. Perhaps it could help you to turn off the TV every now and then.

The reality is every moment of your time, you are saying that something is important to you. I’m not getting after you for wanting to have some pure leisure time. I have my favorite TV shows I like to watch and my games I like to play, but you can’t devote your life to those. If you think Christianity matters, then surely you can devote some time to learning about it. If you want to tell people about your favorite TV show or sports team, you make sure you know about it so you can tell them. If you say Christianity is the most important aspect of your life, what do you know about it when it comes time to tell other people about Christianity?

Ultimately, it will come down to what’s important. How are you going to spend your time? If you want to spend it all in bringing yourself pleasure, you will be a very shallow person at the end of the day. If Jesus matters to you, give some time to Him beyond just church.

In Christ,
Nick Peters