Well for shepherding a church that takes into account that
we're dealing with different kinds of people and their
situations are going to vary.
I think it's always the task of a pastor to be looking forward
and backward, so what have we covered and what do we need to
cover for two or three different purposes.
What do we need to cover to bring people to faith, I mean I
sometimes need to say 'are there people who don't know the Lord?'
Always in a healthy church there are going to be mature believers
but hopefully there are seekers and hopefully there are children
either of age or understanding.
And so I need to be saying, 'how do I just say to some people
what is this gospel, what is this good news, what is true
repentance, what is turning to faith in Christ?', all of that
is saying I need to bring some people to faith.
I also think we need to always be asking how do I bring people
to maturity and so I'm saying what subjects have we covered in
the last few months, in the last few years, what did the previous
pastor cover, what's the history of this church?
And as I'm saying what have we covered then I also need to
address what do we need to cover and that's looking forward.
Now what do we need to cover has a number of issues that come
into mind.
The issues of my age will change so I have to say what are the
present issues of the culture and at least the quotation
that's attributed to Martin Luther.
He said, "You can be faithful in all matters but fail to address
the very issue of your time and at that very moment become
unfaithful to the gospel."
So we have to say what are the present issues that are going
on, what are prevailing sins in the congregation?
You know there are some acceptable sins that almost any
congregation begins to say this isn't really bad, we accept this
in people.
What is the nature of what we accept?
Is it that the judgmentalism, is it the gossip, is the
materialism that we just accept but is actually undermining the
gospel and faith and maturity in us?
So I have to consider that and finally I think I have to not
only look at present issues and prevailing sins but just what is
the time that I will have with people.
And so I think of pastors who may be in churches where they
have people for multiple generations that they are facing
and there are other pastors who say I'm at a college campus, I'm
near a military base, I'm in a professional youth culture here.
I may have people for two years, what would be a curriculum as it
were that I want people to take from this place to be mature
believers wherever God is going to call them next?
So it's different obligations, I think, which means the words of
the reformers long ago, "I always need to consider the
necessities and the capacities of my hearers."
What do they need to hear but at the same time what are they
capable of hearing?
How much time do they have?
How mature are they?
How rebellious are they?
What is their knowledge base to start with?
What is their educational level?
All those go into not just what they need to hear, I can just be
that pastors who says let me just pour out all this
information, here's what you ought to know.
Well, wonderful, but that's not all God is saying.
Even Jesus said, "I have more to tell you but you're not ready to
hear it."
And so the pastor is saying I know what you need to hear but I
need to be assessing what you're capable of hearing and to make
prudential, pastoral, shepherding decisions based upon
bringing people to maturity.
At the same time really assessing what can they absorb
given knowledge or hardness of heart, or even gentleness of
heart, softness, sensitivity, they may be too fragile in the
moment.
What can they hear as well as what they need to hear leads me
forward in understanding what I should be talking about.