“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” II Timothy 2.2

Pastoring is passed down.

From one life to another, pastoring is passed down.

To be sure, pastoring is a calling. It is Jesus, the Head and Good Shepherd of the church who calls individuals to pastor His people. But although pastoring begins with Jesus’ call, it does not end there: with the acceptance of the call there is then much to learn about being a pastor, lessons that can only be learned from a pastor.

Pastoring is passed down.

Ask Pastor Polycarp who, in the late 1st century AD learned all he knew about being a pastor from the Apostle John, who had learned all he knew about pastoring from the One who calls all pastors, Jesus.

Possessing all that John had passed down to him, Polycarp was a leader in the fight against early attempts to corrupt Christian doctrine, publicly defeating the deadly heresy of Marcion, and then writing convincingly against Gnostic false teaching that was attracting young believers.

But Polycarp’s most significant pastoral leadership was not in his preaching or his writing. It was in his dying. In the act of martyrdom, Polycarp most effectively pastored his people.

Charged with the crime of being a Christian – one who affirms Jesus as the only way to eternal life – Polycarp faced torture and death. His Roman judge gave him the opportunity to save his life: all he had to do was say the three words, “Caesar is Lord” and offer a pinch of incense to Caesar’s statue. To this  Polycarp responded, “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

Polycarp refused to compromise, and so, was burned at the stake. But in dying, he taught his flock how to live. And he taught young pastors how to lay down their lives for their flocks so that the people of God might truly live in Christ.

Pastoral lessons like these are not learned in university classrooms or books. They are modeled in the lives of faithful pastors: Polycarp pastors. And then they are passed down to us, refined in us and fired like steel in us as Jesus forms His call to pastoring and His way of pastoring in us.

Pastoring is passed down.

From Jesus to John to Polycarp to . . . . . . to you and me.

With appreciation, here are the first of two sets of  lessons my pastors passed down to me.

 

1. Learn solitude. Live a contemplative life.

 

It is in solitude that we draw near to the Savior, our source of salvation and daily grace.

It is in adoration that we focus our finite minds and hearts on God’s infinite glory and greatness.

It is in silence that we still our hearts to hear His transcendent and personal voice.

It is in meditation on the Word of God that we come to know the God of the Word.

It is in reflection on the God of the Word that we come to experience Him.

It is in contemplation of ourselves before Him that we come to abide in Him.

It is in abiding in Him that we are made fit to truly minister in His name.

You’d better believe that Polycarp had long walked the way of solitude and contemplation before he was asked and able to walk into the fire of martyrdom.

 

2. There are things only a pastor can give to people. So give them.  And give them freely.

 

Human history makes clear what the Bible teaches: there are things only a mother can give us and there are things only a father can give us.

This is true because of our creation: God created us to be formed by mothers and fathers. The love, nurture, discipline, acceptance, security, etc., they give us comes uniquely – and differently – through each of them. Research on the subject, as extensive as it is, confirms what the Bible teaches: there are things only a father and a mother can give us.

Just so, there are things only a pastor can give us, things only an undershepherd of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, can give to His people. This is also made clear in Scripture. Ephesians 4 describes the pastor-teacher as a “spiritual gift” from Jesus to the church, a spiritual gift seated in the biblical office of pastor, and so, anointed by the Holy Spirit to shepherd God’s people in the stead of the Good Shepherd.

When the shepherd is in place and leading in a Christlike manner, the people of God are healthy and able to take care of themselves. But Matthew 9 tells us that when shepherds are not in place or not leading in a Christlike manner, the people of God are weak and helpless, or distressed and dispirited. (v.36).

Jesus sees churches like this all too often in our day. And He has compassion on them, compassion because just as He has formed us with a need for a mother and a father, He has formed us with a need for a pastor, an undershepherd of Jesus among us, and, it is clear those needs are not being met.

Pastor, be that pastor who gives what only pastors can give. And gives these things freely.

When Polycarp was given the opportunity to worship Jesus and Caesar, his people watched to see what he would do. They watched to see their pastor’s response so they would know what they should then do: where he led, they would follow. Polycarp did not fail them. Like the Good Shepherd, Polycarp faithfully pastored them, giving them what only a shepherd can give: a living promise that even in the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us, leading us to eternal green pastures and still waters that can never be found in compromise.

 

3. Pastoring means sacrifice and self-denial.

 

Pastoring is not a career; it’s a call.

It’s a call issued by the One who denied Himself, took up His Cross and sacrificed His very life for the salvation of a lost world. He now says to any who would receive that salvation, “If you would be my disciple, take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me.”

Richard Wurmbrand writes,

“Friendship with Jesus is costly. Faith alone saves, but saving faith is never alone. It is always accompanied by great sacrifices for Christ’s sake.”

Pastors lead the sheep of the Good Shepherd. Not just in salvation, but in denying self and in sacrifice. What could be more obvious? The first Shepherd gave His life for His sheep. Before He departed, He left twelve shepherds – twelve personal friends. Eleven of them literally sacrificed their lives for Him; the twelfth held to his own life and ended up selling it for thirty pieces of silver.

If not in death, then in life: pastoring means sacrifice and self-denial.

In his book, Appointed to Preach, David W. Hegg writes:

“Ordained ministry is a serious and strenuous calling that requires from a man a radical refusal to set any limits on what God may demand of him.”

When Polycarp was given the opportunity to worship Jesus and Caesar, he thought not only of his own soul, but of the souls of his people. Yes, he could outwardly confess Caesar and make the offering while inwardly confessing Jesus as Lord. But to do so would be a denial of Jesus and he knew it. It would also be a denial of Polykarp’s creation and his call as a pastor of the people of God. Faced with the choice of denying self or Christ and His call, Polycarp did not hesitate: there was no sacrifice in laying down what was never his in the first place.

 

4. You need to do the journey of ministry with others.

 

Not “should.” Not “can.” But “need.” Need to do as in must, essential, and absolutely required.

The numbers don’t lie and the numbers continue to reveal that the number one killer of ministers, young and old, is isolation.

Isolation kills younger ministers by convincing them to quit the ministry (5 of 10 quit in the first 5 years).

Isolation kills older ministers by convincing them to quit ministering, to set the machine on cruise and just ride it out to retirement.

What a shame! When the iron of another minister’s character, walk with Christ and experience could have sharpened and steeled the life of the one who walked away or shut down.

What a shame! When so many people depended on these ministers to live full of the Holy Spirit, fresh in their walk with God, and anointed in their ministry for Him.

Jesus not only walked with the twelve, but the twelve walked with each other, and continued to do so long after Jesus had ascended to heaven.

Those twelve then walked with a man called Barnabas who walked with Paul who walked with Timothy who walked with Mark who walked with Peter who walked with the twelve.

How critical it is that ministers walk together.  And how life giving.

Polycarp’s strength in his moment of decision had been forged in the fire of his commitment to Jesus. Of this there can be no doubt. But commitment can waver or compromise, even in the most sincere of believers. For this reason, God has given us the collective fire of community, and most especially, the collective fire of a small band of brothers or sisters who share the journey of life in ministry. Polycarp did not stand alone that day when he breathed his last. His commitment and faith had been forged in the fires of the Holy Spirit, reinforced again and again by the life and experience of brothers who shared his journey in living, and so, were also more than willing to do so in dying.

 

5. You need to understand what it means to be a pastor

 

We all know what pastoring looks like, but what does it mean to actually be a pastor?

We all see the platform ministry, we listen to the podcasts, and we devour the blog posts, but what does it mean to pastor people, to shepherd them like Jesus would do? After all, a pastor is really nothing more than an undershepherd, one who shepherds the people of God in the stead of and under the the authority and review of the Great Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

So, what does it mean to actually pastor people?

Writing in the 17^th century, Richard Baxter described it this way:

“It is the first and great work of ministers of Christ to acquaint men with that God made them, and is their happiness: to open to them the treasures of His goodness, and to tell them of the glory that is in His presence, which all His chosen people shall enjoy . . . Having shewed them the right end, our next work is to acquaint them with the right means of attaining it.”

Question: does the fact that Baxter ministered 400 years ago disqualify him in your eyes as a credible voice in the question of what it is to be a pastor? If so, that’s a good indication that you’ve not yet understood what it is to be a pastor: it may be a sign that you’re focused more on the latest techniques rather than eternal principles. While methods come and go, the principles of pastoring are timeless, given to us by the Good Shepherd Himself – the Pastor who carried a cross – and passed down to us over the centuries through His faithful servants.

Twenty-first century pastor, Eugene Peterson describes the work of the pastor in this way:

“Those of us who are called to be Christian pastors find ourselves in a world in which we get to work daily and intensely with the holy Scriptures and with human souls: these glorious holy Scriptures, these glorious human souls.”

Wrestle well with these two statements by these two faithful pastors and you will arrive at a faithful answer of what it is to pastor people for their true pastor, the Good Shepherd.

Polycarp understood what it was to be a pastor: he worked intensely with the Scriptures and the Scriptures worked intensely in him; he worked intensely with human souls to help them know God, and to prepare for life with Him in His glory. If the ministry one day was to preach, then he would preach. If the ministry another day was to train a younger pastor, then he would train him. If the ministry a third day was to encourage a follower of Jesus, then he would encourage that believer.  And if the ministry this day was to lead God’s people in the way of Christ by laying down his life, Polycarp would do it: he would lay down his life for the sheep because that is who shepherds are and that is what shepherds do (John 10).  This, his pastor, and his pastor’s pastor, had passed down to him.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Polycarp knew what it was to be a pastor. He knew this truth from the inside out as he lived out his pastoral calling. But his pastoral training began in what his pastor, the Apostle John, passed down to him, lessons that became living signposts for his own life and ministry.

So, Pastor, who’s pastoring you? Who is your Apostle John?

Pastor, what has your pastor passed down to you of life and ministry?

Pastor, if pressed to choose between easy ways and  the escapes offered us – be they three little words and incense or celebrity of compromise – and that of leading God’s people from the fire of a burning stake, which will you choose?

We know the name of Polycarp because he faithfully fulfilled His call as an undershepherd of the Great Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. The fire he needed to carry out his ministry was given to Him by the Holy Spirit, defined in the instruction given him by his pastor, the Apostle John.

Polycarp reminds us that while pastoring begins with a call it does not end there: Pastoring is passed down.

“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” II Timothy 2.2

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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching provides pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

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