cise; o f restoring a person to his rightful mind; o f reconciling friends who have be come estranged, (ii) It is used o f ‘equip ping or fully furnishing someone or some thing fo r some given purpose.’ So it is used o f fitting out a ship and it is used of an army, fully armed and equipped, and drawn up in battle-array.” William Bar clay, A New Testament Wordbook, Harp er & Brothers.)
to send out members o f the congregation to various cities here and abroad, so that they can adequately study methods o f metropolitan government. The problem o f mass transportation has already cost millions o f dollars and still it remains unsolved. Must the church spend more millions, or does church affiliation equip individuals with great knowledge and competence? Must the congrega tion engage political experts to help determine equitable representation in federal, state, and local government, and who can estimate the cost of eliminating chronic poverty?” (J. Howard Pew, “ The Mission o f the Church,” Christianity Today, July 3, 1964.) Yet, any half-way sensitive American cannot be indifferent when he learns that some o f his fellow-Americans, according to Robert Raines, are living in rentals with basements, “ where human waste had overflowed from back-up sewers and was a couple o f inches thick on the floor. The size o f the rats was unbelievable. And yet the rent in the building was $30 a week — a week, not a month.” Woefully, substandard living conditions in the (Robert Raines, “ Riots and Responsibility,” Renewal Magazine, September, 1967) ghettoes is only one type o f community problem among many. But suppose that a pastor is gripped by this prob lem. What can he do? What is one man in the midst o f vast needs? Whom Does the Pastor Serve? This brings us to the question immediately at hand. What is the role o f the pastor in community projects? A pastor is a man under commission and His immediate superior, who has commissioned him, is none less than the Head o f the Church, Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God directing the affairs o f the Church. Now, it must surely be agreed upon that it is not the task o f the members o f the Body o f Christ to direct the Head with respect to their task. Rather, it is theirs to recognize that “ now hath God set the members, every one o f them, in the body, as it hath pleased him” (I Cor. 12:18). What Is the Work of the Pastor? Now, it pleased the Lord to give pastors the task o f “ perfecting the saints” (Eph. 4 :12 ). The idea o f “ perfecting” here is that o f upbuilding or equipping for service. The New English Bible renders it: “ to equip God’s people for work in His service.” The richness o f the word is seen in its wide variety o f meanings ably summarized by William Barclay:
It can easily be seen that this presents a full time job for the pastor — full o f challenge and reward. Who Is the Pastor to Perfect? But who is the pastor to be equipping? Who is to be the object o f his efforts? Not society in gen eral, but the saints. This is in keeping with the double-barrelled commission o f the Church — evangelization and disciplization. The Church gath ered is for disciplization, and the Church dispersed is for evangelization. They should have a cause and effect relationship. This is certainly in keeping with the three-fold commission given by Christ to Peter in John 21. Feed my lambs! Tend my sheep! Feed my sheep! Peter apparently got the message, for when he addressed his fellow elders, he charged them: “ Tend the flock o f God which is among you” (I Peter 5 :2 ). Thus, as the pastor seeks to keep abreast o f current events and bring God’s counsel to bear on them, to whom should he speak? Should he address his words to his own members, to gov ernmental administrators, to legislators, to the general public, or to whom? It would seem that his remarks should be to his members, — God’s sheep —• in dependence upon the Holy Spirit to enlighten them and embolden them to take appro priate action. What Is the Word of the Church and of the Christian? At this point it is important to make a careful distinction between the Christian Church and Christians who make up the Church, for actions which are appropriate to one are not necessarily appropriate to the other. What the Church as Church ought to do and what Christians, as mem bers both o f God’s kingdom and o f Caesar’s king dom, ought to do are two different things. There is a danger o f people thinking that whenever any thing goes wrong, they have to ask the church to denounce it. The right people to denounce evil are the citizens. It is the job o f the pastors to equip the saints with Biblical principles for action in their respective roles in society and with respect to the vital issues o f the day. Former Congressman Walter Judd has ex pressed this distinction: “ I don’t want the church working in politics. I don’t want political action by
“ (i) It means ‘to adjust, to put in order, to restore / Hence it is used o f pacifying a city which is tom by faction; o f setting a limb that has been dislocated; o f devel oping certain parts o f the body by exer
SEPTEMBER, 1969
IS
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online