The following description of a “faithful minister” was written by John Williamson Nevin (1803-1886).  As we at Third Avenue are in the process of seeking and calling a pastor, this short passage reminds us of the tremendous weight of pastoral ministry and how the Lord uses a pastor’s life and words for a congregation’s good:

The faithful minister is found preaching the gospel from house to house, as well as in a more public way; visiting the families that are under his care, expressly for this purpose; conversing with old and young, on the great subject of personal religion; mingling with the poor, in their humble dwellings, as well as with those in better circumstances; ministering the instructions of religion, or its consolations, at the bed-side of the sick or dying; and in one word laying himself out in continual labors of love toward all, as the servant of all for Jesus’ sake.  The holiness of his own life particularly becomes, in these circumstances, an agency powerful beyond all others, to recommend and enforce the gospel he is called to preach.  To all who know him, his very presence carries with it the weight of an impressive testimony in favor of the truth. [The Anxious Bench (1844)]

Pray this description would mark the man we ultimately call as our senior pastor, those we finally recognize as elders, and all those who one day are sent out from Third Avenue to shepherd flocks of their own.

Posted in Pastoral Ministry |