The Pastor's Public Duty

Gregory Alan Thornbury, Ph.D. - Dean of the School of Christian Studies

Once upon a time, a community’s pastor served simultaneously as shepherd and shaper of culture. The idea that the church could produce a “city on a hill”, as John Winthrop once put it, characterized the mold into which the pastor once saw himself cast. The notion that the church could produce a powerful witness to the world produced generations of outstanding pastors who made lasting contributions to the culture around them. This is true when one considers, for example, Jonathan Edwards’ philosophical contributions and literary output or Charles Haddon Spurgeon with his pastor’s college and relief ministries for the poor. This tradition maintained well into the twentieth century as men going into pastoral ministry often continued to be men of letters, skilled in the original languages, steeped in the classics, who often held advanced degrees. R. G. Lee was himself both a gentlemen and scholar who turned down the chair of the Latin department at Furman University to pursue God’s call in the local church. But as the popular culture began to drift further and further away from its Christian moorings, churches began to make peace with secular trends. Pastors increasingly had to focus on administrating programs while the balance of cultural power shifted from the church to other forms of media and entertainment.

Today, a return to the importance of the public duty of the Pastor is needed, for he has something to say to the larger world of concern. His parishioners should hear about greed from the pulpit before the Enron and Worldcom scandals break, and be taught a biblical view of sexuality prior to the latest tawdry headline. Congregants will be able to remember when their pastor raised such issues in his morning message or Bible study. Even as the pastor emerges as a man engaged in a wide variety of thought and debate, applying the Bible to real economic and ethical problems, his people will be encouraged to do the same in their lives as public officials, teachers, doctors, journalists, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.

This attitude toward ministry is surely implied in what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote in Ephesians 3:10, “[God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” The wisdom of which Paul speaks here is not simply the basic outline of the gospel; rather, it is the gospel applied to every area of life in the world: thus, “the manifold wisdom of God”, a phrase which scholars Louw and Nida render as “the wisdom of God in its many different forms.” This diversity of wisdom must surely include all of the disciplines of intellectual inquiry, disciplines which God himself ordained and governs. Business, personal finance, science, government, and family all come to be seen in light of the gospel. Perhaps most importantly, God intends the publication of his cosmic administrations to “the authorities and the powers in the heavenly places.” The phrase “heavenly phrases” may on a surface reading cause one to conclude that the audience for the manifold wisdom of God includes spiritual beings alone. Although “heavenly phrases” certainly means such supernatural persons, those forces direct and give guidance to the flesh and blood pawns who do their bidding. Paul does not intend to tell his readers that they do not have fleshly enemies; rather, he informs them to be mindful of the true power and authority behind these adversaries who rule this present age.

Paul’s point in Ephesians 3.10 therefore can be stated thus: God’s wisdom in all its forms must be made publicly available to the world through the ministry of the local church. The church bears the weight the display of the glory of God to the culture in which they live and witness. This being so, the pastor, by logical inference, carries the standard of witness to the culture. The pastor’s preaching, therefore, must contain evidence of the manifold nature of the wisdom of the divine administration of the universe. This determined sort of preaching results in biblical teaching that places the forces of Satan on notice that God is in control and His kingdom is being advanced through the work of the body of Christ.