It is essential for the welfare of the church that it be supplied with good ministers. By good ministers we mean, not those who chant their ritual prayer tunefully or say pretty things at wedding receptions, but those who open up the Word of God faithfully and ably in their preaching. A good minister is a man who carries the stamp of seriousness upon his brow, acquaints his soul with God by frequent devotions and emerges from his study with spiritual sermons for his congregation. Happy is the congregation which has such a minister and thrice-happy the minister whose congregation respects and esteems him because he preaches God's truth!

It does not always follow, alas, that ministers who preach the truth are respected and esteemed. Some of Christ's servants appear rather to exist than to live as they go about their ministries in the places where they labour. Some congregations sometimes mete out atrocious treatment to their pastors. The ominous distinction of being a 'hire and fire' congregation quite understandably attaches to some congregations. One good servant of Christ has followed another out into the cold in rapid succession almost before the paint in the newly-decorated manse has had time to dry hard.

The Minister's Vulnerability⤒🔗

The ministry is about the most vulnerable job in the world. Good preachers are often the shy, sensitive type. They are accustomed to study, retirement and meditation. Their nervous systems are at full stretch with the sacred responsibility of their work. They have fresh sermons to prepare three times a week. They have theological and pastoral problems to solve for others, and sometimes for themselves. They have Satan to contend with at a thousand points in life. They have, in many cases, an inadequate salary and so are obliged to be economical in their life-style. They are, therefore, often in a highly fatigued condition of body and mind. This is not fiction but fact. Those who doubt these things need only make discreet enquiry to discover that it is so.

What has been stated here is not said as a plea for pity. God's true servants, even in their worst sufferings, find ample compensation in Christ. They do not look for their comfort in this life. Nor do they expect to receive their rewards from men. They understand better than any man that affliction is good for them. They forgive those who ignorantly mistreat them and they pray for those who do them grievous wrong. But it is a great shame when good ministers receive shabby treatment at the hands of those in Christian congregations who ought to know better.

Methods of Torture←⤒🔗

One unloving member of a church may do quite a lot to spoil the comfort of a good pastor's mind, especially when the pastor is young and inexperienced. A consortium of unloving members may do much more. And a powerful network of unloving members may work on a pastor's spirit till he is ground down well-nigh to despair.

There are various methods of torture well understood by those who practise the dark art of destroying a pastor of Christ's flock. The church door is the most commonly selected place for this necromancy. Here the preacher stands and shakes the people's hands. Here too he often drinks bitter medicine. The cold look that kills — the blighting frown that withers — the grinding comment that unhinges brotherly love — the faint praise that betrays the inward alienation of the hearer — the smart comment which lasts in the memory for years—the curling lip of disrespect. These are felt by good ministers like a blow under the fifth rib. They wound and tear and cripple.

'Wait till your best friends turn against you,' said a veteran preacher once to a young minister on the day of his induction. That also may happen and often has happened to faithful men. 'Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me' (Psalm 41:9). Good ministers are only experiencing what their Master Jesus Christ suffered when they see their closest friends turning against them. But it is a fearful shock to a pastor to realise that this text is fulfilled in his ears.

Let us not imagine that only little men and petty preachers suffer in these ways. Great men also may go through the same things. Those who know what happened to Jonathan Edwards at Northampton in eighteenth-century America will realise that genius itself is not exempt. Those who are familiar with the way Spurgeon was treated in the Downgrade controversy in Victorian England will be well aware that the greatest preachers in history have not been immune to the wounding of their former friends. There is no trouble like church-trouble — and no alienation is so strong as that of alienated brethren (Proverbs 18:19). Someone somewhere is to blame for every such act of torture practised on the minister. The great day alone will fully reveal the facts.

False Solutions to the Problem←⤒🔗

The astute pastor, who prizes comfort above duty, will not be slow to devise means for his own self-protection. Perhaps the commonest solution of all is to sweep the problems out of sight and to cast about for a call to some other church. 'Let the next man pick up the pieces.' That does not strike us as the most sanctified solution to ministerial problems, though sometimes it has a very strong appeal and every once in a while it may sound, even to good men, like the wisest course to follow.

Another false remedy is for the preacher to trim his message to accommodate the whims and fancies of his people. One imagines that this must be a distressing course of action for any preacher to adopt. It makes it hard to face oneself in the mirror next morning and harder to face God in the secret place. Perhaps the reason why some ministers give up secret prayer is because their consciences tell them that a holy God will not respect the prayers of men-pleasing preachers.

The decent thing for a preacher to do, if he has changed his theology to keep his job, is to resign — or, better still, to repent. The vicars of Bray do not often have comfortable deathbeds. It is more tolerable to sin out of the ministry than to sin in it. The hottest parts in hell, said a Puritan, are for unfaithful ministers. It is better to go back to secular work than spend the remainder of life living a lie in the pulpit of God's house.

Let it be clearly said that no sound or faithful preacher should ever resign from his work just because a few clouds have appeared on the horizon. There may well be a time for a good man to flee from a particular place. But he should not act prematurely. 'The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling' (John 10:13). There is room in the ministries of young men for patience, perseverance, long-suffering and agonised prayer. A man may preach and pray his way through a forest of early problems and become the hero of his congregation after the passage of years. Such victories are rich in comfort and they make a man ex­perienced in the fight. God often puts young ministers to the test. To be faithful in that which is least is to be prepared for greater service.

A Word to the Congregation←⤒🔗

It ought to be unnecessary to tell God's people not to vex their ministers. But there are some in the church who seem to be born to the art of spiritual bullying. If given an ounce of encouragement from others, they see themselves as the sole custodians of their congregation's privileges and traditions and deem themselves empowered to humble every preacher of Christ's gospel if the shibboleths are threatened. We do not wish to be misunderstood. Truth is more important than a minister's feelings. Error or grave indiscretion in the pulpit is to be the concern of all good men in a congregation. It is a healthy thing when any believer receives proper correction. When lawfully administered by competent persons, rebuke also is biblical and beneficial.

None, however, should rebuke an elder or a minister except for very grave reasons and after very careful forethought. And in the un­derstanding of the present writer, none should ever rebuke an elder or minister except another office-bearer of the church (1 Timothy 5:1, 20). Those, whether men or women, who let fly at preachers should rush into their bedrooms, hide their faces for an hour in deepest shame and beg God's mercy for their offence before God deals with them as their folly deserves. Not for nothing has God said, 'Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm' (Psalm 105:15).

A Word to Ministers←⤒🔗

When the cause of Christ is strong, good ministers are generally held in high esteem and love. But when the cause is low and congregations are small and discouraged, ministers are more liable to be mauled, scratched and bitten by the unruly of the flock. This ought not to be so. But it is at least understandable. In our days, many converts come from a raw spiritual background and bring much ignorance of Scripture with them. They were not used, in many cases, to order and discipline in the homes where they were brought up as unbelievers. Consequently, after conversion, brashness, forwardness and even discourtesy may betray themselves. This is wrong. But it is no marvel.

On the other hand, when the church is in a low and poor condition, trouble is liable to come from older, experienced believers for very different reasons. Two or three older men (or families) may have had to look after a congregation for many years during a prolonged vacancy. Their leadership may have been crucial to the very survival of the church. It is understandable if they become upset when they at last get a young man as their minister who appears to be leading the church in a new and unfamiliar direction. Many a battle royal has been waged between 'him and them' in such a situation.

Surviving in the ministry nowadays is by no means easy. The modern church (in some countries anyway) is only the shadow of its former self. God's people are confused, distrustful of ministers, often weak in theology and entirely ignorant as to how to translate biblical teaching into ecclesiastical practice. When a young preacher accepts a congregation's call to a pastorate, he must expect to have to offer them something more than the label 'Reformed' if he is to reassure them, gain their confidence, rally their spirits and overcome their prejudices.

The problems of ministry today are the fruit of a vicious circle of circumstances going back for many years. A church, let us say, has fallen on hard times. Whereas there were four hundred members in the 1940s, there are now only fifty. The ministries over the years have been largely short, uninspiring and unimportant. Every gimmick and every stunt has been attempted, but these things have only left the church still weaker and more discouraged. There has inevitably come about a feeling in the membership that ministers are of little use. Cynicism and quiet scorn have eaten into the mind of the people. This is an imaginary case but it is, we suppose, not hard to find examples of it.

It is no great wonder if ministers who accept calls to churches of this kind become aware of an 'unfriendly atmosphere'. And it is no wonder if, in turn, ministers of such churches become so unhappy that they wish to leave and look for a more 'friendly' congregation. The fact is that their ministers in past years have depressed the people; and now the people are depressing the new minister. It is a vicious circle and it is a tragedy. But we imagine there must be many situations like this one.

The question is: How can this vicious circle be broken? It is very much in the interests of both congregations and preachers that it should be broken. This, it appears to us, is one of the great challenges of the hour.

Young men who enter the ministry today as Reformed preachers and pastors need to have the vision of breaking through this 'anti-clerical' spirit which is in some evangelical congregations. They should aim, by God's grace, to lift their church by their ministry and example from sourness to sweetness, from discouragement to encouragement, from fear and distrust of the ministry to love and affection for their pastor.

To bring this change about may perhaps take years — years of prayer and tears, of suffering and forbearing, of misunderstanding and misrepresentation, of practical teaching and holy living. It is not an easy path to tread. But it will yield much sweetness and comfort in the end. It is a good service done for Christ to have found a congregation unhappy and rent by factions and to have laboured among them till they are at length a joyful, united people.

The hallmark of the true minister is that he puts the good of the church before his own comfort. He knows that he exists for the church's sake and not the church for his sake.

Our forefathers in the Reformed churches had a high view of the ministry. They believed that when a man put himself forward for ordination, it is for life. They frowned on men who, unless for exceptional reasons, left the sacred office of the preacher and went back to secular work. They looked at the ministry as the highest privilege a Christian could have on earth. As one of the old writers said, 'God had only one Son and he put him into the ministry'. This is the light in which the preacher's office should always be regarded. It is as true today as ever it was.

Let it then be the prayerful ambition of every Reformed and evangelical pastor to persevere in his work and to abound in it. Let him so live that his people may know that he at any rate is a true shepherd of Christ's flock. The Reformed pastor (Baxter's phrase) is to excel in the work because God has given him much light on the truth. If the Reformed ministers of this generation live up to their name everywhere, they will do much to recover the church's lost credibility in society at large. History suggests that eminently faithful pastors gain large flocks. Did M'Cheyne not tell us that a holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God?