A 04 - The Minister In His Parish
CHAPTER FOUR IN HIS PARISH THE MINISTER IN HIS PARISH THE minister is more than a preacher. His work is not Sunday service; it is all week labor. It is no small task to perform the duties of a minister. Jesus came into contact with large groups, small groups, families, and individuals. Jesus was a minister.
There are some preachers who are not ministers. Men who teach, or edit, or manage institutions, or fill diplomatic places. Some of them are great preachers great occasion preachers. But this address is dealing with ministers, not preachers only. A good minister is larger than a great preacher, because he deals with more phases and needs of humanity. The great ministers of the world have been great teachers and great burden-bearers. Jesus was the great example. He said Himself: “I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Paul’s description of his experience in 2Co 11:23, ’ ’ Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep: in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” The modern minister is not exposed to the same kind of perils as Paul; but as large a variety; and the care of his parish is an everpresent weight that tries his strength of body, mind, and heart. Opposition to the gospel is less than in the past, but indifference is almost as perilous to the kingdom.
Pride, vanity, self-indulgence, and luxury, stand in the way of spiritual progress. In fact, ministers themselves are in danger of loss of spiritual vitality by reason of the ease by which they are surrounded. If any worker needs robustness, a little hardship, it is the minister.
Parishioners often think more about the minister’s dress than his sermons; more about his manners than his character; more about his living than his life.
Ministers ought to identify themselves with their congregations so as to enter into all their experiences. Jesus “emptied Himself” and took upon Him the form of a servant.” But this is not the modern idea; it is that the minister must be a “good mixer.” Jesus was no mixer. Light does not mix with darkness.
Right does not mix with wrong. The doctor does not mix with diseased ones. Jesus came close to all sorts of sinners; but He maintained His matchless purity. His sympathy was so genuine, His love was so great, His life was so helpful, that the common people heard him gladly. The minister should come close to men, but not mix with men in the sense of a “hail fellow well met.” There is a dignity and a gentleness, a loftiness and a humility that goes with every true ministry. The minister should not be so high as to make the lowest stand in awe of him; nor so low as to make the highest feel no moral fear of him. The best should love him and the worst should respect him; and all should feel at home in his presence.
You have seen the cart going about the city gathering up the waste and unsanitary heaps piled up on streets and back alleys. There is much accumulation of trouble, doubt, and misunderstanding in every congregation. Heaps of gossip, piles of imagination, pools of bad feeling, thoughts and hates that poison the social atmosphere and sicken church members. The minister is a “carter” going among his people to gather up this waste and this deleterious matter. Sometimes he need say but very little. His value is in “his ability to listen sympathetically, to load up his mental cart with what overloaded lives will tell him. Men cannot carry their own burdens alone; that is the reason Jesus “carries our sorrows.” Many people have troubles they dare not tell their neighbors; it would make matters worse like throwing bones, cans, feathers, and egg shells into the neighbor’s yard; but it is safe to tell it to the minister; and the minister should be so near his parish that all will feel like telling their inner life to him. When he leaves the house he “carts away” their troubles. If he dumps it out in the neighborhood it only makes matters worse; his dumping-ground should be beyond the pale of his parish. There is no better and no larger work than this for the minister to perform. Many a troubled life has been relieved of burdens and sorrows, in this way, by the minister who did nothing but listen.
Broken-hearted mothers with drunken husbands, wayward sons, disgraced daughters, have found the friendly and sympathetic minister a source of sweet comfort as they have poured into his ears woes enough to crush life out of them. Pastoral calls in elegant parlors, teas and dinners in mansions, where intelligence and hospitality feast the minister, are not the only places where the minister’s life counts in his parish; though these furnish him an opportunity to extend help to hearts that carry burdens sometimes larger than their fortunes. But his ears may be open to other than tales of woe and current topics. Many men in the church, and out of the church, have A’iews and experiences which they love to tell to the minister. They have brooded over some passage of scripture, some personal vision, some business or domestic experience, until it burns in their being. The minister is the one to whom they love to tell their story. It may help the man to be more religious and the minister to preach more effectively. His teaching is broadened and deepened, his power over men is increased because they have led him into new fields and new opportunities. No experience has much force till it is told to others. Witnessing for Jesus Christ strengthens the believer. “Go home to thy friends and tell what great things Jesus has done for thee.” Even telling objections may lead to acceptance. Causes win in debate by allowing the opposition to speak. It will make an angry man friendly to allow him to abuse you in his own angry way. He talks of his anger. The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart; and hot words are like pus from a wound let them out and get relief. Do not undervalue ear service; it is not like “lip service” an abomination. Jesus always permitted the afflicted, the troubled ones, to tell Him their story. He even permitted the men to tell on the woman; but they went out ashamed of themselves and He said to her, ’ ’ Go and sin no more;” and the presumption is that she did not. The minister in his parish should be benevolent, not only helping the destitute, but in bearing with peculiar people. Some good people are eccentric and almost every parish has this class. They are always suggesting what the minister and the church ought to do. They have some pet plan that no one could work.
They hold strange views of certain passages of scripture. They tell you why the church fails.
They know certain bad things that they cannot tell. They have been ignored or mistreated by a leading member. They contribute nothing but words. They come just before preaching with new tales of calamity. They stuff you with stuff. Now the minister must use benevolence in judgment, discretion in treatment, and love within. This quality in the minister has to be cultivated. He must be all things to all men. Not do as all men do, but be adequate to all men, adjustable to all men. The hardest task for the minister is in his parish. The complaints and pessimism, the excuses and indifference, the immorality and stinginess, the domestic infelicities and dishonesty, continually fret his righteous soul; but he must endure all for the gospel’s sake, and not his own. In order to meet these conditions in patience, sweet spirit, and hope, he will need much prayer, much spiritual help.
He must have no pets, no partial feelings, no special friends. His parish should be his ministerial family; and he should love and treat all alike. Their sorrows become his sorrows, their joys his joys, their adversities and prosperities his own. His real life should be a model for their life; he should not walk on stilts nor wear any mask. Partiality is as bad as neglect. His life teaches as well as his sermons; and is understood better. He is no dictator, making rules for life; but a guide pointing the way along which each one must walk in his own way and on his own feet. He is nobody’s conscience and everybody’s light. His spirit is more than his acts. The parish watches nothing so close as the minister; quotes no other so often; and chooses no other as exemplar for their children and themselves so naturally.
They watch his life and follow that more than his words. One of the most striking things in the ministry of Jesus was, “Follow me.” Any minister who can say that has reached the highest place in his ministry. It is easy to say, “Do this;” it is harder to say, “Follow me;” but that is the ideal minister in his parish. The minister should not only touch the life of his parish but the property of his parish. He need not tease and urge individuals to give for things he deems of most importance; but he might lay great and worthy objects before them in such fashion as to increase their sense of stewardship and their obligation to worthy causes in need. This may be done by his own example, his pulpit ministrations, and his personal intercourse with his people. “What the minister does counts above what he says. He can do nothing that will interest and enlist liberal donations from all, but he can do enough to secure ample support for causes and institutions dependent upon the church. He should avoid requests that provoke denial, for that will lessen his power over wealth. It is easy to blame the rich and pity the poor. The principle of giving is the lesson to impress, and the manner of giving left to the individual who gives. Do not provoke the unjust criticism that the preacher is “always after money.” Sensible men know that money is essential to the maintenance and extension of the gospel and the cultivation of a sensitive conscience and a worshipful soul will bear fruit in due time.
Human distinctions often bar the way of real ministerial help. The rich embarrass the minister by their surroundings and the poor excite a morbid sympathy; both alike need spiritual sympathy and help; and that is the very thing the minister can give. Jesus set a good example when He went to the house of rich Zacchaeus. That man had no friends; and it is too often true of the rich; but Jesus went as a minister and his heart surrendered and salvation came to his house. Put the ministerial visit to the rich in place of the social call. Their hearts long for genuine spiritual interest. Do not think the poor want bread; they want the bread of life; they want soul-touch, human touch, a friendly interest in their life. Nobody can give this so well as the minister. The poor should never be embarrassed in the presence of the minister, and the minister should never be embarrassed in the presence of the rich. Human fear and human taste have marred many a minister’s usefulness. He is not dealing with conditions and environments alone; but with souls; and “all souls are mine” saith the Lord.
It is this soul-power and this soul-touch that carries influence in the parish for good. Many can resist argument who dare not resist life.
Many reject appeals who surrender to love. The minister’s love wins where his learning fails. The heart is the center of being, while mind is only a function of life.