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Appendix John Stott on Ministry, Leadership and Service The Very First Priority The very first thing which needs to be said about Christian ministers of all kinds is that they are
"under" people (as their servants) rather than "over" them (as their leaders, let alone their lords). Jesus made this absolutely plain. The chief characteristic of Christian leaders, he insisted, is humility not authority, and gentleness not power.
The Message of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, p. 120
The True Model "Ministry" means "service"—lowly, menial
Problems of Christian Leadership service; it is, therefore, curiously perverse to turn it into an occasion for boasting. Jesus specifically distinguished between "rule" and "service," "authority" and "ministry," and added that though the former was characteristic of pagans, the latter was to characterize his followers: "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:42-45). Thus Christian ministers are to take as their model the Christ who came to serve, not the Gentiles (or the Pharisees) who preferred to be lords.
Christ in Conflict, pp. 185-86 Leadership, Not Lordship Leadership and lordship are two quite different concepts. The Christian leads by example, not force, and is to be a model who invites a following, not a boss who compels one.
The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus, p. 120
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Guardians and Heralds It was Paul's firm assurance that his message came from God, and that "his" gospel was in reality "God's" gospel. He had not invented it.
He was only a steward entrusted with it and a herald commissioned to proclaim it. He must above all else be faithful.
Every authentic Christian ministry begins here, with the conviction that we have been called to handle God's Word as its guardians and heralds. . . . Of course we are not apostles of Christ like Paul. But we believe that in the New
Testament the teaching of the apostles has been preserved and is now bequeathed to us in its definitive form. We are therefore trustees of this apostolic faith, which is the Word of God and which works powerfully in those who believe.
Our task is to keep it, study it, expound it, apply it and obey it.
The Message of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, p. 68
The Beginnings of Pastoral Oversight Although no fixed ministerial order is laid down in the New Testament, some form of pastoral oversight (episkope), doubtless adapted to local
Problems of Christian Leadership needs, is regarded as indispensable to the welfare of the church. We notice that it was both local and plural—local in that the elders were chosen from within the congregation, not imposed from without, and plural in that the familiar modern pattern of "one pastor one church" was simply unknown. Instead, there was a pastoral team, which is likely to have included (depending on the size of the church) full-time and part-time ministers, paid and voluntary workers, presbyters, deacons and deaconesses. Their qualifications
Paul laid down in writing later. These were mostly matters of moral integrity, but loyalty to the apostles' teaching and a gift for teaching it were also essential. Thus the shepherds would tend Christ's sheep by feeding them, in other words, care for them by teaching them.
The Message of Acts, p. 236
The Christian Pastor The pastor is primarily a teacher. This is the reason for two qualifications for the presbyterate which are singled out in the Pastoral
Epistles. First, the candidate must be "able to teach" (1 Timothy 3:2). Secondly, he must "hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been
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taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it"
(Titus 1:9). These two qualifications go together.
Pastors must both be loyal to the apostolic teaching (the didache) and have a gift for teaching it (didaktikos). And whether they are teaching a crowd or congregation, a group or an individual (Jesus himself taught in all three contexts), what distinguishes their pastoral work is that it is always a ministry of the Word.
The Contemporary Christian, p. 286
An Enabling Ministry The New Testament concept of the pastor is not of a person who jealously guards all ministry in his own hands and successfully squashes all lay initiatives, but of one who helps and encourages all God's people to discover, develop and exercise their gifts. His teaching and training are directed to this end, to enable the people of God to be a servant people, ministering actively but humbly according to their gifts in a world of alienation and pain. Thus, instead of monopo lizing all ministry himself, he actually multiplies ministries.
The Message of Ephesians, p. 167
Problems of Christian Leadership The Accountability of Ministry No secret of Christian ministry is more important than its fundamental God-centeredness.
The stewards of the gospel are primarily responsible neither to the church, nor to its synods or leaders, but to God himself. On the one hand, this is a disconcerting fact, because God scrutinizes our hearts and their secrets, and his standards are very high. On the other hand, it is marvelously liberating, since God is a more knowledgeable, impartial and merciful judge than any human being or ecclesiastical court or committee. To be accountable to him is to be delivered from the tyranny of human criticism.
The Message of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, pp. 50-51 Love and Service If love and truth go together, and love and gifts go together, so do love and service, since true love always expresses itself in service. To love is to serve. We are left, then, with these four aspects of Christian life forming a ring or a circle that cannot be broken—love, truth, gifts and service. For love issues in service, service uses the gifts, the highest gift is the teaching of the
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truth, but truth must be spoken in love. Each involves the others, and wherever you begin all four are brought into operation. Yet "the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Baptism and Fullness, p. 151
Most of these excerpts are drawn from Authentic Christianity: From the Writings of John
Stott, edited by Timothy Dudley-Smith (InterVarsity Press, 1995).