John Wesley's Teachings, Volume 3: Pastoral Theology

Introduction

A. Biblical Pastoral Care through Wesley’s Eyes

The way pastoral care was taught by eighteenth-century Anglican divines was largely through published teaching homilies, quite different from the way we write on pastoral theology today. Teaching by a book of homilies was a familiar pattern of the English church tradition of Thomas Cranmer, John Jewel, and Matthew Parker. These instructional sermons were based on biblical texts. They were designed to guide congregations on commonly received Christian teachings.

Similarly, John Wesley followed this two-hundred-year Anglican tradition by modestly offering his own teaching homilies to those in his direct connection of spiritual formation. My objective is to set forth the inner cohesion of these diverse points of Wesley’s pastoral teaching.

To stand in Wesley’s connection has meant that one voluntarily looks to him for spiritual formation. Millions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have stood within this direct connection (spelled connexion in Wesley’s day; today regarded as archaic but still used among British Methodists). They may not have read Wesley’s writings, but they have been fed by his pastoral instruction, his ways of engendering vital communities of faith, and the productive literary outcome of his powerful ministry.

The most conspicuous feature of Wesley’s work on the church and pastoral care is his persistent focus on the church as a work of the Holy Spirit. Everything follows from this premise. The Spirit is bringing into being the communities of faith in Christ. The office of pastor is to guide the flock toward the life that God the Spirit is creating.

The study of Wesley’s pastoral care is an exercise in daily practical spiritual maturation. Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic readers all have found benefit.

1. Wesley as Pastoral Guide

The early evangelical revivals in Great Britain were profoundly shaped and informed by the ministries of George Whitefield, the Countess of Huntingdon, William Wilberforce, and William and Catherine Booth. Earlier than all of these, however, was the evangelical revival initiated by the Spirit through the calling of John and Charles Wesley. All of the above owed a great debt to the Wesleys.¹

John Wesley showed remarkable gifts and skills as a pastoral guide. Wesley gave himself unreservedly to the soul care of thousands in countless Welsh, English, Colonial Georgian, Native American, Irish, and Scottish villages, traveling incessantly to serve the interests of their spiritual maturation. Much of his pastoral care is revealed in his letters and journals, but most of its grounding appears in his teaching homilies.

Many evangelicals today remain in Wesley’s evangelical connection or in remnants of it. Their lives and histories have been shaped by these pastoral instructions, read and reread over two and a half centuries. The roots of the global Pentecostal tradition have been decisively shaped by Wesley’s teaching on the work of the Spirit in our hearts and in human history. The Pentecostals alone have a quarter billion evangelical believers. These worldwide communities of Wesleyan, charismatic, Pentecostal, and holiness churches resulting from his ministry are growing exponentially at much faster rates than are the mainline churches in North America and Europe. Today believers in all of these church traditions are asking how they might be formed by Wesley’s wisdom and joyful integrity.

A conspicuous array of worldwide church bodies has spun off from the early evangelical Methodist and holiness revival preaching. These include the Wesleyan Church, the Free Methodist Church, the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, the African Methodist Episcopal and African Methodist Episcopal Zion traditions, and many mission agencies, as well as the United Methodist Church worldwide. These far-flung, fruit-bearing missional spin-offs have been more faithful to Wesley than the institutional giants among these bodies. Christians of widely different traditions who have no connection with Wesley often see in him a godly leader of special spiritual power who has quietly affected their own traditions. The estimated thirty million believers around the world who attend Wesleyan and Methodist churches have doctrinal and disciplinary standards that have deep roots in Wesley’s teaching on the care of souls.

Modernity has not outdated Wesley. It is still possible for persons thoroughly immersed in modern consciousness and technology to appropriate Wesley’s spiritual counsel. He is not as remote in language and time as the earliest Christian writers, but he is very close to them in spirit. In pastoral care, he was deeply attentive to the historic roots from which he drew strength, especially the patristic writings and the magisterial Reformation texts of Luther and Calvin, as well as Anglican, holiness, and in particular, the Puritan traditions.

What is most powerful in Wesley’s pastoral teaching has close affinities with the classic consensual Christian writers of the earliest Christian centuries. Wesley offered his teaching in plain speech because the gospel was addressed to ordinary people in plain speech. Diverse audiences, including Reformed, Catholic, pietistic, and charismatic hearers have listened to his teaching or appropriated echoes of his teaching. They intuitively recognize his affinity with the best minds of ancient ecumenical teaching.

In classic Christian teaching, all truth claims are tested in relation to apostolic teaching. That rule applies to Wesley, and he confirms its truth. So do not brace for some sort of disproportionate dogmatic slant on pastoral care. Wesley was an evangelical Anglican who was thoroughly grounded in classic orthodoxy predating modern partisan divisions.

2. A Personal Retrospect

A personal, vocational retrospect may help some readers to get in touch with my motivation for including this volume in this series. My calling for the last forty years² has been to assist in recovering classic Christian wisdom. Within classic consensual Christianity, I come from the orthodox and evangelical circle of teaching. Many orthodox and evangelical believers have not had the opportunity to explore Wesley’s pastoral teaching.

For thirty-three years, my work has been primarily located in the New York City area. At Drew University, one of Methodism’s premier academic institutions, I taught graduate students in the heart of modern, liberal, ecumenical Protestantism. This was during a time when Western society was languishing in a desperate series of social and moral crises.

I have taught and written chiefly on patristic exegesis and systematic theology but without ever losing affectionate interest in pastoral theology. During the more than three decades I had the pleasure of teaching excellent graduate school candidates at Drew, some of my most gratifying classes were those in the Wesley seminar and in the seminar on pastoral theology. In this volume, I take special delight in bringing together these two interests—Wesley and pastoral care.

Wesley was the foremost eighteenth-century evangelical teacher on pastoral theology. The only plausible competitors between the times of Richard Baxter (1615–91)³ and Jean Nicholas Grou (1731–1803)⁴ for enduring contributions to practical theology would likely be Edmund Gibson (1669–1748),⁵ Josiah Hort (d. 1751),⁶ Jonathan Edwards (1703–58),⁷ and Johann Frederic Jacoby (1712–91).⁸ None of these reached the range and depth of Wesley on either pastoral theology or pastoral practice.⁹ His indefatigable energies decisively shaped the earliest stages of the first Great Awakening.

The few books on Wesley’s pastoralia have hardly scratched the surface. A full treatment is required. Since writing Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry (HarperOne, 1983), I have been focusing most of my research energies on the twenty-nine-volume Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (IVP, 1996–2010) and its derivative projects. Now this series has given me a welcome opportunity to return again to Wesley studies and pastoral care.

These pastoral interests are not merely an incidental part of my vocation, nor are they at odds with my vocation of recent years to focus on postmodern orthodoxy and classical consensual Christianity. This volume is another expression of my ongoing work in classic Christianity, for Wesley is among the best exemplars of classic consensual exegesis in modern Christianity. He was teaching at Oxford during a revival of the study of the ancient Christian writers. The classic consensual teaching found in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture is the seedbed of Wesley’s pastoral teaching. A veiled providence has brought me to the point of returning to these classic Christian teachings, primarily for my own spiritual formation and the recovery of balance in theological reasoning.

My constant aim is to avoid all pretenses of originality. I seek to be relentlessly attentive not only to Mr. Wesley but to classic consensual texts on Christian pastoral care. I promise nothing innovative. I am intent on not trying to improve on classic consensual Christianity. As a theologian dedicated to the rediscovery of classic Christian teaching on behalf of the modern church, I am grateful to be able to spend these sunset years living once again with these Wesley texts and communicating their wisdom to believers today.

3. Serving Nonprofessionals

This volume welcomes lay readers interested in penetrating the teachings of John Wesley on care of souls. A major part of Wesley’s work was marshaling the resources of lay ministers and local church believers. My focus is ministry, but not narrowly of clergy alone. The ministry of the laity is the very purpose of the ministry of the clergy in Wesley’s view. Care of souls is the ministry of the whole laity in the body of Christ. The idea of pastoral care is not modern in origin, but in the modern period it has sometimes come to be superficially narrowed to refer to certain professional disciplines. Not so in Wesley. His audience was mostly ordinary layfolk, not just religious professionals or finely educated thinkers.

For nonprofessionals, my hope is that you will enjoy Wesley’s plain speaking—straight talk without airs. To give an ear to Wesley is to risk being uplifted by the power of his spirit and instructed by the integrity of his thinking. What are contemporary believers likely to enjoy most in Wesley? His good sense, practical wisdom, and biblical depth. If reading the eighteenth-century text sometimes feels like a heavy burden, this series seeks to lighten that burden by making his teaching more accessible without loss of the candor of his plain speaking.

Some will find this volume most useful for quiet spiritual formation. Others will see Wesley’s approach as a ready reference work on case studies in pastoral care. Some will be surprised to hear Wesley’s views on sexuality, singleness and marriage, parenting, and family life. Others will see him as a profound resource for countering addictive behaviors, permissiveness, and absolute moral relativism. For parents who are homeschooling, I especially commend Wesley’s pastoral teaching. If his views cannot always be directly transferred into contemporary language, in most cases their basic instincts and principles still apply.

For professional readers in the teaching and practice of pastoral care, Wesley’s writings provide a model for placing pastoral care within the larger framework of classic Christian teachings on the church and ministry, the work of Christ, and the active work of the Spirit in the whole of history and in the body of believers.

My part in this is to relieve the heaviness and empower the teaching itself by making it understandable to modern laity. Wesley’s teaching on church and ministry brings to us today a great gift to be joyfully received. So do not think of this gift as a duty. Take a deep breath. Relax. Receive the gift.

Further Reading

Wesley as Pastoral Theologian

Abraham, William J. Waking from Doctrinal Amnesia: The Healing of Doctrine in the United Methodist Church. Nashville: Abingdon, 1995.

——. Wesley for Armchair Theologians. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005.

Bowmer, John Coates. Pastor and People: A Study of Church and Ministry in Wesleyan Methodism. London: Epworth, 1975.

Outler, Albert C. Pastoral Care in the Wesleyan Spirit. In The Wesleyan Theological Heritage: Essays of Albert C. Outler, edited by Thomas C. Oden and Leicester R. Longden, 175–88. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991.

Rivers, Isabel. Dissenting and Methodist Books of Practical Divinity. In Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth Century England, edited by Isabel Rivers, 127–64. New York: St. Martins, 1982.

Shipley, David C. The Ministry in Methodism in the Eighteenth Century. In The Ministry in the Methodist Heritage, edited by Gerald McCulloh, 11–31. Nashville: Department of Ministerial Education, 1960.

Wesley’s Theological Method

Abraham, William J. Inspiration in the Classical Wesleyan Tradition. In A Celebration of Ministry: Essays in Honor of Frank Bateman Stanger, edited by Kenneth C. Kinghorn, 33–47. Wilmore, KY: Francis Asbury, 1982.

——. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral. In Wesleyan Theology Today, edited by Theodore H. Runyon, 119–26. Nashville: Kingswood, 1985.

Anderson, Neil D. A Definitive Study of Evidence Concerning John Wesley’s Appropriation of the Thought of Clement of Alexandria. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2004.

Armistead, M. Kathryn. Wesleyan Theology and Social Science: The Dance of Practical Divinity and Discovery. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2010.

Cheek, H. Lee. Confronting Modernity: Towards a Theology of Ministry in the Wesleyan Tradition. Lake Junaluska, NC: Wesley Studies Society, 2010.

¹Wesley was a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards and had read Edwards on the religious affections with great appreciation.

²Since the early 1970s. See Agenda for Theology (Harper, 1979); the revised edition, published a decade later in 1990 by Zondervan, was retitled After Modernity … What? Agenda for Theology.

³Christian Directory: A Body of Practical Divinity.

⁴Manual for Interior Souls.

⁵Codex juris ecclesiastici Anglicani, 2 vols., 1713.

⁶Instructions to the Clergy, 1742.

⁷The Religious Affections, 1754.

⁸Beitrag zur Pastoral Theologie, 2 vols., 1774–82.

⁹See the bibliography of Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry (New York: HarperOne, 1983).

CHAPTER 1

The Office and Gifts of Ministry

A. The Call to Ministry

1. An Address to the Clergy

On January 5, 1756, John Wesley wrote in his journal, This week I wrote An Address to the Clergy, which considering the state of public affairs, I judged would be more seasonable and more easily borne at this time than at any other¹ Aware that he had hard words for his fellow clergy, Wesley carefully picked this time to convey them. In this essay, he set forth a thoughtful doctrine of the high calling to ministry coupled with an assessment of what sort of theological education is necessary to prepare for it.

a. Gifts and Graces for a Calling to Ministry

The study of the work of ministry begins with the call to ministry. Anyone examining a presumed call to ministry will benefit from An Address to the Clergy [J X:480–500 (February 6, 1756)]. It is regrettable that this important address is not yet available in the contemporary critical version; hence all references are to the Jackson edition of Wesley’s Works.

Wesley first asks what gifts and graces are required for those who watch over the souls of others as they that must give account.² The core idea of gifts and graces is ubiquitous in the Wesleyan pastoral tradition. It points to a foundational description of qualities of character and preparation that are required for ministry. Anyone considering the vocation of ministry or who expects to go before an examining board will soon discover that the primary concern of the church is to discern a person’s gifts and graces for ministry.

Those given the task of watching over the souls of others stand responsible before God for guiding the final destiny of each one under their care. In the last judgment, shepherds of the people of God will be called on to account for the care they gave to the souls committed to their charge.

b. A Vocation

Soul care is not strictly speaking a job, but a vocation. A job is a paid position of regular employment. A vocation is a calling from on high, transcending the economic, political, and domestic spheres. To receive God’s call, Christians must listen for his voice.

Soul care exists as a response to God’s concern for whole persons. The ultimate frame of reference for soul care is the eternal destiny of persons in relation to God.³ Even if accountability for the vocation of soul care is postponed, it will ultimately be required in the final judgment. This is not just serious business, but a grave matter on which the eternal destiny of souls depends.

No one is forced to undertake such a calling. It can only be pursued freely, as a voluntary response to the riches of divine grace. Worldly poverty is no match for these riches. Whoever enters this arena does so voluntarily or not at all.

2. Natural Gifts and Endowments

To discern this calling, Christians must solemnly examine themselves to determine whether they are ready for such a ministry. In his Address to the Clergy, Wesley asked: What are the characteristics that make for an effective minister? What does the community of faith have a right to look for in and expect from those called to be preachers, liturgists, teachers, caregivers, evangelists, and overseers of the church that Christ has bought with his own blood?⁴ In setting forth the desired gifts and graces, Wesley considered first natural gifts, as distinguished from hard-won, acquired endowments.

Natural gifts shape patterns of personal growth. They are not ordinary skills but are natural gifts of the Creator. They are not given to all. They are given through God’s unfathomable providence and preparing grace. They do not work mechanically but require cooperative receptivity. They work through and within the various spheres of natural causality (inorganic, organic, animal, rational laws), not by direct fiat. They give evidence of the work of the Spirit, drawing the person in a beneficial direction by the abundance of a combination of talents. Not everyone has these gifts, even though they are offered by means of natural processes such as judging, thinking, and remembering.⁵

Some natural gifts are essential to ministry. Some can be more easily acquired by some than others, depending on genetics, environmental opportunities, and self-selected patterns of response. If not given in abundance, they may be obtained by hard work and perseverance.

The whole people of God are called into ministry of the laity. Some are called to the distinctive role of ordained ministry. Some are called, others not, to the momentous task of care of souls. Those lacking some acceptable combination and quality of natural gifts for soul care do well to pray for grace to listen carefully for discernment of God’s calling.

a. Good Judgment, Quick Mind, and Retentive Memory

Among natural gifts essential for the work of ministry are these:

• sound judgment

• lively intellect

• good memory⁶

The first of these natural gifts underscored by Wesley is sound judgment. Wise counsel requires good prudential judgment—the ability to reason closely and lucidly about complicated circumstances. Since our lives and passions are complicated, they call for good judgment, which has the power to penetrate self-deceptions. Good judgment sees through human frailties and dubious voluntary human actions.

These deceptions limit knowing and doing good. Faith is confronted with powerful adversaries, not only in persons’ ideas but in their inward struggle for freedom. The adversarial powers would like nothing better than to penetrate and undermine effective ministries. These demonic powers are viewed in the New Testament as a part of the larger cosmic realm of the father of lies, the devil. They move in the arena of twisted and confused reasoning, distorting the capacity for persons to function responsibly. Fools cannot do this work of soul care. It requires battling with the spirits of darkness.⁷

b. A Quick Mind and a Retentive Memory

Hence a second natural gift required for soul care is a quick mind, ready to match wits with the demonic. Those called to shepherd souls must have the capacity to discern situations swiftly in order to respond immediately and fittingly. A good heart does not always overcome the deficit of a sluggish mind. Otherwise, how will he be able, when need requires, to ‘answer a fool according to his folly’?⁸

The third of these natural gifts underscored by Wesley is a retentive memory. In ministry memory will be put to the test.⁹ The minister will be required to bring out of his treasures things new and old.¹⁰ Persons who cannot readily remember what the Scriptures teach will be disadvantaged in the care of souls. Readiness implies the practical capacity to apply scriptural truth to particular situations instantly when the proper time comes. The Scriptures are the quarries out of which pastoral care brings good tidings. Talking to clergy who lack a good memory is like pouring water into a leaky vessel.¹¹ Lack of discernment about these natural gifts has led to an abundance of dull, heavy, blockish ministers whose capacity to reason is low and shallow and whose apprehension is muddy and confused.¹²

3. Acquired Endowments for a Sound Calling

In addition to these natural gifts there are acquired habits of mind crucial for the work of ministry. These are gained by study, discipline, and sound forms of knowing—linguistic, biblical, and theological. Hence education is intrinsically a part of readiness for ministry, but not just any form of education. Rather, it requires a properly balanced education for service to the community of faith in preaching, sacramental life, and pastoral care.

Wesley points to four acquired endowments in particular: understanding the pastoral office; inhabiting sacred Scripture text by text; immersing oneself in the Scripture studies of the ancient Christian writers of the first five centuries; and obtaining a broad general education in preparation for ministry.

a. Grasping the Nature of the Pastoral Office and Understanding Scripture

Among acquired endowments, candidates for ministry must clearly grasp the nature of the pastoral office itself. Those who do not know what God the Spirit wants done cannot do it. The Scriptures are necessary and sufficient to define what needs to be done.¹³ The office of ministry is a sacred trust. Careful study of the Acts, Paul’s letters, especially 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, and the Johannine writings are fundamentally important.

To grasp the nature of the pastoral office, ministers must study to gain a thorough knowledge of the Scripture that empowers the task. No one can be a good pastor who cannot deal in depth with the sacred text. This cannot be done without a working knowledge of the original Hebrew and Greek languages in which the Scriptures were first conveyed. These linguistic competencies are essential for rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Good pastors must be prepared to grasp the literal meaning of every word, verse, and chapter, without which there can be no firm foundation on which spiritual meaning can be built.¹⁴

Pastors having a deep and practiced knowledge of Scripture will be capable of comparing Scripture with Scripture and applying Scripture accurately in real-life situations of human need. Only Scripture can guide pastors in learning how to guide others. Pastors must master the content of each narrative of salvation history separately and the whole synoptically. They must be ready to grasp objections and meet them clearly.¹⁵ Like most clergy in his time, Wesley was grounded in a classical education, able to read the ancient languages easily. He expected every gospel minister to be competent in language and literary skills. His lay preachers were urged to study to obtain them. He himself began learning Greek at his father’s knee.

b. Immersion in the Scriptural Exegesis of the Church Fathers

The study of the sacred text extends to the study of its most reliable interpreters. The most reliable of these are those closest to the apostolic period. Evangelical pastors must therefore gain substantial grasp of the biblical message as understood in its earliest centuries by the early apologists, the patristic sources, the church fathers. Why? They were the most authentic commentators on Scripture, being nearest the fountain, and eminently endued with that Spirit by whom all Scripture was given.¹⁶ The best foundation for scriptural interpretation is a deep immersion in the earliest commentators and homilists on Scripture, commonly called the ante-Nicene writers. The ancient Christian exegetes are still most pertinent to a grasp of scriptural wisdom. The recent publication of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture in twenty-nine volumes provides a sample of the texts of the ancient Christian writers from whom Wesley was deriving his arguments.¹⁷ It should not be surprising that this work was conceived and nurtured and its research work housed in a seminary of the tradition of Wesley’s spiritual connection—Drew Theological School.

Among post-Nicene commentators on Scripture whom Wesley most often commended were the great ecumenical teachers—Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzus, Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine. Among hymn writers, Wesley commended especially above all, the man of a broken heart, Ephraim Syrus.¹⁸ This core list shows the breadth of knowledge of the ancient tradition that comes not only from the Greek East and Latin West but also from the less familiar Syriac tradition.

Well-prepared evangelical pastors will be firmly grounded in ancient Christian doctrine, which Wesley thought was definitively formulated in the ancient church’s Three Creeds—Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian (or Quicunque)—all based on early baptismal creeds. They provide a concise ordering of basic Christian teaching. To be rightly understood, they must be firmly believed.¹⁹ When confessed, they must be uttered from the heart (ex anima).

Wesley believed that the views of evangelical pastors ought to be consistent with Scripture, reason and Christian antiquity.²⁰ By Christian antiquity, he was referring to the religion of the primitive church, of the whole church in the purest ages. The voice of classic Christianity is best heard through the writings of its most widely received scriptural interpreters. Among these Wesley’s favorites were Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Tertullian, Origen, Clement of Alexandria,²¹ and Cyprian,²² as well as Chrysostom,²³ Basil,²⁴ Ephrem Syrus,²⁵ and Macarius.²⁶

The wisdom of the ancient Christian writers is not ancillary to the work of ministry in the modern world. No thinking man will condemn the Fathers of the Church. Their views are indispensably necessary for the practice of ministry. There is no excuse for one who has the opportunity, and makes no use of it, and no warrant for a person who has had a University education yet remained ignorant of the ancient Christian writers.²⁷ Wesley had learned from his father, Samuel Wesley, an abiding reverence to the ancient church when he was a child at Epworth and a student at Oxford.²⁸ He often commented on specific patristic references from Irenaeus,²⁹ Minucius Felix,³⁰ Origen,³¹ Didymus of Alexandria,³² Eusebius,³³ Athanasius,³⁴ Epiphanius,³⁵ Gregory of Nyssa,³⁶ Gregory Nazianzus,³⁷ Augustine,³⁸ Jerome,³⁹ Pachomius,⁴⁰ Theophylact,⁴¹ Pseudo-Dionysius,⁴² John of Damascus,⁴³ and others.⁴⁴

c. Broad General Education as Preparation for Ministry

Beyond the knowledge of Scripture and classic Christian tradition, the work of the evangelical pastor requires a broad general education in the sciences and a knowledge of human nature and of the world, as well as common sense and a prudent grasp of the dynamics of human behavior.⁴⁵ Therefore they must also have a broad knowledge of history. Since God is revealed in history, ministers cannot fulfill their office without a firm grasp of universal history, philosophy of history, and discrete historical studies, including an understanding of ancient customs, chronology, and geography,⁴⁶ hence of culture, time, and space.

Since God’s revelation is addressed to persons within the limits of human history, freedom, and time, effective ministers will develop a practical knowledge of human nature, of maxims, tempers, and manners, such as they occur in real life,⁴⁷ where it is necessary to deal with a vast variety of characters and to discern the spirits. The minister must have knowledge of the world we live in, of the real lives people lead.

Since God’s revelation is to persons, attesting God’s revelation requires knowledge of persons, personality development, and what we would today called psychology. Wesley commended the study of the affective life, interpersonal relations, and the psychosomatic interface between body and soul.

Since God’s revelation must be applied to specific situations, effective ministers will acquire by experience a good measure of ethical prudence. This means a situational sense of how to apply knowledge to living contexts. Prudence requires good common sense and a sense of the appropriateness and consequences of particular actions. This comes only by the habitual consideration of all the circumstances of a thing, along with the facility of adapting our behavior to the various combinations of them.⁴⁸

Serving in ministry requires the ability to think logically about the data and inferences in the sciences, in natural philosophy, geometry, and in metaphysics, for logic is the very gate to all other sciences.

d. The Value of a Wisely Educated Evangelical Clergy

In no way did Wesley intend to make his arguments for lay preachers an apology for a poorly prepared, uneducated, and unsupervised ministry. He acknowledged the importance of education for gospel preaching. In A Letter to a Clergyman,⁴⁹ he offered these reasons for a wisely educated evangelical clergy:

• Their office is the saving of souls from death.

• Among all human concerns, care of soul is of highest significance.

• Life everlasting and holiness, or health of soul, are at stake in the quality of their care.

• Ministers are physicians of the soul.

• Full trial should be made of them in all respects and that by the most competent judges before they enter on the public exercise of their office.

• After such trial, they may be authorized to exercise that office by those who are empowered to convey that authority.

• The supervisors (episkopoi) of holy orders are empowered to do this and have been so from the apostolic age.

For these reasons, they should have all advantages of education and learning.⁵⁰

4. A Pastoral Temperament

The character and temperament of gospel ministers must be courteous, caring, and humane. Pastors must have some evidence of a good quality of character. By this Wesley meant easiness and propriety of behavior … all the courtesy of a gentleman joined with the correctness of a scholar.⁵¹ Courtesy is not merely an artificial convention but a profound aspect of sensitivity to the neighbor.

Those who preach well will seek to develop a strong, clear musical voice and a good delivery. Accurate communication requires sentences that can be understood. The public communicator cannot be effective without learning the skills of voice projection, enunciation, and the requirements of public speaking.⁵² Those who have a weak and untunable voice may by diligence gain a strong and agreeable voice. Grace has helped those who stammered almost at every word to learn to speak clearly and concisely. Those ungraceful in their pronunciation and awkward in their gesture have in some time, by art and labor, not only corrected that awkwardness of action and ungracefulness of utterance, but have become excellent in both.⁵³

All of these acquired gifts are expedient for ministers, yet it would be presumptive to mandate each one of them as necessary in every instance. Some who have lesser endowments or less access to the study of these disciplines may nonetheless serve well. However, any candidate for ministry who has the opportunity to acquire these disciplines and neglects it will be disadvantaged in soul care. In this way, Wesley lays down "ex professo the qualifications, the learning in particular, which (as I apprehend) every clergyman who can have ought to have."⁵⁴

a. Congruence of Intentions, Affections, and Actions

These acquired skills, however, are incomplete if not enabled and blessed by the unmerited grace of God. So in addition to natural and acquired endowments, there are certain excellences of intention and affections of the heart along with moral courage that only God can give, and that can only be received by faith through prayer.⁵⁵ These intentions and affections lead to behavioral actions that characterize the effective gospel minister.

God assists all who pray for grace to make a sincere effort. God’s own Spirit precedes, counsels, and accompanies the pastor in every step along this way. All gifts of ministry come from God, but God’s grace calls for a cooperative will and awakens rigorous human effort. This grace is offered at every level of human consciousness, including intent, feeling, and action.

Laity have a right to look toward the guidance of a pastor whose life is characterized by purity of heart. They expect the pastor to have the affections of love along with behaviors that do not lead to reproach. These graces are summarized by Wesley as evidences of good intent, genuine affection, and unsullied behavior.⁵⁶

The undeviating intent of the high calling of ministry is singly this: to glorify God, and to save souls from death.⁵⁷ The soul of the pastor cannot be divided. The heart must be single in intent. The motive when mixed becomes tainted.

This can occur only by grace. Without singleness of eye and purity of heart, all our sacrifice, our prayers, sermons, and sacraments are an abomination to the Lord.⁵⁸ This inward sphere is the arena where outward actions begin to form.⁵⁹ If the deeply inward spiritual formation is thorough, then the outward behavioral responses will follow.

b. The Affections of the Gospel Minister

The affections of gospel ministers are like those of loving parents who joyfully and willingly attend to the needs of their families. The emotive life of mature pastors is filled with the love of God, of neighbor, of the community of faith, and of the whole world for whom Christ died. The radical commitment required for ministry flows out of the abundance of this love, enabling one to reach out with such an earnest concern for the glory of God, and such a thirst after the salvation of souls, that he is ready to do anything, to lose anything, or to suffer anything, rather than one should perish for whom Christ died.⁶⁰

These affections stand in stark contrast to love of the world, money, praise, ambition, sensual pleasure, and diversions.⁶¹ Those who are emotionally intemperate are not ready for ministry, nor are those who are willing to turn aside from the cry of need.

Out of the wellsprings of this overflowing love stream all active behaviors necessary to ministry. All outward actions are an expression of this renewed inward life. Those who teach that grace gives birth to holy living but do not live accordingly will be easily found out. Their teaching will be debased even if logically correct. The words are discredited by the behavior.⁶²

The private and public character of pastors is called to exhibit as much as possible holy and heavenly tempers.⁶³ The calling is high but the grace of God is higher. Displaying godly character would be impossible without grace. The pastoral office calls for abstaining from every evil word or act insofar as possible. There is no double standard in which the clergy are distinguished from the laity in virtue; rather, preachers are validated by what they practice. They are expected to take seriously what they are saying and commending to others.

c. Pastoral Self-Examination

Self-examination is a regular and continuing requirement of ministry. An Address to the Clergy concludes with a model for meditation. Wesley personally confronts the clergy of his time with the simple question: Are we clergy fulfilling this calling?⁶⁴ To play loose with this question is to weaken the integrity of ministry. Each one charged with shepherding the flock is called to be honest before God, assess deficiencies, and pray for grace to rectify them.

There follows a series of probing questions for candid self-examination. Among these intensely personal questions, it is fitting to ask: Are my own gifts and natural endowments fit for ministry? Have I acquired a readiness of thought that is prepared to speak out? Have I nurtured a retentive memory? Do I have sound understanding? Have I acquired competent general knowledge?⁶⁵ Have I studied the Scriptures in their original languages, or if not, does not that leave me at the mercy of everyone who does understand or even pretends to understand, the original?⁶⁶ Have I understood the nature of the pastoral office? Do I have sufficient knowledge of history, the sciences, and natural philosophy to match minds with those I am serving? Have I read over and over the golden remains of Clemens Romans, of Ignatius and Polycarp; and have I given one reading, at least, to the works of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus and Cyprian?⁶⁷ Have I learned to be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove, and to be courteous to all?

The questions continue without relenting. Each one must probe his own spirit by asking himself: How deeply is grace penetrating into my intentions, my affections, and my will? "Do I have this singular intention to serve that unmixed with desire for preferment? Do I walk as Christ walked? Do I seek a comfortable livelihood? Are my affections grounded in grace? What is a minister of Christ, a shepherd of souls, unless he is all devoted to God, unless he abstain, with the utmost

care and diligence, from every evil word and work; from all appearance of evil; yea, from the most innocent things, whereby any might be offended or made weak."⁶⁸ Do I practice the life of being wholly devoted to God? Am I an example to believers? Does the love of God and man not only fill my heart, but shine through my whole conversation?⁶⁹ As a minister of the gospel who has voluntarily responded to the call, I am called not to fall short, and to pray earnestly for grace to press on to the high calling and to be ready to sacrifice for it.

Each hearer is called before the bar of their own inward conscience for rigorous review in readiness for the final judgment. If these questions are asked thoughtlessly or cheaply, it would be like that of a surgeon who lets his patient be lost because he is too compassionate to probe his wounds. Cruel compassion! … Let me probe that God may heal.⁷⁰

B. The Authority of the Pastoral Office

1. On Obedience to Pastors

a. The Calling of the Church to Soul Care

Laypersons are not left without counsel and guidance. The Spirit has provided the church with pastors, counselors, and shepherds to care for the flock. This is seen in Wesley’s homily On Obedience to Pastors [Homily #97 (March 18, 1785), B 3:373–83; J #97, VII:108–16]. Through the sincerity of his own behavior, Wesley came to be regarded as a spiritual guide for those in his connection, who voluntarily came to him for guidance.⁷¹ In God’s own mysterious way, God calls pastors to serve the flock and enables them by grace to benefit others. On this premise, the flock is called to follow pastors fitly ordered to give wise counsel.

The text for this homily on pastoral care is Hebrews 13:17: Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch over your souls, as they that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you (Wesley’s translation).⁷² The same passage in today’s plain English reads: Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you (NIV). Here ministry is conceived as a divinely constituted order for the benefit of believers. Christ himself calls into being the work of ministry and enables it to bear fruit.

Who are pastors? They are the ones duly appointed to watch over the flock. Appointed according to whose authority? By God the Son attesting to God the Father through the Spirit, as testified by the apostles. Private conscience is respected, but pastors are called to instruct and counsel the conscience.⁷³

b. The Shepherd of the Flock

The shepherd role is based on empathy. As God engages empathically with broken humanity, so pastors empathize with the flock.