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Pastoral Leadership for Evangelism: Richard Baxter
Alvin Reid
In every human endeavor, whether it be sports, or business, or politics, or more importantly, in the church, leadership stands as an element that cannot be overlooked for success. Virtually everything rises or falls on leadership. So, over the years I have loved to study great leaders, especially Christian leaders, to learn from them. One of my favorites is Puritan pastor Richard Baxter (1615-1691). When Baxter assumed the pastorate in 1641 at Kidderminster, a town of three thousand people in northern England, the church was in a dismal spiritual condition. Sounds like a few churches where I have preached lately! Shortly after his arrival, he began visiting the home of church members, not simply to meet and eat and shoot the breeze, but to conduct Bible classes with fourteen families a week on his church field. Through the classes for the people and preaching with a spiritual power that was not known before in the church, the Holy Spirit began to move within the church membership. As the crowds grew, five additions to the sanctuary had to be built-a rare occurrence in those days! Still the crowds overflowed the auditorium. Revival came to the church and spread to the town. It became common to hear people singing the songs of the faith as they walked along the streets. As the people rejoiced in the fellowship with God, multitudes of people were converted and some of the most immoral people of the town were saved.
In the midst of this revival, Baxter wrote several monumental works. In 1647, Baxter became critically ill and was bedridden for five months. While convalescing, he recorded his reflections, published as the classic The Saint's Everlasting Rest. On December 4, 1655, he was scheduled to preach the inaugural message for the Association of pastors in the county where Kidderminster is located. Due to illness, he was unable to fulfill the commitment. However, he expanded the message for that occasion into a book that was published in 1656 under the title The Reformed Pastor. This work is still considered one of the greatest works of practical advice for the pastor. By "Reformed," Baxter did not mean Reformed theology so much as he emphasized that the preacher must serve with a spiritual vitality, or in the midst of awakening. In 1657, he wrote the classic entitled The Call to the Unconverted. In all, Baxter wrote 168 books in his more than forty years of writing ministry.
The Reformed Pastor should be must reading for every pastor. Leadership principles found in this treasure chest of wisdom surpasses all the leadership books flying off the presses in our day. Perhaps the most important quote I have ever read outside of Scripture on pastoral leadership is found in these words of Baxter: "[Your people] will likely feel when you have been much with God: that which is most on your hearts, is like to be most in their ears." I go over that quote almost every week in my mind. People will hear your sermons, but they will follow your passion. I tell my students who are pastors that if they will mention each week one person to whom they have witnessed since the previous Sunday, the members will pick up the importance of evangelism!
Here are a few more nuggets from Baxter:
On living what we preach: "We must study as hard how to live well, as how to preach well."
On the vital role of personal evangelism (note, while theologically Baxter was more Calvinistic than I, notice his passion for reaching the lost!): "Brethren, if the saving of souls be your end, you will certainly intend it out of the pulpit as well as in it! . . . Oh that this were your daily study, how to use your wealth, your friends, and all you have for God, as well as your tongues!"
On ministerial integrity: "The ministerial work must be carried on purely for God and the salvation of souls, not for any private ends of our own."
On the role of prayer: "Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching: he preacheth not heartily to his people, that prayeth not earnestly for them."
On avoiding frivolous speech by preachers: "Oh, speak not one cold or careless word around so great a business as heaven or hell."
On the importance of working hard for the Master: "O brethren, what a blow we may give to the kingdom of darkness, by the faithful and skillful managing of His work! If then, the saving of souls, of your neighbour's souls, many souls, from everlasting misery, be worth your labour, up and be doing!"
On the importance of reaching the lost: "I would throw aside all the libraries in the world, rather than be guilty of the perdition of one soul.
My prayer is that quotes like these from a true spiritual leader from the past will help you be the leader God has called you to be. |
