Proclaimer Blog
An Able and Faithful Ministry: some practical conclusions
The second half of Miller’s inaugural Princeton sermon draws out some practical conclusions. Some of these are just for the moment: interesting to read but somewhat removed from life today. Others are bang up to date and worth repeating. So here are a few headlines to close off this reading of his sermon, something I’ve found edifying and challenging in equal measure. These are not particularly connected to one another, but are worth collecting together in one final post.
First, the church cannot make men gifted or pious. She cannot “impart grace, nor create talents.” Nevertheless, “there is much to be done.” The kingdom is a kingdom of means, he argues, and God “is not to be expected to work miracles to supply our lack of exertion”. In other words, we cannot sit back and expect godly preachers to spring from the earth.
Second, churches have a responsibility to both identify potential pastors and fund their education. This was clearly a key issue in his day, and remains so. We all of us have a Paul-Timothy mandate to give adequate time and money to training the next generation of those who will minister. There are good signs, for sure, but we must not be complacent.
Third, Miller argues that the judiciaries of the church (for which read leadership today) need to guard the entrance to the ministry. We must not get so excited about men and women wanting to serve full time that we suspend any sense of good sense ourselves. Not everyone is cut out or gifted to be in ministry and we must not elevate ministry to such a high level that we give the impression that secular work is something of a second best. It is, quite simply, not. Interestingly, in terms of admission to seminary, Miller gives his two key questions: “has he a heart for the work?” and “has he those native faculties which are susceptible of the requisite cultivation?” In other words, acceptance into seminary is not necessarily the same as acceptance into ministry. So should it be today.
Finally, he urges us to support seminaries. For me, this translates into a prayer for all those responsible for training. Ultimately this responsibility lies with the local church, but we delegate it to seminaries, colleges, courses, individuals; our prayer for them needs to be Miller’s prayer for himself as he sets out to lead Princeton.
“O my fathers and brethren, let it never be said of us, on whom this task has fallen, that we take more pains to make polite scholars, eloquent orators or mere men of learning, than to form able and faithful ministers of the New Testament. Let it never be said that we are more anxious to maintain the literary and scientific honours of the ministry, than we are to promote that honour which consists in being ‘full of faith and of the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 6.5), and the instruments of ‘adding much people to the Lord’ (Acts 11.24). The eyes of the church are upon us. The eyes of the angels, and above all, the eyes of the King of Zion, are upon us. May we have grace given us to be faithful.”