An updated philosophy of Ministry can be found here: Revised Philosophy of Ministry

I was looking over the application process for Sojourn’s Pastoral School when one of the requirements caught my eye. They require a philosophy of ministry. I’m not even sure what a philosophy of ministry is let alone ever thought of one for myself. Well, I had a few hours to think about it during my drive to West Virginia for the weekend, and this is what I came up with. In terms of pastoral ministry, my philosophy of ministry is:

To equip and train the body of Christ to be incarnational missionaries through the preaching and teaching of the Scriptures in accordance with the historical orthodox faith.

That’s loaded with a lot of nice Christianese, so I’m going to try and unpack that.

1. To equip and train the body of Christ: Ephesians 4:11-12 says that “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” The use of the gifts given for teaching and leadership are for the purpose of training the body of Christ for service.

2. Incarnational Missionaries: I’ll take this phrase in reverse order. We have come to a place where “missionaries” are “those people,” the ones who don’t quite fit in culturally, wear funny clothes, and want to live in huts. Obviously, that isn’t what it means to be a missionary, but it’s also not just about going somewhere across the ocean. It’s my belief that all Christians are missionaries, and the mission starts with neighbors, with coworkers, and with those we come into contact with every day. We are all ambassadors of Christ:2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so nthat they may see your good works and ogive glory to your Father who is in heaven.” By incarnational, I mean that this mission occurs where the people are at. Just as Jesus came into our world to present his glory ot the world (John 1:14), so we should speak of his glory where we find ourselves. The gospel is not about “bringing them to church to get saved,” but proclaiming the Gospel, in both word and deed, wherever we are at.

3. Through the preaching and teaching of the scriptures: The inerrant, inspired Scriptures are the highest authority in rules of life and faith. It is these scriptures which Paul charged Timothy to teach as an elder (1 and 2 Timothy). “All Scripture is God–breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All pastors share in Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “correctly handle the Word of Truth” contained within Scripture (2 Timothy 2:15).

4. According to the historical orthodox faith: This isn’t to say that tradition is on the same level as Scripture itself, but to recognize that God has guarded the truth apostolic faith through history, and is summarized by creeds and confessions. This helps us realize that Christianity isn’t all about us, but that we are only the present articulation of the whole Church throughout history. God has long been at work, and will continue to work long after we are gone if he doesn’t return in our lifetimes. To use a cliché, but one that is well said, we “stand on the shoulders of giants,” and are grateful for the labor they gave to move the mission and kingdom of God forward.

So there you have it. That’s my philosophy of ministry as much as I understand what a philosophy of ministry should be.