Sublime

The pastor is never a private chaplain to individuals; the pastor is never an impersonal speaker to crowds; the pastor is set in community and given the task of building that community.

“On reflection,” confesses Eugene Peterson, “I realized that I had become busy, a bastard form of ambition.”

In Peter’s words to his fellow elders he reminded them that they were to shepherd the flock, “nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3).

You might think of Augustine as offering a hitchhiker’s guide to the cosmos for wandering hearts.

For Augustine, we are made for joy. Joy is another name for the rest we find when we give ourselves over to the One who, for the joy that was set before him, gave himself for us. We find joy when we look for the satisfaction of our hungers in the Triune God who will never leave us or forsake us, when we find our enjoyment in an immortal God whose

“Mature” is a big-picture label encompassing most of the other qualifications, similar to the adjective “holy.” What Paul is instructing in his list of qualifications, and what Peter is commanding in 1 Peter 5:1–11, is that elders exemplify the namesake “elder.” Grown-ups will lead the church. Not necessarily old people, but grown-ups. Grown-ups

The justified pastor—the man justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to God’s glory alone, who happens to be a pastor—when taken on his good day or bad day, ministry high or ministry low, will be received with gladness and welcome. Clothed in the righteousness of him in whom you trust, how can you be turned away? You will not