Over the past decade, I have been privileged to serve in ministerial and academic roles. Prior to becoming a college instructor, I was a full-time youth and family pastor. In 2014, Welch College hired me to lead the youth and family ministry program. Shortly thereafter, I became the campus pastor at Welch and began serving my local congregation in a part-time position as youth and family pastor.
To be on both sides of the theory-practice coin has been interesting. At times, I have felt I have been too theoretical for the practitioner and too practical for the theorist. Yet I think a sound ministerial philosophy balances theory and practice. To be clear, I am not saying one should focus simply on theory and practice in equal amounts, giving 50% here and 50% there. Rather, the right balance for ministry is to provide plenty of light and heat.
Throughout this article, I seek to demonstrate that the minister of God’s Word — the one who pastors a flock and rightly divides the Word of Truth for God’s people — must seek to both illumine and impassion Christians. I primarily consider the task of preaching, but I believe this balance can and should be extended to other areas of pastoral ministry.
Light
I am not the first to argue for a balance between the mind and the heart. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book Preaching and Preachers, spent ample time defining his now famous phrase: “logic on fire!” Lloyd-Jones thought sermons should be equal parts fervor and reason. “What is preaching? Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! Are these contradictions? Of course they are not. Reason concerning this Truth ought to be mightily eloquent….It is theology on fire.”
Our ministries, not least of which include preaching, are to bring light to darkness. That is, we are to help our flocks have a better and clearer understanding regarding their role as Christians in this world.
However, our concern for thoughtful preaching and ministry should not slip into cold intellectualism. Yes, biblical ministry focuses on the mind, but not only the mind. We must engage the intellect but avoid causing confusion with dense terminology, or impractical and abstract reflections. In other words, our emphasis for ministry is on understanding and application, not just knowledge. We want to bring light, not just content, to people’s minds.
Light is shining on the path before us — that is, when we bring light to our ministries, we seek to apply and live out God’s truth, not just think about it. The difference is between more information and actual understanding. Our goal is qualitative more than quantitative. As our church members sit with the Bible open before them, we want to help them make sense of God’s Word so they grow closer to the Lord and serve Him more faithfully. We should desire to illuminate and make sense of difficult interpretations and ethical questions. Good ministry is a ministry full of light — that is, illuminating clarity.
Heat
Light on its own is not enough. All the information in the world means little if we are not persuasive and impassioned when we communicate. Lloyd-Jones continues his definition: “Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one again.”
Lloyd-Jones was not arguing for preaching that inflames only the emotions of its hearers. Instead, he wants to connect the head and the heart in the heralding of God’s Word. But herein lies the problem: too often our preaching (and ministries-at-large) are either too heady or too emotional.
The former focuses on providing a lot of information, assuming such preaching equates to greater sanctification. The latter emphasizes experience, assuming more emotion means more transformation. By doing this, we put the mind and heart at odds with one another. Yet it is precisely by tying these two areas together we achieve balance. Reason balances zeal. The heart balances the head. Good preaching (and ministry) appeals to the mind and the heart. It is theologically-rich, biblically-saturated truth communicated with enthusiasm and compassion. We meet the living God revealed in His Word; that should leave neither the pastor nor the congregants unchanged.
Lloyd-Jones’s statement is not just about projecting an animated point. It is about the pastor feeling the full weight of Truth in the here and now. That is, has the pastor — in preaching, counseling, and personal life — come into contact with the Truth he is sharing? Are his mind and heart softened to the instructions of the Scriptures? Has he experienced the Truth he preaches? Too often our lips demonstrate how far our minds are from our hearts. Meditative preaching does not require emotional reaction, but it certainly does not exclude it.
Jerram Barrs, long-time professor of apologetics at Covenant Theological Seminary, exemplifies this as described in the following account by Zack Eswine, describing the professor’s classroom meditation on Psalm 10:
Jerram’s voice faltered. He looked out above his glasses but away from us. He searched the wall with his eyes and heaved a deep breath. He could read no further. He pulled both hands up and spread them flat upon his face, covering his cheeks, forehead, and eyes….In his mid-forties, Jerram cried like a man, as if none of us were there. I’m not sure I had ever seen a grown man cry like this. But there it was. The biblical text and love for God and neighbor led the apologist to weep….Class was in session. The sermon thundered. As a minister in training, all semester, I learned a great deal about the isms and idols that create barriers to the gospel in our hearts and in our culture. I learned what an apologist is meant to say. But that day, I was introduced to who an apologist is meant to be.
As pastors, maybe we need to learn how to cry — to cry like men. I am moved by Eswine’s summary: “The biblical text and love for God and neighbor led the apologist to weep.” Our ministries not only need light but also heat. They need a zeal for the Lord grounded in love for God and neighbor. This combination comes from utter dependence upon the Lord and His work. We need logic, but we need logic on fire. Let us long with fervent spirits for the work of the Lord in our own lives and in the lives of others.
A decade ago, I was traveling with another pastor with whom I worked at church. We were discussing a student in my youth ministry who had incredible zeal for the Lord. The pastor warned, “Yes, but be careful. There can be a lot of heat but no light.”
He was right. The student, being new in the faith and young, was zealous but not discerning. He had a zeal for God without the accompanying knowledge of God (Romans 10:2). I did not want to dampen his zeal but wanted him to think wisely and biblically about his life. As that student grew in his sanctification, he needed balance between the two.
Just as it is true in the lives of individual Christians, we as pastors should avoid the extremes in our ministries and preaching. Moreover, we model in our ministries and preaching what we hope to be true in the lives of our flock. We need both light and heat. We need to transform our minds and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Likewise, we should not be slothful, but fervent in spirit as we serve the Lord (Romans 12:11).
Ministry is not only for the intellect. And it is not only for the emotions. Pastoral ministry brings believers into communion with God Himself, specifically through His Word. God made us as people with minds and hearts. We can have confidence in the Word. It speaks Truth. Likewise, we can have boldness in the work of the Spirit through His Word. We should not neglect the work of speaking the clear truth of Scripture, but we must also speak in a way that is persuasive and compelling. In doing so, we can lead people to transformed Christian lives, the goal of Christian ministry.
About the Writer: Chris Talbot is instructor of ministry and program coordinator for youth and family ministry at Welch College, where he also serves as campus pastor. Adapted by permission from an essay on HelwysSocietyForum.com.
