Download ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY

ROUGHLY EDITED COPY
LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE
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This text is being provided in a rough draft format.
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>> DAVID: Thank you, Professor Warneck.
So do I understand you correctly? Will pastoral
theology help me to serve well as a Christian pastor?
I've been enjoying my service to my congregation
here in Cleveland very much. And I look forward to the day when I
can serve this church as a full-fledged pastor. So, if this course can
help me continue to serve well and faithfully, I'm excited.
>> DR. WARNECK: David, you are serving God's
people in the capacity of a Christian pastor. And you are doing
things already very well. This course perhaps will help you sharpen
your ministry from the standpoint of sound theological principles.
And, when your ministry is consciously happening in
many instances according to principles, theology, then I submit
you're going to find much more satisfaction in your ministry and
you're going to be assured that your ministry is on the mark with
your people.
I'm convinced that this course will help you in that
direction. So it is -- it's proven to be a profitable course in study.
And I'd like to pursue your question further this way: Many pastors
are greatly relieved when they discover that they are not out there
on their own, that God's word speaks very clearly to various issues
and satisfies many concerns.
The forthright teaching spares us as pastors of
making arbitrary or subjective decisions. That's so very agonizing,
as I'm sure, David, you have already discovered at times.
Even when application of a direct word from the
scriptures or the confessions is not clearly apparent, still those
norms serve us with principles or implications which spare the
pastor of simply winging it on his own.
In some respects, pastoral theology is a court of
appeal, if you will. When facing a host of difficult issues or
questions, you will discover how pastoral theology supports you in
working through those issues.
We should alert you to the use of terms once again.
There are certain terms that are the property of every profession.
We have already discussed the term "pastoral theology."
But frequently our Lutheran fathers put the meaning
of those terms a little different way. In fact, there are three Latin
words that will prove helpful to us if we can grasp them and the
substance of their meaning. Those are this little phrase habitus
practicus theosdotos.
At first glance we may translate the term "habitus,"
the Latin term "habitus" and render it as habit. Well, that's not far
from the mark, except that commonly the word "habit" in our usage
refers to a repeated action or in earlier times it prescribed a manner
of dress. We are using the term "habit, habitus" a little differently.
In reference to pastoral theology, the habitus, as
Dr. Fritz states, is a disposition of the soul or the heart, which
makes the pastor a sufficient man for the performance of his
pastoral duties.
Now we all want to be up for our ministry. And we
want to be effective in our ministry. I'm sure those concerns are
yours as well, David. So this term "habitus," meaning the
disposition of the pastor within, can be very significant.
St. Paul refers to this sufficiency for ministry because
God in his divine mercy had made him qualified to be a minister of
the Gospel. That's how he expresses it in II Corinthians 2 and the
early verses of chapter 3. Undoubtedly, readiness and preparation
for the pastoral ministry is neither innate nor even acquired.
Rather, it is a gift from God.
That's difficult for us to comprehend. We are so
involved in study and preparation and those disciplines that we are
led to believe, David, that acquiring the aptitudes for being a
Christian pastor is really very much on our own. Yet, through the
entire process we rely entirely upon God's giving those aptitudes
necessary to be an effective pastor.
And that's what the term "theosdotos" Means, the
Latin term. Our ministry and aptitudes for it is a gift from God.
Thus, with a sense of abandonment, St. Paul
disparages any notion that he was an apostle of Jesus by his own
ambition or initiative. Still, he is established and assured about his
calling, as indeed he should have been.
He speaks to this point. "Such is the confidence that
we have through Christ toward God," says St. Paul. "Not that we
are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us.
Our sufficiency is from God who has qualified us to be ministers of
a new covenant."
II Corinthians 3:4-6.
David, this God-given thing, that habitus theosdotos,
has been understood variously. What does it really mean? What
does it come down to, Dave? It is the heart of the pastor. A man in
Christ. His ability to be a pastor. His know-how, his aptitudes.
Can we put it this way: This habitus or aptitude, our
disposition is kind of the sixth sense of the pastor. One who has
the right word from God at the right time and one who possesses
the bearing of a man of God among his people. His ear is attuned
to God's word while he is consciously aware of the needs of his
people. He lives among his people as a shepherd, as a leader, as
one who cares for them.
Added to this term "habitus" is the word practicus.
And of course that Latin term has the sound of practice. It refers to
the work of the pastoral ministry. And the Holy Spirit who grants
the habitus also grants the practicus.
You see, the scriptures are rather clear about what
the priorities of the pastor's ministry really are. They speak clearly
about such things as worship and preaching, teaching, caring for
souls, possibly also leading.
And we have citations from the New Testament that
apply to each of those disciplines. Perhaps in our notes we might
share those specific passages so that we can anchor our work as a
pastor, practice the practicus in the scriptures themselves.
Furthermore, we should add that beyond the pastor's
actual work, our Latin terms embrace the pastor's life. And about
that there's going to be much more said in a later unit of the course.
Suffice it to say at this point in all of the pastor's
labors, as in the instance of St. Paul, our lives are examples and
models to others. That's terribly significant.
The apostle encouraged Timothy to be a good
example as he also did Titus. And his own exemplary life is part
and parcel of his teaching and preaching. And so he encouraged,
for instance, Titus to do the work of the ministry setting the flock an
example of Godliness.
So our fathers have brought all of this together, many
thoughts on the pastoral ministry or pastoral theology expressed in
those three little Latin words -- habitus practicus theosdotos.
Because our subject or discipline is essentially and
foremost theology, David, it will serve well and without question.
Again, one of our fathers, Dr. Fritz, states it this way:
That pastoral theology is especially designed to be a guide to the
pastor or ministry of the church in the faithful performance of his
official duties.
Now, earlier, those duties of the pastor were stated in
terms of applying theology to the spiritual needs of the flock of the
church. I've digressed for a moment here in summary.
But now, David, I'd like to focus on those spiritual
needs of the flock. What are they? What are they principally?
Now, the people and their expectations of the pastor
will be somewhat of an agenda in speaking their needs from their
perspective.
I want to suggest, however, here that our theology
helps frame those needs. And there are essentially three principle
needs we would like to focus on briefly at this point in our
presentation.
The first is the soteriological need. That's a big word
that simply means pastors have concern that some souls in their
care are saved, that they're led to eternal salvation through faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, that seems to be very obvious. And yet I
submit, David, that as pastors, sometimes we work day to day and
week to week and month after month give very little concern to this
particular special need.
I sometimes raise the issue with classes here on the
campus and it this way. Now, when you young men begin your
ministry at the congregations where you are called, will you be
asking yourself the question at the beginning of your ministry how
many souls here will be led to Christ and by faith in him to eternal
life?
I think a pastor should have some of those savific
goals, if you will, for the people he serves. Now, I would simply ask
you to take note of how this salvation need is very paramount in the
early ministries of the apostle and his tenants or his successors,
Timothy and Titus.
We have a few passages from those very pastoral
epistles that illustrate the priority of this particular spiritual need to
which we minister in the flock.
Here's St. Paul. He says, "Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners."
I Timothy 1:15. Now that's a cue for
a ministry to persons like the entire human race are bound in sin.
In I Timothy 2, the apostle announces, "There is one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a
ransom for all." And then he adds, "For this I was appointed a
preacher and apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles." So Paul asserts
that the salvific concern is a priority in his ministry.
"Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the
elect," he goes on. "That they may also obtain the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus toward eternal glory." 2 Timothy 2, verse 10.
We just cannot omit to the reference in the great
epistle for Christmas day. You will read it frequently in your
ministry every time Christmas comes along in our calendar.
From Titus chapter 2, "For the grace of God has
appeared for the salvation of all men awaiting on blessed hope the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ
who gave himself to redeem us from all inequity and to purify for
himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds."
David, what do you want for the people you serve as
pastor? That's kind of a heart-to-heart question that all pastors
address. Now, may the salvation of souls be your foremost desire
for them.
Now, I said there were three priorities in the spiritual
life of our people. The second might be this: Proper care for the
spiritual life of God's people in order that they might lead a Godly
life. We call this sanctification.
Consider the apostle's exhortation to Titus in chapter
3 verse 8. This is a passage that fairly well escapes our attention
many times. But this is an impassioned plea by the apostle as he
writes to Titus. "I desire you," he says, "to insist on these things so
that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply
themselves to good deeds. These are excellent and profitable to
men."
And you can add Romans 12:1 and 2. Where Paul
writes to the Christians there,
"I appeal to you, therefore, by the
mercies of God present your bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy
and acceptable to him. And do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewal of your mind," and so on.
And then in other parts of the New Testament in
Paul's letters to other congregations, for instance in Philippians
1:27 and following, he indicates that the Christian pastor will do
everything to prevent among his people wholesale capitulation to
evil. He will encourage and exhort the flock to Godly living.
David, I wonder if there is enough of this kind of
encouragement in our preaching and teaching in the Lutheran
church. We certainly are oriented to proclaim the Gospel of
justification by grace through faith in Christ. That's absolutely
essential. And, of course, that is the starting place for our
exhortations toward Godly living. But those exhortations must be
there.
I submit it's one of those three priorities in the spiritual
needs of our people. And our people are hungry for guidance and
for support as well as direction in the living of their daily Christian
lives.
Now, a third spiritual need we may say is
eschatological. In this that the pastoral ministry is always pointing
God's people forward but also upward in hope and anticipation of
Christ's coming in glory. The pastor reminds his people that we are
a pilgrim people. We on our way and that our Lord in his good time
will meet us on the road and receive us to himself in glory and in
heaven with him and the Father and the Holy Spirit and the great
fellowship of the communion of saints in the church triumphant.
So people will live their lives not only for today or for
some vague tomorrow but always toward the eschaton, toward the
end. And this, I submit, is one of the deep spiritual needs of our
people which the pastoral ministry consciously addresses now and
then.
Well, by way of conclusion of this first subject of
pastoral theology and its usefulness for men like yourself, David,
we simply want to say that pastoral theology, on the one hand
again, is theology giving rise to the principles for our work; and, on
the other hand, it is very practical and very useful in the lives of the
people that we serve.
***
This text is being provided in a rough draft format.
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in
order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a
totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
***