2

Wayne E. Oates, The Christian Pastor (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982), 129.

3

A helpful resource is H. Richard Niebuhr and Daniel. D. Williams, eds., The Ministry in Historical Perspectives (New York: Harper, 1956).

4

David L. Larsen, Caring for the Flock (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991), xi.

5

David Fisher, “A Ministry for the 21 st Century,” Lecture Series, Western Baptist Seminary, January 26-30, 1993.

6

Ibid.

7

David F. Wells, No Place for Truth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993) 232.

8

Edward T. Oakes, “Evangelical Theology in Crisis,” First Things 36 (October 1993): 40.

9

Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 40.

10

Ibid., 40-41

11

Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Theology (San Francisco: Harper, 1983), 5.

12

Wells, No Place for Truth, 219.

13

Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor (Dallas, TX: Word, 1989), 39.

14

George H. Williams, “The Ministry of the Ante-Nicene Church (c. 125-325),” in The Ministry in Historical Perspectives, 28. Williams observes that by the second century, the pastor emerged as on representing the “fullness” of ministry. Williams’s configuration matches the Old Testament offices. Speaking of the pastor’s identity, he writes, “He was prophet, teacher, chief celebrant at the liturgical assembly, and chairman of the board of overseers of the Christian synagogue” (ibid.).

15

One might also note the work of Derek Tidball, Skillful Shepherds (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 327-328. He makes the point that ministry is not monolithic, arguing for a definition of ministry as teacher, pastor, priest, and prophet.

16

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 50.

17

Oden refers to Christ as the Minister par excellence, stating, “Christ intended that our current ministries continue to embody His own ministry to the world” (ibid.).

18

Ibid., 60.

19

Fisher, “A Ministry for the 21 st Century.”

20

Thomas C. Oden, The Word of Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1989), 282.

21

Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (London: SCM, 1974), 21.

22

Louis Goldberg, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1:284.

23

Bruce K. Waltke, “The Book of Proverbs and Old Testament Theology,” Bibliotheca Sacra 136 (October-December 1979): 304.

24

W. Robert Cook, “Is There a Fourth ‘Office’ of Christ?” (Unpublished paper, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, n.d.), 1.

25

Cf. Deuteronomy 18:15; 1 Samuel 3:4-14; Jeremiah 1:5; Amos 2:11.

26

Douglas Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), xxxii.

27

J. Barton Payne, The Theology of the Older Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1962), 373.

28

Thomas Oden, Ministry through Word and Sacrament (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 58.

29

John G. Gammie and Leo G. Perdue, eds., The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990), ix.

30

Payne, The Theology of the Older Testament, 55.

31

Eugene H. Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 166.

32

Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 2 vols. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), 1:113.

33

Oden, The Word of Life, 285.

34

John F. Walvoord, Jesus Christ Our Lord (Chicago: Moody, 1969), 137.

35

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 86-87.

36

Cited in Oden, Ministry through Word and Sacrament, 37.

37

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 86.

38

J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990), 288.

39

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 139.

40

James D. Berkeley, ed., Leadership Handbooks of Practical Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 1: 15.

41

Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, 159.

42

John R. W. Stott, One People (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1968), 28-29.

43

Wayne Grudem, I Peter (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 101. Tidballs’ warning is appropriate here: “The pastor who puts himself above his fellows and has an over grand conception of his responsibility will spend most of his ministry suffering from fatigue and seeing other people as a burden or a problem” (Skillful Shepherds, 35).

44

J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (London: Macmillan, 1873), 184.

45

D. F. Wright, “Priesthood of all Believers,” in New Dictionary of Theology, ed. Sinclair B. Ferguson and J. I. Packer (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1988), 531.

46

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 90.

47

Tidball, Skillful Shepherds, 330.

48

Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, 136.

49

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 90.

50

Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 210.

51

Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1906), 61. “No matter what view a pastor may take of his office, the real value of his service to his people will be found in his personal and spiritual, rather than in his formal and ecclesiastical relations to them. His usefulness among them will be due not to any powers by which he is elevated above them or separated from them, but to a character which in the fullest sense he shares with them” (ibid.).

52

Von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, 22.

53

Ibid., 309.

54

Oates, Wisdom in Israel, 148.

55

Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Counsel (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 129. (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 129.

56

Roy B. Zuck, “A Theology of the Wisdom Books and the Song of Songs,” in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, ed. Roy B. Zuck (Chicago: Moody, 1991), 217-219.

57

Leo G. Perdue, “Cosmology and the Social Order in the Wisdom Tradition,” in The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East, 458.

58

Neuhaus offers a powerful warning against “acedia,” the tendency to dawdle away the time in chaotic ministry (Freedom for Ministry, 227).

59

Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church, 62.

60

Oden, Pastoral Theology, 154.

61

Darius Salter, What Really Matters in Ministry (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990).

62

A. Duane Litfin, “The Nature of the Pastoral Role: The Leader as Completer,” Bibliotheca Sacra 139 (January-March 1982): 57-66.

63

Tidball, Skillful Shepherds, 170.