Quotes

Pastoral work is a discipline of the church
and is distinguished in this way from other helping acts,
even when administered by Christians. 
The classical tradition insists on congruence
between doctrine and care,
between pulpit and counseling room . . .
Pastoral care, in this case, is understood and practiced
with a deep and abiding sense of confessional theological identity
and clarity with regard to the central tenets of Christian faith
ANDREW PURVES

Every pastor is called to be a theologian. 
This may come as a surprise to some pastors,
who see theology as an academic discipline taken during seminary
rather than as an ongoing and central part of the pastoral calling. 
Nevertheless, the health of the church
depends upon its pastors functioning as
faithful theologians—
teaching, preaching, defending and applying
the great doctrines of the faith
ALBERT MOHLER

There are no
non-theological texts in the Bible
JOHN BRIGHT

Where pastors can no longer articulate and defend doctrine
by a reasonable and careful appeal to the original meaning of Biblical texts,
they will tend to become close-minded traditionalists
who clutch their inherited ideas,
or open-ended pluralists
who don’t put much stock in doctrinal formulations . . .
We have, by and large, lost the Biblical vision of a pastor as one who is
mighty in the Scriptures,
apt to teach, competent to confute opponents, and able to penetrate
to the unity of the whole counsel of God
JOHN PIPER

How often must Christ warn us as pastors,
‘Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures’
JOEL  BEEKE

Your ancient and holy gospel is something for me
to submit to,
not to play with. 
Against the bias of this present evil age
which emboldens my subjectivity,
quicken within me, O Lord, a vivid sense of
the antiquity and objectivity of Truth,
to which my conscience must surrender,
or go deservingly to hell . . .
O Lord, how prone I am to a sentimental gospel
RAYMOND C. ORTLUND, JR

Every minister of Jesus Christ
must be both
a disciplined theologian
and
a practicing churchman
MARTIN MARTY

It is desperately essential in this hour
that preachers recover a soaring vision of the supremacy of God. 
Life-changing, history-altering preaching will come
only when pastors reclaim
a high view of God’s blazing holiness
and are overshadowed by
His absolute sovereignty. 
Towering thoughts of God’s transcendent glory
must captivate preachers’ souls
STEVEN LAWSON

Where the question of relevance
becomes the theme of theology,
we can be certain that the cause
has already been betrayed and sold out
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

And now the end has come. 
So listen to my last piece of advice:
exegesis, exegesis and yet more exegesis! 
Keep to the Word that has been given us
KARL BARTH