2024 Pastors Conference Session 4

“Faithful to the Future”- Jeff Purswell

As always, it is just a consummate privilege to speak in this context, to this audience, brothers and sisters, to whom you're just so precious to the Leadership Team and very dear to me. Please turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's second letter to Timothy chapter two.

It's always a weighty thing to bring God's word to our pastors. My goodness, it is. But this year I feel a particular urgency. And that urgency involves our future. This rather unusual message will speak to. In particular, our identifying and training of future pastors and leaders. And that urgency is multilayered. There's an obvious cultural urgency. The future we're moving into—need I even say it—seems a bit different than the future Sovereign Grace marched into 40 years ago.

But there's also a very practical urgency within our own family of churches that we get to as a family look at this morning. Perhaps you'll remember from last year's Pastors Conference some of the eye-popping statistics that Mark Prater shared with us during the final session. Let me remind you of those. You'll see them on the screen. In our database, at the time, of the 207 pastors with birth dates recorded, there are 56 pastors or 27% who are 60 and older. Forty-two pastors, or 20%, are 50 to 59. Sixty pastors, or 29%, are 40 to 49. Thirty-nine pastors are 30-39, 19%. Ten pastors, 5%, are 20 to 29. Let me translate this for you. Of the 207 pastors on this database, 98, that's 47%, virtually a half, are over 50 years of age. That is jaw dropping and that's what gets our attention.

But the bottom side is just as concerning. Pastors in their 20s and 30s, our bench for senior leadership over the next 30 years, 24%. You've all read of the demographic crisis in the West, and in China, and in Japan. Here is ours. 

So, I was very grateful to Mark for your attention to this. It is indeed an urgent need. But this morning I want to come at this at a different angle. I want to suggest, I want to argue, that this is more than simply urgent. The is the most compelling rationale—for the recruitment of pastors and leaders, for alert, intentional identification of future pastors and leaders, for prioritized investment of time and energy and resources into training future pastors and leaders—is not demographic. It's not seasonal, it's not circumstantial, it's not cultural. We shouldn't need demographics to recognize, or buttress, or tend to this priority. Rather, the prime rationale is theological. And because it's theological, it is perennial. And here's why. The mandate to identify and train future leaders is part of a salvation, historical, divine design. Specifically, it is built into the very fabric of the dynamic of the gospel, the nature of the church, and the logic of our mission.

This is not a pastoral addendum. This is not optional. This is not a luxury for well-resourced churches. It's a conviction that scripture urges upon all of us—every pastor, every team, all of Sovereign Grace. Applying this conviction will partly determine our faithfulness in the future.

And humanly speaking, in God's providence, it will to a large degree ensure our future viability as a gospel presence and a gospel witness. This priority, it is of the essence of God's kingdom purposes, built into the very fabric of the gospel's dynamic, the nature of the church, the logic of the church's mission.

So that's what I want to reflect upon this morning. I want to raise our eyes, for a moment, and stimulate our thinking and to strengthen, perhaps even to realign our priorities from a local level to a regional level to a global level. And to do this, we need to see the rationale in scripture, and we see it in the New Testament, though rooted in the Old Testament. We see it both in precept and in pattern. It is both commanded and it is exemplified, seen in the example and practice of the early church.

As for precept, what I want to do this morning, is hold forth for you one verse, an all too familiar verse. I want to hold it forth for us as paradigmatic. It's a verse that carries far more freight and greater practical implications than we typically perceive.

And you know the verse, 2 Timothy 2:2. Now we need to read this entire letter to do this verse justice, but we will begin this morning in 2:1. So read with me 2 Timothy 2:1:

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others, also share and suffering is a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding and everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David as preached in my gospel for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

Now these subsequent verses help capture a bit more the atmosphere of verse two, which again, it's a head nodding verse. Oh yeah, 2 Timothy 2. We need to get it out of that category and put it in the center of our call. And that's what we're going to do this morning I pray because I think the word of God does that. The context of Paul's command elevates it above a conventional reminder. It is rather an urgent pastoral priority.

Now, as you know, the end of Paul's life is imminent. Ministry activity is no longer a possibility for him. As he says in chapter four, I have fought the fight, I have finished the race. And because his time is drawing to a close, what comes into particular focus for Paul is the future—the future of the church, the future of the mission, the very preservation of apostolic faith.

Paul tells Timothy: that falls to you and those you'll train, and by implication those they will train. It's not automatic, it's not someone else's responsibility. This is on you. This is on your shoulders. This is part of your job description, Timothy. That's why I said this text carries far more freight than we often perceive. We're meant to learn something here fundamental to pastoral ministry, something foundational, something built into its very essence. One of the most strategic things we're called to do as pastors. In my library, I have at least two shelves of books on pastoral ministry. Some are more theological, some are more devotional, some are very practical. I took a moment, and I skimmed all of the table of contents of all of those books. Not a single one listed or explored or established this as an explicit pastoral responsibility. Now, I imagine that none of the authors would deny this, but none included. All apparently assume it—assume it will happen, assume someone else will do it. Seminaries, perhaps?

Perhaps it's excluded because there's not many verses where this is explicit. But that should not be our measure. We don't do theology by word count. After all, most of the New Testament letters were not written to pastors, only by Paul, and only three of his 13. But careful attention to our verse reveals a particular significance and emphasis here. So, first, let's zoom out.

Remember the poignancy. Remember the urgency. Paul's last recorded words expressing his deepest concerns. There's nothing like this in the Bible. This frail battered man in a cold, dungeon-like cell, staring death in the face. He is discharging his final responsibility to help secure a future he will not see.

Paul begins in chapter one of this treasure of a letter with a section rich in theology, emphasizing the indicative; only three imperatives out of 33 in the whole letter, he richly rehearses the gospel, he poignantly reflects upon what God has done to enable the ministry that they have shared that Timothy is about to assume responsibility for. Then in chapter two, he bores into Timothy's future. He sharpens what Timothy must be about, what he must give attention to. And the transition is an emphatic one. There's actually a fourfold emphasis in the syntax. And guys we're pastors, so excuse me for a moment, but it's important here to get granular in order to expose this text’s categorical, all-embracing nature. So, can you hang with me for just a second?

First, there's an important conjunction, therefore, which bears in this context a particular weight. Paul draws a serious inference from the reality of defections. Everyone in Asia has deserted Paul except Onesiphorus. There's an implication to desertions, to the reality of defections, to the ups and downs and vicissitudes of pastoral ministry. There's an implication. And our text draws out some of the implications.

Second, he uses, and unnecessarily so, the second person personal pronoun of direct address: you then. Highly emphatic in both position, syntactical position, and rhetorical force. It's a giant finger in the chest of Timothy. A solemn pronouncement is about to follow.

Third is evocative of address: my child. The only time Paul uses my child in the pastorals, communicating both personal warmth and gravity.

Fourth, note, finally, the imperative does not require and in fact usually does not have an explicit subject. Semantically, the effect is to add force to the command. It's like I could say, on the one hand, in a conversation with my wife, “Could you get me some coffee?” Or I could say, “You, Julie, get me some coffee.” Which she did this morning so very kindly.

So, it's the accumulation of all of this, the conjunction, and the personal pronoun, and evocative, and the effect on the imperative. It all adds weight to this turn in the letter and the commands to follow. This is meant to rivet Timothy's attention and ours as well. So, let's look at Paul’s two governing commands.

The first one actually deepens Paul's appeals in chapter one: “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” So, it is just one of those things we just kind of read over, right? No, with this command, Paul is addressing the very root and wellspring of all of Timothy's life and labors, all of God saving, sanctifying, strengthening resources are found in and mediated through Christ. You will not survive in pastoral ministry, you will not thrive, without continual—it's present tense—continual daily accessing divine resources in Jesus. That's why we do Pastors Conferences. So that we do this.

But then Paul couples this general, all-embracing command, with a very specific strategically practical command and here is our text, verse two:

“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses [almost hear Paul's pleading] entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

You should think, “I didn't expect that.” And if you didn't think that it's too familiar to you. It's an unexpected combination of governing commands at this launch into the letters body. You can't just extract verse two from this sober and strategic context or you will misunderstand verse two. It's not one command among many. It is a cardinal command. It's not an add-on to our responsibilities. It is a summary of them. And in one, whose significance even most commentators fail to grasp, I'm afraid. But I found one who did. Colin Cruz captures this very idea in an article that he wrote many years ago about ministry in Paul's churches after he left. He catalogs in this article Timothy's various responsibilities and then he concludes with this,

“Timothy's overall responsibilities are summed up in the instruction. Preach the word? No. Pastor people? No. What you have heard from me through many witnesses, these things entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well (2 Timothy 2:2). In other words, he was responsible to ensure the faithful handing on of apostolic tradition to the next generation.”

And I think he's right to stress the summary nature of this command and this is what we can lose sight of. Here's what we do. We tend to think of pastoral ministry as episodic. This sermon, that counseling appointment, this event, this initiative next conference. Pastoral ministry is not merely episodic. Pastoral ministry is transmissional. It's the mechanism, not just for the success of your church, or the expansion of your region, or the health of Sovereign Grace. It's the mechanism for the very transmission of the faith from one generation to the next throughout this era of salvation history until Christ returns.

God has acted throughout salvation history to secure and preserve a people for himself, to transmit his revelation, to extend his purposes through a succession of messengers from Moses to Joshua on through the prophets. This is how God has secured and maintained his relationship bond with his people—through the agency of messengers. And then in the New Testament, this transfer begins with Jesus, to the apostles, and finally it falls to pastors. This is how the faith, Christianity itself, is transmitted throughout history. Again, part of the fabric of the dynamic of the gospel and the nature of the church and the logic of the church's mission.

So that's my first observation. The identification and training of future leaders is a fundamental, non-negotiable strategic responsibility of pastoral ministry. It's not an option, brothers and sisters. We simply do not have the luxury of minding our little corner of God's pasture, dutifully attending to pastoral chores with very little thought to the future. It's part of our inspired job description to ensure new pastors emerge who are equipped to feed and care for and protect future flocks in future fields for generations to come. It's bigger than your church, it's bigger than your region, it's bigger than Sovereign Grace.

Do you have a sufficiently salvation, historical biblical vision for your role as a pastor? As pastors, we take our place in a line of succession, the great line of commissioned servants called to preserve and transmit the gospel in our moment of salvation history, which entails—we can't miss this—it entails, it demands, identifying and preparing the hands into which we place the gospel. This is the God ordained method of perpetuating the gospel from one generation to the next. Again, of the essence of the gospel's dynamic advance and the nature of the church and the logic of our mission.

I was thinking this morning, I have to say this. We're talking about pastors here. But ladies, there's a vision here for all of us. When Paul addresses women, think Titus two. What does he stress? It's not simply curriculum for women's ministry. It's a vision. It's a biblical vision for the transfer of godly culture from one generation to the next. Nothing less than a vision of multi-generational community. That's the burden behind Titus two. Love to preach on that. It's the creation of a culture in the church in which the gospel and its entailments are transferred from one generation to another, in which older women are teaching and discipling younger women and fulfilling God-given, God-glorifying, home-nurturing, family-strengthening roles which help transfer gospel cultures in homes and churches from generation to generation. So, ladies, thank you. If you want to know the context of Titus two, go back to Deuteronomy 6:

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Tell these things to your children.”

Go to Matthew 28. That's the context for Titus 2. So, ladies, thank you. Oh my goodness.

Well, a second observation. That's the necessity of the task. Now second, the scope of the task. What does Paul charge Timothy to pass on? Verse 2:

“What you have heard from me …”

And the ESV actually omits a word—and it's an appropriate translation—but it omits a word that both emphasizes and expands what Paul has in mind. The text actually reads:

“What you have heard from me, these things and trust.”

That plural touta, these things, underlines and emphasizes the breadth of teaching that Paul has in mind, not merely 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. But the gospel in its totality and scriptural framework and implications. In fact, the phrase, “what you have heard,” is repeated from chapter 1:13. This is still in Paul's mind. Just look up for a moment 1:13,

“Follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

That phrase, sound words, refers to the teaching in all its variety that Timothy has received from Paul. The whole body of doctrine, authoritative, apostolic instruction. Timothy is commanded to grasp it, and teach it, and then to bring in 2:15, to rightly handle it so we precisely grasp and soundly exposit, and clearly communicate the truth of scripture and the gospel that it reveals.

Back to our text, which then adds an additional imperative in this chain of transmission, what you follow, what you teach, what you hold to with all your might, now entrust it.

Now to grasp the scope of this command, we have to press further. What did Timothy hear from Paul? Well, he heard what Paul preached and taught. He first heard Paul's letter to the Galatians read in his home church in Lystra as a new convert. Later, he was with Paul in Philippi, in Thessalonica, and Beroea, in Corinth, absorbing that preaching and teaching, processing it with Paul. Think of the Q & A. He listened into what Paul wrote. He's with Paul as he is dictating the letter to the Romans. He's right there (Romans 16:21). He is included with Paul as a cosender of two Corinthians, both letters to the Thessalonians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, some of which were written in prison.

So, what had he heard and is now to pass on. Think of the majesty and the complexity in Paul's preaching and those letters. The gospel, yes, but not just the bare facts of the gospel. Its role in salvation history (Romans 1-4), the covenantal role of the law and its function relative to God's promises to Abraham and the coming of Christ (Galatians 3-4), the Christological heights of the preexistence and incarnation of Christ (Colossians 1 & Philippians 2), the mystery and nuances of election (Ephesians 1 & Romans 9), the intricacies of the atonement (Romans 3), the calculus of justification, the dynamics of Christian transformation, all the ethical entailments of the gospel and its application and countless life situations, the richness of ecclesiology, fulfilling Old Testament topology, and consummating salvation, historical trajectories (1 Corinthians 3-6, 8, 10, 12-14, Ephesians 2-4), the details and hopes of biblical eschatology, both cosmic and personal (1 Thessalonians 4-5, 1 Corinthians 15), not to mention Paul's exegetical technique and biblical, theological vision and his theological synthetic ability.

Just a brief reflection on what's loaded into, “what you have heard from me,” reveals just what a weighty responsibility is placed upon us as pastors the scope and breath of what we're to pass on. And Paul's not finished. It's not merely doctrine he has in mind. Timothy's heard other things from Paul than exegesis and systematic teaching.

So, what else? Well, there’s a single-minded, unbridled, all-consuming pursuit of Christ. Remember what we wrote in Philippians 3, Timothy. There's an abandonment of self-sufficiency, and a disciplined dependence upon the Holy Spirit, chapter 1:6,

“Fan into flame the gift of God within you, Timothy.”

Chapter 1:14,

“God, by the Spirit, the deposit entrusted to you.”

There's a strength of conviction and character. Look up 1:8,

“Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share and suffering for the gospel by the power of God.”  

This actually begins a new Greek sentence. It runs through verse 12, 105 words. Here is the banner over my letter Timothy: boldly embrace suffering and hardship and deprivation and opprobrium that comes from serving as Christ's ambassador. Pastoral ministry 101.

That's what Timothy heard from Paul and that's what he saw in Paul. If there were footnotes to this, we might hear Paul saying, “Remember when I was stoned in your hometown, Timothy. Remember when I was beaten in Philippi, escaped under the cover of darkness in Thessalonica. Chased down in Beroea. Timothy had seen it all, And oh, the stories. Synagogue flailing, leaving his back in tatters. Five of them. Two more Roman beatings like Philippi. Shipwrecks and bandits and ambushes and hunger and frostbite and working his fingers to the bone night and day so that he could preach the gospel during the warm hours of the day. And the travel, the ceaseless travel, walking. Nine thousand miles he walked. Not to mention another 6,000 miles by ship.

Don't be fragile, Timothy. Don't shrink back. Embrace the privilege of sharing his sufferings. Is this in our pastoral training curriculum? A few verses on in 3:10, with another emphatic “you” he’s going to remind Timothy, not just of his teaching, but what does he say?

“You followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and yes, in your hometown of Lystra.”

There it is again, a willing embrace of suffering for Christ. But not just suffering. Paul's entire lifestyle, his mindset, his convictions, his motivations, his personal virtues. We might say not only Paul's statement of faith, but his shared values and his shaping virtues which can't be inculcated online or even in a classroom for that matter.

In fact, there's a final dimension to this transfer. It's not just downloading data to trainees. Back to our text. What's the actual command in verse 2? These things—look at the verb—these things in trust. That's a good translation of the middle voice of that particular verb. It's not just “give,” it's not just “transfer,” it's not just “pass on.” Timothy is to place these things into the trust of faithful men for safekeeping or transmission. Like Timothy, we are to catch an echo—which he would have from 1:14—and perceive a dual responsibility. What did he say there? 

“Guard this deposit, Timothy.”

And the word, “deposit” is cognate to the verb entrust. Guard this deposit, Timothy. Cherish it. Protect it with your life so that it's not lost or damaged or distorted or squandered, And equally vital, carefully place this treasure into the trust of—not just anyone—but faithful men who will also cherish and guard it and who are competent to then teach others.

That's our call: to ensure a careful transfer into the right hands, hands that are both faithful, wholly given to Christ, and competent, that's the word. Adequate to the task. Here, brothers, is recruitment. Intentional identification. You can't hand it into faithful hands until you've identified the faithful hands. So yes, pastoral recruitment is right here. Look for, identify these kinds of men: faithful, competent.

So contextually, rhetorically, substantively 2 Timothy 2:2 is not an isolated verse or a cursory aside for Paul. It is fundamental to Timothy's pastoral responsibilities. It is of the essence of pastoral ministry. This is how the very faith is preserved. This is how the church is perpetuated. This is the channel through which the gospel, which is not just a message, but it's a force unleashed in the world. This is the channel through which the gospel surges.

Now, I mentioned that we see this rationale in the New Testament, both in precept and in pattern. I won't explore the pattern side of things except to draw attention to an implication found within 2 Timothy 2:2. It's a prepositional phrase that is explosive with significance for our lives and churches. Paul speaks of “the things you have heard from me.” Again in 3:10, “You, however, have followed my teaching conduct, aim in life, faith, patience.”

The implication is this. Paul had himself intensively trained Timothy. He only gives this command to Timothy because he has indeed trained Timothy. He's already entrusted something to Timothy that now Timothy is to entrust to others. That may sound like a pedestrian observation, but it's critical. This was of the essence of Paul's own ministry. One of the factors, it's an overlooked factor in Paul's incredible achievements. The man planted churches in what amounted to one quarter of the Roman Empire at the time, five Roman provinces, and he walked into these cities. There's no bible belt. There's no residue of Christian civilization. There's no 2000 years of the common grace effects of the gospel. He's walking into nothing and it's not nothing. It's paganism and Judaism in places. And he just walks in and proclaims, audaciously this gospel. I was telling some folks the other day, let’s never say, “Oh, he's like a Paul.” No, he's not. There's no such thing.

And how did he do it? Well, there's his call, yes. His salvation historical call, which is repeated three times in the book of Acts. Luke has a pattern of repeating things three times. One of the things he repeats three times is Paul's conversion.

Yes, there's the call, there's his intellect, there's his education, there's his strategic leadership, there's his literary skills, there's his indomitable spirit, there is his drive. But one key factor of his methodology was his constant accumulation of coworkers to minister with him and then to extend his ministry. Timothy is a prime example. One of Paul's converts, some three years later, after his conversion, Paul recruits him to join with him on his second missionary journey. If you follow Timothy's career, you can see why Paul said, “You did follow my teaching and conduct and aim in life and faith.”

I mean you've got to remember, Paul was a world class Torah scholar with years of exegetical and theological studies in Jerusalem at the greatest rabbinical school, sitting at the feet of a man who was written of him later a hundred years that when he died, the voice of Torah silenced. Timothy's dean, Paul's dean, years of exegetical, theological studies all reinterpreted through the lens of Christ. And we see the fruit of that learning and those gifts in his letters. But how much more would he seek to transfer that to those that he's personally discipling and training? Eckhart Nabo makes an observation, which I think is clear. He says this,

“It is a plausible assumption that when Paul chose Timothy (Acts 16:1-4) and other believers as his coworkers, he trained them while they traveled for hundreds of kilometers on the roads of Asia Minor and Greece, and by involving them in his ongoing missionary work. Since Paul expects the leaders of the local churches to be skillful in teaching (1 Tim 3:2), and since missionary work involved proclaiming and explaining the news of Jesus, which also involved teaching, he would as a matter of course have been concerned that his coworkers know the Scriptures, the sound interpretation of the Scriptures in the light of the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the words of Jesus, the tradition of the apostles, the content of the gospel.”

I think he’s exactly right. There is a mountain of substance behind Paul's words to Timothy like “the things you have heard, you have followed my teaching.” Not to mention Paul's statements about Timothy 1 Thessalonians 3:

“We sent Timothy who is able to establish and exhort you in the faith.”

And, my goodness, 1 Corinthians 4:17,

“That's why I sent Timothy—to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.”

How could Paul say such things with such confidence? Not only because he knew Timothy and trusted Timothy, but because he had spent years training Timothy. I mean, this was a young man who, and this isn't a pattern for us, but this is a young man who assumed responsibility for the church in Thessalonica three years after his conversion. You get that kind of training, I guess you're up for that.

Alright, so what do we to glean from this oh too familiar 2 Timothy 2:2. We're to perceive a divinely designed reality and priority. A priority incumbent upon pastors of transmission, not episodic ministry merely. All of those episodes are important or vital, but not merely episodic, but transmissional. Not as a peripheral concern, but a fundamental responsibility. Part of the DNA of the gospel's design, the church's fabric, the logic of our mission, which necessitates and entails the intentional identification of faithful, competent men and the thorough training of such men and the personal investment into such men to the end that what we've received and transferred to them can be then in turn entrusted to a future none of us will see.

Well, we've looked at the rationale for pastoral training. I want to think just for a moment about the substance of such training. Given this critical command and all that it embraces and assumes, what kind of pastoral training, leadership training are we called to do locally and in partnership together? How do we fulfill the mandate laid out into 2 Timothy 2:2? I'm not going to deal here with context and methodology. That will vary widely, church by church, country by country. But I do want to consider, ever so briefly, content. Given this text and the contours of pastoral ministry in our partnership, the training of pastors and leaders must account for certain realities and therefore have certain components. And I just want to quickly suggest for you six categories for pastoral training that is both faithful to Paul's command and that's also calibrated to our partnership. Alright, we'll do this quick first.

First, Scripturally saturated. There's going to be some duhs after all of these. Duh. But everything begins here. Everything else depends on this and it doesn't matter where you are, what culture you are in. This is non-negotiable. It's foundational, it's timeless, it's relevant regardless of the season or the political environment or the cultural context. Again, we must think trans missionally. We can train men fixated on the current cultural moment sure. Look at conferences, look at the evolution or devolution of seminary curricula in some places. Focused on the moment. That's not going to transfer. Or we can ground men in the authoritative, never changing, all powerful, omni relevant word of God. Remember where Paul goes in this letter? Chapter three,

“Continue in what you have learned from the sacred writings, the gramata, the Old Testament scriptures. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable only Scripture equips you for every good work.” Chapter four, “Preach the word Timothy.”

 From the first century to the 21st century, all genuine pastoral ministry rests upon and springs from the abiding truth of holy scripture. In a famous essay, Jay Gresham Machen affirmed this. The Bible is unique. It's not merely one of the sources of the preacher's inspiration, but the very sum and substance of what he has to say. But if so, then whatever else the preacher needs to know, he must know his Bible.

So locally, are you doing that? Are your emerging leaders increasingly becoming Bible men? What will it take to do that?

Second, not only scripturally saturated, but theologically faithful. We pled for this last year at the Pastors Conference. My contention was and is the key factor for our faithful longevity in Sovereign Grace will be our doctrinal fidelity. Again, like Paul, we must think transmissionally, generationally if we are to preserve “we.”—all of us, if we are to preserve faithfully. To remain faithful in our mission and fruitful in our labors, we simply must maintain and guard and transfer our biblical convictions, our theological integrity, and our doctrinal consistency across our churches and around the world. That's a pledge we make in the Pastors College. That's a pledge we make to you in education. Not shaped by current fashions, but by the biblical and theological nature of our partnership. That statement of faith is a covenant and the moment we're not faithful to that, just shut me down, shut us down. Start over. Same must hold true to what you do locally.

Third, gospel centered. Oh, head nods. I’m not going to elaborate on this. But given the pervasiveness and the erosion of something so precious that becomes a flag or a cliché, part of what it means to be in the club. We love it, but we better know what it means. We better know why we're gospel centered. That Christ is the climax of God's revelation, the ultimate self-disclosure of God, that his saving work is the pinnacle of God's redemptive acts, the unifying and interpretive center of the Bible, his death, the only atoning sacrifice for sin, his resurrection installing him as Son of God in power. In his session, he rules as the life-giving Son of God. In our mission, you know what's happening? We're not just planting churches. We're not just preaching a gospel. The true king of Israel is taking the nation's captive in obedience to himself and in the fullness of time, he will rule visibly and decisively over all created reality. That's why we're gospel centered. If you are reading your Bible rightly and synthesizing it appropriately and you are under the sway of the Holy Spirit who points to Christ, you will be gospel centered. We are gospel centered in Sovereign Grace because the Holy Spirit is gospel centered. So pastoral training must honor these realities by training men to build their lives and their families and their churches upon the life transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fourth, local church connecting. We don't just do theology in our training. Our training has to be informed by ecclesiology, which is just so often cut out of so much pastoral training, set to the side, assumed. And this functions throughout. From the kind of men we identify—faithful, competent men. That's ecclesiology, right? From the kind of men we identify, to the focus of the equipping we provide, to the evaluation of their character and competency, to their deployment into pastoral ministry. This is obviously what you are doing locally. It's what we seek to do in the Pastors College, as well.

Fifth, relationally nourished. This is not just a Sovereign Grace thing. Oh, we're relational. Yes, we are, praise God. But again, Paul's example, and Jesus, by the way. His assumption in 2 Timothy 2:2, Timothy followed. He walked in the path of Paul's teaching his conduct, his aim in life, his patience, his love, his steadfastness. Timothy didn't just sit in the classroom, although he spent years listening, learning, absorbing, synthesizing. Philippians 2:22,

“Like a son with a father, he served me in the gospel.”

Gentlemen, there are sons looking for fathers in the faith. And if you're a young man here, don't just be scanning seminary online offerings. Nothing wrong with that. That could be really helpful. I'm not criticizing that. But you should be thinking, “I need to attach myself to a father, to a pastor. I need to get this. I need to get all this.” I love that we, by the grace of God, reflect this. This is the very atmosphere of New Testament ministry. I'm so grateful it's the atmosphere and how we seek to build as well.

Finally, any and all pastoral training to be truly biblical and to be truly effective in cultivating Christlike men and pastors: life and doctrine focused. As we saw in 2 Timothy 3:10, crystallized of course in 1 Timothy 4:16. That is a verse that we exposit on day one of Pastors College orientation and it is embossed on our graduates’ diplomas at graduation.

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them.”

Don’t just do it today. Persevere in them because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. Just as there will be no Christ exalting ministry without the faithful wielding of God's word and the transfer of sound doctrine, neither will there be unless the pastor's character testifies to the reality of the gospel he proclaims and serves as a faithful example to those he serves. It's simply that. So, for the men we identify, and invest in, and ordain, and add to our pastoral teams, and send out on church plants, and explore adoption as interested churches, these two categories, life and doctrine, must ever govern and inform us,

Well, we've explored in some depth the responsibility that this text, this call, places upon us. But it's not meant to burden us. This conference is not and never has been about laying burdens upon pastors, reminding them of what they're not doing, sending them home burdened by things I've got to do. It's not what this conference is about. And that's not what this text is about. God inspired this text that we might look up from the burdens and concerns of the present moment. The individual, God-given responsibilities that we all carry, we're privileged to carry for those for whom Christ died. And you've all got them. I'm looking at a room filled with burdens and texts coming in and emails and what am I going to do? What am I facing when I get home? You’re all carrying those things. And thank you for carrying those things. But this text is given to just cause us to pause for a moment and look up above those things and to glimpse for a moment, a larger vision of just what we are a part of and just how privileged we are in taking our place in God's eternal purposes to gather his elect from all the nations, to have a people for his own possession, from every tribe and tongue to fill the earth with his glory.

Embedded in this priority to pastors is a promise. Christ will build his church. The gospel will be proclaimed, the elect will be gathered. And an indispensable mechanism, a divinely designed mechanism, a salvation historically proven mechanism for it all is the faithful transfer from one generation to the next of the treasure of the gospel and the body of scriptural truth that defines it and protects it and a way of life for God's messengers (pastors) that holds to the gospel and lives a life worthy of the gospel, treasures Christ above all things, and lives and breathes and pastors that Christ be magnified. We play a role in something massive. Brothers, what a unspeakable privilege it is to shoulder this mandate, not just to guard the gospel and faithfully proclaim the gospel, but also to entrust it together. We get to assume a responsibility for a future we will not see. Isn't that ennobling? Isn't that encouraging? I am so grateful we get to do it together. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we sit here as men and women deserving of wrath, deserving of banishment from your presence forever. But you had mercy. And you sent your Son, in order to forgive us and to draw us near. And then marvel of marvels, as pastors in this room, you called us weak, foolish self-consumed, fragile, meant to step into a line that includes Moses and Joshua and apostles, Paul and Timothy, and unnamed men, Timothy trained an unnamed men in Ephesus and Philippi and Asia Minor and in our local churches. Lord, you just called us with such a noble calling. Lord, thank you. Transform our vision of pastoral ministry. It's not limited to episodes, it's not ultimately about us. It's the great privilege of insuring that your gospel is transferred from one generation to the next, throughout the world, until Christ returns. Give us grace, give us vision, empower our efforts. Raise up many men. Send laborers into the harvest. Bring those laborers to us that we might entrust this treasure to them. Father, I pray, Lord, it's a weak message from me. But I pray the effect of this text and the reality behind it would be that future generations of faithful men proclaiming the gospel, continuing to entrust it under the banner of Sovereign Grace that we will never see, that we will observe from heaven for the glory of Jesus Christ until he comes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.