ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE LPTP-2 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 www.captionfirst.com *** 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. *** >> 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. ***