Musings on Spiritual Matters

The thesis is mostly finished. The revisions have taken place and now I am moving on to publish the work in book form for the benefit of the church. The book will be a study of the role and discipline of the minister from 1 Timothy 4:6-16. The book should help define the role of the minister in contrast to a pastoral view, a corporate-business view, and a social organizer view. The book will help to restore the biblical image of a godly minister for the church. The first part of the book will deal with the text with the second part dealing with the practical concerns of the minister. It is amazing how extensive Paul’s advice to Timothy is in this section. In fact, Paul is countering the influence of false teachers on the church with this wisdom for Timothy. The text provides a strong ethic for a minister in the face of false teachers in the church. Instead of following the path and behavior of the false teachers, Paul recommends another method to deal with these evil workers. Some of the special insights of the text that I will highlight is what I call an “avoidance ethic” and “the power of godliness.” Overcoming the desire to preach and teach an “avoidance ethic” and replacing this with a positive ethic will help to suppress the power of the false teachers. Also, the emphasis on godliness will benefit the church. The book will not be the easiest read, but for those who read the book, they will be blessed by the insight from the text and from the current advice in the church culture. Please be praying for this project, and any encouragment will help.

Related posts:

1. The Writing Part of Thesis is Complete
2. Respect for the Minister
3. Reading Through the Book of Mark
4. Read “The Complete Book of Chess Strategy”
5. A Minister in a Small Town

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.