Learning from the early church

Do you feel like your ministry is running on fumes as you frenetically chase fads to get people in the pews and meet your budgets? Are you disillusioned by the shallowness and pragmatism of ministry models promoted in contemporary evangelicalism? In their new book, Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls (Crossway, 256 pp.), Coleman Ford and Shawn Wilhite help pastors escape this hamster wheel by turning to the timeless wisdom of the Church Fathers. They situate this work within the broader ressourcement project of the past century that was first taken up by Catholic theologians in the 1930s and has over the past decade reached Protestant theology, focusing particularly on the doctrine of God and the retrieval of classical theism. In many ways, ressourcement is merely a return to the approach of the Protestant Reformers who themselves sought to “return to the sources,” which for them meant Scripture first and foremost, but also the theology of the early church from which they believed the church of their day had strayed. “Return to renew” is the mantra of all such movements. Ford and Wilhite want to renew our approach to ministry.

To accomplish this goal, they identify prominent Church Fathers as exemplars of the key virtues and commitments of a “classical pastor,” which they define as a “quiet pastor who displays a peaceful temperament and ministers to souls in his local setting.” This type of ministry requires both depth and skill. They offer five “marks” of such a ministry: classical theology, virtue, integrated spirituality and theology, local community, and the care of souls.

A key principle undergirds this entire work: “Depth of theology and care of souls go hand in hand.” Ford and Wilhite believe that to properly care for the souls of those to whom one ministers, one must pursue theological depth. They seek to free ministers from both faddishness and busyness, challenging them to pursue theological maturity. “Theological depth and clarity,” Ford and Wilhite argue, “are needed for the health of the church.” But our guides do not put too heavy a burden on pastors. “Not everyone is a profound theological thinker,” they concede; however, Ford and Wilhite exhort ministers to seek to love God with their minds, and thus to “grow in … theological depth more regularly and consistently.”

The book introduces the reader to key Christian thinkers as well as classic theological concepts and hermeneutical tools. The fact that the authors communicate these matters in such an eminently readable manner gives this work an even wider appeal than one might expect from the title. I would happily suggest this to any untrained student of theology, not just ministers. A particularly useful component of the book is the resource list in the appendix of suggested texts of the Fathers with which to begin. Anyone who would like to get acquainted with the Fathers and basic concepts of classical theology will find this valuable.

Ford and Wilhite, in critiquing shallow, pragmatic ministry, also avoid an equal and opposite error: a purely academic, intellectual model. In promoting theological depth to better serve soul-care ministry, our authors do not believe doctrinal rigor is sufficient. In fact, when they say that “depth of theology and care of souls go hand in hand,” they also have in mind the soul of the minister. Ministers must prioritize their own personal growth and devotional life if they want to have a fruitful ministry. “Both the academic pastor and the outgoing pastor,” they argue, “should not let study or activity keep them from tending to their spiritual needs or opening quiet time with God.” Theological depth needs to hit the minister at a personal, affective, spiritual level to care for his own soul so that he can care for the souls of others. The vita activa of ministry must be sustained by regular vita contemplativa. Otherwise, ministry will be marked by shallowness and self-absorption, and it will be vulnerable to burnout. The Fathers suggest a more secure path, and we are indebted to Ford and Wilhite for pointing us back to it.