The Minister’s Treasure (Part 1)
William Shishko
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1997)
Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:52).
Books are a minister’s treasure. While there is no substitute for the Bible—the Book of Books—there are innumerable helps that shine light on the words, history, characters, and themes of that unique volume. Each such help has a place in instructing the modern-day scribe in the limitless glories of every aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven. By them ministers may be preached to, through faithful servants who have long since completed their earthly pilgrimage and departed to be with Christ. Pastors may be shepherded themselves by physicians of the soul who were careful to commit their insights to writing. All those who received intensive instruction in preparation for their work as “householders” in the Church may continue that instruction under the tutelage of the finest Bible scholars, the most eminent of theologians, and the most gifted of preachers, the most mature among the saints. Thus, a treasure that was accumulated years or decades ago is continually replenished, with dividends that accrue to both pastor and people. Pastors ought to be continual learners. “He is always fresh minded, yet knows how to value old spiritual treasures of Holy Writ or Christian tradition” (A. B. Bruce). He is always “hurling forth” (ekballei) things ancient and things fresh, things classic and things contemporary.
Over the next few issues this column will open some of the jewels one pastor has found especially valuable in his continual labors to keep his treasure chest from becoming depleted. But this is not a book review column! At the close of these articles you will find some “Book Notes” to help keep pastors and others informed of some particularly helpful volumes (some old and some new!). This column, however, has a far more personal “pastor to pastor” purpose. How does one make the time to replenish his treasury with past and present riches? What lodes hold particularly promising veins of gold for the “scribe” who desires to enrich both himself and the people he is called to serve? How does the well-read pastor avoid becoming bookish? These questions, and many others, this writer has grappled with for his nearly eighteen years in the pastoral ministry (sixteen of them in one place), and it is out of that “pastoral” reflection that these upcoming articles will be offered to you.
I write as a lover of books (serving a church that shares that love!) and as a lover of the highest calling any man can receive, the calling to be a pastor of Christ’s Church. I solicit and welcome your input (including your suggestions and questions), and trust that the Lord of the Church will use my own musings for your profit and for your help in growing as a “scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven...who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
I must confess that it is often very difficult for me to begin my morning devotional time of Bible reading. Years ago a pastor friend liberated me by making the same confession himself, and suggesting that a “pump priming time” would not only stoke the fires of my own heart, but also enable me to methodically work my way through some of the finest “devotional” material available. Few suggestions have been more helpful and rewarding for both my personal life as a Christian and for my work as a pastor.
Depending on how much time is available (usually at least a full hour prior to my sermon work and prayer time) I try to take about fifteen to twenty minutes to methodically work through a volume that “preaches to me,” softening my own heart before I devote the rest of the time to my regular Bible reading. The “heavenly” Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) became the first minister to awaken my soul each morning as section by section I went through his classic exposition of Matthew 12:20, The Bruised Reed and the Smoking Flax (Works of Richard Sibbes, Vol 1, Banner of Truth Trust). This came at a particularly low point in my relatively early ministry, and became a transforming influence in helping me grasp how the Great Physician deals so gently with His people. It also firmly established wise “pump priming” as I found myself turning to my Bible reading with fresh zeal, and a sense of being in fellowship with the Word made flesh even as I began reading the written Word.
Over the years the authors of “things old and things new” have been my friendly morning companions. John Owen’s entire volume on The Glory of Christ (The Works of John Owen, Vol. 1, Banner of Truth Trust) enriched beyond words both my grasp of biblical Christology and my love for the One I am privileged to make known each day as a pastor. I cannot commend too highly Owen’s “Christologia: Or, a Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ”, and urge men to work through it early in their ministries. Later, Gardiner Spring’s perceptive volume The Attractions of the Cross (Banner of Truth Trust) would become a spur to my own pastoral evangelistic work. His chapter “The Cross a Completed Justification” is a rich classic of experimental theology. Imagine turning to your daily portion of Bible reading with these piercing concluding words in your heart:
“The cross is a withering thought to all the hopes of the purely self-righteous. The vain effort to make your way to heaven by ‘works of righteousness which you have done’ is only to rush on the avengers sword. Your courage will fail. You are welcome to the effort; but you have no alternative but to abide the precept and fulfill the law. And I forewarn you that it will cost you care and pains, watchfulness and agony, utterly beyond the power of man. Already have you a burden of guilt too heavy to be borne. And when you have struggled with it till your strength withers, and every hope is crushed, and your heart sinks within you, I pray God it may not be too late for you to look to the cross of the atoning, justifying Saviour, and remember who it was that came ‘to seek and to save that which was lost.’”
Over the years following this daily procedure the storehouse of your heart will become filled with some of the richest devotional expressions in the history of the Christian Church. Old and new will become your guides: John Calvin and Sinclair Ferguson, Matthew Henry and John Piper, Thomas Boston and J. I. Packer. John Flavel and Arthur Pink. These, and multitudes of others, are God’s gift to enrich your treasury. Pick an author who is gifted in bringing the Word of God to bear on your heart; and pick a topic that ministers to you at this stage of your life and ministry. Then work through a brief section each morning as you “prime your pump” prior to reading the Word of God. Within a few years you will be amazed at how many classics of Christian devotional material have become part of your storehouse, and my guess is that you will have far fewer ‘dry times’ as you read the Scriptures themselves.
In the next issue I want to acquaint you with my favorite early morning companion. Though long dead, he has preached to me many mornings through the reprints of his outstanding works of devotional theology. I’ll let you try to figure out who he is!
Happy reading!
William Shishko is pastor of Franklin Square OPC, Franklin Square, New York.