Edward Donnelly

All of Paul’s letters are pastoral letters. They are all written by a pastor to churches in specific contexts. What can we learn as pastors for our work from the way Paul the pastor does his work? I would like for us to look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The theme that we are going to look at I have entitled “Contending for the Gospel.” He says to the Thessalonians, “we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel” (1 Thess. 2:4).

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Edward Donnelly



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Edward Donnelly

This is a subject that I have been treating at this conference for some years, working through the Epistles of Paul. The only ones left, after today, are Philippians and 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. So, if we’re spared, you’ve got an idea of what we’ll be looking at, God-willing, this time next year. For the benefit of those of you who are new to the conference, these are not expositions of the Epistles, nor are they overviews or surveys of the Epistles. We are treating them as pastoral documents. Paul is a pastor, these are his flock. How does he shepherd them? How does he advise them in their different situations? What can we learn about pastoring people from the example of the Apostle?

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Edward Donnelly

We come to Ephesians. Our series is entitled, “Case Studies from Paul,” and we’ve been considering how Paul applies truth to particular churches and to particular situations. In other words, we’ve been opening up Paul’s medicine box and looking at specific medicines for particular abnormalities, when he uses them, and what ways he uses them. So that we, as pastors, can learn to do the same. So, how would you deal with legalists? Galatians would be a very, very useful book in helping us as pastors. Supposing you’re subject to personal attacks, 2 Corinthians would be a good book to absorb and study in helping us to deal with personal attacks. That has been our general method.

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