Edward Donnelly

Our general topic is Help for Today's Pastors: Case Studies from Paul. Paul's value for pastors has always been recognized. Three of his epistles are called pastoral epistles. Passages such as his address to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 are packed with advice and counsel for pastors, and there are many other passages of his writing that are of the utmost value regarding the work of the pastoral ministry. These are an absolute treasure house of information and guidance.

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Edward Donnelly

We turn in this second hour to Colossians, one of Paul's shortest letters written from prison in Rome to the young church in Asia minor. The founder and the pastor of the church, Epaphras, has visited Paul in Rome and he has told the Apostle that there is much in the church for which to be thankful, but these new Christians are threatened by danger, potentially by a very serious danger, and the young pastor needs help from the wisdom and insight of the senior man. This is Paul the Apostle's response to Epaphras's account of the situation in the church which he serves.

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Edward Donnelly

We speak of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus as the pastoral epistles, but all of Paul’s epistles are pastoral epistles. He always writes as a pastor to the people of God, and he is always pastoring them. All his theology is pastoral theology.

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Edward Donnelly

I’ve been a pastor for 35 years, this week. Over the years I’ve had a number of men seated in our front room, often with their wives. Many of them have wept, their wives have invariably wept. Their faces have been white, their hands have been shaking, their confidence has been shot to pieces, they’re not sleeping properly, and they’re on the verge of quitting. These are not wimps or weaklings, these are strong men who have been ground down by problems, and, I think in every single case I can remember, within their own churches; not from the world, not from the outside, but from their own people. I’m seeing more of such men, not less.

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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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Edward Donnelly

Our subject today is the epistle to the Philippians, which I’ve called Worthy of the Gospel. To recap for those who are new to the conference, this series of addresses—and we’re finishing this morning the Pauline letters—is the fifth year in which we’ve been looking at them together. I’m not trying to give an introduction to the letters, and certainly not an exposition. We’ve been treating them as pastoral documents written by a pastor, addressed to real-life situations in the churches. We’ve been looking at them as providing us with help for shepherding the people of God.

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Edward Donnelly

We come to what are called the Pastoral Epistles. They’ve only been called the Pastoral Epistles for about 300 years. Thomas Aquinas, 450 years earlier, did describe them as Pastoral Letters. They are of particular interest, because they’re Paul’s last extant writings and they’re the only letters of his sent to individuals, rather than to a church. You remember that Philemon was sent to the church as well as to Philemon. Although even then we need to qualify that. In a sense, to contradict myself, it’s by no means certain that they were intent just for individuals. John Calvin says of 1 Timothy, “In my view, this epistle was written more for the sake of others than for Timothy himself.”

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