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The Shepherd's Conference - Initial Reflections
- 03/06/06
- 23
There is always something a little bit strange about returning from a conference. When at such a gathering one’s mind is set on a particular topic for a day, two days, five days. And what’s more, there are hundreds or thousands of other people in attendance, all of whom are focused on this same subject. For the duration of the conference a whole group of people are living in a little world nearly all their own - a little world where everyone has the same primary interest, at least for a few days.
For the past few days I, along with 3500 other men, have been thinking about preaching and about the gospel. I’ve been thinking about the challenges that face the church in the years to come and have come to an ever-deeper understanding that it is really only the church that can bring hope to the world. It is only the church that has the answers to our society’s deepest problems. And it is only godly men who can shepherd these churches.
This has been a challenging week. I have had my faith tested and sharpened. I have been challenged by men far more humble and godly and committed and sanctified than I am. I have been challenged to be a better man. A better Christian.
I don’t think I want to be a pastor, and perhaps that is the same as saying that I don’t think that God wants me to be a pastor. I’ve often wondered, you know, whether I should begin some sort of vocational ministry. I have often wondered if I should answer some type of call (whatever the “calling” is that people keep talking about) and become one of these shepherds. But having been privileged to sit through seminar after seminar, session after session, I have come to at least two conclusions.
The first conclusion is that I have a deep love and respect for pastors. Not just any pastors, mind you, but those pastors who are willing to humbly place themselves under the authority of the Word of God and submit themselves wholly, willingly to the ministry of the Word. We need pastors so desperately. Our churches are crying out for them. Christians of all ages, all denominations, are weeping in desperation for men - godly men - to lead them. They are crying aloud for men to lead them into God’s deepest truths. They are groaning in desperation for men to open the Word of God to them.
I have seen so many examples of men and women who are saved and spend a period of time in a church that does not feed them with the Word of God. These people inevitably become hungry. They know instinctively that they are lacking and famished, and may not even know what they hunger for. Yet if that hunger goes without being fed, eventually these people lose the hunger and settle into a spirituality that is based not on sound teaching from the Word but on whatever fad is being passed off as true spirituality. They find purpose and Jabez and their wild hearts, but never receive deep, satisfying teaching from God’s Word.
It is those pastors I most admire who forsake the fads and trends in Christianity and dedicate their ministries to simply teaching the Word. I hope and pray that the thousands of pastors at the Shepherd’s Conference who do just that were blessed and encouraged. I trust they believe in their hearts that faithfulness to God is so much more valuable than the praise of men.
The second conclusion I have reached through this weekend is that I am not going to be one of these pastors. I listened to Steve Lawson exhort pastors to give their lives for the church and felt my heart stir for pastors. I heard the other speakers - John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Al Mohler, Ligon Duncan - tell us just how badly we need a revival of pastors. I felt their passion, but not for me. My heart cried out for pastors, but I felt no tug. I looked at the priorities and desires and qualifications for these pastors and did not see myself reflected in them.
I don’t think I am cut out to be a pastor. And I think that’s okay. And it’s more than okay - it’s great.
I still want to teach. I still want to do what I can to disciple and teach and equip, but not within the scope of the pastoral ministry. I would do nearly anything to somehow be able to help these pastors do what they do, for there are few people I admire more.
I’m not certain about all of this, of course. But I guess the point is that if I traveled to California with more questions than answers, I seem to have returned with more answers than questions. And for that, I am grateful.
Just before I left the conference I spoke to Phil Johnson one last time and he mentioned that, while all of the Shepherd’s Conferences have been great, this one somehow seemed to have an epic feel to it. I cannot speak for the conferences from past years, but I also felt that this one was extraordinarily powerful and meaningful, not just for myself, but for all those I spoke to. God did some amazing things in and through that assembly of pastors, teachers and men of God. I was blessed to be a part of it.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (23)
Tim,
Thanks for your comments. I was also at the conference this past week, and I like Phil felt that there was something epic about it. After hearing Steve Lawson’s sermon on expository preaching, knowing the fire that it kindled in my heart, I can’t help but think that a new movement is one the rise. A movement back to the Word, and back to reformed theology. I am excited, to minister after this week. I too am a better Christian for the week. Ask my wife; I think she wants me to go to CAL every other week.
Paul S.
Tim - thanks for your great posts from the Shepherd’s Conference - a blessing for many of us who could not attend.
I was thinking about the thoughts of being called into ministry. I am thankful that men from our church were called into medicine and business. Their ability to preach and teach adds a dimension that would have been lost had they gone to seminary after the first time they preached a sermon and had people gushing over how they should be pastors. They feed our local assembly well, and for that, I thank God that he calls men to serve where they are.
Recently, a young man from our community preached at a service and his sermon was quite excellent for his age. Everyone after the service was telling him that he should go into ministry. When I chatted with him, he had not sensed any leading or aspiration for ministry but to engineering. So I encouraged him to be an engineer and to read great Christian works on theology - and if possible, to take a class or two that would aid him in preaching and teaching. Maybe he will aspire to ministry later in life. But what the church needs just as badly as pastors and teachers are men who are in the workplace and faithfully serve the local church.
Tim,
I think you are doing that job already. You don’t have a license to preach, but you expose the Word to everyone everyday that you dig into it. You post to the world for everyone to see and meditate on.
You might not have gone to school to be a pastor, but you do the job already. In your home, work environment and with your friends. You hold the Word up and never give in.
You haven’t been escorted out of your church for preaching what they didn’t want to hear, but you bring it everyday. And for that, I encourage you to keep up the good fight, pushing on to the goal.
His,Sam
tim:
thanks for all the time you spent blogging the shepherd’s conference. i was there, but i’m enjoying reading your posts and reliving the week. a blessed time around the Word!
of all the sermons, dr. lawson’s probably moved me the most. i am not a pastor, but a Bible study (sunday school) teacher. that sermon challenged me in so many ways. i’ll be listening to that one again, and again, and…
i too was moved to appreciate my pastors more. after dr. lawson’s sermon, i sat down and wrote a letter to all of my pastors, thanking them for their devotion to God and the expositional preaching of His Word.
“semper fi”keith
Tim,
Have you ever thought about being an elder? That fact that you care about pastors would make you a great elder. In my church, the elders also teach and preach from time to time, but have other jobs outside the church. They have a pastor’s heart, but they can avoid some of the burdens that come with the pastorate.
That sounds like the exact thing that would fit you well.
Blessings.
Welcome back Tim.Thank you very much for the sacrifices you and your family have made on our behalf. We are blessed to have your commitment to the Word of God shared in such a way that edifies and Glorifies the body of Christ.I can only imagine how humbling it would have been to have been in the presence of all those great men of God.To suggest that any of them came there in the spirit of any self-congratulatory motives, I must admit, really confounds me. I’m really looking forward to much more discourse on the content of the various seminars and as we speak,am now re-working the budget to allow for the purchase of all the audio downloads.Again ..Great job and thank you.philip.
Tim, thanks for the good things you wrote here. You said the truth. Among the good Comments already posted, the second one by A W Hall seemed especially to hit the nail on the head.If the body were all hands, or all eyes, or all mouths, … and thus true pastors need many others — like you, and engineers, and electricians, and others — who support, serve, enable them, a true ministry as surely as the pastors.How wrong and destructive are those who go into pastoral ministry whom the Lord did not want nor call to be pastors.Do you remember William Tyndale’s plough-boy (“the boy that driveth the plough”)? Every true child of God should be like Tyndale’s plough-boy: every genuine disciple should be a virtual Ph.D. in the knowledge of Scripture, not stopping with the doctoral diploma but continuing the rest of his/her life to learn and grow more and more. I don’t mean that every believer should go to seminary and earn a literal Ph.D. diploma, but that every one should be at the level of a Ph.D. in the knowledge of Scripture and in continuing to learn and grow the rest of their lives. That is how every believer should be, in medicine, business, or any other livelihood, as surely as pastors. Tim, you are an example of that.
Tim,
You wrote that you did not feel a “tug”. Much of what you wrote sure sounded like you were being tugged.
You do share the desires and priorities of the pastor’s you so obviously admire.
I can’t speak to your qualifications. I won’t pretend to know you from spending a few hours reading your blog. I don’t mean to inquire into specific sin issues, but what qualifications do you think you lack?
Can you tell me what you think the “tug” would feel like? If you felt this “tug” would you be pleased?
I thank God for how he is using you in your current capacity.
So what did you do on Saturday?
There’s always overseas missions =0)
Foreign missions? I mean he like already lives in Canada…
“Foreign missions? I mean he like already lives in Canada…”
Oh, now that’s a low blow! Just because we’ve been declared a mission field by the SBC…
Tim,
I’m 49 years old (as I’ve shared numerous times) and I must confess to you and to all your readers that I’ve always been somewhat confused when it comes to the understanding of Pastoring vs. Preaching.
I decided at the age of 19 that God wanted me to preach. At the time I never thought about pastoring. However, the work that I was associated with taught that the two were synonymous. You couldn’t preach unless you were pastoring.
It took me 11 years of heart-breaking misery to come to the conclusion that pastoring wasn’t my calling. As a result, I haven’t “preached” in many years because the church assumes that if your not interested in pastoring then God hasn’t “called” you to preach.
I don’t believe, from what I’ve read, that the conference offered a true picture of “pastoring”. I do believe that there is a general call for “pastors” to return to biblical preaching.
After reading your comments I’ld be interested to know if you feel that a call to “pastor” is the same as a call to “preach”. Are they different? Can a man be called to “preach” and not serve as a pastor?
This is one reason I have come to believe strongly in a plurality of elders for each church. All elders might feel that they have been called to preach and have the opportunity to preach but there is less demand for one man to be all things to a congregation. Each elder has more freedom to serve in the areas that he is more suited, or gifted, to serve in.
I hope I’m making myself clear. This is not a criticism. It’s just been an area of frustration for me for many years.
Your writing is a blessing. I can’t imagine that your preaching would be any less of a blessing. As for pastoring, well, that’s a horse of a different color.
Great job blogging the conference. Very thorough. I am still waiting to see the photo of the frenzied pastors racing for the front of the room.
You could declare the SBC a mission field back.
“You could declare the SBC a mission field back.”
Hey, I like that idea!
I actually tell people in my church that if they’re afraid of evangelizing “out there,” then concentrate on the people in the pews. They ought not to be offended and they actually came to you.
Tim: I agree with all the comments of appreciation for what you did at the conference so that we who did not attend could have a sense of being part of it. After reading what you wrote today however I’m also left with the impression of a few others that have responded. I hope I don’t sound too “emergent” when I say this but I feel saddened by the fact that somehow we in the “non emergent” camp have been left with a definition of pastoring, given to us by the church of our day, which excludes people like you from its definitions, status and labels. You talk about wanting to teach, disciple and equip God’s people but yet are convinced that you are not a pastor or one that God has called to shepherd among God’s people. You talk about those among God’s people who groan in desperation for men to open the word of God to them…and you do it, because its in your heart to do it. I’m not meaning to dog you Tim, you’re way up there on my list of favorite people out there, but help me out here. Tell me more what you mean when you say that after the conference you now realize that it is really only the church that can bring hope to the world. With all due respect, isn’t it the “church” that leaves you saying the things you are saying about yourself and causing so many of your fellow believers who are commenting here trying to encourage you by saying you are this or that but not being able to say what you are…that you are pastoring us and encouraging us by what you do and by what you already are?
Tim,
I am a pastor and adjunct faculty member with an invalid wife that keeps me pretty close to my home base. If I could, I would join you in California, but I can’t leave my dear wife for any lengthy time without great adjustment! You cannot know how much it means to me to have your insight and wisdom as you summarize conferences like the Shepherd’s conference and Desiring God. Thanks so much for all your good work -Bob
Philip,
Re: your comment-“I’m really looking forward to much more discourse on the content of the various seminars and as we speak,am now re-working the budget to allow for the purchase of all the audio downloads.”
If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to be able to purchase the audio downloads for you, in the Lord’s honor. Please send me an email with your email address, and I can either send you the money via Paypal, or purchase them directly and send them to your home addy, okay? Normally I would not like to state this publicly, but you do not have your email address linkable, so I had no other option. Please, do contact me, as I would love nothing greater than to share in your blessing as you learn from these men of God. Save the reworking of your budget for some other necessity…okay? :)
Tim—was moved by your post and agree with you 100%. I think you’ve got it right, and I appreciate your willingness to admit what is God’s will for you. Glad you came home with more answers than not. Were the kids happy to see you? Again, thanks for your dedication to the blog during the conference!
Jess
Philip
Most sorry…..I forgot to give you MY email address…sheesh hahaha! :)
Jesssoymuyalta@yahoo.com*hope to hear from you soon
Tim,
I was also at the conference and I have to say, I had an absolutely wonderful time. I haven’t heard preaching and teaching that filling in years. Our new church plant is the only one in Greensboro, NC that focuses on expository preaching and is committed to the basic principles of the Protestant Reformation. As a result, you get to feeling pretty lonely sometimes. However, after being at the Shepherd’s Conference, I have returned with a renewed vigor and passion to continue preaching and teaching the Scriptures to our precious flock. If you are going to attend next year, please let me know, I’d love to meet up for fellowship sometime!
Love in the Lamb,
Pastor Dustin S. Segerswww.graceinthetriad.com
Tim,
As a TMS grad and current student at another seminary, I appreciated your conference posts. Because of my time constraints with school, I have been unable to attend the conference in two years. Your post-conference reflections reminded me of an occasion where Dr. MacArthur was preaching in chapel at TMS and exhorted the student body that if there is anything else that onc can do other than pastor/preach—then do it! He wasn’t trying to deflate anyone’s ministry aspirations, but what he was attempting to do was to highlight the seriousness and sobering reality that pastoral ministry is the most difficult “vocation” because of the intensity of the spiritual warfare that accompanies it.I can certainly testify to that after pastoring for 11 years (5 of them as a senior pastor in N. California). Taking this self imposed sabbatical for more post-grad study has crystallized these truths in my own heart. And your reflections have certainly resonated with me.Thanks again for serving me with your writing. I trust that the “Together for the Gospel” here in Louisville will be as epic as the Shepherd’s Conf. was.Blessings,Todd Cheney