There are many ways to identify a man who may have what it takes to become a pastor. In some churches, leaders look for men who are intelligent or men who have a desire to give their lives to ministry. In other churches, they look for men who can speak of a sense of calling or men who have educational credentials. Unfortunately, too few churches look primarily for men who have a specific kind of character—the kind of character the Bible holds out as essential for the pastor.
This character is of great concern to Jared Wilson and is one of the themes of his new book, Pastoral Mentoring: For the Care of Souls. This is the most recent entry in a helpful series of Lexham Ministry Guides published by Baker Books1 and overseen by Harold Senkbeil, who authored The Care of Souls (which I highly recommend). As you may surmise from the title, this is a book about the crucial task of pastoral mentoring—of pastors investing in and training up the next generation of pastors through close discipleship. “If you are a church leader interested in investing in the next generation of ministry, this book is for you,” says Wilson. “I will share biblical reflections, experiential insights, and practical steps for the work of pastoral mentoring. If you care about your church, this book can help you develop that care into a robust strategy for deep discipleship of the body.”
The book is a kind of mentorship itself, a means for Wilson, who has both received and provided mentorship, to share the powerful combination of biblical truth, theoretical knowledge, and practical insight. He offers the what, why, and how of mentoring that will be necessary for pastors to understand why mentorship is so important and to begin to implement it within their own churches.
What is the goal of pastoral mentoring? We might think it is to teach the skills necessary to function well as a pastor, whether preaching, leadership, counseling, or something else. Yet Wilson is convinced that the primary purpose ought to be the formation of distinctly Christian character. “What makes a pastor is calling and commission, yes, but more essentially and substantially, what makes a pastor is the ongoing formation of the character of Christ in the one called and commissioned. That is why pastoral mentoring is vital for pastoral ministry.” Hence, this kind of mentoring is a focused and intensive discipleship from a qualified man toward others who need to be proven qualified and who need to remain that way over the course of a long ministry. It is doing the work that is beyond the reach and beyond the scope of seminary or other institutions. “For a man to be truly qualified to care for souls, he needs life-on-life mentoring. He needs another pastor or mature leader to speak into his personal spiritual life and bear ongoing witness to how he’s responding, how he’s learning, and how he’s growing.” The best mentor is the one who is within the very same local church.
In fact, the centrality of the local church is the subject of the book’s second chapter. Aspects of training for ministry can and even should be outsourced to seminary; this is not the case for pastoral mentoring, for its most natural context is the church. “Because the biblical qualifications are best discerned by a church, the church is the optimal context for assessing whether a man is qualified for ministry. A seminary can give him a diploma based on his grades; only a church can give him a commission based on his character.”
The next chapter deals with discerning readiness—the readiness of men to potentially enter into ministry and, therefore, readiness to enter into a formal mentorship or residency program. Does he have an internal sense of calling to ministry and do others affirm it? Does he desire the ministry? Are his affections set on Christ and is he longing to grow in holiness? Answers to these questions will go a long way to helping understand whether he is ready to be mentored.
The subsequent chapters focus on pastoral instruction, godly character, pastoral disposition, and spiritual maturity. These are all areas ideally suited to mentorship because they are all areas that are essential for a man to be qualified for the ministry and, therefore, to serve well in the role. Chapter 8 is titled “Pastors Need Pastors” and expresses the need for churches to be led by a plurality of qualified men, each of whom provides oversight over and accountability for the others, even as those with greater experience care for and train those with less. The book wraps up with a series of three theses that summarize it, and then an appendix that practically lays out keys to establishing a meaningful pastoral residency.
There is a lot to appreciate about Pastoral Mentoring, and I commend it to pastors and elders. I appreciate that it is written by a Calvinistic Baptist as part of a series helmed by a Lutheran, since that brings together two traditions that each have their own strengths when it comes to forming pastors. I appreciate that Wilson is adamant about what is essential when it comes to his subject and what is peripheral or disputable. I appreciate that he lays a strong theological foundation and then builds a layer of practice upon it. And I appreciate that it is just the right length, with its main text running 162 brisk pages. Christ’s church needs this book, and it is very possible that your church needs it. I’d recommend you give it a close read.
- This sounds odd, but it is accurate. Baker Books acquired Lexham Press last year and kept the name of this series intact. ↩︎
