Richard Baxter as a model for contemporary pastoral practice – Gary McKee
Richard Baxter as a model for contemporary pastoral practice
Introduction
The pastor, like all Christians, is under the orders of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). In this respect it is encouraging to hear of pastors who fulfilled their calling. From 1647-1661, Richard Baxter laboured in Kidderminster as vicar. Note his later reflection on those years: “In a word, when I came thither first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and called on his name; and when I came away, there were some streets where there was not past one family in the side of a street that did not so; and that did not, by professing serious godliness, give us hopes of their sincerity.” Surely J.I. Packer has not exaggerated too much in suggesting that Baxter was instrumental in converting “just about the whole town.” Moreover, this was no religious town where Baxter simply reaped the benefits of the labour of others. It is said of Baxter’s predecessor, George Dance, who was there from 1628, that he “was woefully incompetent and ungodly, frequenting ale-houses and sometimes being found drunk. He only preached once a quarter, and then so pathetically he was the laughing stock of the town”
Baxter laboured in a day markedly different from our own. It would be unwise, however, to conclude that he has nothing to teach us. In particular we want to draw out lessons and principles for contemporary pastoral practice. Despite the differences between our time and his, such a successful ministry will surely reward us with abiding lessons if we take time to learn them.
1. Baxter’s pastoral approach
In 1656 The Worcestershire Association of Clergy resolved to hold a day of fasting and prayer to seek God’s blessing as they undertook systematic pastoral catechizing and invited Baxter to preach. He was too ill to attend, however, and published the material instead. This exhaustive exposition of Acts 20:28 survives today as The Reformed Pastor, which remains, according to Erroll Hulse, “the best manual for the pastor’s duty in the English language.”
In chapter 2 Baxter set down two foundational principles. Firstly, every flock should have its own pastor and secondly, a flock must be no bigger than the pastor can oversee. For Baxter, it simply was not good enough for a pastor not to know his people. He quite legitimately asked, “how can we take heed to them, if we do not know them?” He had no time for ministers who took on a bigger charge than they could handle and feared that money was too often the motive. Such a minister should be willing to pay an assistant out of his own pocket. After all, he asked, “are the souls of men so base in your eyes, that you should rather they should eternally perish, than that you and your family should live in a low and poor condition?”
Baxter was always challenging, sometimes crushingly so. Yet he was also intensely practical. He listed seven groups of people with whom the pastor must deal. Above all else he believed that “the work of conversion is the first and great thing we must drive at, after this we must labour with all our might.” For Baxter there was no conflict between being a pastor and being an evangelist. Secondly, he was keen to deal with specific cases of conscience, above all when the question was “what must I do to be saved?” Thirdly, he saw the pastor as having a duty to build up those already converted. He believed that such ministry was to be comprehensive in scope. The pastor should focus not only upon the weak but also upon the strong. Here he challenged complacency regarding the pastoral care of those who seem to be making progress in their spiritual lives. Fourthly, families were to be given attention. For Baxter, caring for the families in a church could serve to reduce the pastoral workload. He urged that “if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion.” In particular he was keen that heads of households do their duty in catechizing their families and leading them in worship. Fifthly, he was concerned that pastors should be diligent in visiting the sick. Sixthly, the pastor had to deal with those who were impenitent over sin. Finally, those in need of church discipline were to be disciplined. It should be noted that Baxter viewed church discipline as being restorative and, as such, did not countenance any doubts about whether or not it is the pastor’s duty. These priorities tell us much about his pastoral heart.
Baxter was keen that those who undertake the work of catechizing do so in such a way as tends towards its success. If a pastor wanted his people to submit to catechizing, all was vanity unless his people were convinced “of his ability, sincerity and unfeigned love to them.” In cases where a pastor, for whatever reason, was not greatly esteemed by his people, he argued that the pastor should move and not deprive his people of the good they might receive from someone else. Baxter therefore was not unrealistic about the problems that pastors can face. He realized that even with the best intentions sometimes a pastor and people do not warm to one another. In such an instance, however, his focus was more on the pastoral needs of the people than the well-being of the pastor.
Baxter’s plans for carrying out catechizing are quite straightforward and indicate his common sense. People should be given the catechisms, whether rich or poor. They should be dealt with gently. If they had weak memories, the matter should be impressed upon their hearts even if they could not recall the form of words. This point has perhaps been lost at times. I remember a friend of mine telling me how Saturday nights were often ruined in his home as he failed to remember the exact words of the catechism answers!
Offence and nervousness should be removed, for example, so that people would not be too tense to benefit from the visit. People should be dealt with privately, but women should not be seen alone. This prevented ignorance being exposed on the one hand and scandal being suggested on the other. Baxter was keen that pastors never lose sight of their main objectives, yet he was equally convinced that “small things deserve attention, because they are in order to a work that is not small; and small errors may hinder a great deal of good.” Baxter advocated finishing each section by giving a word of practical exhortation that is suited to the condition of the parishioner. Resolutions were to be sought against sin. The meetings were to be recorded in a book to encourage intelligent prayer and to inform pastoral preaching. The pastor was to be concerned about his manner in conducting these sessions. He was to avoid any harshness, to be as plain as possible, to prove everything from Scripture and to prepare with prayer. Catechizing in this sensitive way would get to the heart of people’s spiritual need. Yet Baxter finished on a very practical note in urging that charity should be extended to the poor as God enables. Baxter believed that true pastoral oversight required personal dealing with people and great wisdom concerning how this was approached. The book in no way undervalues public preaching, but it does plead that this is only part of the pastor’s duty. There was the sobering danger that “the pulpit is the hypocritical minister’s stage: there … and in other public acts, you shall have his best, perhaps his all.” It was in personal catechizing and counselling that a pastor’s true colours came through.
2. The usefulness of catechizing today
The era we live in is very different from that of Baxter and this must be borne in mind. Baxter’s people, for example, were church-going. Even though the ministry had been weak prior to Baxter’s arrival in Kidderminster, his congregation had at least some advantage in biblical knowledge over many in British society today. Yet only a few people in Kidderminster parish had experienced evangelical conversion prior to Baxter’s going there. His efforts in catechizing, therefore, were in effect efforts in evangelism. We need to honestly assess how useful such an approach would be today.
Catechizing is passionately believed in today by some who stand in the Puritan tradition. They argue, moreover, that catechizing has a clear biblical basis. Hence John J. Murray has written, “the teaching of our Lord and of the Apostles was of necessity oral and interlocutory.” The word katecheo is used seven times in the New Testament to refer to the instruction of believers. In Acts 18:25 we are told that Apollos “had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.” Catechizing is here portrayed as an indispensable biblical means by which men and women are instructed and led to a fuller knowledge of the truth.
What we need to assess, however, is the kind of catechizing which basically teaches a body of theological knowledge, such as the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It is quite clear that this is the kind of catechism which Baxter meant. In particular, we must consider whether learning a body of knowledge with a diverse range of scriptural proofs is really helpful in evangelism and edification today when used alone. Catechizing and evangelism in the Reformed tradition have traditionally been an exercise in systematic theology. Carson points out that these methods “tend to ask atemporal questions, and give atemporal answers.” So catechism questions such as “What is God?” and “What is sin?” and their respective answers are not based upon the flow of redemptive history that is given in the Bible. This is not a problem for those who accept the Judeo-Christian tradition, but in an increasingly postmodern and pluralistic society the question arises as to how well such propositions could be understood.
It may be necessary, in Carson’s words, for evangelism to become “a subset of biblical theology.” Laying a framework of doctrine in the context of how the biblical drama of redemption unfolds therefore seems to be a wiser approach than simply filling people’s heads with propositions and proof texts. Baxter viewed his people as ignorant. It may be, however, that they were deficient in doctrinal understanding more than in a knowledge of the biblical story line. Baxter did not inherit an empty church but a reasonably full one. Despite the weakness of the preaching of the previous vicar, the people would have heard the Scripture read every week. Their problem was that they needed it explained by someone who would preach and pastor in a powerful way. Baxter rose to this challenge.
Any form of catechizing that we adopt today needs to include or be complemented by a grounding in the biblical plot line. It is therefore insufficient to teach church children merely from a catechism or to have only a systematized approach in evangelistic classes. Yet we must avoid the extreme of just expounding Scripture without providing people with a framework derived from it. Baxter himself was not unaware of this danger and anticipated the objection “What need we catechisms, while we have the Bible?” with the answer: “Because the Bible contains all the whole body of religious truths, which the ripest Christians should know, but are not all of equal necessity to salvation with the greatest points.” Postmodern people in the West, no less than Baxter’s hearers, need to be confronted with both the biblical narrative and have the specific truths contained in it brought home to their minds and hearts.
3. Applying Baxter’s principles today
Baxter helps and challenges us in three particular ways.
i. We must understand our role
Packer points to two motifs in Baxter’s understanding of his own responsibilities. Firstly, he believed himself to be his people’s teacher: “A schoolmaster by instinct … teaching was to his mind the minister’s main task.” He also viewed himself as a spiritual physician and reckoned it was a congregation’s responsibility to seek out their pastor for a spiritual health check. “A minister”, he said, “is not merely to be a public preacher, but to be known as a counsellor for their souls, as the physician is for their bodies, as the lawyer is for their estates.” This picture of the pastor as teacher and physician of souls is certainly an enduring one. On the level of principle we must affirm, with Calvin, that “we certainly do not regard our office as bound in so narrow limits that when the sermon is delivered we may rest as if our task were done.” That is not to say that the pastor alone must follow up every member to check their spiritual health, but he is to ensure that such personal counselling is happening.
ii. We must care deeply about making disciples
Alongside the help Baxter gives us in understanding the pastor’s role, he is also an example of how caring and discipling are to be central to the pastor’s activities. His comfort late in life that those who came to Christ under his ministry continued in a serious profession of godliness can be explained by his diligence in discipling. Observing the contemporary scene, Peter White comments that “we do well to notice that the churches that have been characterized by the most spectacular growth in numbers, and in the major features of true discipleship, in our day have also featured, like Baxter, a systematic approach to the detailed discipling of individuals.”
iii. We make disciples by grounding our people in the truth
In considering how catechizing as Baxter would have practised it may be used today, we recognize that systematic theology must still have a place in discipling. That is not to say that the Shorter Catechism or any other catechism as such must be used; it is simply to note that there needs to be a precision and clarity about what is actually believed as Christians grow in their faith. Catechizing of this sort, however, is perhaps best seen as being part of the process of discipleship and Christian nurture. The subjects should be those who are growing in the Christian faith and the children of believing parents. It seems that the best vehicle is all-age Sunday school groups or midweek fellowship groups where biblical passages and Christian doctrine could be studied and discussed. Such discussion should be thorough but should also have a practical thrust as to how any particular aspect of truth helps us to grow in discipleship. That such catechizing is necessary is evident enough. Trueman points out that most attacks on the evangelical faith are systematic in nature. For example, open-theism has “been nurtured in the anti-doctrine, anti-tradition world of contemporary evangelicalism.” A Christian (or non-Christian) who has been catechized, however, will have learned, in essence if not in these precise words, that “God is Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being” and that “for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.” Baxter believed that catechizing was essential for the orderly building up of those who are converted. He said of the central truths of the catechism: “He that knows not these, knows nothing; he that knows them well, doth know so much as will make him happy; and he that knows them best, is the best and most understanding Christian.” No doubt those who knew these things best were also the least likely to fall into error.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we must still seek to build people up in the faith in an orderly way, just as Baxter did. Clearly good preaching is central to this task. The preaching within a church should be for the most part expository. Evangelistic preaching in particular should be geared toward outlining the history of redemption to those who have never heard it. Yet there must also be more interactive modes of teaching for all who will submit themselves to it.
In evangelism, resources such as Two Ways to Live and Christianity Explored help in teaching the most necessary Christian truths while at the same time grounding these truths in historical time. The gospel is, after all, good news about something that has happened. Believers of all ages should be discipled in groups where they consider Christian doctrine and learn to relate it to the biblical revelation as a whole. In many churches such practices are no longer the custom because of an emphasis on the priority of preaching that excludes these other forms of discipleship. Yet as Baxter shrewdly noted, “what is it that hath brought our people to this ignorance of their duty, but custom? … they disdain to be catechized or instructed because it is not the custom. They wonder at it as a strange thing, and say, Such things were never done before. And if we can but prevail but to make this duty as common as other duties, they will much more easily submit to it than now.” While evangelicals must not be bound by their own traditions, to re-establish this kind of instruction in the churches would surely stand in the biblical tradition of things that are vital to the health of the church.
It is no doubt clear that simply aping Baxter in every detail is unlikely to meet with much success. His principles, however, are surely timeless, and we must face up to his challenge of dealing personally with people. Perhaps the final word should go to J.I. Packer. He encourages all involved in pastoral oversight to ask: “Have I set myself, as Baxter set himself, to find the best way of creating situations in which I can talk to my people personally, on a regular basis, about their spiritual lives? … where there’s a will there’s a way!”
Bibliography of sources referred to
Primary sources
Baxter, Richard (1974 [1656]) The Reformed Pastor, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth.
Baxter, Richard (1998) Richard Baxter, The Pastor’s Pastor: Autobiography, Ross-shire Christian Focus.
Westminster Assembly (1647) The Shorter Catechism, Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.
Secondary sources
Capill, Murray (2003) Preaching with Spiritual Vigour: Including Lessons from the Life and Practice of Richard Baxter, Ross-shire: Mentor.
Carson, D.A. (1996) The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism, Leicester: Apollos.
Evans, Eifion (1970) ‘Christian Nurture’, Banner of Truth, 82, pp. 1-8.
Hulse, Errol (2005) ‘The Zeal of Richard Baxter’, Reformation Today, 203, pp. 9-13.
Murray, John J. (1962) ‘Catechizing – A Forgotten Practice’, The Banner of Truth, 27:15-27.
Packer, J.I. (1974) ‘Introduction’, in Baxter, Richard (1974 [1656]) The Reformed Pastor, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, pp. 9-19.
Roberts, Maurice (1991) ‘Richard Baxter and His Gospel’, Banner of Truth, 339, pp. 19-26.
Trueman, Carl R. (2004) ‘A Revolutionary Balancing Act Or: Why Our Theology Needs To Be a Little Less Biblical’, in The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism, Ross-shire: Mentor, pp. 169-174.
White, Peter (1998) The Effective Pastor: The key things a minister must learn to be, Ross-shire: Mentor.
