Pastoral Ministry

The Relational Premium: Pastoring’s Irreplaceable Element in the Information Age

Kirk E. Miller

In the last 50 years or so, evangelicals saw a new emphasis on information. Emphasizing information wasn’t new. Evangelicals had been long publishing books, distributing sermons, creating pamphlets, etc. But a new type of emphasis on information emerged with the rise of new means of distributing information. Preachers would put sermons on cassette tapes for wider distribution beyond just their local congregations. Then with the rise of the internet, certain preachers gained global reputations and influence as their sermons and teaching were put online. Think of ministries like John MacArthur (Grace to You), John Piper (Desiring God), R.C. Sproul (Renewing Your Mind), and more.

Now this is so commonplace nearly every church publishes sermons online—on their church website, on a podcast, on YouTube, etc. In fact, it might be more unusual to find a church or pastor that doesn’t do this.

Additionally, many pastors and other Christian thinkers have personal Substacks, and it seems like nearly everyone has a podcast. The increase in Christian content creators is exponential as the ability to create and publish content has become more and more democratized.

This is not a value judgment. I simply wish to observe the situation out of which we’re coming.

Observe now our present situation and what is likely only going to increase in the future. Information is voluminous. We’re drowning in it. Ours is the “Information Age.” We can Google things and find information on nearly anything we want. Added to this, AI makes the creation and delivery of content all the more fast and cheap. Instead of needing to locate a book or sermon on a given topic, one can just type a question into an AI chat and generate information (whether reliable or not) within seconds. As more people use AI to churn out content, information will become even more taken for granted and unimpressive.

I once spoke with a prospective church member who said that, while looking for a church to join, they weren’t necessarily looking for the “best” preacher. To be clear, this person cared deeply about sound doctrine; they weren’t indifferent to preaching. However, they reasoned that they could always find great sermons and teaching online. What mattered most to them was the relational aspect—something online sermons cannot provide. (Mind you, this was years before the emergence of popular AIs.)

Regardless of whether or not you agree with this person’s thinking, more and more people will likely begin to see information, like what is offered in a sermon, as easy to come by. Whether they get that information from a local pastor, the internet, or AI may eventually matter less to them. In other words, information will be so ubiquitous that it will no longer be seen as a unique offering of a pastor and local church.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not actually equating a sermon with “information.” The act of preaching, of course, involves relaying information, but rightly understood, it’s much more than that. First, preaching is exhortation. But secondly, preaching is inseparable from the larger context of a complete pastoral ministry. The act of preaching occurs in the context of a particular local church and a pastoral relationship between the preacher and that specific congregation. Sermons do not exist in the abstract as relationshipless speeches. But that’s my point.

In the years to come, what sets pastors apart may not be their ability to relay information. Information relay will be increasingly replaceable by AI. What AI and digital mediums will never be able to replace, though, is genuine human connection, actual pastoring—knowing people, spending time with them, genuinely caring for them. This isn’t the only thing that may set pastors apart (for instance, as reliable information becomes increasingly scarce or hard to discern, pastors have opportunity to lead there as well, such as in their preaching). Moreover, this is what’s always defined good pastoring. It’s not new. But I suspect it may receive new appreciation.

The last 50 years of evangelicalism have oriented us to prioritize sermons, content, and information. When you think about evangelicalism over this period, these are the elements that often rise to the top. But I wonder if in the future, these things will be so ubiquitous that people will gravitate—whether they realize it or not—toward actual human connection. And how much more as our digital age accelerates loneliness and lack of community. Will people increasingly seek out pastors who, even if they lack the most polished “content,” are involved in their lives and care for them?

40 Quotes from The Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great

Kirk E. Miller

Gregory the Great wrote The Pastoral Rule to provide guidance for “spiritual directors” (clergy) on the responsibilities and tasks of pastoring. It is widely considered one of the best works of pastoral theology.

He breaks his work into four parts.

  1. He addresses the qualifications of those who would obtain pastoral authority.
  2. He provides directions on the proper life and work of the pastor.
  3. He offers specific guidance and insight on how to pastor particular types of people given their unique temperaments, struggles, characteristics, and circumstances.
  4. He closes with an exhortation to humility in pastoral ministry.

He sets out to write his book, among other reasons, “to express my opinion of the severity of their weight [i.e., the burdens of pastoral care] so that he who is free of these burdens might not recklessly pursue them and he who has already attained them might tremble for having done so.”1 At the close of his book, he says, “I have tried to show what the qualities of a spiritual director ought to be.”2

The following are some of my favorite quotes from the work, organized loosely by subject matter.3

1. The dangers of the pastoral authority

“No one does more harm in the Church than he who has the title or rank of holiness and acts perversely. … [B]ecause such a sinner is honored by the dignity of his rank, his offenses spread considerably by way of example. And yet everyone who is unworthy would flee from such a great burden of guilt if, with the attentive ear of the heart, he pondered the saying of the Truth: ‘He that scandalizes one of these little ones who believes in me, it would be better for him that a millstone was hung around his neck and that he was cast into the depth of the sea.’ … Whoever, therefore, gives off the appearance of sanctity but destroys another by his words or example, it would be better for him that his earthly acts, demonstrated by worldly habits, would bind him to death than for his sacred office to be a source for the imitation of vice in another. Indeed, his punishment in hell would be less terrible if he fell alone.” (32)

“[Jesus] chose instead the penalty of a shameful death so that his [followers] might also learn to flee the applause of the world, to fear not its terrors, to value adversity for the sake of truth, and to decline prosperity fearfully. This final concern [i.e. prosperity] often corrupts the heart through pride, while adversities purge it through suffering. In the one, the soul becomes conceited; while in the other (even if the soul is occasionally conceited), it humbles itself. In the one, the man forgets who he is; while in the other, he is recalled, even unwillingly, to know what he is. … For commonly in the school of adversity, the heart is subdued by discipline; but if one rises to a position of spiritual authority, the heart is immediately altered by a state of elation that accompanies the experience of glory.” (33)

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The Danger of Unauthorized Use of Pastoral Authority

Kirk E. Miller

The following is from Harold L. Senkbeil, “Leading Your Sheep,” in Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls, Lexham Ministry Guides (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021), 54–56.

“The Bible, however, makes a clear distinction between authorized power and unauthorized power. The only legitimate way to do ministry is by way of the authority of Jesus: doing what he’s given you to do. … Many unfortunate dysfunctions arise when power is confused with authority. When pastors operate not out of their divinely commissioned authority but rather out of their private opinions and desires, conflict usually occurs. …

This works for a while; it may even work for quite a while, depending on the strength of the pastor’s personality. But you can see that it’s a strategy fraught with danger. It breeds resentment and discontent within a congregation for sure, and often these situations get ugly. People may suffer silently for a while, but eventually their resentment spills over into open resistance and rebellion. Now you’ve got a power struggle and contest of wills on your hands, as the pastor keeps trying to outsmart the opposition and form allegiances among his fans against his enemies. It’s a powder keg situation politically speaking. And you know for sure you’re in for trouble when the church is viewed increasingly from a political point of view.

So when you do ministry by power, you’ve got a potential brouhaha on your hands organizationally speaking. Worst of all, where pastor and people lock horns in a political power struggle, a church is collectively delivered into the hands of the great politician, the great power broker: Satan.”

The Pastoral Ministry of Richard Baxter (with Tim Cooper)

Kirk E. Miller

Richard Baxter was a 17th-century English Puritan pastor best known for his rigorous and methodical approach to pastoral care. What can we today learn from Baxter about pastoring, what it looks like to be pastored, and the nature of the Christian life experienced within the church. Church history professor, Tim Cooper, joins Kirk to talk about the legacy of Baxter for the church today.

Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)