Dear BPCWA worshipper, In this pastoral, I will continue with the final summary of the lessons that we covered in our recent church study series on our 35-year church history.  

Understand what a pastor must be.  God intended His local churches to be pastored by men that He would raise and call to His church.  1) Be called by God to BPCWA.  For one that is called to serve Him in the pastoral role in a church, he must not only be called to the fulltime ministry by God, but also called by Him to a particular church.  Hence, it is not normal for a church to have pastors that “come and go” and even willing to come back after they have left BPCWA to pastor another church, leaving that church’s sheep in the lurch.  Christ warned of hirelings who are ready to run away and leave the sheep to fulfill their own aims and benefits.  One who is truly called is called for life.  Not only that, he does not switch churches for personal reasons and preferences, as and when he chooses to.  Pastoring is not a job, but a calling.  BPCWA should never just engage someone to be a pastor based only on the fact that we need a pastor and they happen to want to be a pastor, or want to stay in Australia, or because they happen to be available at a time when we need a pastor.  These by themselves are not compelling reasons why BPCWA should have them be a pastor at BPCWA.  Pastoring is not a “marriage of convenience”, but a specific calling from God.  Unless the church is unrepentantly disobedient to God’s word, the pastor should not leave his flock for another.  2) Meet biblical qualifications and be of BP convictions.  God has laid down qualifications for pastors in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 2, and these are also referred to in our Constitution.  In terms of convictions, a pastor does not merely agree to preach what the church stands for.  The pastor must personally believe in what the church stands for – without which, he will not and cannot preach all that the church upholds in her faith.  When this happens Satan, the church’s enemy, will craftily use these differences in convictions to undermine the steadfastness of the church.  Also, a pastor must be able to rule his household, “For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” (1 Tim 3:5).  A wife who wilfully pursues her own goals and does as she wishes in insubmission to her husband disqualifies that husband from being a pastor, no matter how sympathetic or warm we may feel toward him personally, or how “nice” a man he seems to be.  This is God’s required qualification and the church does not have the liberty to overlook and overrule them.  Moreover, a man who is wishy-washy, keeps changing his mind in his decisions, and whose choices lack a clarity of thought guided firmly by Biblical principles does not meet the qualification of soberness (1 Tim 3:2).  Such a man will make bungled decisions that will adversely affect the church.  3) Not seek to be liked or serve for personal recognition.  As Ezekiel was warned early in his ministry (Ezek 2), the prophets in the Old Testament were hardly ever popular with God’s people.  I am not saying that a pastor should be obnoxious.  But today, we should not expect the pastor to be everybody’s best friend by speaking only what people like to hear and never correcting anyone’s sin.  Since most people will not be happy when they are corrected, some pastors may choose never to “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim 4:2) so that they will be everybody’s friend.  While the pastor loves God’s sheep, he cannot be “menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph 6:6).  Fear of losing votes can make some pastors back down on speaking the whole counsel of God and making needed decisions that may displease some, or even to exercise needed discipline in the church.  Pastors who want to be liked will back down from saying or doing what God intends them to do, out of fear of offending the congregation and the backlash on his votes.  Their sermons address only the “positives” and they do not teach the “negatives”.  They will be careful to speak in such a way that no one is offended by leaving things “open” to interpretation ie, not making a clear stand based on the Bible. This way, everyone can be left to believe, think, or do as they wish.  For such pastors, even when biblical church discipline is required, it will not be practiced because it can displease others.  These are menpleasers and hirelings.  If a pastor serves God and is called by God, he must only seek to please his Lord and Master.  “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” (Gal 1:10)   Pastors (and every church leader) must be willing to consistently speak the truth regardless of who they are with, even if the people are displeased with the message.  He does so because he loves God, and so loves God’s sheep.  4) Must be duly tested, examined, and ordained.  Paul instructs Timothy in the pastoral epistle to “Lay hands suddenly on no man” (1 Tim 5:22).  One who says he is called to the ministry must first be tested as a full-time worker for sufficient years, after having undergone proper theological training.  This assessment is conducted by those in the full-time pastoral ministry through reviews of his sermons and a proper council examination of his doctrines and practices, and proven character before he is ordained.  No church should appoint a man as their pastor and chair of the church Session until he has been ordained as a Reverend.  An unqualified and unproven person, no matter how affable and nice, will eventually bring chaos and unbiblical ways.  We must not compromise on God’s qualification.  We do so to our own detriment.  However anxious we may be about having a pastor, the due process must be followed, as is required biblically, and for the safety of the church.  A man should never be ordained only months or just a year after he starts serving in the full-time ministry.  Conversely, ordination does not automatically make the man a pastor, as the appointment to a pastorage is done through the church’s election process.  Yet at the same time, a church should not stop a man’s ordination without proper reason, as ordination is an affirmation by those in the pastoral ministry of a man’s call to God’s full-time pastoral service.  Our constitution also affirms this, requiring the pastor of BPCWA to have first been ordained by Bible-Presbyterian ministers.  This is important because we want to ensure that the man we elect and appoint as the pastor of BPCWA is truly called of God, as evidenced in his preaching, and examined that the BP faith is that of his personal conviction which he will practice.  Only when we do this can we fulfill our human responsibility to help BPCWA remain true to the faith that we uphold and stand for.  5) Will feed, feed, feed God’s sheep.  This is what Christ called Peter to do if he loved Him.  And this is what every pastor must do if he loves Christ.  Such a pastor will not leave the pulpit to lay leaders or members, or regularly invite outsiders to preach in his stead.  As long as he is able to, a pastor should “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season” (2 Tim 4:2) and “speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority” (Tit 2:15).  A pastor who cuts corners in preaching – skimping on his preparation, or not giving the whole counsel of God for fear of offending the congregation – will be left with little to preach other than stories on moral living, worldly concepts of love, and soul- winning without building up saved souls.  The duty of the pastor is to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col 1:28), “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) so that the church will be “holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).  The pastor must do this at the Sunday pulpit and be active in teaching at other meetings where possible.  The pastor of a church must have a burning zeal to have God’s sheep live a sanctified life because that is what glorifies God.  And he must deeply desire for God’s sheep not to fall into ways that will cause them to regret later on.

What we must do moving forward.  BPCWA’s history is an unfinished story.  1) Learn from the good of the past and avoid repeating the mistakes.  2) Give glory to God’s providence in His works.  In His lovingkindness, He has steered us back to His paths when we wandered from Him.  He allows us today to continue to be a testimony for Him by His keeping of us.  3) Ensure that BPCWA doesn’t fail Him. We must not throw away all that God has done for us in His mercy and longsuffering by repeating mistakes we have become aware of.  We worship a sovereign God – who holds man accountable when they choose to sin.  The balance of God’s sovereignty vs man’s responsibility is a just scale.  God has been merciful in the past, but His hand of chastisement will be harder on those who know but yet choose to sin.  Let us choose to keep on keeping His commandments.  “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Prov 3:5)  4) Pray that BPCWA and her workers will be faithful.  See the weakness of man and the greatness of God.  5) Continue the Great Commission to lead men to Christ and build them up for Him.  This is what we were established for while we await His soon return!

My brethren, as we are now into our 36^th year, may we be stirred to follow Him afresh, that BPCWA may SOAR to greater heights of usefulness for His kingdom’s work:

S – Sound in the Word

O – Obedient in practices

A – Agreement of Biblical convictions as defined our Constitution

R – Remember not to repeat past mistakes

2Tim 2:2   And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

Yours in our Lord’s service,

Pastor