(Tim) ClearNote Fellowship is holding a pastors conference titled "The Reformed Pastor: Reviving Pastoral Care in the Church" on Thursday, February 3rd, and Friday, February 4th, 2010 here at Church of the Good Shepherd. If you are (or aspire to be) a pastor, elder, or deacon, I hope you'll come. And if you're not an officer, would you please encourage your own pastors, elders, and deacons to attend?
It's been a theme of Baylyblog that, in order for church officers to fulfill our callings, we must be intimate with the souls God has placed under our care. Not acquainted or familiar with them, but intimate. Sadly, Reformed churches lack the practice of hospitality and fellowship that produce that intimacy, and so we lack the Biblical context God has ordained for the protection and sanctification of His sheep.
Intimacy shows up everywhere in the New Testament church. There are tears, kisses, scrolls and parchment, household qualifications for officers, personal examination of widows and their families, specific rules for children, slaves, husbands and wives, name-specific rebukes and commendations; the New Testament has personal pastoral care woven in and above and below every word of doctrine. It's beautiful!
And think about it: among postmoderns who grew up in broken homes and think Facebook is friendship, what could be more attractive than true Christian fellowship and the organic...
truthfulness and love of the Christian home? What would happen if pastors and elders and deacons, and our wives, worked together to ground our churches in such fellowship and love?
This is true Biblical churching and it's the perfect marketing ploy for attracting the lost and sick souls surrounding us. Who needs art galleries, Seattle's Best, or Facebook when the church is led by officers who are faithful to practice hospitality without complaining, welcoming the sick and lost into their homes and talking with them, there?
This is the foundation of the growth and vitality God has blessed us with at Christ the Word and Church of the Good Shepherd, and this is what we'll be speaking of at our first annual ClearNote Pastors Conference.
I hope you'll come. Register now.
