Things that make you shake your head

It never ceases to amaze me how people can take contemporary conditions and apply those conditions to Scripture, not matter how little sense it makes.

Kevin DeYoung posted a series of things that he has learned and wants to pass on to young pastors and other church leaders: More Advice for Theological Students and Young Pastors. The list is a pretty standard litany, most of them sound advice in a traditional church setting. Then we run into number 22

22. Keep reading. Please keep reading. Boldly ask for a book allowance. The rule is not absolute, but I question a man’s call to ministry if he does not like to read.

Seriously. One has to assume that this means that you read the “right” sorts of books. Reading a Tom Clancy novel for pleasure probably doesn’t count. I am not sure which aspect I found more distasteful, that not loving to read should be cause to question your “call to ministry” or that you should boldly ask the church to buy books for you to read.

Lest you think that DeYoung was making an offhanded comment, he clarified his position in response to a comment by someone named Daniel looking for clarification with this statement:

Daniel, as I said in the post I don’t think you can make a hard and fast rule about reading. Some pastors may be illiterate or have limited access to good books. And no one should be expected to read as much as the giants like Carson, Mohler, etc. But a pastor must be apt to teach. And part of teaching well is loving to learn. A desire to read is not a sufficient condition for being a good pastor, but in most cases I believe it is a necessary condition. If a man is to preach week after week, year after year, he must develop a breadth and depth of ideas and knowledge. Plus there is the practical necessity of reading each week in preparation for preaching. If the preacher doesn’t enjoy books and study he will not last long as a preacher. Or he will not be a very good one.

A desire to read is a necessary condition to be a good pastor? This was my comment on the blog:

I wonder. If liking to read a lot is a requisite for being “able to teach”, what were the elders that Paul was having Timothy appoint reading? Or is this advice from Paul just intended for us in the Reformation era forward and he didn’t really intend it for the elders of the first century? I have a hard time picturing the elders in the early church that Paul was specifically talking about being men who spent lots of time reading in their offices and who were expecting the local church to divert money from widows and orphans so that they could buy more books to read. The early church was taking up collections to aid victims of persecution and famine, not to buy books for their pastor. There certainly is a universal aspect to what Paul was telling Timothy but there was also a contemporary aspect and I don’t think you can make the case that Paul was telling Timothy that he should look for men who liked to read when he described elders as needing to be able to teach. Being a big reader was certainly not a disqualification for men when these words were penned but it is now? Perhaps we think we understand the requirements for ministry better than Paul did. Biblically speaking, leaders are men we should follow because the manner of their lives is worth emulating. I know lots of men who probably never or rarely read weighty tomes on theology but who love people and serve them. I have also run into plenty of men who read a lot and are megalomaniacs and can’t be bothered to deal with people. If you are a Christian, you are called to ministry and don’t let an extrabiblical interpretation dissuade you from serving the church.

I doubt Paul spent a lot of time sitting in his office at the church reading books. First because there were no offices, no “churches” and no theology books vetted by the Together for the Gospel crew. Second, Paul was out ministering to people and working a job. I doubt he saw the need for nor the value in and certainly didn’t seem to have the time for hanging around reading books.

I love reading and I am all for people reading. A lot. Having said that, I can hardly see how someone who doesn’t love to read can have their “call to the ministry” questioned. Sure you have a servant’s heart and love people and give sacrificially of your time and money and are a good husband and love your wife and kids but you haven’t read enough “good” books so back to the pew with you? Some of the most Christ-like servants I know are not terribly smart people but they are people who love Jesus and love their brothers and sisters, people who are willing to wash the feet of the saints even if they have never read a single book about theology or taken a single seminary class on ministry.

One of the great dangers of the Reformed culture is the intellectual snobbery it seems to foster. I write this as a slowly recovering intellectual snob. There is much admiration for the intellectual giants who wrote and read voluminously, men like Calvin and Turretin in the past and men like Sproul and Mohler and Carson today. There is little admiration beyond lip service to the simple servants of God who toil away at a job and still minister to others but don’t get asked to provide endorsements for books or speak at theology conferences. Christian ministry and leadership are many things but intellectual pursuits they are not. That doesn’t mean you should eschew any learning or that you encourage people to be ignorant but I do mean that you cannot equate 20 hours of study in your office preparing for a 45 minute lecture/sermon as “ministry”. I am someone who would be perfectly happy spending all week in an office reading theology books, listening to talks, reading and writing blogs but that is not ministry. That is not service. That is me doing what I like to do with a religious flavor.

Before anyone questions their call to ministry because they don’t read very much, they ought to look at what Paul said about leaders in the church. I think they will find much to be encouraged about that has nothing to do with reading.