I have had the privilege over the past decade to serve in ministerial and academic roles. Prior to becoming a college instructor, I was a full-time youth and family pastor. In 2014, I was hired at Welch College to lead their program in Youth and Family Ministry. Shortly thereafter, I became the Campus Pastor at Welch and began serving my local congregation in a part-time position as their youth and family pastor.
To be on both sides of the theory-practice coin has been interesting. At times, I have felt I have been too theoretical for the practitioner and too practical for the theorist. Yet I think a sound ministerial philosophy balances theory and practice. To be clear, I am not saying one should focus simply on theory and practice in equal amounts, giving fifty percent here and fifty percent there. Rather, the right balance for ministry is to provide plenty of light and heat.
Throughout this article, I seek to demonstrate that the minister of God’s Word—the one who pastors a flock and rightly divides the Word of Truth for God’s people—must seek to both illumine and impassion Christians. I primarily consider the task of preaching, but I believe this balance can and should be extended to other areas of pastoral ministry.
Light
I am not the first to argue for a balance between the mind and the heart. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book Preaching and Preachers, spent ample time defining his now famous phrase: “logic on fire!” Lloyd-Jones thought sermons should be equal parts fervor and reason. The full quote is, “What is preaching? Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! Are these contradictions? Of course they are not. Reason concerning this Truth ought to be mightily eloquent. . . . It is theology on fire.”[1] Our ministries, not least of which includes our preaching, are to bring light to darkness. That is, we are to help our flock have a better and clearer understanding about their role as Christians in this world.
However, our concern for thoughtful preaching and ministry should not slip into cold intellectualism. Biblical ministry focuses on the mind but not only the mind. We must engage the intellect but avoid causing confusion with dense terminology, or impractical and abstract reflections. In other words, our emphasis for ministry is on understanding and application, not just knowledge. We want to bring light, not just content, to people’s minds. Light is shining on the path before us—that is, when we bring light to our ministries, we are seeking to apply and live out God’s truth, not just think about it. The difference is between more information and actual understanding. Our goal is qualitative more than it is quantitative. As the members of our churches sit with the Bible open before them, we want to help them make sense of God’s Word in order that they may grow closer to our Lord and serve Him more faithfully. We should desire to illuminate and make sense of difficult interpretations and ethical questions. Good ministry is a ministry that is full of light—that is, illuminating clarity.
Heat
But light on its own is not enough. All the information in the world means little if we are not being persuasive and impassioned when we communicate. Lloyd-Jones continues his definition on preaching by stating, “Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one again.”[2] Lloyd-Jones is not arguing for preaching that inflames only the emotions of its hearers. Instead, he wants to connect the head and the heart in the heralding of God’s Word.
But herein lies the problem: too often our preaching (and ministries-at-large) are either too heady or too emotional. The former focuses on providing a lot of information, assuming that such preaching equates to greater sanctification. The latter emphasizes experience, assuming that more emotion means more transformation. But by doing this, we put the mind and the heart at odds with one another. Yet it is precisely by tying these two areas together that we achieve balance. Reason balances zeal. The heart balances the head. Good preaching (and ministry) appeals to the mind and the heart. It is theologically-rich, biblically-saturated truth that is communicated with enthusiasm and compassion. We meet the living God as He is revealed in His Word; that should leave neither the pastor nor the congregants unchanged.
Lloyd-Jones’s statement is not just about projecting an animated point. It is about the pastor feeling the full weight of Truth in the here and now. That is, has the pastor—in his preaching, his counseling, his life—come into personal contact with the Truth he is seeking to communicate? Are his mind and heart softened to the instructions of the Scriptures? Has he experienced the Truth he preaches? Too often our lips demonstrate how far our minds are from our hearts. This meditative preaching does not require emotional reaction, but it certainly does not exclude it.
Listen to Zack Eswine’s account of a class with long-time professor of apologetics at Covenant Theological Seminary, Jerram Barrs, who shared a story of two neighbors, one who killed the other. Meditating on Psalm 10 in the classroom, he writes,
Jerram’s voice faltered. He looked out above his glasses but away from us. He searched the wall with his eyes and heaved a deep breath. He could read no further. He pulled both hands up and spread them flat upon his face, covering his cheeks, forehead, and eyes. . . . In his mid-forties, Jerram cried like a man as if none of us were there. I’m not sure I had ever seen a grown man cry like this. But there it was. The biblical text and love for God and neighbor led the apologist to weep. . . . Class was in session. The sermon thundered. As a minister in training, all semester, I learned a great deal about the -isms and idols that create barriers to the Gospel in our hearts and in our culture. I learned what an apologist is meant to say. But that day, I was introduced to who an apologist is meant to be.[3]
As pastors, maybe we need to learn how to cry—to cry like men. I am moved at Eswine’s summary: “The biblical text and love for God and neighbor led the apologist to weep.”[4] Our ministries not only need light but also heat. They need a zeal for the Lord that is grounded in a love for God and our neighbor. This combination comes from an utter dependence upon our Lord and His work. We need logic, but we need logic on fire. Let us long with fervent spirits for the work of the Lord in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Conclusion
About a decade ago, I was traveling with another pastor with whom I worked on staff at a church. We were discussing one of the students in my youth ministry that had incredible zeal for the Lord. The pastor mentioned, “Yes, but be careful. There can be a lot of heat but no light.” He was right. The student, being new in the faith and young, was zealous but not very discerning. He had “a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10:2, ESV). I did not want to dampen his zeal but wanted him to think wisely and biblically about his life. As that student grew in his sanctification, he needed to find a balance between the two. Just as it is true in the lives of individual Christians, we as pastors should avoid the extremes in our ministries and preaching. Moreover, we model in our ministries and preaching what we hope to be true in the lives our flock. We need both light and heat. We need to transform our minds and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Likewise, we should not be lacking in zeal but instead fervent in Spirit so that we can serve the Lord (Rom. 12:11).
Ministry is not just for the intellect. And it is not just for the affections. Pastoral ministry is to bring believers into communion with God Himself, specifically through His Word. God made us as people with minds and hearts. We can have confidence in the Word—that it speaks Truth. Likewise, we can have boldness in the work of the Spirit through His Word. We should not neglect the work of speaking the clear truth of Scripture, but we must also speak in a way that is persuasive and compelling. In doing so, we can lead people to transformed Christian lives, which is the goal of Christian ministry.
[1] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, 40th aniv. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 110.
[2] Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, 110.
[3] Zack Eswine, “Apologetic Communication: How Someone Who Isn’t A Christian Is Meant to Experience Someone Who Is,” in Firstfruits of a New Creation: Essays in Honor of Jerram Barrs, Doug Serven, ed.,(Baltimore, MD: White Blackbird, 2019), 243.
[4] Ewsine, “Apologetic Communication,” 243.
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