Leading God’s People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today By Christopher A. Beeley (Eerdmans, 2012)
Leading God’s people: it’s no easy task. In fact, it’s downright difficult—a high calling, no mere job. Pastors and church leaders need all the help they can find. And we have all sorts of resources promising to help us effectively shepherd Christ’s flock. We buy books, read newsletters and blogs, and attend conferences—all to sit at the feet of contemporary gurus who have the key to successful church leadership. But how often do we look backward, to our great, great-grandfathers in the faith? Can the early church inform pastoral leadership today?
While there are many books on church leadership and books about the early church, rarely do you find one bridging the two topics.
In Leading God’s People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today, Christopher A. Beeley argues that “one of our greatest resources for effective ministry today comes from the period of the early church.” Beeley presents in a fresh and accessible way the fundamentals of church leadership as they were taught by some of the great theologians of the early church, all of whom were pastors: Augustine, Gregory the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, John Cassian, the desert monastics, and more.
Contrary to current church leadership resources that draw from secular managerial philosophies and techniques, Beeley mines the wisdom of patristics for pastoral ministry, making their wisdom relevant for leaders today.
First, Beeley explains the origins and importance of church leadership. Then he turns to a familiar topic: servant leadership. While servant leadership is a 101 course, Beeley reinforces this “elementary” concept in a bracing way. Drawing from the church fathers and from the New Testament, Beeley characterizes pastoral leadership as “all for others.” Beeley, and the fathers, cause us to evaluate our motives for pastoral ministry.
He writes with the voice of a prophet: “What most excites a true pastor is not his or her reputation or advancement, but the growth and well-being of the church. In reality there is no such thing as a church leader who uses the office for his or her own advantage instead of building up the body of Christ. Such people are only pretending to be pastors or bishops, and their pretense will one day be revealed for what it is.”
Beeley then turns to spirituality for leadership. In the early church, argues Beeley, personal holiness “marked by a life of repentance and striving for greater purity” is necessary for effective ministry. The tragic alternative will only harm Christ’s flock. Drawing from Augustine, Beeley clarifies that the “requirement of holiness for pastoral leaders is not a mark of Pelagianism, neither is it an indication of Donatism.” Rather, “What makes us authentic and compelling leaders is a kind of spiritual magnetism that comes not from our natural gifts alone, but from the power of God.”
Next, Beeley discusses “the cure of souls,” the art of guiding people toward God. Beeley looks to Gregory Nazianzen for a key description of pastoral ministry: the pastor “dedicates [the individual’s soul] to the Spirit, casts out the darkness, glories in the light, drives away predators, draws together the fold, guards against precipices and desert solitudes, and helps it to reach the mountains and high places.” This, says Nazianzen, is “the art of arts and the science of sciences.” In this chapter, Beeley assists readers in understanding how they can help people to know and love God more fully.
In chapter four, Beeley discusses the importance of personal immersion in Scripture and theology. Here he combats the idea that “the more theological or spiritual one’s ministry is, the less practical and relevant it is (and vice versa).”
Heralding the early fathers, who were theologians and pastors, Beeley emphasizes with great persuasion that “theology is the lifeblood of the church and its ministries.”
Finally, Beeley turns to the task of ministering the Word. The insights he draws from Augustine’s On Christian Teaching are particularly compelling. Beeley summarizes ministry of the Word as a three-fold task: teach, delight, sway.
Beeley arranges and presents these topics as the five pillars of pastoral ministry. All are needed for effective leadership, and none should be prioritized over the other.
When you pick up this book, don’t expect to find a handbook for pastoral leadership. It won’t give you practical tips for navigating difficult scenarios. Instead Beeley presents a systematic philosophy of pastoral leadership as retrieved from the church fathers. And it is packed with extraordinary quotes.
If for nothing else, buy the book for the quotes. Nowhere else will you find such an arrangement of ancient wisdom on church leadership.
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