Note: This article is adapted from a charge delivered at the induction service of a senior pastor.

 Ephesians 4 (NIV): As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

⁷ But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸ This is why it[a] says: “When he ascended on high,
    he took many captives
    and gave gifts to his people.”[b]

⁹ (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions[c]? ¹⁰ He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Recently, on being invited to offer a charge at the induction of a senior pastor, the following dynamics of the pastoral life emerged as I meditated on Paul’s description of the leadership charisms. I hope these reflections encourage all pastors in their high calling. What struck me first was the reality that … 

The ministerial charge is a deep one, one might even say a steep one:

In an era of human history characterised by cultural amnesia, expressive individualism and sexual revolution, to quote Carl Trueman.¹ Who would want to be a pastor? The charge to nurture, form, and equip the people of God by upending cultural narratives and by constructively bringing the body of Christ into maturity, ministry, and mission, is exacting. Paul and the Ephesian church also faced daunting external cultural and internal challenges to the Gospel. This is implied in verse 14 of our passage when Paul expresses the hope that through the ministry of the leaders and the people “…will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Undaunted by these cultural challenges, Paul expresses the goal or telos of pastoral leadership and teaching in this passage in five different ways, each of which reveal how deep and steep the challenges of ministry are:

The first goal of pastoral ministry is to participate as a leader² in the teaching of God’s Word so that  

• A body is equipped: “¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service”… Note that pastors are not called to do the ministry but to equip the whole body of Christ to do ministry. So we may say that the task is not complete until saints are ministering with the charismata God has given them. This means that the charge to leaders is actually not just to the leaders, but to the whole ministering body of the church.

The second goal of pastoral/leadership ministry is to arrive at 

• A body that is edified, that is, mature in terms of spirituality and character, ^12b… “so that the body of Christ may be built up”… the task is not complete until the saints are mature in character, as well as ministering with their charismata. Charismata and character must go together. Sadly there are too many leaders in the contemporary church who have shown all kinds of charisms but not the character to bear the charisms. Being must accompany doing. In the economy of Christian ministry, it is “Be-do-be-do-be-do,” not “do-be-do-be-do.” Being must undergird all doing. A ministry that is isolated from character development and spiritual practices will be a ministry of striving. It should rather be a ministry from stillness.

As the passage unfolds, Paul further defines this goal of maturity for the congregation. Paul’s emphatic use of ‘until’ (Gk. nekri), in v. 13 indicates the ultimate purpose of the church which is expressed in three ways that unbundle the idea of maturity: “until we all reach unity in the faith,” until we all reach unity “in the knowledge of the Son of God” and until we “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

The first of the until statements becomes our third expression of the deep, steep nature of pastoral ministry. The pastoral task and the body life it generates is not complete …

• “until we all reach unity in the faith.” The task is not complete until the people of God are catechized and centered on the essentials of the Christian faith, which Paul has already expressed in the proto-Trinitarian creed in verses 4-6: “4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” This is confessional oneness, that today might be expressed in confession of the Nicene Creed. This is the cognitive or intellectual aspect of maturity— a steadfast focus on the gospel, the core of the faith. This aspect of mature unity in the church is doctrinal maturity. It means that the main things stay the main things in the teaching and life of the church.  means not running down rabbit trails where secondary and tertiary issues subvert the stability of the church. Dialogue on these secondary issues is, of course, important, as long as the final authority of the Scriptures as properly interpreted is our standard. It is popular to quote St. Augustine in this regard: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” However, Augustine did not say these words. They came in the seventeenth century, first from a heretic (Marco Antonio de Dominis— even heretics say some truthful things!) and then from a Lutheran theologian (Rupertus Meldenius). Richard Baxter also used this saying.³ But if Augustine did not say this, it captures the spirit of Augustine, especially in his work Enchiridion,⁴ which is a long appeal for unity in the church.    

Fourthly, the pastoral teaching task that mobilizes the church into mission and ministry is not complete

• until we all reach unity “in the knowledge of the Son of God.” Doctrinal maturity and unity are not enough on their own. Real theology is theology that lives! Apart from an experiential knowledge of God, we can easily become pharisaical and hypercritical and just plain grumpy about doctrine. Proper theology leads to proper passion and life in us. Its center is Christ, called here by Paul as “the Son of God,” implying the relatedness of the Son to the Father and, indeed, anticipating the great reality of the Trinity which will emerge in the first centuries of the church. This is the greatest reality of the cosmos, that God is open for human relations, that he is for his creation and his image bearers, humanity. We can know Christ experientially, and therefore find ourselves experiencing the Trinity, not just affirming a doctrine. This is an ongoing goal throughout our lives, best expressed by Paul’s own consuming passion found in Philippians 3:10-11, where, towards the end of his life, Paul is still saying: “¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” A bit of this kind of passion about knowing Christ is the sign of a faithful minister of the Gospel, and it rubs off on a congregation. A passionate church is the goal, and it makes a church unstoppable. It is not passion invoked by manipulation but by faithful, humble teaching of the living Word of God and the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Fifthly, the task is not complete 

• until the body and each member is Christlike, or Christologically formed, verse 13b: “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” This is the climax, the ultimate goal of ministry. It is the idea of a mature humanity: mature because it reflects the Christ who is at the head of a new humanity, the eschatos Adam. How deep is the task of pastoral ministry? It is not complete until the saints are Christified, to use a term coined around 1450, in G. Deguileville's The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode. To quote Dr. Artificial Intelligence (not normally a great source for theological knowledge and definitely not a source to be quoted in academic papers!), Christified means, “to be made like Christ, united with Christ, or to have Christ formed in one's life.” Christed is another term used by the Familists in the seventeenth century. It meant to be united with Christ by being completely possessed by his Spirit. It signified deification which they imagined they attained by direct communion with the Deity.

So through commitment to proper doctrine about Christ and God, and through commitment to experiential knowledge of Christ, the saints become like Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). Through hearing the Word of God expounded and through participation in the Lord’s Supper, Christ is at work to freshly unify the church so that each believer feeds on Him and is caught up afresh into union with Christ in his ascended glory. This remarkable phrase is the greatest evidence that the task of pastoral leadership is deep and steep. Who is sufficient for this task? Until people are filled with the fulness of Christ we are not quite finished. This is the fivefold task of the minister: to participate with Christ in the development of ministering, mature, catechised, passionate and Christlike saints.

Who is sufficient for such a charge? Oh, and by the way, Paul adds, we are to do all this, both leaders and people alike, “humbly and gently, and patiently and lovingly”! None of us is sufficient for this apart from the greater reality, that …

if the charge is deep and steep, the resources are deeper still.

In this great passage, Paul outlines five great realities that are the possession of every Christian leader, and they outweigh the deep, steep reality of its challenges.   

• Our calling: Paul prefaces the whole section on ministry with a reference to “the calling you have received.” In other words he begins with an identity statement. This is a reference to the lofty calling or identity of the people of God that surely applies to his ministers in 4:1. This verse is a hinge joining the magnificent description of Christ and his church that is the subject of chapters 1-3 to the exhortations of chapters 4 to 6. Or, as some commentators suggest, the indicatives of the magnificent Trinitarian utterance of the gospel in 1: 3–14 that define our calling in cryptic form, actually reverberate throughout the whole epistle. What is that calling? In that praise song of chapter 1, it is the calling of being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly in Christ Jesus. It is the calling to be the subject of the father’s election from all eternity in the elect Son, the calling to be the object of the Son’s redemption. It is the calling to be sealed with the Holy Spirit as an earnest for all that is to come. In chapter 2, it is the calling to become the church and as such the very masterpiece of God’s work in the world. In the last half of chapter 3, It is the calling to receive the blessings of prayer in the Trinity, the glorious riches of the Father, the inner strengthening of the Spirit, and the inestimable, deeper and wider and longer and higher love of the Son indwelling, indeed the fullness of the Godhead in us. How’s that for a resource! It is to participate in a church in which Jews and every type of Gentile nation are present to become one living, dynamic body of people who bring encouragement through their varied contributions to worship. It is to receive the resources of him who is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with us, to him be glory in the church and Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Church leader, you are called into that magnificent calling. It is a calling to be who you are. It is the ethos that will sustain you in the deep challenges of life in the ministry.
• Our giftings: Secondly Paul describes in unprecedented fashion just how lofty and powerful the gifts, the charismata Christ has given to his church, really are. Where did such gifting come from? From the climactic ascension of Jesus. They are the sign of the victory Christ accomplished at the cross, and draw their character from it.  This is the victory celebrated at the exalted right hand of the Father where the ascended King received the gift of the Spirit who was poured out upon his church and with that Giving Gift (capital G) came the gifts of the Spirit, and especially leadership gifts which are highlighted here by Paul. Whilst we must value the giver more than the gift, we must treasure the gifts that God has given us for the advancement of the ministry and mission of the church. Churches must value the leadership gifts that God has given them and know that they are Christ’s gifts to the church. Leader, God has prepared your whole life for such a ministry as this. We do not celebrate enough the gifts God has given his church.  This is a further resource that can sustain the pastor for the years of deep, steep ministry ahead—the humbly yet truly given gift of preaching and vision and care. Gifts that give a proper sense of significance; that tell us, this is what we were born for.
• A creed: A lofty calling and a heavenly charism are helpful, but thirdly, there is a Trinitarian creed to which we just referred. This is not just to keep the saints and the ministers centered on the main things. There is a living dynamic in this infant creed, a creed professed at baptism in the early church, one that will later develop into the rule of faith and then the Nicene Creed. The One Spirit who keeps the body together and imparts hope; the One sovereign Lord Jesus who imparts faith, and is present by the Spirit at every baptism; the One Father who is the Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. He holds you and your family. He holds every saint in ministry with you. He in his providence guides the course of the church. You are enabled to help release the ministry of the people, and to bring them to maturity in unity, but you only do so in his agency and by his power. Pastor, you are carried in the triune God. He is at work before you, he is at work in you and he is at work after you.
• The gift of community. Calling, charisms, creed, and a community in which you exist. Verse 16 says, “from him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” The fourth deeper-still resource is the community around you of which you are an organic part. Flowing from the risen head and in concert with your equipping ministry, the people of God are equipped and become an organic unified community that builds itself up in love. Thinking this way involves three important dynamics: the first is that you must engage in the community and not be above it. Howard Hendricks used to say that some of the pastors he knew came down out of heaven five minutes before the sermon and disappeared five minutes after it. This is not community. Secondly, and related to this, is the idea that you as a pastor are not in an ontological category different from the people of God. I remember sometimes in my ministry people would come out to me on Sunday morning and say things like, “Pastor I saw you at Safeway this week.” To which my unspoken response was “Yes, I too need to buy groceries.” Though the temptation is strong, try not to acquiesce to these well-meaning but ultimately idolatrous notions that you are in a different category to the people of God. Do not rob yourself of the resource of community. Pastors should be part of a small group for accountability and nurture just like everyone else. Thirdly, the resource of community is intended to enable you to draw on the comfort and joy the people bring as you discern God’s work in their lives and as they in turn minister to you. I was overwhelmed by the care offered by the congregation I served in when my first wife passed away. It was love overflowing.

This is life together or it is not life at all. There will of course be people in your community who bring something other than comfort and community. But this is all part of the growth of the pastor. Abuse must be called for what it is, and to the extent that your life is lived in community within a group of leaders, appropriate protection should come.      

• A lofty calling, charisms, credal reality and profound organic community—these are the deeper resources for the deep challenges of ministry. And one last thing: there is a specific reference to the second person of the Trinity, Christ, in the last verse: He is referred to as “the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” The fifth resource is someone who by the Spirit is at work all the time, the risen Head, Christ, and Paul makes it clear that everything in the goal of pastoral ministry is already his goal. Keeping in sync with him is the ultimate key. We don’t do ministry for Him, but with Him.  

Pastor, calling, charisms, credal life and real community are all summed up in one word, Christ. Christ orchestrating everything, Christ for you, Christ in you, Christ ahead of you doing it all as you do it in a mysterious concursus that is beyond our ken, such that your agency and his transcendent agency is not competitive but collaborative and productive. 

May you be sustained and empowered for the great things God wants to do with you and your congregation together in the city and well beyond. Look not to the task as deep and steep but lift your eyes to the Christ whose resources are deeper still. Deep but deeper still.