Thursday 4 November 2010

MINISTRY

'I am convinced, by sad experience, that it is none of the least impediments to their salvation, and to a true reformation of the Church, that the people understand not what the work of a minister is, and what is their own duty to him. They commonly think, that a minister hath no more to do with them, but to preach to them, and administer the sacraments to them, and visit them in sickness; and that, if they hear him, and receive the sacraments from him, they owe him no further obedience, nor can he require any more from their hands. Little do they know that the minister is in the church, as the schoolmaster in his school, to teach, and take account of every one in particular; and that all Christians, ordinarily, must be disciples or scholars in such a school.'
Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, p.181.