H. J. PATTERSON--After securing the College of the Bible Diploma in 1917, H. J. Patterson proceeded to the Melbourne University where he graduated M.A., after gaining Final Honours in the B.A. degree. He subsequently served the churches at Ascot Vale, Gardiner, Balwyn and is now at Hartwell, Vic. For several years he was Lecturer and Principal in succession to A. R. Main at Woolwich Bible College. During that time he also served the church as preacher at Lane Cove, N.S.W. For over a year he lectured in New Testament at the College of the Bible, Glen Iris, and for well over a decade he contributed a Prayer Topic column for "The Australian Christian."

      Maybe there was no office in the early Christian Church which strictly corresponded to that of the twentieth century "Minister" of and in the local church. That there were Elders or Bishops and Evangelists and Administrators and Helps and Deacons is clear from the pages of the New Testament, as in 1 Corinthians 12:27-29 and Philippians 1:1. The minister of today may be any one of these at a particular time and place, and sometimes the many, all rolled into one, so multitudinous are the tasks his congregation may call upon him to do. It is, therefore, rather difficult to state precisely what the place of the minister is in some local churches. In a church where there is a multiple ministry, as in U.S.A., one may be able to state his place much more accurately. But so many of our churches in Australia are of two hundred members or less, and some much less, and, maybe without a strong Diaconate and/or Eldership, and therefore lack in giving adequate support and guidance to the minister called by the congregation What is the place of the minister in such congregations? Is it, in reality, any different from the place he would occupy in a large well-governed and led congregation? Please note "well-governed and led."

      I am here using the term "minister" of that man who may be a pastor, elder, evangelist or preacher, and called by a congregation to minister to their spiritual needs and to preach the gospel. We consider him not as a professional man (if he is merely that he will fail dismally) but as one called of God through the congregation, or by those appointed by the congregation--it may be by the official board of deacons and elders. But primarily and fundamentally he is called by God through the Holy Spirit. Alexander Campbell declared that, "Thus it is the Holy Spirit and not the congregation which creates bishops and deacons. The Spirit gives the qualifications, both natural and acquired, and speaking to the congregation in the written oracles, commands their ordination or appointment to the work." Now, if this be true of bishops and deacons, surely it ought to be no less true of those appointed and called to a ministry, like that performed by a good minister, and which office embodies the duties and qualifications of the bishop. The church does the appointing, but it is the Holy Spirit who resides in the church and guides in this important decision. Such as this serves to show the importance of the office.

THERE WAS A TIME

      In our history, here in Australia, when the minister was "kept strictly in his place" as some believe it should be. As a boy I remember arguments as to whether he should be allowed to attend a church business meeting and, in some places, whether he should be able to attend the meeting of elder and deacons. In some churches, the church itself has been better served and the minister allowed more freedom and because of it, a larger and more helpful ministry, as some of these old stalwarts were called to the glory-land. In some places, under the old regime, some ministers were made to feel as small as a three-penny bit and must have appeared as little more in the eyes of the community.

Some elders, and sometimes deacons, acted as little popes in their small domain and strongly pleaded for the "autonomy of the local church" in which they were supreme. Sometimes, because of this, the sacred office of the minister was brought into disrepute. Such people responsible should carefully read and study what is said about the office of an elder, as in Paul's address to the Ephesian elders, or as in Paul's charges to Timothy and Titus in the appointment of elders and deacons. See Acts 20; 1 Timothy 3; 5:17-21; Titus 1:5-16 and 1 Peter 5:1-5. And remember that whatever the ministry may be, it is at least that of a bishop or elder. Perhaps Timothy and Titus were more of the minister type than any other. Thank God that some of the old attitudes are gone. However, there is still room for improvement in the relationship between the church, through it board and the minister.

THE TASK OF THE MINISTER

      This will be determined, in part, by the local set-up. It must always be remembered that the great task of the minister is not primarily to keep the church going, as some think, but to keep the church going to the community with its message of life and salvation. The church which exists merely for its own salvation and up-keep will surely die. "He who would save his life shall lose it" is as true of the church as it is of the minister or of any one within the congregation. His task is not to help the church to save itself but to help the church to save the lost.

      It is not true that the minister alone is the "leader" of the congregation, and the church the "led," but together they are to lead men to Christ. He must never be the supreme authority in relation to matters of church management, for this is normally vested in committees appointed for the purpose. The great example of this is in the appointment of the seven "to this duty" (Acts 6:3). This leaves the preacher of the gospel free to "devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Nor is a minister wise if he claims the right to veto all decisions made by such committees. Nevertheless, when such committees are appointed, they should have the approval of the minister (Acts 6:6).

      If it be a matter of church order of worship or some such thing, in my judgment, the minister is not wise if he demand and exercise an authoritarian position in such matters. Nor is any elder wise if he seeks to override a decision of the whole board. Unfortunately, as Dr. Jowett has said, "For some, the constraining motive is ambition and the coveted goal success." This may apply to any man holding high office in the local church

      It should not be the case that any minister exercise absolute authority. He is an elder among elders or a bishop among others. If he considers that these are given the right to rule, he must see to it that, in his thinking, he does not become an archbishop, with the right to ride rough-shod over all the others. In my mind, the eldership is in a field of spiritual oversight and is constituted to rule and to be obeyed, but that is not true of any one man, not even of the minister, but of the whole collectively.

      However, where a minister is

fully honored and esteemed, he will be allowed a great freedom to do many things. Much may depend upon the man, though it must be said that age, experience and a thorough consecration to his Christian vocation will be large contributing factors.

      A minister is not called to exhibit his knowledge or to parade his learning, and must never think that because he has received a College Diploma that all knowledge resides in himself. There is a lovely story in Ian Maclaren's book, "Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush." It is under the heading of "His Mother's Sermon." The young minister, just out of College, had attained distinction in winning the McWhammel Scholarship, and in his first sermon in the church to which he had been called, he believed that "a deliverance was expected by the country." He must state the present position of theological thought and felt that he must quote the critics. So he planned his sermon and finished the manuscript. His aunt had come to house-keep and was accordingly anxious for him. She was well aware of what had happened on the occasion of his mother's death five years before, when she had counselled him that if ever he were called to the ministry he would "say a good word for Jesus Christ." So the Aunt took his memory back to the sacred occasion with the words: "Ye maun mind, laddie, that they're no clever and learned like what ye are, but juist plain country folk, ilka ane wi' his ain temptation, an' a' sair trachled wi' many cares of this world. They 'ill need a clear word tae comfort their herts and show them the way everlasting. Ye 'ill say what's right, nae doot o' that, and a 'body 'ill be pleased wi' ye, but, oh, laddie, be sure ye say a gude word for Jesus Christ." The manuscript completed was committed to the flames and that with all its high-sounding phrases, and after the delivery of the new message, one old elder was heard to remark on the homeward way "There was a man sent from God whose name was John."

      Our greatest task is to present Jesus Christ to men and this, he, the true minister, will do in a variety of ways.

THE MINISTER AS--

      This man we call "the minister" cannot in the nature of the case be one hundred per cent in every field, for as we have already indicated, his work in a one-minister church is so varied and demanding and especially so if he allows it. I have known churches and church boards who would very strenuously oppose the idea of a one-man-ministry. They would not countenance the thought of the minister presiding at the Lord's Table every Sunday, and in some churches there is the difficulty of being planned at all for this, and yet they would allow him, and even appoint him, to be Superintendent of the Sunday School, where he presided every Sunday. The ministry within the church is for all who are qualified. There are fairly well-defined fields in which we operate. Many church boards are blessed with a fair showing of commonsense. Thus, in one church during the early days of the Second World War, when feeling was running high between pacifism on the one hand and nationalism and the war spirit on the other, and when some presiding brethren were unable to refrain from partisan statements at the Lord's Table which, to say the least, made people feel very ill at ease, the Board decided that the Minister should preside at the table every Sunday morning. Every such case of whatever sort 'should be considered on its merits and judged accordingly by the Board,

      in conjunction with the minister. Within my own life-time as minister, I have been Evangelist and Pastor, Sunday School Superintendent and Choir-leader, Man-of-Affairs and Chairman of the Board, leader of Youth Clubs and Young People's Bible Classes, and all in addition to giving religious instruction in State Schools and in my spare time playing football, cricket and tennis. Not all of these things come within the realm of things expected of the minister, but all the earlier duties are expected by some church boards at some time. "There is no one else." So one, especially in earlier years, is pitch-forked into situations in which his Board should never have allowed him.

MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST

      Here, within the church, he is an evangelist, but not the evangelist, as if there were none other. There was a time, and there still is in some places where, unless the minister was a good and eloquent evangelist, he was not considered worth "his salt," and not much more than his salt did they sometimes give him. It was once thought that evangelism was nothing more than eloquent and persuasive preaching so that great numbers were led to "make their decision." It didn't matter much what happened to them afterwards--the main thing was decision and. baptism. The minister should not be regarded merely in that sense today. He is an evangelist preaching the gospel as best he knows how, but some ministers do their best work quietly and personally in the homes of their people. Besides, how much can he do that is really effective, given an eloquent and persuasive tongue, without the educative evangelism of the Sunday School and the living evangel of the parents or the Christian living of his church members as they move about in the community? Paul gave to the young minister, Timothy, a series of charges, and one was, "Do the work of an evangelist." He was not the evangelist in the sense that there was none other, for early disciples "went everywhere preaching the word" evangelising. Because a church pays its preacher to preach plus a lot of other things, it does not follow that their responsibility passes with their two-shilling pieces. Nevertheless, the minister must be the best evangelist he can possibly be. The church, however, must not expect miracles in the absence of their own contribution in this field. He is one of many evangelists in the local church.

MINISTER AS A BISHOP OR ELDER

      Peter referred to himself as an elder--"a fellow elder." He was not the bishop as Roman Catholics claim. And the minister must always so regard himself, not as above others, but considering the spiritual welfare of the whole flock. Peter never forgot the charge of our Lord at the lake-side, "Feed my sheep" and "Tend my lambs." Hear him again after the years have passed and read earnestly and carefully 1 Peter 5:1-5. Note the words "Tend the flock" . . . . "Not domineering over those in your charge" . . . . "God opposes the proud, and gives grace to the humble." This is to every minister and every elder in our churches.

      The New Testament gives a good guide to the duties which belong to the minister as an elder of the church. He must teach and preach the whole counsel of God. See Acts 20:26-35. The elder is to rule in association with others. Presiding and ruling go hand in hand, but the ruling is as that of a very wise father (1 Tim. 3:4, 5) and it must never be of the dictatorial kind. (1 Peter 5:3).

      Let him exercise good commonsense and wise judgment. His is a pastoral oversight. Part of this today is being done under the name of counselling. Young ministers may think it is new because so many books are being written on the subject and it is frequently treated on the line of psychology. But this is the kind of work the true minister has been doing ever since Peter's day. And in relation to this often delicate work, may we say that there should never be any betrayal of confidences. If there be any gossiping, or even the smallest leakage of what is told in confidence, the minister might as well "shut up shop." Silence is golden in this area.

      The minister in the home can be a benediction and an abiding memory. Among the memories of the earliest experiences in my life is that of an old white-headed Christian minister, who came to our district to run a short mission, and I see him still, kneeling in prayer in our little cottage. I have never forgotten. When shall a minister pray in the home he visits? I have come to the conclusion that it is wisest in nearly all cases to pray before leaving. I regret the earlier years when so often I excused myself on the ground that it was not opportune. I was wrong. More people are helped in this way, I have discovered, than one dreams of. The deep down desire of people is for God no matter how much it appears to be suppressed. What mother does not desire a prayer for her child, and for herself? The place of the minister in relation to the local church is in the homes of the people, and if he fails here he will fail everywhere. I have known men who were not orators and no one would rank them as eloquent. They may not have been easy to listen to on the platform, but as elders, counsellors and prayer partners they could hardly be faulted,

MINISTER AS A MAN OF AFFAIRS

      Here we may take note of Dr. Jowett's word in his excellent book, "The Preacher, His Life and Work." Under the heading of "Minister as Man of Affairs," he says, "Now I think you will find it a very common confession that it is just here that many preachers fail. They may be acceptable, and even powerful, in the pulpit. They may be congenial and most welcome in the home. But they are impossible in business. No one can 'get on' with them. They have no sense of management or of address. They are inopportune when they think themselves seasonable, they are stupid when they think themselves persistent. Their goods may be admirable, but they lack the power to dispose of them. They can hold their own in the pulpit, but they have no strength in the vestry. They can carry a congregation, they cannot lead the Diaconate or the Session. They succeed as preachers, but they fail as merchantmen." Of ministers we sometimes hear, "He doesn't get on well with men . . . . He has an unfortunate way with him." When we have trouble, as sometimes happens, it would be well, as I heard an elder recently say, to ask "perhaps it's me." Hard-headed men of the world make up our boards. We could wish that they were always as warm-hearted as hard-headed. But the truth is "our fellow-officers in the government of the church are not like so many billiard-balls, devoid of individuality, having precisely the same weight, running in precisely the same manner, and by their inherent constitution determined by precisely the same initiatives to a common motion"

      "You will be surprised how many types of character there are within the circle of a Session or

a Diaconate. There are the facile men, swift in vision and judgment, seeing their goal and leaping to decision. There are the slow-witted men, following the others like a carrier's wagon in the track of an automobile, arriving at clear vision through dim stages, first 'seeing men as trees walking' and troubled by doubts and indecisions. There are also the fixed, the rigid, with dispositions that are only rarely ductile, and who are hurt and resentful if they are unseasonably squeezed into some newly-fashioned mould." Many a man has felt an utter frustration because of some situation arising and where he is convinced his idea is for the good of the kingdom, but it receives scant notice. What can he do? It may be wise if, after the utmost thought on the matter and after praying about it, he discusses it with some one or more of the board, privately. If without this you launch it willy-nilly in the board meeting you may surely expect defeat. Talk with men. We are all more or less conservative and customs are especially hard to change, "We have never done it that way." And the older we get the more that is likely to be true. Treat your elders and your deacons gently. Sometimes it is good to throw a suggestion into the ring without pressing for an immediate decision. Sometimes you will see your suggestion, at first rejected by the Diaconate, being later reintroduced by a member of that same board, and it is then carried. Perhaps he had forgotten where and when the seed was sown. The man of God must be patient and humble. I believe in long ministries, where you get to know your men and where, better still, they get to know you as a man to be depended upon. Put up your fists and the other man will fight, and it is true, however undesirable it may be, of the members of some church boards. Always be prepared to make allowances and beware of mis-judgment of your fellows. Read Romans 12:14-21.

      Note these things mentioned by Dr. Jowett: "Never move with small majorities," "Avoid the notoriety and the impotence of always wanting something new." That may be hard to avoid when, because of prosperity in the community, everyone is in the spirit of wanting something new. "Never mistake the multiplication of organisation for the enlargement and enrichment of service." "You never help the business by advertising yourself. Self-advertisement is deadly in the minister of Jesus Christ."

MINISTER'S POSITION AND PLACE

      In view of all I have written above, I am convinced that a minister should be honoured and esteemed as a leader within the local church. If the church fails to do it, it may be due to the failure of the minister himself, yet failures are not always on one side. A minister in a special sense is called to do a specific task. He is ordained, set apart, and this the church recognises as a necessary thing for the good of the church. Some ministers have had their hearts broken by the failure of the church to support him in some way or other. A young man has arrived, to "speak a good word for Jesus Christ," but the apathy and the indifference of the people (the church in that place), their casualness and want of sympathy is like a weight upon his heart. Blessed is that young man when some elder or elders will take him in hand and support and encourage him. Sometimes the seeming indifference is nothing more than thoughtlessness. Sometimes it can grow into rudeness and even worse. Many

a man has been lost to the ministry by some thoughtless and un-Christian attitude.

      All churches should remember that a minister is there usually at great cost to himself. Most men would be much better off economically in another vocation. I know of men who, with the ability they have, could secure twice and three times as much by way of remuneration out in the world. But they have chosen this work, or they have been chosen of God for it. For that, the churches should have recognition.

      These are better days for most men who give their whole time to the ministry and the preaching of the gospel, thanks to our Conference leaders. But even so, old age can provide an unenviable situation. The old age pension is all that some can expect, and even with our new set-up with the Preacher Provident Fund, where some little relief is being given, the situation is not the best. Were a minister looking for security in old age, which many men do, according to the standards of the world he would be sadly disillusioned. When, sometimes, I have looked upon the offering plates at Conference sermon time in Victoria (and this is the only offering taken from our churches generally) I have said to myself, "two bob for the poor old parson." The man of God, fortunately, does not reckon these things in when he is making his answer to the call of God; but it would be well for the churches to consider the whole matter afresh and to recognise the truth as enunciated by Paul and, in fact, commanded by the Lord "that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel" (I Cor. 9:14). Some men, in days past, were starved out and, for many, in those days the struggle to support a family was almost too great. How some men lived and still do in some places puzzles us. Paul said, "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching." That he was referring to such as we call "ministers" today, I believe, is quite evident from the whole context (I Tim. 5:17-22).

      No charge should be received against an elder (and a minister is such) except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. This rules out all idle gossip and tale-bearing. Honour the man of God, for he is the chosen vessel of God. I close with Dr. Jowett's words, "Brethren, your calling is very holy. Your work is very difficult. Your Saviour is very mighty. And the joy of the Lord will be your strength." Let churches take him to their heart.