First Corinthians is not considered one of the Pastoral Epistles, but there is much to learn from Paul about pastoring a congregation by the way he writes to the Corinthians. Briefly, 1 Corinthians is an exposition of the cross and resurrection. In the first fourteen chapters, Paul gives an exposition of the cross.
It may not look quite as we would imagine. We may have a tendency to think of an exposition of the cross as Christ accomplishing x, y, and z on the cross. While those things are necessary and true–and Paul does deal with those issues–what Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians is telling the Corinthians what it means to be united with the crucified Christ, to be this cruciform people. From the words just after his introduction, Paul begins applying the message and wisdom of God revealed in the cross to the divisions that they are having in the church.
The cross must not be a distant thing to gaze on and ponder. The cross is something that must be lived out in the lives of the cross-people: Christians, the church. This is what it means to take up your cross and follow Christ.
Throughout the letter Paul gives answers to specific problems in the church applying this cruciform theology to the everyday relationships of Christians. But Paul is not just an answer man, a problem solver. Certainly, he must do some of that. But he is masterfully doing something else: he is giving the Corinthians a new way of thinking so that they can solve their own problems in the future. Paul considers himself a father to the Corinthians (4.14, 15). Just as any good father, when the children are young and immature like the Corinthians (cf. 3.1ff.), he will give them specific instruction.
But in that instruction he is also laying the groundwork for them to make good judgments in the future for themselves. He doesn’t want the Corinthians to depend upon him to the point that they are paralyzed in the church or stay at odds with one another until they receive another letter from Paul. He wants them to think in a cruciform fashion for themselves.
As pastors our job is the same. We are not there to always give specific a, b, c solutions to every problem that comes up in relationships in the church. (The pastor is not a problem solver anyway. All he can do is give counsel. Solving the problems remains with the people who are having the problem.) When we take on that task, not only will we exhaust and eventually kill ourselves, but we will also doom our congregations to a life of perpetual immaturity.
Of course, when people come to an impasse in a relationship situation where they just don’t know what to do, the pastor should be ready and eager to give the best counsel he can (though he still doesn’t have the answers to every problem). Even older children go to their parents for counsel sometimes. There is nothing wrong with that. But if people aren’t progressing and learning to think according to the way of the cross, there is a serious illness there.
The scary thing about this is the problem it may lie with the pastor himself. Like some parents, pastors don’t like to “cut the cord.” They (We!) like that feeling of people being dependent upon us. Whether we are pacifying some psychological need or we are just trying to keep a paycheck coming in, either way it is a problem. If we take our cues from Paul on pastoring, what we must do is lead our people to maturity; a maturity that is able to make judgments in situations, applying the wisdom of the cross appropriately.
Of course, pastors aren’t the only problem here. There are people in our congregations that do not want to grow up. They want simple answers to complex problems, and they expect (and sometimes demand) that the pastor give it to them. If he doesn’t, then they will take their family elsewhere, a place where the pastor really cares about his people.
Again, we pastors need to be willing to help where we can, giving biblical guidance. But we must always be seeking the maturity of the individual. If an individual refuses to grow up here for whatever reason, he needs to be told (again, much like Paul did with the Corinthians). He must understand that there is not a pat answer for every problem. He must learn to think in terms of the cross in his relationships.
Herein lies the rub with many people in this condition, especially in a culture in which we can talk to our phones and receive instant answers for everything from how to cook leg of lamb to Shaq’s shoe size: we don’t want to do the difficult work of wrestling through these issues and learning how to apply these things. We want Easy-Bake answers in a Beef Wellington world. (Look up the process for making Beef Wellington. Go ahead. Ask Siri or Google.)
When we pastors don’t seek to lead our people into maturity, we are doing them a grave disservice. Besides that, if you encourage perpetual immaturity in them by always giving them “the solution,” you will eventually lose them anyway. Immature people will find a way to be dissatisfied with something if they are not wanting to grow up.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, 1 Corinthians is an exposition of the cross and resurrection. All of this cross-shaped living and teaching as pastor and congregation has a promise attached to it: resurrection. Paul’s closing exhortation at the end of his long exposition of the resurrection in chapter fifteen is, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Because Christ has been raised on the other side of the cross indicating that his work was accepted by the Father, so ours will be as well.
Cruciform living and pastoring is never in vain. As we give ourselves up to the death of the cross, resurrection awaits us on the other side. This is the confidence that we can give our people as we instruct them. We can encourage them that God rewards their wrestling through these issues and their efforts to apply revealed in the cross. We pastors can remember the same thing as we deal with difficult issues in the church as Paul did. God notices when we give ourselves for our congregations.
Bill Smith is Pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.