John Newton on Why There Are No Perfect Pastors

On his birthday, let John Newton (author of “Amazing Grace”) tell us why there aren’t any perfect pastors.

In my imagination, I sometimes fancy I could [create] a perfect minister. I take the eloquence of ______, the knowledge of ______, the zeal of ______, and the pastoral meekness, tenderness, and piety of ______. Then, putting them all together into one man, I say to myself, “This would be a perfect minister.”

Now there is One, who, if he chose to, could actually do this; but he never did it. He has seen fit to do otherwise, and to divide these gifts to every man severally as he will. (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, p. 107.)

(That’s the whole post from Why There Are No Perfect Pastors :: Desiring God.)

Humility, Accountability, and Risk-Taking

Joel Virgo at the Resurgence blog wrote an entry on masculinity, and one line in particular has really resonated with me about accountability (and applies to women as well as men):

If you have fostered an environment that causes men to confuse their approval ratings by more “mature” men with an accurate measure of godliness, then good luck seeing them take a single risk for the kingdom.

Read the whole thing at Men: Bucking the Trend, Part 5 | TheResurgence.

Update: Tim Challies also covered very similar ground here, previously.