Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)

2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sell, Alan P. F.: Milyen megoldásra váró feladatok elé állítja Kálvin a 21. századi egyházat?

Sell, Alan P. f.

much in prayer, who has studied the Scriptures, who knows the people, and who proclaims, however unworthily, God’s Word to them. I think that those who vacate the pulpit because they do not wish to be ‘six feet above criticism’, or because they wish, in a feel-good, matey kind of way, to get close to the people, to whom they offer a casual word or two from the back of an envelope, may need to reflect further on what they are about. I much prefer the attitude of the Bible Christian [Methodist] preacher, F. W. Bourne:

My brethren, it is our business, not to conquer a world, not to amass a fortune, nor simply to become adepts in learning, but to save souls from death, to make not a few but many rich, to conquer and win a thousand hearts for Christ. ... [W]e do want to be able in the last great day to go boldly up to the eternal throne, and say to Him who sitteth thereon, who gave us our commission, and who has often cheered us by His presence, ‘Here we are, and the children Thou hast given us.’ May it be so.78

From the outset the tradition to which Bourne belonged elevated preaching by both men and women, as this verse which appears in their Minutes of 1820 makes clear:

Ye heralds of truth, Sent forth by the Lord,

Both antient and youth, Who publish His Word;

Ye sons and ye Daughters, Selected by grace,

Be strong and courageous, And each fill his place.79

As to pastoral care: I gain the distinct impression that in some quarters this has degenerated in quality in two ways. First, its more serious disciplinary and catechetical aspects suffer neglect; secondly, ministers claim that with changing social patterns — both husbands and wives out at work every day, for example — and because of the pressure on their own time, they simply cannot fit pastoral visitation into their schedule. Such visitation can even be at the mercy of ministerial specialisms in those churches large and rich enough to have a team of pastors. An advertisement for a ‘Minister for preaching and administration’ left me strangely disquieted, and conjured up a vision of a person tied to an office all the week who emerges on Sundays to preach to those he has never met, catechised, or visited. It is hard to believe that any minister today could be busier than Calvin, and the dedicated can find ways of surmounting changing social patterns — and even of turning off the television during a pastoral visit. At the very least they ought to have a concern for the housebound, the hospitalized and the dying. Listen to another Methodist, Gordon Rupp:

I have stuck my neck out as far as the next man's to get young men set aside for experimental and new ministries ... But I sometimes wonder whether some of them are not anxious to be involved in everything except chores, like learning N.T. Greek, or visiting the flock in hospital, or sweating away at sermons ... [T)here is in

78 W. B. Luke, Memorials of Frederick William Bourne, London: W. H. Gregory, 1906, 82. Bourne (1830-1905) was a minister of the Bible Christian Church.

79 Quoted by T. Shaw, The Bible Christians 1815-1907, London: Epworth Press, 1965, 32. See further Alan P. F. Sell, Testimony and Tradition. Studies in Keformed and Dissenting Thought, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, ch. 3.

94 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK