What Does It Mean to Be a Contemplative Pastor?

Delighting in the Law of the Lord

The idea of being a contemplative pastor is common throughout church history. You have various individuals who have talked about what it means to contemplate the Lord and grow in your understanding and knowledge of the Lord. But even recently, we’ve had people, such as Eugene Peterson and others, who have written and helped us understand this idea of growing in contemplation of the Lord.

What I would encourage pastors to think about is that your ministry is only going to be as effective as your growth in humility and dependence upon the Lord grows. When you think about contemplating the Lord, it’s the idea that you are sitting beneath the word of God. It’s similar to what the psalmist says in Psalm 1, that day and night you are meditating upon the law of the Lord. It is your joy, it is your delight.

Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls

Coleman M. Ford, Shawn J. Wilhite

Professors Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite help pastors to embrace a classic, patristic vision of ministry through a study of pastoral virtues and early church figures.

When you then attend to the ministry duties or the calendar of events, you are seeing that in a spiritual way. You are seeing that as an opportunity to grow in love for your neighbor, grow in love for the Lord, encounter another image bearer who is on the path and the journey of spiritual life. And so a contemplative pastor is not someone who is holed up in their office as an introvert the entire week and they’re unable to be accessed by parishioners.

It’s someone who is engaging in conversation. It’s someone who is sitting in coffee shops or sitting in the office, listening to the heart of their people, seeking to understand what the main issues are, seeking to connect those things to Scripture.

Rather than proposing real quick solutions, first going to God in prayer, knowing that God is the one who’s going to ultimately oversee the care for this person. Throughout that time, throughout the life of that pastor and throughout the ministry of that pastor, people will know that this individual is primarily guided by prayer, primarily guided by their time of silence and solitude. They know that they’re being prayed over. They know that they’re being considered and thought about week to week and that this person is not just coming in to fulfill a duty and to receive a paycheck but is fulfilling a sacred call, a sacred duty. And that sacred duty can only be accomplished well if that person is seeking to grow in their communion with God.

Coleman M. Ford is coauthor with Shawn J. Wilhite of Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls: Learning the Art of Pastoral Ministry from the Church Fathers.

Coleman M. Ford (PhD, Southern Seminary) is an assistant professor of humanities at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He serves as a fellow for the Center for Pastor Theologians. He is also the codirector and research fellow for the Center for Ancient Christian Studies. He also serves as an assistant pastor. He is published in the areas of patristic theology and Christian spirituality.