Richard Caldwell served as senior pastor of Founders Baptist Church. He is a graduate of The Master's Seminary (D.Min.), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.). He also served as Campus Pastor, The Expositor's Seminary, Houston campus.
Richard Caldwell contends in his book “that these two subjects (preaching and pastoral work) must be joined in our thinking.” He calls this “pastoral preaching.”[1] Caldwell supports his thesis with a quote from Charles Jefferson who wisely observed “When the minister goes into the pulpit he is the shepherd in the act of feeding, and if every minister had borne this in mind many a sermon would have been other than it has been. The curse of the pulpit is the superstition that a sermon is a work of art and not a piece of bread or meat … Sermons, rightly understood, are primarily forms of food. They are articles of diet. They are meals served by the minister for the sustenance of spiritual life.”[2]
Caldwell’s book on preaching is about a mindset for preaching not the nuts and bolts of how to prepare a sermon. Pastoral preaching is “expository preaching with a pastoral trajectory. It is expository preaching as the means for pastoral work. It is the preaching of the Word of God with the heart, and discernment, and aims of a shepherd” which includes feeding and caring for the flock. [3] What Christ commanded Peter in John 21:15 is the duty of every pastor: “feed His lambs: βόσκε τὰ ἀρνία μου (John 21:15).”[4]
The Bible’s three titles for pastors support the pastoral preaching for shepherds:
The church’s leaders are described (in terms of their office and work) as elders (πρεσβύτερος), overseers (ἐπίσκοπος), and shepherds (ποιμήν). These three terms each have reference to the one office we commonly refer to as pastor. When one examines the passages where these terms are used it becomes apparent they are used interchangeably to refer to the same men, doing the work of the same office. In Titus 1:5 and 7, the men are referred to as elders in verse 5, and as an overseer in verse 7. In Acts 20:17 and 28 the men are called elders in verse 17, and overseers in verse 28, while their work is described as shepherding in that same verse (vs.28). In 1 Peter 5:1-2 they are called elders, and Peter charges them to shepherd God’s flock while making clear that this requires exercising oversight.[5] “The shepherd’s rod and crook is the Bible.”[6]
The emphasis in the Pastoral Epistles is pastoral preaching. “This can be demonstrated from Daniel Wallace’s observation regarding commands in the book of 2 Timothy. Wallace says, ‘By my count, there are twenty-seven explicit commands given in the body of this letter. In 27 words Paul tells pastors what to focus on. You have to be blind to miss the thrust of Paul’s instructions here, because eighteen of those commands—fully two-thirds—have to do with the ministry of the Word.’”[7]
Caldwell devotes several chapters to the call to preach of the pastoral preacher. One of the evidences of this call is the ability that God gives to preach. The converse is also true. “Spurgeon wrote of God-made preachers when he said, ‘God certainly has not created behemoth to fly; and should leviathan have a strong desire to ascend with the lark, it would evidently be an unwise aspiration, since he is not furnished with wings. If a man be called to preach, he will be endowed with a degree of speaking ability, which he will cultivate and increase. If the gift of utterance be not there in a measure at the first, it is not likely that it will ever be developed.”[8]
We agree with Caldwell that “the best method for shepherding the church through preaching is expository preaching”[9] and “as shepherds preach, the flock of Christ is actually tended.”[10]
[1] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (Rainer Publishing. Kindle Edition, 2016, 17).
[2] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (18-19).
[3] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (25).
[4] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (29).
[5] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (35).
[6] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (54).
[7] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (66).
[8] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (155).
[9] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (164).
[10] Richard Caldwell. Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work (182).