Here are 15 things a pastor should do in overseeing the people in his flock:
- The ministry must be carried on purely for God and the salvation of souls, not for any personal, private goals.
- The ministry must be diligently and laboriously carried on, because there are eternal implications for the pastor and his people.
- The ministry must be carried on wisely and orderly.
- He must primarily insist upon the greatest, most certain, and most necessary truths, and be more seldom and sparing on the rest.
- Teaching must be as plain and simple as possible.
- Work must be done with humility.
- There must be a prudent mixture of severity and mildness in preaching and discipline.
- He must be serious, earnest, and zealous in every part of his work.
- The whole ministry must be carried on in tender love to his people.
- He must carry on our work with patience. He must bear the abuse from those to whom he seeks to do good.
- All his work must be managed reverently.
- All his work should be done spiritually, as by a man who is possessed with the Holy Spirit.
- He must keep up his earnest desire and expectation of success.
- His whole work must be carried on under a deep sense of his own insufficiency and entire dependence on Christ.
- He must be committed to the unity and peace of God’s church.
– adapted from Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2001), pp. 111-123.