Revival and Renewal

Part One: A Crucible for Godliness

A while ago, I became increasingly interested in the ancient Christian concept of the seven virtues, that is, those seven “practices of excellence” that exemplify the Christian positive moral vision. These seven virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, faith, hope, and love) have a varied history and varied applications, but they show up over and over again as ways of charting the path toward holiness. They give us a lens by which we can seek to grow in Christlikeness and away from a life marked by corruption and sin.

This is Peter’s point when he tells his readers to “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue [Gk.. aretē]” in 2nd Peter 1:5. Peter’s vision is of people who, by God’s grace, have been given the opportunity to become “partakers of the divine nature,” escaping the corrupting influence of the world by God’s transformative promises (2nd Peter 1:2-4). What Jesus has done, transforming us and calling us “into his own glory and excellence,” leads us to be continually transformed in our daily thinking and living. The more these realities are present to us, the more we grow in virtue.

And pastors, especially young ones, need this more than most. As a young pastor (and by this I mean, someone whose not been at this a while), the danger for me is that I find myself unsure of what shepherding looks like right now; of how my newfound calling makes any sense in my actual day-to-day activities. I know that there are a host of tasks that grab for my attention, but they don’t intuitively seem to be leading me to be more Christlike. The endless stacks of administration, the meetings, the unanswered emails, all form the background noise of my everyday life.

But, as I think about it, these everyday moments begin to transform. Life, with its plethora of mundane moments, is really a crucible for godliness, a place where we are refined toward the image of Christ, inch by inch. While I may not be preaching when I answer another email or leave another voicemail, I am practicing the prudence (or wisdom) of Christ, the over-and-over diligence that recognizes the value of clear communication. When I sit in a meeting, I am pressed to practice the hope of Christ dead-and-risen that brings out a patient heart in the midst of soul-draining details (Romans 8:25). When I am confronted with a congregant who is overly critical, I need fortitude (or courage) to rest in Christ’s grace and call and persevere. These moments, which at first I mistook as mundane, actually become the stuff of soul-transforming life.

Lee Eclov, in his book Pastoral Graces: Reflections on the Care of Souls, writes that of all the tools that God has given us to do the work of a shepherd, three stand out: authority, wisdom, and grace. But the greatest, he notes, is grace: “It is the pastor’s highest privilege to be an agent of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s grace in Christ is our calling, our work, our stock-in-trade.” (Pastoral Graces, 43). The seven virtues provide a way for us as soul workers to both receive and give that grace in the midst of everyday tasks, frantic Sundays, and grindstone expectations. They give us a guide and a vision, a host of Scriptural guidance in just seven words, a way for us to be transformed by the hard renewal of things seminary never told us about.

So, for seven weeks (during Lent) I am going to be reflecting on the seven virtues, especially for those of us who’ve been recently thrown into the ministry and told to swim. These reflections will be helpful regardless, however, as they will help us to see how the moments of our lives are the proving ground of Christlikeness. They help us to notice how God is really “working all things together for good” so that we might be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:28, 29). We put on virtue as we are confronted with the stuff of life, and we become grace-givers as a result.

Join me this weekend as I look to the first of the four “cardinal” virtues for young pastors: Wisdom (or prudence).