Perfect Pastor

Over on the Desiring God blog, John Piper quotes John Newton as follows:

In my imagination, I sometimes fancy I could [create] a perfect minister. I take the eloquence of ______, the knowledge of ______, the zeal of ______, and the pastoral meekness, tenderness, and piety of ______. Then, putting them all together into one man, I say to myself, "This would be a perfect minister."

Now there is One, who, if he chose to, could actually do this; but he never did it. He has seen fit to do otherwise, and to divide these gifts to every man severally as he will. (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, p. 107.)

The quote is interesting on several levels. First, the obvious fact that no pastor is perfect. Second, it's interesting how that nearly three centuries later, people are still searching for one.

But what I found most intriguing about the quote were the ministerial qualities that Newton listed. The qualities of Newton's perfect pastor would include eloquence, knowledge, zeal, personal meekness, tenderness and piety. Judging from today's pastoral searches , the modern church's qualities of a perfect pastor are much different. It seems that many would assemble the perfect pastor using the charisma of ______, the personality of _________, the performance skills of _______, the marketing and entrepreneurial savvy of ________, the management skills of ______, and the hipness of ________.

Quite a difference, wouldn't you say?

1 Timothy 4:11-16