How to Be a Pastor: Wisdom from the Past for Pastors in the Present, edited by Ran Van Neste and Justin Wainscott. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024. xx + 70 pp. $15.00.
Theodore Cuyler may be an unfamiliar name to most, but he was no stranger to those of his day. Acquainted with Presidents and Prime Ministers, Cuyler associated with Spurgeon, Moody, Bonar, and Schaff. Cuyler was the gifted preacher and pastor of the largest Presbyterian Church in the United States (Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian, Brooklyn, NY). Cuyler was also “a devoted abolitionist and an outspoken supporter of the Temperance movement” (xii). This volume has been revived and restored by Ray Van Neste and Justin Wainscott. Their goal was to “introduce Cuyler to a new generation of pastors and to share the wealth of wisdom he offers from a long and faithful ministry” (xi). Van Neste and Wainscott are editors of this volume, and both are professors in the School of Theology and Missions at Union University (Jackson, TN). Although How to Be a Pastor (1890) is over a century old, they believe it is significant because it is a reservoir of pastoral ministry wisdom, much of which is neglected in the modern pastorate (xi).
How to Be a Pastor is Pastoral Theology 101. It defines who the pastor is and highlights one of his main functions—the care of his flock. Chapter emphases include (1) “The Importance of Pastoral Labor,” (2) “Pastoral Visits,” (3) “Visitation of the Sick and Funeral Services,” (4) “The Treatment of the Troubled,” (5) “How to Have a Working Church,” (6) “Training Converts,” (7) “Prayer Meetings,” (8) “A Model Prayer Meeting,” (9) “Revivals,” (10) “Drawing the Bow at a Venture,” (11) “Where to Be a Pastor,” and (12) “The Joys of the Christian Ministry.” Twelve weighty chapters are well worth the investment, but three call for a closer look.
First, “The Importance of Pastoral Labor” (Chapter 1). Cuyler is aware of the tendency of many preachers to focus on their preaching. They should, but not at the expense of “the everyday duties of a Christian pastor…that portion of a minister’s work that lies outside of his pulpit can hardly be overestimated” (2). Cuyler believed, and rightly so, that the preacher will gain a hearing and have influence with his congregants through the affections; he must love them. “Let a pastor make himself at home in everybody’s home; let him come often and visit their sick rooms, and kneel beside their empty cribs, and their broken hearts, and pray with them” (2). Listen to Cuyler’s indictment of many a contemporary preacher:
I am firmly persuaded that if many a minister would take part of the time that he now spends in polishing his discourses or in miscellaneous studies and would devote it to pastoral visitation, he would have larger congregations and a far larger number of conversions to Christ.… He is a very great preacher, but perhaps would be still greater if he were a pastor-preacher.… If any minister of the gospel fancies himself to be too intellectual or too manly to undertake such patient labors for his Master, he has mistaken his calling (3–4, 7).
Next, “Prayer Meetings” and “A Model Prayer Meeting” (Chapters 7–8). Cuyler views the prayer meeting as the thermometer of the church (34). A time for God’s people to pray to God and encourage their fellow saints, “those who come to the service filled with the Spirit are likely to overflow in pithy, inspiring exhortations or in fervent, well-ordered petitions” (35). The prayer meeting is the people’s meeting, the minister can preach on Sunday (37). Cuyler describes a model prayer meeting he experienced which, quite frankly, makes the reader wish he were there:
Each one felt [at the prayer meeting], “This is not the leader’s meeting, nor the pastor’s, but my meeting with my own spiritual family at the feet of my own Savior. Here I have a right to weep, and sing, and melt in spirit, and flow out in social communings with the brotherhood around me.” When the old man’s prayer was ended (it was the seventh prayer offered during that one busy, blessed hour), the time had arrived for closing the service.… We lingered about the hallowed spot, loth to go away…. Why may not every church of Christ have one or more just such model prayer meetings? (39, 41).
Cuyler’s work points to (1) his love for his flock (“pastoral work has always been my passion.… I fancied that you cared more to have a warm-hearted pastor than a cold-blooded preacher, however intellectual”) (64); (2) his prophetic voice from the pulpit (“all that I claim for my sermons is that they have been true to God’s Book and the cross of Jesus Christ, have been simple enough for a child to understand, and have been preached in full view of the judgment seat”) (65); and (3) that though being dead, his words still speak (“converted souls are jewels in the caskets of faithful parents, teachers, and pastors. They shall flash in the diadem which the Righteous Judge shall give them in that great day”) (60).
How to Be a Pastor is a must-read for every pastor. Do not let its diminutive appearance (70 pp.) fool you. It is informative, potent, convicting, and encouraging. Kudos to Van Neste and Wainscott for allowing Cuyler to speak again, reviving “a vision of pastoral ministry which upholds the central importance of the oversight of souls (Heb 13:17)” (xv). Cuyler was a prolific author of over four thousand articles and twenty-plus books. If you want to read more of Cuyler try The Young Preacher (1893) or Recollections of a Long Life (An Autobiography) (1902). In Recollections, Cuyler recounts his friendship with Spurgeon and reveals Spurgeon’s sermon preparation method. Although he pastored a church of thousands, Van Neste and Wainscott point out that the defining feature of Cuyler’s ministry “was his care for the souls entrusted to him as a pastor” (xiii). That being the case, why not learn from Cuyler, “there are some lessons best learned (perhaps, only learned) outside the classroom at the feet of a wiser, experienced pastor” (xiv).
