B.H. Carroll’s Pastoral Theology
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 58, No. 2 – Spring 2016
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
The specific work of a seminary is to educate and train ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each semester seminary students complete their degree programs and move on into ministry. Most of these students begin work in the local church where some are ordained into the gospel ministry. I have been able to attend and participate in many of those ordination services. One of the most common charges given in the services comes from 2 Timothy 4:2, “preach the word.” However, as important as the teaching and preaching ministry is in the pastorate, if that were the only focus of the minister, his job would be incomplete. In conjunction with this command to preach the Word is Peter’s wisdom in 1 Peter 5:2 to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight.”1
The office of the pastor needs to be text-driven; the teaching and preaching of the Bible is central. A text-driven preacher will rightly proclaim the full counsel of God’s Word, which has specific wisdom for church leadership. Pastors today need not only pay attention to how they preach, they must also focus on how they shepherd.
Today we know of plenty of great preachers, for that skill is visible and brings immediate reward. Far fewer are broadly known for their pastoral skills, for these take time to be recognized and even then only by those who are recipients of that important charge. Both aspects of pastoral ministry— preaching and shepherding—are necessary. Any well-trained preacher soon learns that more attention needs to be given to how to lead and pastor a congregation. This issue of the Southwestern Journal of Theology will observe the wisdom of a Baptist pastor from a few generations ago, but his words ring true for pastors today.
Benajah Harvey Carroll is best known for his work in establishing Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but long before he engaged in that great work, he was a pastor. From his great pastoral experience Car- roll had a good deal to say on the issue of pastoral theology. The archives of Roberts Library at Southwestern house the collection of Carroll’s writings containing within a set of prepared lectures on the topic of “The Twentieth- Century Pastor; or, Lectures on Pastoral Theology.” In these lectures one can find Carroll’s pastoral theology and much wisdom that pastors need today. The style of his writing is direct and concise but as such remains rich in its content. Some of the material is dated (e.g. B.Y.P.U), but even so, many principles of pastoral theology can be discerned.
The discovery of this material is credited to Michael Crisp, my colleague here at Southwestern, who wrote his dissertation on Carroll’s pastoral theology. I have asked him to write the introductory essay for these works since he knows these writings best. His essay, “B. H. Carroll: Remembering His Life, Expanding His Legacy,” is an engaging introduction to Carroll that is greatly helpful as one turns to study Carroll’s pastoral theology.
A brief word needs to be provided on the editing of Carroll’s lectures. These are lectures on pastoral theology intended for ministry students. Therefore they contain a bibliography and reading assignments. We have moved the reading assignments of each chapter to a footnote retaining Carroll’s original instructions. In the bibliography Carroll only listed an author and a title, we have provided the full bibliographic material on those works. The lectures themselves were typed and contain many spelling errors. We have corrected many spelling errors in the manuscript so that the reading of these lectures would be of greater ease. In general we have tried to retain the original state of the lectures as best as possible and believe we are presenting an authentic representation.
Many thanks need to be given for those who helped in the process of producing this issue. Michael Crisp has been an excellent resource beyond contributing his own essay. The staff of Roberts Library, Southwestern Seminary has been more than helpful in providing access to the documents; special thanks go to Jill Boticelli and Robert Burgess. Much of the task of producing these lectures required the careful eye of a transcriber. Great thanks go to Cole Peck in the many hours spent bringing these lectures into their final form.
These lectures provide a glimpse into the era of B. H. Carroll as well as into the type of pastor he embodied. More than that, however, they provide important wisdom to the pastors of churches as they embody Carroll’s vision of the pastorate and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that is still being championed today as we Preach the Word and Reach the World.
- All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version. ↩︎
