Pastors as Teachers of The Nation
With Dallas in the School of Ministry
In the upheaval of the world during the fall of 2020, I found myself facing a personal crisis. I was between ministry positions, living in a new town, and feeling adrift, personally, spiritually, and vocationally.
In that season, I began listening to a book titled Living in Christ’s Presence. I remember clearly driving home after dropping off my children at school and hearing John Ortberg recount a moment when he asked Dallas Willard how to ensure his church was truly growing spiritually.
Willard’s response was not what he expected. He said, “You must arrange your life in such a way that you are experiencing deep joy, contentment, and confidence in your everyday life with God.”
Ortberg, understandably surprised, pushed back: “Dallas, you didn’t hear me. I was asking about my church, not about me.”
Willard gently corrected him: “No, John. The gift you give the church is the person you become. That is what gets followed.”
I can still feel the weight of that moment.
Three years of masters work, another three in Ph.D. work, a lifetime in a minister’s home, and nearly fifteen years of ministry service, and still, it was as if I was only then beginning to understand ministry. I had learned plenty about ministry systems, but almost nothing about the sickness in my own soul.
That moment became a turning point. The Lord used that book to begin transforming my spirit, my will, and my desire for ministry. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am not the same person today. God, in His mercy, redirected my path and renovated my heart to desire different things, to see ministry through a different lens, and to recover a distinct desire to faithfully pastor.
Why This Substack Exists
This Substack is an effort to keep walking the road I began a few years ago, learning to see ministry through a different lens.
The goal here is to bring forward the concepts Dallas Willard taught about doing the work of the ministry. I will be drawing from both his published writings and his recorded lectures from the Spirituality and Ministry Doctor of Ministry course at Fuller Seminary. Though I first explored these themes in my Ph.D. dissertation at Southwestern Seminary, this space is something different. My aim is to carry that work forward in an accessible format for pastors in every kind of place.
Willard described the pastor as a “teacher of the nations,” someone entrusted with helping people learn how to live in the kingdom of God. That calling includes preaching and leadership, but it is rooted in who we are becoming. Ministry begins with a life surrendered to Jesus and shaped by His presence. That vision has changed the way I understand pastoral work. I believe it can bring fresh encouragement and direction to others who are seeking to serve faithfully wherever God has placed them.
What to Expect
My goal over the next year is to share one post each week. As a single-staff pastor, I may miss a few, but I plan to walk slowly and steadily through Willard’s vision of ministry. Each post will draw from his major writings and the 34 recorded lectures from his Spirituality and Ministry course at Fuller Seminary.
These reflections will center on what it means to minister as a teacher of the nations. That includes proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, teaching others to live under its rule, and embodying its reality through the work of the local church. I will highlight key themes, offer questions worth asking, and share pastoral insights that have shaped my own understanding.
The aim is not to give a model to copy, but to offer a vision that can guide. A vision of life with God that leads naturally into a way of doing ministry formed by the life of Jesus. From there, the means and methods can be shaped to fit the people and place where you serve.
My Prayer
I must borrow here from the words of Dallas shared on a bookmark with those who attended is funeral. May the discussion that takes place here over the next year help us have a constant clear vision of Life in God’s great universe and help us see the everlasting significance of pastoral work.
“My Prayer For You - That you would have a rich life of joy and power, abundant in supernatural results, with a constant, clear vision of never-ending life in God’s World before you, and of the everlasting significance of your work day by day. A radiant life and death.” - Dallas Willard