Spirituality and the Gospel of Christ

Why Pastors need Knowledge for the Work of the Ministry.

The Knowledge Problem in Pastoral Ministry

In 1993, Dallas Willard began teaching a Doctor of Ministry course at Fuller Theological Seminary called “Spirituality and Ministry.” For nearly two decades, he taught this intensive course for pastors and ministry leaders, offering a systematic approach to spiritual life and its connection to pastoral work.

The recordings and transcripts of these lectures, preserved by the Dallas Willard Research Center and the Martin Institute at Westmont College, represent his most sustained and direct teaching to pastors. Over the next thirty-three weeks, we’ll walk through these lectures together, exploring what Dallas believed was essential for those called to minister in Christ’s name.

Dallas begins the first lecture with a hymn and a quote from an 18th-century Anglican minister.

After leading his students through “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” Dallas reads from William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. It’s a father giving advice to his son about what matters most:

“First of all, my child, think magnificently of God. Magnify His providence; adore His power; pray to Him frequently and incessantly. Bear Him always in your mind. Teach your thoughts to reverence Him in every place for there is no place where He is not. Therefore, my child, fear and worship and love God; first and last, think magnificently of Him!”

Dallas stops here. Lets the words settle.

“Think magnificently of God,” he repeats. “All of the troubles and failures of human existence are rooted in the failure to think rightly about God. All of them.”

This is where pastors must begin if they want to live as teachers of the nations and spokespeople for Christ.

We Live by Knowledge

After the William Law reading, Dallas makes his central claim: “We don’t live by faith; we live by knowledge.”

For pastors trained to champion faith, this sounds dangerous. But Dallas is diagnosing why our churches produce so few transformed lives. The problem is people don’t know anything different is actually possible.

What We’re Really Preaching

Dallas identifies what he calls “non-discipleship Christianity.” A version of the gospel that promises forgiveness and heaven but offers nothing for Tuesday afternoon. We’ve preached a truncated message: Jesus died for your sins, believe in him, go to heaven when you die. Full stop.

Jesus preached the availability of the kingdom of God now. Today. In this moment. The gospel is about participation in an interactive life with God under His reign.

When churches neglect this, we end up with what you see in most congregations: people who claim forgiveness but remain untransformed, saved but unformed, they think themselves Christians but never disciples. They believe the right things but lives remain unchanged in any real way.

Knowledge vs. Belief

Knowledge is different from belief. Knowledge is confidence grounded in reality. When Dallas says we live by knowledge, he means we act on what we genuinely regard as real.

Think about your congregation. They may believe Jesus rose from the dead. But do they know, in the functional, operational sense, that the kingdom of God is available to them right now? Do they live as though resurrection power is accessible in their marriages, their workplaces, their anxieties?

The gap between what people believe and how they actually live reveals what we’ve really given them.

The Pastor’s Real Work

This reframes pastoral ministry entirely. According to Dallas, the pastor is a “teacher of the nations.” Someone entrusted with communicating reliable, actionable knowledge about life in the kingdom of God.

Knowledge. That’s the pastor’s work.

“What you do in your community is the most important thing that is happening there,” Dallas tells his students. The pastor carries knowledge of a reality most people don’t even know exists.

But here’s the catch: You can’t transmit knowledge you don’t possess. The pastor must first know, through lived experience, that the kingdom is real, that transformation is possible, that God is actually present and active. You can’t fake this. Your people will know.

This is why Dallas starts with the William Law quote. Before you can teach anyone else, you must think magnificently of God yourself. You must know Him, actually know Him.

Spiritual Formation as Realism

Dallas’s approach to spiritual formation is realism. The kingdom of God is an objective reality you can learn to live in, just as surely as you learned to drive a car or speak a language.

This means pastoral ministry becomes practical: teaching people how to actually live in this reality. Showing them the means, the practices, the arrangements of life that make kingdom living accessible.

This is why Dallas taught this course for two decades. He knew that if ministers didn’t recover the gospel as knowledge, as something true, livable, and powerful, the church would continue producing consumers instead of disciples.

Where We’re Headed

Each lecture builds on the last. This first one establishes the foundation: the gospel Jesus preached was the availability of the kingdom now, and our job as pastors is to make that reality knowable and livable for our people.

We can’t do that if we don’t know it ourselves.

We begin where Dallas began: thinking magnificently of God.

For Reflection

What does it mean to think magnificently of God in your current season of ministry? How would your pastoral work change if this became your starting point each day?

If someone asked you, “How do I actually live in the kingdom of God on a Tuesday?” could you give them a concrete answer? Practical knowledge, the kind they could use?

What would change in your ministry if you saw your primary role as transmitting knowledge of God’s kingdom rather than managing religious programs?