Pastors Read This: Gregory the Great Schooling Us from 1500 Years Ago! (Gupta)

I am reading The Book of Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great for the first time now as part of my research for a book on Paul and pastoral ministry. I was blown away by the relevance for today of his instruction – even words from the first two pages! Pastors, read this (I am preaching to myself as well):

…there are many who through the temptation of authority in the holy Church aspire to the glory of honor. They want to be seen as teachers and they lust to be superior to others, just as the truth attests, “they seek the first place at feasts and the first chair in the assemblies.”[Matt 23.6-7] They are all the more unable to minister worthily to the office of pastoral care because they have come to the position of teaching humility by the means of vanity.  For indeed, the message of the teacher is confused when one thing is learned and another taught…They reign by their own authority, not by the will of the supreme Ruler.