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Among the many notable addresses given at the Centennial Celebration of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1912 is one titled “The Making of a Minister” by Russell Cecil (1853-1925), who at the time was serving as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS).
He begins by establishing some of the necessary prerequisites for any minister, and goes on to describe what else is important and most valuable in the building blocks of the ministry.
Among those things that are essential and necessary, he says, are the following:
a minister must be male;
a minister must be godly;
a minister must be learned in the Scriptures; and
a minister must be called to his office by God.
Other non-essential, but nevertheless important and helpful factors in what makes up a good ministerial candidate, highlighted by Cecil, include the following:
a godly, religious, stable upbringing, emphasizing the influence of family and education;
a wholesome spiritual atmosphere at seminary, which is conducive to the spiritual and academic learning by the student of the ministry;
a course of theological study that is broad and encompasses a full range of useful matter for pastoral ministry; and
a studied effort to improve one’s method of expression, including both composition and delivery of the message.
It was also Cecil’s view that every pastor should be imbued with “the missionary spirit,” no matter whether they were going to be established at a country church or sent to foreign shores. An evangelistic zeal for sharing the gospel should be part of the spirit of one’s theological training that one should carry with them throughout their pastoral career.
He closes with this thought:
I close with the remark that Christian people every where feel that humanizing influences should be thrown around the young men in our seminaries; that they should not be cloistered scholastics, withdrawn from the stirring life of the day; but that they should be men of loving hearts, who, when they come forth to their work, are able to sympathize with the poor and needy, and know how to dispense the gospel of the grace of God to our perishing race.
Read the full address by Cecil here and see how he fleshes out his message. It is a worthy read about “The Making of a Minister,” a most excellent and noble calling.
