On Being Controversial

The job of pastors is to feed sheep with clean bread and give them sweet drink from the vine; it is to lift up the hands that hang down, and to strengthen the weak knees. Pastors are laborers in the Lord's vineyard, and the Truth is both the sharpness of the pruning shear, and the cleanness of the water with which they both feed and cleanse the dirty, fallen vines. To raise up a cry against those who would dirty the water, and dull the blade, is to be other than a hireling--it is to be a vinedresser after the vinekeeper's own heart.

you may say, 'no, no! Jesus prunes the vines, not you or us.' But as is usually the case in such matters, The Lord says "I will do such and such, I will accomplish this or that. And I will send you to do it." He has appointed pastors after his own heart, teachers passionate for his glory, to wash the church with the water of the word, to feed the hungry sheep who look up--that they might be fed.