The Church 10: Pastoral Duties, as Richard Baxter Saw It In the previous post on the Church (number 9), I made public my musings during seminary graduation. Whatever the point of the graduation addresses to the students year after year, the single message that rings in my head on such occasions is, ‘Be ministers of the Word of God.’ In that post, I mentioned the puritan minister, Richard Baxter. In this post, I would like to mention a few more of Baxter’s points to those who take up pastoral ministry. In 1656, Baxter produced reflections on pastoral ministry in a work entitled The Reformed Pastor . [1] His discussion of pastoral duties comes in three parts that overlap. They are: (1) Teaching every person, disciplining persons in the church, and uniting with others for the work of the Lord; (2) personal pastoral care; (3) specific duties of pastoral ministry. What follows is a brief description of this advice on pastoral ministry in Baxter’