Zach Byrd’s Reviews > Calvin's Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609 > Status Update

Manteca provides a great overview of Calvin and Company’s writings, framing them as an extension of their pastoral ministry. Obviously, not every pastor wrote, but the volumes of and types of books written demonstrate a need for it still (even if we are awash in books now). Also, he dismantles the “Calvin versus the Calvinists” theory while providing helpful nuance.

Manetsch goes to great lengths, surveying over a thousand cases before Geneva’s Consistory, to rebut the reputation of Geneva as a harsh surveillance state. Geneva wasn’t perfect, but we find a company of pastors seeking to wield the keys for the good of souls. At the foundation, it was an extension of their pastoral visitation, conducted annually and thoroughly.

Ministry in Geneva was structured around quarterly communion - censures and restorations, visitations, etc. all increased the weeks leading up to communion. Every Friday before the Supper, the ministers all gathered to air grievances, offer fraternal correction, and restore strained bonds, eating a meal together afterwards. They are pastoring so that the people can feed on Christ with a good conscience.

The chapter on the family life of the pastor should be read by every man pursuing ministry. Most of these men died physically spent and financially penniless, but they labored knowing “only eternal things endure.”

“Only eternal things endure.”

“The bond between the pastor and the local church was a sacred one- almost like marriage- that should not be broken except with clear divine guidance… ‘Because such a bond and obligation is a kind of marriage, as the ancients have observed, it is a thing very unseemly and inappropriate that one who is married with one party should think of another or even be involved with another.’”

A needed message today.

“During a brief visit to France in the summer of 1572, Simon Goulart had been caught in the maelstrom of St. Bartholomew's Day and only narrowly escaped with his life. Back in Geneva, he wrote to a friend: "I have a profound love for my country. Thus, I have decided to stab with my pen those tyrants as long as I live."