In his 2007 book, “Opening Up Titus,” David Campbell helpfully introduces this third pastoral epistle.
Frank Houghton’s well-known hymn Facing a task unfinished challenges us with the needs of those who are as yet unreached with the gospel: “with none to heed their crying / for life, and love, and light, / unnumbered souls are dying, / and pass into the night.”
But it is not just our missionary and evangelistic task that is unfinished. There is also the task that faces each Christian church to put its own house in order. There are needs, responsibilities, and shortcomings, threats to its safety, opportunities to serve the Lord and minister to its members, which each congregation unendingly faces.
The letter to Titus reminds us that there is nothing new about this. There were things ‘unfinished’ in the first century Cretan church where Titus served and as we read through the letter we discover what they were. They have a familiar ring to them. They are the very things that need to be addressed in our churches today.
But there is so much more to the letter than a mere list of things that needed to be tackled. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul explains why they are to be tackled and how they are to be tackled and by whom. In doing so he gives inspired guidance for churches in all ages as each faces its own unfinished task.
And to help us better understand all of this we welcome back to the podcast Jonathan Ward. Jonathan serves as the Associate Professor of Bible and Theology at the Owen Sound Campus of the Word of Life Bible Institute right here in Ontario. He is a graduate of New Brunswick Bible Institute, Baptist Bible Seminary, and holds a Master of Divinity from Luther Rice Seminary.
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Jonathan currently serves as an Associate Professor of Bible and Theology at the Owen Sound Campus of the Word of Life Bible Institute here in Ontario as well as the Associate Professor of Transformational Learning and Leadership at Colorado Biblical University. Jonathan is a graduate of New Brunswick Bible Institute, Baptist Bible Seminary, and holds a Master of Divinity from Luther Rice Seminary.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
