He refused to baptize a believer before he or she gave a clear testimony of the grace of God at work in their life. This ministry became the distinctive mark of Baxter's entire ministry and made it the long-admired model for pastoral ministry to this day. It clearly strengthened Baxter's pulpit ministry. Outside St. Mary's Church in Kidderminster today, you can find a giant statue of Baxter, the Bible in his left hand, long flowing robes reaching to his ankles, and, in full-preaching form, his right arm pointing to heaven. Baxter's vision is hard to find in our time.
People love their privacy and pastors their specialties.
Know some answers Before Sunday schools and small groups and the cure of souls, there were catechisms. Reformer Martin Luther was one of the best at making use of this tool. Luther wrote his influential Short and Long Catechisms in response to the spiritual ignorance he discovered in sixteenth-century Saxony. This is the common, modern meaning of the term. Converts to Christianity were thoroughly prepared before their baptism.