Book Review: Passing the Baton, by Jeremy Walker

Jeremy Walker, Passing the Baton: How to Equip the Next Generation of Pastors and Teachers. EP Books, 2023. 137 pages.

One day, your race will be run, pastor. Who have you trained to take the baton?  

No matter the size, location, or resources of their congregation, pastors have the obligation and privilege of preparing the next generation of men for pastoral ministry. This is the contention of pastor Jeremy Walker in his short book Passing the Baton.  

A WHOLE LOCAL CHURCH TO TRAIN A WHOLE PASTOR 

The next generation of pastors often leave home and go far away to seminary to be trained. After all, pastors feel too busy or underqualified to train young men themselves. Isn’t it easier just to hand this responsibility to the academics? 

Other times, young men with a theological degree enter the pastorate but have little experience caring for sheep. How can aspiring overseers learn to shepherd both in theory and in practice? 

Walker’s answer to these questions is to return pastoral training to the local church under the oversight of godly and proven pastors—pastors who know the men they are training. Passing the Baton is not a critique of seminaries, but it is a call for churches to train pastors whether or not one’s training is supplemented with a theology degree.  

Drawing on the pattern of the Apostle Paul’s ministry to Timothy, Walker gives both the biblical rationale for this important work and a healthy dose of practical wisdom about how to make it happen in any context. As Paul taught Timothy sound doctrine, Timothy was to pass this doctrine on to others (2 Tim. 2:2). Timothy had labored with Paul and seen his life, faith, ministry, and suffering (2 Tim. 3:10-11). This, Walker argues, should be the pattern for pastoral training today.  

Walker knows what he’s asking; this sort of training requires significant investment. To see that men are theologically sound and pastorally astute we must be both selective in our candidates and sacrificial with our time and money. We must also be prayerful because raising up godly pastors is ultimately God’s work.  

But it’s all worth it.  

Walker’s argument is biblically sound and compelling. I appreciated his realistic descriptions of the personal, relational investment pastors must make in the men they are training. Pastors are trained—I was trained—as godly men give time. They listened to my teaching and provided feedback, they discussed with me the needs of God’s people, and they modelled for me how one effectively leads a church. They answered my questions, put up with my immaturity, and steered me back to Christ and his Word.  

Walker’s simple “chain of discipleship” beautifully captures this personal investment: “I do. You watch. We talk. > I do. You help. We talk. > You do. I help. We talk. > You do. I watch. We talk. > You do. Someone else watches. You talk.”  

As I read this, I found myself rejoicing that godly men did this with me and for me, and I found myself wanting to do the same with others.

That’s the usefulness of this book for you, pastor. Read it and be reminded of how ministry training happens. Read it and be re-focused and encouraged in your training of other men for ministry. Or read it and be challenged to take up this task for the first time.  

Read this book with your fellow elders. Encourage church members to read it. If a local church is going to invest in men for pastoral ministry, the elders will have to lead the church to value and support this equipping ministry—especially if it costs them financially. It really is the whole local church that trains men for ministry; therefore, the whole church needs to be behind it.  

In fact, it’s on this note that I found Walker’s book to be most refreshing. Time and again, he draws the reader’s attention back to the local church. Pastors serve churches, pastors are church members, and churches train pastors. This emphasis, it seems to me, has been forgotten by many. Walker says it well: “It is in the church, the real church, the healthy church, that this work is primarily carried out. It is in the church that the weapons of this warfare are forged and fashioned. It is in the church that faithful men who have run the race pass the baton to those whom they have trained to run the next leg.” 

MINISTRY AS RELAY RACE 

We won’t be here forever, pastors. But should Jesus tarry, another generation will rise after us—a new generation to preach Christ crucified and care for Jesus’s sheep. Will they be equipped to run well?  

Let’s seize our responsibility today. Let’s lead our churches to equip other men to take up the baton and run the next leg. I’m certain this book will help us along the way.