Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry [Hardcover]

Paul David Tripp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2012

After traveling the globe and speaking to thousands of churches worldwide, Paul David Tripp has discovered a serious problem within pastoral culture.

He is not only concerned about the spiritual life of the pastor, but also with the very community of people that trains him, calls him, relates to him, and restores him if necessary.

Dangerous Calling reveals the truth that the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy—an environment that actively undermines the wellbeing and efficacy of our church leaders and thus the entire church body.

Here is a book that both diagnoses and offers cures for issues that impact every member and church leader, and gives solid strategies for fighting the all-important war that rages in our churches today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

''My friend Paul Tripp shines the spotlight of God's Word into the heart of every pastor in this book, Dangerous Calling. If you have been in ministry for 20 minutes or 20 years, I commend it to you. Approach it prayerfully, passionately, and be prepared for the change God will make in your heart, life, and ministry.''
-James MacDonald, Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel; author, Vertical Church

''This book is 'good' in the same way that heart surgery is good. It's painful and scary and as you read it you'll be tempted to run away from the truth it contains. But it just might save your life. Pastors need this book. I know I really needed it. It challenged me and rebuked me even as it gave me hope and fresh faith in God for pastoral ministry.''
-Joshua Harris, Senior Pastor, Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg, Maryland; author, Dug Down Deep

''My friend Paul Tripp has done it again. With probing insight and robust realism, he takes an honest look into the challenges that are unique to, or intensified by, pastoral ministry. Gospel-centered and grace saturated to the core, Dangerous Calling is a must read for any pastor or pastor in training who needs to be encouraged by the reminder that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves or others.''
-Tullian Tchividjian, Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; author, Jesus + Nothing = Everything

''Dangerous Calling is a dangerous book to read. It is also a book every person in ministry should read. It will cut you to the heart and bring massive conviction if you read it with a humility and ask God to expose sins deeply hidden in your soul. It cuts, but it also provides biblical remedies for healing. I would love to put this book in the hand of every seminarian who walks on my campus.''
- Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

''Pastoral ministry is a dangerous calling, and this is a dangerous book. It will not leave you unchanged. Pastors need pastors, and by God's grace, every page of this book will minister to your heart, your marriage, your family, and the people you serve - in ways you never thought you needed it. This book digs down into the inner recesses of our hearts to reveal our greatest idols and point to our greatest needs. It will make you joyfully uncomfortable and, by God's grace, will bring you to your knees in tears of thankfulness only to help lift your weary head to fix your renewed gaze on Christ. This book is like a mirror that redirects our hearts' reflection from ourselves to Christ. If this book were a sermon, it would be the most weighty and refreshing sermon you've ever needed to hear. My sincere hope is that this book would be translated into multiple languages, become required reading in seminaries, and be distributed to Christians everywhere who know they're called to serve God and others with the gifts the Holy Spirit has equipped them.''
-Burk Parsons, Associate Pastor, Saint Andrew's Chapel, Sanford, Florida; editor,Tabletalk;magazine --Reviews --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

“My friend Paul Tripp shines the spotlight of God’s Word into the heart of every pastor in this book, Dangerous Calling. If you have been in ministry for 20 minutes or 20 years, I commend it to you. Approach it prayerfully, passionately, and be prepared for the change God will make in your heart, life, and ministry.”
—James MacDonald, Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel; author, Vertical Church

“This book is ‘good’ in the same way that heart surgery is good. It's painful and scary and as you read it you'll be tempted to run away from the truth it contains. But it just might save your life. Pastors need this book. I know I really needed it. It challenged me and rebuked me even as it gave me hope and fresh faith in God for pastoral ministry.”
—Joshua Harris, Senior Pastor, Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg, Maryland; author, Dug Down Deep

“My friend Paul Tripp has done it again. With probing insight and robust realism, he takes an honest look into the challenges that are unique to, or intensified by, pastoral ministry. Gospel-centered and grace saturated to the core, Dangerous Calling is a must read for any pastor or pastor in training who needs to be encouraged by the reminder that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves or others.”
—Tullian Tchividjian, Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; author, Jesus + Nothing = Everything

"Dangerous Calling is a dangerous book to read. It is also a book every person in ministry should read. It will cut you to the heart and bring massive conviction if you read it with a humility and ask God to expose sins deeply hidden in your soul. It cuts, but it also provides biblical remedies for healing. I would love to put this book in the hand of every seminarian who walks on my campus."
—Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Pastoral ministry is a dangerous calling, and this is a dangerous book. It will not leave you unchanged. Pastors need pastors, and by God’s grace, every page of this book will minister to your heart, your marriage, your family, and the people you serve—in ways you never thought you needed it. This book digs down into the inner recesses of our hearts to reveal our greatest idols and point to our greatest needs. It will make you joyfully uncomfortable and, by God’s grace, will bring you to your knees in tears of thankfulness only to help lift your weary head to fix your renewed gaze on Christ. This book is like a mirror that redirects our hearts’ reflection from ourselves to Christ. If this book were a sermon, it would be the most weighty and refreshing sermon you’ve ever needed to hear. My sincere hope is that this book would be translated into multiple languages, become required reading in seminaries, and be ¬distributed to Christians everywhere who know they’re called to serve God and others with the gifts the Holy Spirit has equipped them.”
—Burk Parsons, Copastor, Saint Andrew’s Chapel, Sanford, Florida; Editor, Tabletalk magazine

“Our wives, children, and the members we serve will have a new husband, father, and pastor by Friday if we follow Tripp’s example and give a humble and honest reading of this book—one with our inner Pharisee and scribe turned off. We will see the need to save our selves from a very dark and destructive force working against pastors: undiagnosed pastoral self-righteousness. With much wisdom and conviction, Tripp’s Dangerous Calling preaches the gospel of grace to the men who are preaching the gospel Sunday after Sunday to everyone but themselves.”
—Eric C. Redmond, Executive Pastoral Assistant and Bible Professor in Residence, New Canaan Baptist Church; Council Member, The Gospel Coalition

“Few would regard a pastor’s role as a dangerous calling, but few people are as qualified and insightful as Paul Tripp to penetrate the snares and potential pitfalls associated with pastoral ministry. Fewer still would prescribe such gospel based and local church rooted remedies. This excellent volume should be read, re-read & applied.”
—Terry Virgo , founder, Newfrontiers

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Crossway; 1 edition (October 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433535823
• ISBN-13: 978-1433535826
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Ministry
  • #21 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Theology

More About the Author

Paul Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries (www.paultrippministries.org), a nonprofit organization, whose mission statement is "Connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life." This mission leads Paul to weekly speaking engagements around the world. In addition to being a gifted communicator and sought after conference speaker with Paul Tripp Ministries, Paul is the Executive Director of the Center for Pastoral Life and Care in Fort Worth, Texas, and has taught at respected institutions worldwide. As an author, Paul has written many books on Christian Living that are read and distributed internationally. He has been married for many years to Luella and they have four grown children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most helpful, convicting, dignostic and Gospel-saturated books I've read this year October 31, 2012

By Dave J. Jenkins VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Thousands and millions of books are written every year, and every year I regularly read over one hundred books but very few of those books published and even fewer of those that I read are diagnostic books that punch you in the gut (in a good way to bring conviction of sin) by pointing out the weaknesses in pastoral culture and church life in order to help pastors see clearly their blind spots and point them to growth in the grace of God. Thankfully Dr. Paul Tripp a seasoned Pastor and counselor knows this which is why he wrote Dangerous Calling Confronting The Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry.

One of the more important trends I see happening in Christian publishing is an emphasize on Gospel centered growth in the grace of God. Added to this emphasis is a recent resurgence in books being published that emphasizes how the Pastor should be growing in the grace of God. Often such books on spiritual formation are written for the lay person so it encourages me when I see publishers like Christian Focus (who recently published Pastoring the Pastor) and now Crossway publishing Dangerous Calling addressing this issue in a way that doesn't burden Pastors but confronts them with the Truth of God's Word in order to help them see themselves as they are desperate needy sinners in need of Jesus and His grace.

There's an epidemic happening in pastoral ministry. In seminary future pastors are given a lot of information about theology, doctrine, church history and more to help equip them to preach, teach and minister to God's people. Sadly this emphasis on information focuses only on the head (knowing right doctrine is vital, so don't hear me arguing against that, my point is larger than this). My point is quite simply that Pastors are first Christians. The classical pastoral writers from the early church to the Reformation to the present have always focused on the character of the man which involves knowing right doctrine, but also being transformed by the doctrine we believe. In other words put more simply, sound doctrine leads to right living. What we believe has consequences so believing right doctrine should affect the way we live our lives before the throne of God's unending, everlasting grace.

Dr. Paul Tripp has personally experienced pastoral culture as a Pastor, as a pastoral counselor, seminary professor, and conference speaker. Having read most of Dr. Tripp's books one of the things I appreciate most about his style of writing is his goal to take Christians beneath the surface of our lives in order to point out indwelling sin and point out to the One in Jesus who longs for us to die to our sin, and turn from our sin to Him who can kill our sin and help us grow in the grace of God.

Paul Tripp's diagnosis is not only spot on about pastoral culture in Dangerous Calling but is confirmed by The Schaeffer Institute's [...] who did research on this issue. Their research pants a disturbing picture: 50 percent of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years. Over 1,700 pastors leave the ministry every month. 70 percent of pastors constantly fight depression. 80 percent of pastors believe that pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families.

Pastors read many books that fill their minds but not many that challenge them to take an honest assessment of where they are spiritually. Dangerous Calling was written to help diagnose your spiritual life and point you to the Lord Jesus. Dr. Tripp notes that with writing this book he has "launched myself on a ministry career direction to get help for pastors who have lost their way" (12), I applaud Dr. Tripp for this and pray the Lord blesses him and increases his tribe as he ministers to hurting Pastors.

At the heart of this book is the contention that "you are constantly talking to yourself about your identity, your spirituality, your functionality, your emotionality, your mentaility, your personality, your relationships, etc. You are constantly preaching to yourself some kind of gospel. You preach to yourself an anti-gospel of your own righteousness, power, and wisdom, or you preach to yourself the true gospel of deep spiritual need and sufficient grace. You preach to yourself an anti-gospel of aloneness and inability, or you preach to yourself the true gospel of the presence, provisions, and power of an ever-present Christ" (21). The main point that Tripp makes is that "no one celebrates the presence and grace of the Lord Jesus more than the person who has embraced his desperate and daily need of it" (23).

Now that you have some flavor of the direction the book the book takes let me share with you how this book ministered to me. I've written quite a bit in the past year about my own struggles with burnout in the past and how the Lord lead me through this season to grow in the grace of God. Since I've graduated from seminary this past May (May 2012) the Lord has by His grace increased my love not only for His Word (which I've been reading more regularly) but also for His people. Along with this desire for more of His Word and loving His people has come a desire to be more like Him. See what I just said there? The more we long for Jesus, the more we are in His Word the more we are going to long to be like Him. At the heart of the problem of pastoral burnout is the lack of wanting to be like Jesus. The reason why many seminary students struggle to grow in the grace of God is because they have become so focused on what they "know" that they miss the point and object of their faith--Jesus Christ and growing in His grace. As a seminary graduate I not only know this temptation myself, but have fell victim to it time and time again. Dr. Tripp also knows this temptation which is why he wrote Dangerous Calling.

Whether you are a seminary student, seasoned Pastor, Professor or whatever your station in life is, you need to read this book. Yes, this book was written to diagnose pastoral culture, but by extension, I believe this book addresses a rising epidemic that is occurring in the church. We have become a people focused on what we know about God but not about how He is transforming us. Again, I will note that I am not saying that what we know isn't important, as I've already stated that right doctrine is important but not ultimate. Knowing right doctrine ought to lead to right living. The reason this book was written was not to correct doctrine but to correct the false dichotomy between just living as if doctrine matters without being affected by it. It's the being affected by the doctrine we believe that Dr. Tripp is concerned about, and I agree with him. This is also why I believe that Dangerous Calling is a must read book for every Christian not just Pastors, because we all need to see ourselves as we are, in light of Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness.

In conclusion (if its not already clear by the length of this review), this is a book I believe every Christian and Pastor must read. It's not often that I read a book that punches you in the gut (to lead you to repentance) and point you to the Lord Jesus Christ with balancing pastoral insight, biblical doctrine and practical application all in one book. Dangerous Calling is such a book which is why this book is hands down winning not only my favorite book of the year but is also the most convicting, encouraging and edifying book I've read all year. I highly recommend you get Dangerous Calling and as you read (as I did) I believe you will find the same as I did that Jesus will be at work in you (and through you) pointing out your sin and showing forth the beauty and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ through the writing of Dr. Tripp.

Title: Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

Author: Paul Tripp

Publisher: Crossway Books (2012)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Crossway book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Pastor & Elder Board should read this October 5, 2012

By William D. Curnutt TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I want to thank Crossway Publishing and especially Angie Chetham for sending me an advance copy of Dr. Tripp's new book. This book has just been released.

This new book by Dr. Tripp is one that every Pastor should put in his library and one that they should make a point of reviewing (re-reading) at least every 18 months or so. The book is an encouragement to Pastors about how serious the calling to Pastoral ministry is. It is also a reminder that if we are not careful we will fall into some very bad habits and wrong thinking that will bring harm to the Kingdom and disrepute to the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This book is also one that every Elder Board should take a look at. It will be helpful to remind them of the dangers of the Pastoral Calling and Ministry and what they can do as the church board to hold their Pastor's accountable as well as bring encouragement into their Pastor's lives.

The main concept that struck me most from this work was the idea that, "We do not teach well the word of God or serve the church well unless we are awestruck by the Power & Nature of our Lord and Savior." This was a central theme that was well developed, especially in Part two of the book. Most Pastors enter the Pastorate because at some point in time in their life they were "awestruck" by the power and majesty of the Lord. But as they continue to serve they often times find that the "awe" of the Lord starts to diminish. In place of that "Awe of God" they start to have an "awe of themselves!"

The book is divided into three sections.
· Section one examines the "Ministry Culture" that Pastors fine themselves in.
· Section two examines the "Danger of losing your Awe, i.e. forgetting who God is."
· Section three deals with forgetting who you (the pastor) are.

Dr. Tripp in section one deals quite a bit with reminding Pastors that they are taught in seminary that they should be a bit aloof from their congregation. They should live in isolation because of their calling. But he points out the dangers of this type of life style, how it has the tendency to cause the Pastor to feeling as though he is a bit above others, when in actuality we are the same when it comes to the chance of Satan hitting us with a bout of pride or arrogance. Now, he isn't saying that the Seminaries are teaching wrong things; he is just concerned that sometimes Pastors don't get a good picture of their need for accountability and how to be transparent and vulnerable with their congregation in ways that are building for them and the Kingdom.

I found myself in such agreement with the many things that Dr. Tripp wrote, and also found myself convicted of where my own attitudes and life style have fallen short, that I have ordered a case of these books to be delivered once they are printed so that I can share them with many Pastors whom I care about and feel will benefit from this book.

This book is not written for laypeople, it is written specifically for the clergy. BUT, if you are a layperson and you care about your pastor and the dangers that he faces on a regular basis you will also learn much from this well written text. Maybe you could also purchase the book as a gift for your pastor and give it to him along with a note of encouragement from you that you care about his life and ministry.

34 of 44 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Challenging But Nothing New January 2, 2013

By Luke-carl.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I know this is an immensely popular book that God has used and I do not want to be contrapuntal, but honestly I was underwhelmed; here is what I thought of the work, positive and negative, honestly and plainly so you can decide for yourself.

Positives:
The work is clearly written, the author is very honest and clearly a humble man--I really respect that. This is clear because he shares multiple humbling stories about himself, mimicking Paul who preferred to boast about his weaknesses. The subject matter is pertinent because the three main sections of the work are: Examining [critique of] Pastoral Culture; Forgetting Who God Is; Forgetting Who You Are. Also, it is as one other reviewer said "gut-wrenching" in that there are specific sins brought to light and examined (such as being controlling p. 160). Impressively, while deeply challenging, the work is neither negative nor angry, something difficult to accomplish. The work really does make you think about whether or not you have anger residing in your heart and whether or not you are consistent with what you preach, it is very convicting.

Negatives:
This work really is not for everyone. It is a sampling of Dr. Tripp's experiences with pastors who have lost their way in some regard and have, essentially, shipwrecked their faith as Paul would say. If you have not--if you have a relatively pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith (1 Tim. 1:5) like Timothy did, then this work will be more of a warning with some smaller, specific parts of the work moving you to repentance. The work would probably never be thought of as original really since it is the application of current, popular (at lease in some circles) Tim Keller/John Piper Gospel Coalition principles of: Identity in Christ, Community, Preaching the Gospel to Believers, Accountability/Transparency, Passion, Awe of God, Servant-leadership. If these phrases are new to you or you simply appreciate being reminded of how they apply to particulars, you will love this work. If like me you are familiar (or overly-so) with the young, restless, reformed way of thinking, you will not find anything new.

In my estimation, Puritan works such as the Reformed Pastor or The Godly Home cover these same issues far better and with even greater precision and conviction.