Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

by Paul David Tripp

Overview

Recognizing the widespread struggles facing pastors today, Tripp exposes and exhorts the cultures that train and support our church leaders so that they can lead well and our churches can be healthy. Now in paperback.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433541377
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	01/31/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	153,120
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Paul David Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, professor of pastoral life and care at Redeemer Seminary, and the executive director of the Center for Pastoral Life and Care, under the auspices of the Association of Biblical Counselors. He is the author of a number of popular books on Christian living, including What Did You Expect?, Whiter Than Snow, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, Dangerous Calling, Sex and Money, and New Morning Mercies. He has been married for many years to Luella and they have four grown children. For more information and resources visit paultrippministries.org.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11

Part 1 Examining Pastoral Culture

1 Headed for Disaster 17

2 Again and Again 29

3 Big Theological Brains and Heart Disease 41

4 More than Knowledge and Skill 57

5 Joints and Ligaments 69

6 The Missing Community 83

7 War Zones 97

Part 2 The Danger of Losing Your Awe (Forgetting Who God is)

8 Familiarity 113

9 Dirty Secrets 125

10 Mediocrity 137

11 Between the Already and the Not Yet 151

Part 3 The Danger of Arrival (Forgetting Who You Are)

12 Self-Glory 167

13 Always Preparing 183

14 Separation 199

15 So, What Now? 213

General Index 225

Scripture Index 227

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“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, Rolling Meadows, Illinois; 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, Founder, LIBERATE; author, One-Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World

"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, Bible Professor in Residence, New Canaan Baptist Church

“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