BROTHERS,
WE ARE
NOT
PROFESSIONALS
A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry
Nashville, Tennessee
by Desiring God Foundation
All rights reserved
0-8054-2620-5
Published by Broadman and Holman Publishers
Nashville, Tennessee
Dewey Decimal Classification: 253
Subject Heading: CHURCH AND MINISTRY
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Others translations are indicated by acronym as follows: KJV, King James Version. NASB, the New American Standard Bible, © the Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977; used by permission. NIV, New International Version, © copyright 1973, 1978, 1984. RSV, Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, © 1971, 1973. Quotations indicated JP are the author’s own translations.
Italic in Biblical text is added by the author for emphasis.
To
George Verwer
and
Greg Livingstone
whose passion and perseverance in the pursuit
of the unreached peoples of the world
have pushed me toward radical commitment
to the global purposes of Jesus Christ
on the other side of
pastoral professionalism
1. Brothers , We Are Not Professionals
2. Brothers, God Loves His Glory
4. Brothers, Live and Preach Justification by Faith
5. Brothers, Beware of the Debtor’s Ethic
6. Brothers, Tell Them Not to Serve God
7. Brothers, Consider Christian Hedonism
9. Brothers, Beware of Sacred Substitutes
10. Brothers, Fight for Your Life
11. Brothers, Let Us Query the Text
12. Brothers, Bitzer Was a Banker
13. Brothers, Read Christian Biography
14. Brothers, Show Your People Why God Inspired Hard Texts
16. Brothers, We Must Feel the Truth of Hell
17. Brothers, Lead Them to Repentance through Their Pleasure
18. Brothers, Magnify the Meaning of Baptism
19. Brothers, Our Affliction Is for Their Comfort
20. Brothers, Let the River Run Deep
21. Brothers, Don’t Fight Flesh Tanks with Peashooter Regulations
22. Brothers, Don’t Confuse Uncertainty with Humility
23. Brothers, Tell Them Copper Will Do
24. Brothers, Help Your People Hold On and Minister in Calamity
25. Brothers, Give Them God’s Passion for Missions
26. Brothers, Sever the Root of Racism
27. Brothers, Blow the Trumpet for the Unborn
28. Brothers, Focus on the Essence of Worship, Not the Form
30. Brothers, Pray for the Seminaries
Sometimes massive suffering comes so close to home that for a brief season the fog of our foolish security clears, and we can see the sheer precipice of eternity one step away. The cold wobble passes through our thighs, and for a moment everything in the universe looks different. Those are good times for pastoral realism. Oh, how hollow much ...
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About Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical MinistryJohn Piper pleads with fellow pastors to abandon the secularization of the pastorate and pursue the prophetic call of the Bible for radical ministry. We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and the heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness, there is no professional tenderheartedness, there is no professional panting after God. Brothers, we are not professionals. We are outcasts. We are aliens and exiles in the world. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and we wait with eager expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed. The world sets the agenda of the professional man; God sets the agenda of the spiritual man. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the wineskins of professionalism. Named among the “10 Best Books Every Preacher Should Read” in the January/February issue of Preaching Magazine. “There is much more worthy of comment than there is space to comment. This book deserves wide circulation among our churches—pastors, so they will be challenged to fulfill their calling; laity, so they will see what the calling of their pastors really is.” - Ray Van Neste, The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. |
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