Dangerous Calling—Paul David Tripp

INTRODUCTION

“Moral Failure,” “Burn out,” “Discontentment,” sadly, these words have come to characterize the state of many pastors. The condition of ministers is concerning. Consider some recent and sadly predictable headlines from major news outlets: “Mega church pastor steps down to fight charge of concealing…,” “Ontario’s most influential pastor resigns after…,” or “Religious leaders struggle with burnout, depression and anxiety…” It is evident that collectively pastors are unhealthy. According to Barna, “only one in three pastors is ‘considered healthy’ in terms of well-being.” Further, Barna documented in this survey that 38% of pastors indicated that they have considered quitting full-time ministry in the last year—an increase of a full nine points from a similar survey twelve months earlier. Studies by Barna and others have caused some to question if a “great resignation” may be brewing. It is never the intention of pastors to become one of these statistics. Furthermore, God does not intend failure. Through his divinely given resources the statistical inevitability of ministry flunk out can be avoided.

The pastor’s calling is deceptively dangerous and filled with land mines of personal, family, and corporate failings.

Spiritual help is needed. Though often blind to his condition, the minister is in need of ministry. The book, Dangerous Calling, serves as an assessment tool and help for the heart needs of pastors. Paul David Tripp, a well-known and respected pastor, speaker, and author, offers a reasoned, insightful, and corrective appeal to the brokenness endemic to pastoral culture in modern America. In Dangerous Calling, Tripp writes to “confront the issue of the often unhealthy shape of pastoral culture and to put on the table the temptations that are either unique to or intensified by pastoral ministry.”(11) Recognizing the heart condition that follows men into ministry and their continued need for the gospel, Tripp writes to help pastors who have “lost their way”(15) and need to “get their joy back.”(137) Throughout the pages of Dangerous Calling, Tripp systematically exposes error and provokes repentance through the prescription of gospel help found only in Jesus.

Dangerous Calling is not a how-to book of pastoral ministry. Instead, it is written to diagnose error and prescribe practical aid. (11) Like a capable spiritual doctor, Tripp uses questions and case studies to search for the heart of the problem. Through “warning that calls you to humble self-reflection and change,” Dangerous Calling masterfully brings the receptive minister to discomfit and motivates him toward change. (12) This change-inducing discomfort comes from the realization that the problem is not ultimately an “environmental problem” (108), a commitment problem, or a training problem, but a heart problem. Through the real world examples given, the reader is equipped to search for similar issues in his own life. The diagnosis of part one of the book can at times feel painful. But like a good spiritual doctor, Tripp relates the healing prescription of God’s sufficient Grace in the Gospel to restore the preacher’s heart.

The thesis of Tripp’s pastoral “doctors visit,” in the form of a book, is that the pastor’s calling is deceptively dangerous and filled with land mines of personal, family, and corporate failings. Therefore, every minister’s greatest need and obligation is to run to the continued saving work of Jesus personally & passionately. Dangerous Calling confronts pastors with their desperate need for Jesus.

THE DIAGNOSIS

The exam begins in part one of the book with Tripp relating his personal story. Early in his ministry he also nearly became a statistic of pastoral failure. The openness of Tripp to speak of his own failings lends credibility to Tripp’s thesis development. The indictments of this book are presented from the beginning as the author’s shared experience with the reader, not simply secondary observation. This shared approach makes it difficult for the reader to dismiss Tripp as unable to relate to the reader’s challenges. The author’s humble self-exposer both strengthens and in turn softens the pointed words of the text.

Part one, Examining Pastoral Culture, explains the bulk of Tripp’s assessment for the “why” behind pastoral struggle. Without minimizing personal accountability, the author exposes the unique spiritual challenges of pastoral ministry. Challenges that require alertness and vigilance to identify any “signs of a pastor losing his way.” (32) Tripp groups the symptoms of pastoral heart problems into seven self-diagnosing ideas. One could summarize these personal diagnostic checks as follows: “My private person is different than my public person;” (62) “I am looking for fulfillment horizontally in ministry for what can only be fulfilled vertically in Christ;” (102) “I mistake theological knowledge for spiritual maturity;” (42) “I substitute business in God’s work for personal communion with God;” (35) “I place myself above the body of Christ and reject accountability and edification;” (23) “By glory-seeking I become a glory-stealer from the God I serve;” (98) and finally, “In pride, I am living in denial to the symptoms of spiritual heart failure.” (108) These statements from part one of Dangerous Calling contain Tripp’s diagnostic criteria for pastoral heart failure.

If you are in ministry and you are not reminding yourself again and again of the now-ism of the gospel, you will be looking elsewhere to get what can be found only in Jesus.

I found each of these diagnostic statements searching and helpful. For example, I found especially pertinent the suggestion that pastors arrive at a flawed identity source when they look “for fulfillment horizontally in ministry for what can only be fulfilled vertically in Christ.” Instead of deriving our identity from Christ the tendency in pastoral work is to see the “situations, experiences, and daily life” of ministry as the source of the leader’s identity. (22) When “ministry becomes our identity” we exchange our association with the life-giving Gospel of Christ for the pastoral vocation itself. (??) This exchange is dangerous because pastoral ministry is unfulfilling alone. Fulfillment in ministry can only be found when Christ, not the ministry, is the goal. Pastoral ministry mixed with my prideful fallen nature presents a unique identity stealing challenge. Therefore, Tripp challenges the pastor that “If you are in ministry and you are not reminding yourself again and again of the now-ism of the gospel, that is, the right-here, right-now benefits of the grace of Christ, you will be looking elsewhere to get what can be found only in Jesus.” (36) What we are in Christ must be the pastor’s daily identity check. The diagnostic tools in part one of Dangerous Calling facilitate a guided look at the reader’s heart condition. Honest personal assessment is step one of spiritual heart renewal.

THE PRESCRIPTION

This assessment guide approach sets Tripp’s book apart from other pastoral health books not only for its practical assessment but for its conclusions. Parts two and three follow part one’s diagnosis with a prescription of dependence on Christ and His sanctifying Gospel grace. The Gospel-centered biblical counseling that surfaces in Tripp’s writing ministry is delivered with great clarity in the book’s second half. Though at times Tripp seems a little redundant, having already thoroughly described the nature of the problem in part one, a prescription to return pastoral health is prescribed with clarity. The author writes, “It is the burden of this concern, coupled with my knowledge and experience of transforming grace, that has driven me to write this book.” (21) Transforming grace is prescribed as the only prevention and cure for pastoral unhealth.