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    Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry
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    Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry
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    Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry
    Audiobook8 hours

    Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

    Written by Paul David Tripp

    Narrated by Maurice England

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    After traveling the world for many years and speaking at hundreds of churches of all kinds, Paul David Tripp is concerned about the state of pastoral culture. He is not only concerned about the spiritual life of the pastor, but with the very people who train him, call him, relate to him, and restore 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 war that rages not only in the momentous moments of ministry, but also in the mundane day-by-day life of every pastor.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEChristian, Inc. Audio
    Release dateOct 31, 2012
    ISBN9781610455152
    Author

    Paul David Tripp

    Paul David Tripp (DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) is a pastor, an award-winning author, and an international conference speaker. He has written numerous books, including Lead; Parenting; and the bestselling devotional New Morning Mercies. His not-for-profit ministry exists to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Tripp lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Luella, and they have four grown children.

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    Reviews for Dangerous Calling

    4.5/5

    28 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Disclaimer: On my sabbatical in January 2013 and since, I have probably read 10-12 "pastoral ministry" books. That probably affects my rating of this book. The book is uneven in its content quality. Some chapters were excellent and I will be returning to them again. Others weren't helpful and one in particular was simply a beatdown with very little help or hope given. As another reviewer has stated, lots of help in pointing out the dangers but not as much in how to avoid them or what to do when we fall into them. Still worth the time to read.
    • 5/5
      A must read for anyone in ministry, or a ministry supporter.
    • 4/5
      Well worth the read for anyone engaged in long-term ministry
    • 4/5
      One of those books best taken in small pieces, because the pieces do not go down easily. Tripp sometimes overwrites, and he can only imagine male pastors, but he gets to the heart of things again and again, to a painful level. (In the recommendation of small doses, and in its to-the-bone intensity, it reminds me of the experience of reading Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ.)
    • 4/5
      Excellent book about the problem that many pastors face where they preach the gospel each day but find themselves unable to share with anybody else about their own sin. I'm really concerned about this problem in the church today and I believe this book would be a great help to any pastor or those were concerned about them. Highly recommended!
    • 5/5
      Dangerous CallingPaul David TrippBook Summary: After traveling the globe and speaking to thousands of churches worldwide, Paul David Tripp has discovered a serious problem within pastoral culture. Dangerous Calling reveals the truth that the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy—an environment that actively undermines the well-being and effectiveness 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.Review: Fantastic Book!!!! What a personal testimony, and a very relevant topic for today. Sadly I had to agree with many of his views. I think that never before has someone on the inside of the pastorate admitted that something is radically going wrong with our churches and it starts many times from the man in the pulpit or the leadership. I heard for years it is not the people in the pews that are destroying the church, it is the leadership. It also seemed so sad that pastors feel like they can not be real with the very people who are wishing them the most success. His stories that add depth to the call for pastors to become vulnerable and authentic with the leadership and congregants. I found this book to be more for every church goer so that everyone in the church can help those in need. Because being authentic with people in the church is the hardest thing to do, most people do not really know how to come alongside others and bare one another’s burdens.I would like to thank Net Galley and Crossway for allowing me to read and review this book in return for a free copy and I was never asked to write a favorable review by anyone. 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.
    • 5/5
      In his latest book, biblical counselor Paul David Tripp addresses the challenges and temptations that are unique to or intensified by pastoral ministry. In his counseling ministry, Tripp has seen all too much evidence of a real breakdown in how pastoral ministry is both viewed and practiced. Many pastors operate above or outside of the sanctifying ministry of the Body of Christ, as if they don't need the same accountability, admonishment, and encouragement that the rest of us do. This is a result of both our natural sin nature and the propensity of seminaries to reduce the faith to a set of theological rules while neglecting the students' ongoing need to be pastored. Tripp starts by telling his own story: how he, as a young pastor, fell into all the various traps of arrival, pride, spiritual blindness, secretiveness, and a refusal to receive ministry as just another member of the Body of Christ. There was a big disconnect between Tripp's private life and his public ministry persona, and he didn't see its severity or the danger it brought to his ministry. He had learned to live with the discrepancy. When, by God's grace, he finally saw his sin for what it was, he was utterly broken. It was a long process to change, but God, who is faithful to reveal our sin, is also faithful to sanctify us as we realize our perpetual need for moment-by-moment grace. Tripp talks about how our seminary culture unwittingly fosters the breakdown in pastoral ministry. During the busy years of seminary, many young men are working in addition to taking rigorous classes, and many also are married with family responsibilities. This leaves little time for meaningful involvement in a local church, and many students justify this lack by their coursework, which is of course centered on the Bible. Seminary professors, far from approaching their students with a pastoral heart, tend to become embroiled in petty internal turf wars. So seminaries regularly turn out graduates who have been removed from the ministry of the Body for several years, and who are puffed up with all the knowledge they have mastered. But it is extremely dangerous to equate biblical knowledge with spiritual maturity. Many young pastors have great grades and are bursting with knowledge, but are not actually all that spiritually mature in their own lives. Knowing something chapter and verse means little if you aren't applying it in your own life. Tripp also warns against the dangers of secrecy. He says an overweening desire for privacy should be a big red flag for pastors who are struggling with the discrepancies between their private and public lives. Often the wives of these men have very few and limited real friendships in the church because they are afraid to let anyone know what is really going on in their home. If a pastor is very secretive and skilled at deflecting personal questions, he is probably in deep waters. We can't let these men just hide until they can't take it anymore; we have to be lovingly invasive. The feeling of arrival is another danger lurking for those in pastoral ministry. When we believe we have arrived spiritually, we become prideful and resistant to others in our church and life who would try to minister to us or even perhaps point out areas where we can improve. If we have arrived, we have nothing left to improve; we view ourselves as having it all together already. This breeds pride, as many pastors cut themselves off from the life of the Body because they don't feel they need it anymore. Again and again, Tripp emphasizes our constant need for transforming grace. We never "arrive" this side of heaven, and that is why God has provided us with abundant grace. Tripp does more than just analyze the problem (though he certainly does that very thoroughly): he offers the solution. It really boils down to two foundational truths pastors must live: they must recognize their ongoing need for empowering grace, and they must submit themselves to the ministry of the church. This means that they must let people into their lives and be transparent about their failings and need for help. They are in the same boat as the rest of the church, and need grace just as much as anyone else. How can laypeople in the church help our pastors? We need to understand their temptations and work to engage them on a personal level. Invite them to our homes for dinner. Involve them in activities where they aren't specifically functioning as the spiritual leader of the group. Get to know their family. Ask for accountability — and ask probing questions with an eye to how you can encourage them. Allow them regular time off, and insist they take it. Pray for them faithfully. There are so many ways we can serve our pastors, and it's more than just telling them we appreciate their ministry. If we want to guard our pastor and his family and ministry, we need to help them function as part of the Body of Christ, with all the accountability and exhortation and personal sharing that involves. I have spoken in terms of "we" and "us" in this review, but I am not a pastor. I have used these terms because as I listened to this audiobook (read wonderfully by Maurice England), I often heard myself in Tripp's words. This is because pastors and laypeople are not really different; we are all sinners in constant need of grace, and we are all tempted to cover our sin and shy away from transparency and the cost it entails. Though written for pastors, this book is also incredibly valuable to seminaries as well as laypeople in the church like myself. I'm thankful for Tripp and the essential ministry he carries out in the life of the church. I'm also thankful to the friend who distributed these audiobooks throughout our church body; what a blessing that is! This richly biblical book is another immensely practical, theologically accurate source of help and encouragement, and one that I would purchase for my pastor if I didn't know he's already read it twice. Excellent!
    • 5/5
      Very, very good, a fitting pair for Sittema’s _With a Shepherd’s heart_. It defies not only pastors but all Christians to live truly to ðeir faiþ.

      If I could take only half a star, it would be for its usage of slang and for not giving us closure in the stories told.
    • 5/5
      I was recently introduced to Paul Tripp's work, and I have not been dissapointed. He pulls no punches as he rips apart the mockery of the gospel that is much of pastoral culture in the western world. But he does so with a tender heart, and from a place of contrition, having been guilty of much of what he warns against. He offers practical helps for working through issues in your church. But he teaches us to be a christian first, husband, father, and then a pastor. His many years working with pastors has given him a firsthand look into the devastating effects of the current status quo. With this book we can begin to change the way pastors see themselves, and the way churches see them as well.
    • 5/5
      In his latest book, biblical counselor Paul David Tripp addresses the challenges and temptations that are unique to or intensified by pastoral ministry. In his counseling ministry, Tripp has seen all too much evidence of a real breakdown in how pastoral ministry is both viewed and practiced. Many pastors operate above or outside of the sanctifying ministry of the Body of Christ, as if they don't need the same accountability, admonishment, and encouragement that the rest of us do. This is a result of both our natural sin nature and the propensity of seminaries to reduce the faith to a set of theological rules while neglecting the students' ongoing need to be pastored. Tripp starts by telling his own story: how he, as a young pastor, fell into all the various traps of arrival, pride, spiritual blindness, secretiveness, and a refusal to receive ministry as just another member of the Body of Christ. There was a big disconnect between Tripp's private life and his public ministry persona, and he didn't see its severity or the danger it brought to his ministry. He had learned to live with the discrepancy. When, by God's grace, he finally saw his sin for what it was, he was utterly broken. It was a long process to change, but God, who is faithful to reveal our sin, is also faithful to sanctify us as we realize our perpetual need for moment-by-moment grace. Tripp talks about how our seminary culture unwittingly fosters the breakdown in pastoral ministry. During the busy years of seminary, many young men are working in addition to taking rigorous classes, and many also are married with family responsibilities. This leaves little time for meaningful involvement in a local church, and many students justify this lack by their coursework, which is of course centered on the Bible. Seminary professors, far from approaching their students with a pastoral heart, tend to become embroiled in petty internal turf wars. So seminaries regularly turn out graduates who have been removed from the ministry of the Body for several years, and who are puffed up with all the knowledge they have mastered. But it is extremely dangerous to equate biblical knowledge with spiritual maturity. Many young pastors have great grades and are bursting with knowledge, but are not actually all that spiritually mature in their own lives. Knowing something chapter and verse means little if you aren't applying it in your own life. Tripp also warns against the dangers of secrecy. He says an overweening desire for privacy should be a big red flag for pastors who are struggling with the discrepancies between their private and public lives. Often the wives of these men have very few and limited real friendships in the church because they are afraid to let anyone know what is really going on in their home. If a pastor is very secretive and skilled at deflecting personal questions, he is probably in deep waters. We can't let these men just hide until they can't take it anymore; we have to be lovingly invasive. The feeling of arrival is another danger lurking for those in pastoral ministry. When we believe we have arrived spiritually, we become prideful and resistant to others in our church and life who would try to minister to us or even perhaps point out areas where we can improve. If we have arrived, we have nothing left to improve; we view ourselves as having it all together already. This breeds pride, as many pastors cut themselves off from the life of the Body because they don't feel they need it anymore. Again and again, Tripp emphasizes our constant need for transforming grace. We never "arrive" this side of heaven, and that is why God has provided us with abundant grace. Tripp does more than just analyze the problem (though he certainly does that very thoroughly): he offers the solution. It really boils down to two foundational truths pastors must live: they must recognize their ongoing need for empowering grace, and they must submit themselves to the ministry of the church. This means that they must let people into their lives and be transparent about their failings and need for help. They are in the same boat as the rest of the church, and need grace just as much as anyone else. How can laypeople in the church help our pastors? We need to understand their temptations and work to engage them on a personal level. Invite them to our homes for dinner. Involve them in activities where they aren't specifically functioning as the spiritual leader of the group. Get to know their family. Ask for accountability — and ask probing questions with an eye to how you can encourage them. Allow them regular time off, and insist they take it. Pray for them faithfully. There are so many ways we can serve our pastors, and it's more than just telling them we appreciate their ministry. If we want to guard our pastor and his family and ministry, we need to help them function as part of the Body of Christ, with all the accountability and exhortation and personal sharing that involves. I have spoken in terms of "we" and "us" in this review, but I am not a pastor. I have used these terms because as I listened to this audiobook (read wonderfully by Maurice England), I often heard myself in Tripp's words. This is because pastors and laypeople are not really different; we are all sinners in constant need of grace, and we are all tempted to cover our sin and shy away from transparency and the cost it entails. Though written for pastors, this book is also incredibly valuable to seminaries as well as laypeople in the church like myself. I'm thankful for Tripp and the essential ministry he carries out in the life of the church. I'm also thankful to the friend who distributed these audiobooks throughout our church body; what a blessing that is! This richly biblical book is another immensely practical, theologically accurate source of help and encouragement, and one that I would purchase for my pastor if I didn't know he's already read it twice. Excellent!
    • 5/5
      Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry by Paul David Tripp made a number of top-10 lists last year. I have read several of his other books and they have been excellent. One, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, is among the five best books I’ve ever read. After reading Dangerous Calling it is easy to see why so many people included it on their 2012 lists. It is that good. Dangerous Calling is written primarily to pastors and those who either live with or lead ministry among them. It is meant to warn and encourage pastors of the hazards of their profession. It is a topic of which Tripp knows well, from his own experience in pastoral ministry and his current work, which includes consulting with churches and pastors on ministry leadership. He divides the book into three parts. The first addresses the culture in which pastors are formed and live. This includes a critique of the weaknesses of many seminaries in the formation of pastoral identity and the pitfalls awaiting these new pastors as they move into their congregations. Parts Two and Three are the Danger of Losing Your Awe (Forgetting Who God Is), and The Danger of Arrival (Forgetting Who You Are). In these two parts of the book Tripp gets to the heart of the dangers of pastoral ministry, dangers that all too often result in someone who is called to ministry becoming someone who is just doing a job rather than in living in service to the Lord God Almighty. He shows how easy it is for a pastor to slide in either the direction of living as if God is not God, or living as if the pastor is functionally God. Tripp is no ministry idealist, with the mistaken belief that every pastor is capable of always ministering perfectly. Much like the central thesis of Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, that imperfect and broken people are active in the healing of imperfect and broken people, he knows that while all Christians are being shaped in the image of Christ they will never fully achieve that image in this life. Time-and-again he uses examples from his own ministry and the churches and pastors he has consulted among to show that all pastors are just like the people in their congregations, equally in need of hearing anew the same Gospel they are preaching.In his closing thoughts Tripp writes this: “It is in the moments of hardship when what God is doing doesn't make any sense that it is all the more important to preach to ourselves the gospel of his unshakable, unrelenting, ever-present care. He is actively caring for you and me even in those moments when we don't understand his care and can't figure out what he is doing." (217)Pastoral ministry is dangerous work, strewn with hazards that can adversely affect the pastor, their family and the congregation. In Dangerous Calling Tripp has written an excellent book to help pastors stay on track in the places where God has called them to serve, for the sake of God’s kingdom and the magnification of God’s glory.