Dangerous Calling - A Review
As my congregation works through a revision of the constitution to enable a shift to a plurality of elders, I have been looking for resources for potential leaders to work through.
Paul Tripp’s book, Dangerous Calling, is one that popped up on the list of volumes to consider. This 2012 volume from Crossway reflects on the challenges that are particular to the role of pastors.
This volume consists of three parts. Part One considers the aspects of the pastoral role that may contribute to burnout, overburden, and the crumbling of marriages. Tripp admits to his own struggles, especially with anger, and reflects on the cultural factors that contribute to that decline. In particular, when the pastor becomes separate from the congregations—special saints who aren’t also being ministered to, they are at risk of failure. Similarly, when they focus their study only on preparation and not on inculcating a strong spiritual life, they can fall into traps of pride, spiritual starvation, and sin.
Part Two deals with the condition when a pastor loses sight of the amazing character of God. This may lead to spiritual poverty, or to slipping into patterns of dissipation, which may simply include excessive internet usage or mindless entertainment. Similarly, forgetting the wonder of God may lead failure to prepare well and accepting mediocrity in ministry.
Part Three emphasizes the problem with pride that may come from faulty culture and a lack of awe. Pride, of course, is a grave danger to any Christian, but perhaps especially to someone in a leadership position, with a responsibility to stand before a congregation and preach. This can lead to an overemphasis on preparation so that the sermon becomes a performance to the further detriment of the pastor’s character and quality of service. Again, the issue of pride can lead to increased separation, with a sort of feedback that only makes the root problems worse.
The book is very practical. Each distinct section of the volume emphasizes the real problems that pastors can face with some potential solutions. The baseline solution is very simple: pastors should not allow themselves to be isolated from the congregation or from a support network that will hold them accountable; conversely, congregations should make sure they do not allow that to happen to their pastors. Like many spiritual disciplines, the answer is simple, yet difficult.
In large part, the book seems best suited for those who earn their living from their ministry roles—whatever the title may be. There is a lot of good material in the text about pastors needing friends and the damage that pastoral isolation can bring for his family and his congregation.
One of the most obvious solutions for pastoral isolation is conspicuously absent from this volume: the institution of a plurality of elders who are all responsible for the ministry of the church and with lay elders that are commissioned to encourage any vocational staff, help bear the load, and ensure any staff elders are not singled out.
The book is an easy read. It is generally helpful. There is a great deal of repetition in the volume, however. The examples are repetitive and the solution so simple that the text could have been a third or more shorter and still accomplished every purpose that it sought to achieve. This is a worthy topic and Tripp brings good advice, but it could have been executed in a much more succinct manner.
The way we talk about humans also has moral implications, which are more significant than how we treat our pets. In his 2011 book, Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, David Livingstone Smith explores how language changes culture and leads to the justification of extreme violence against others, especially when they become perceived as less than human.