Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 17:50 (Spring 2013)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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JODT 17:50 (Spring 2013) p. 83

Book Reviews

Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry by Paul David Tripp. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012. 227 pp., cloth, $22.99.

Paul Tripp, who has ministered as a pastor, seminary professor, counselor, conference speaker and author, is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries and executive director of the Center for Pastoral Life and Care in Fort Worth, Texas. With this wide range and depth of ministry as a background, Tripp is certainly one who would understand well the dangers of the pastorate. Having talked with thousands of pastors throughout the world, as well as examining his own experience, Tripp knows how easy it is to fall into various traps that can greatly diminish, or even destroy, the servant of God. He wrote Dangerous Calling to warn about and evaluate those traps and prescribe a biblical solution. He called this work a diagnostic book “written to help you take an honest look at yourself in the heart- and life-exposing mirror of the Word of God” (p. 11). More specifically, Tripp said “It is a detailed exposition of what happens in the life of a person in ministry when he forgets to preach to himself the same gospel that he gives to others” (p. 222).

Some of the ministerial traps that Tripp identified and addressed include:

• becoming professionals rather than servants (pp. 21–25);
• defining spiritual maturity by theological knowledge, a problem often aggravated by seminaries (pp. 25, 44, 53–56, 84–85);
• not being realistic about one’s own spiritual problems (pp. 33–35, 97, 199, 206);
• attempting to serve without an adequate support base (pp. 73–82, 97);
• not preaching the gospel to oneself (pp. 99, 136, 222);
• losing the awe of God (pp. 113–163) and therefore ministering in fear of others (pp. 204–05);
• becoming mediocre, especially in preaching (pp. 137–50);
• thinking that one has arrived (pp. 151–224);
• inadequate private devotional life (pp. 183–97); and,
• envy and bitterness (p. 179).

JODT 17:50 (Spring 2013) p. 84

Dangerous Calling exposes the lives and hearts of pastors in a realistic and biblical way. The delusional, false idea of pastoral life and ministry is removed to reveal the difficulty of the work and the weaknesses of the worker. The emphasis here is both helpful and disheartening as Tripp stated, “There is a way in which pastoral ministry will make you either sad or delusional” (p. 208). One would hope that there is a road between these two extremes—one described as realistic, wise, grounded in Scripture, and joyful even in the midst of much sorrow. Consequently, one issue with Dangerous Calling is it could leave the...

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