Paul Tripp on TGC Podcast: Dangerous Calling

I loved the book by Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling (Kindle | WTS). I listened to his TGC talk via the TGC podcast yesterday, "Dangerous Calling," and it was wonderfully convicting. It's still pursuing me. I don't quite like how he handles the issue of sermon prep, though I agree with him in theory.

Check it out if you are a pastor, a pastor's wife, or if you need to know what your pastor may be going through. And if you are a pastor, don't just listen for you. Listen for the sake of your wife. It's in your face, but it's good. 

Pastors: What Should We Do About Fear?

Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling (Kindle version), which may be the best book of 2012 (certainly the most important book of 2012 for me and my wife), writes in chapter 9, "There are times when fear causes all of us to do things we should not do or keeps us from doing what we have been called to do. So it is vital to ask, What in the world should we do about fear? Let me suggest four things." I'll give you the list, but go read the book for Tripp's explanation of each...

1. Humbly own your fears
2. Confess those places where fear has produced bad decisions and wrong responses
3. Pay attention to your meditation
4. Preach the Gospel to yourself

Keeping Pastors From Isolation

Another helpful list from Paul David Tripp's tremendous book, Dangerous Calling. We haven't had a day pass without at least one significant conversation between me and my wife, Molly, since we started reading this book. We talked about a few things from this list today (from pages 79-82 in the printed edition). This is for pastors and those who care for them, and it's about a better, more healthy way to keep Pastors from isolation.

1. Require your Pastor to attend a small group he doesn't lead
2. Pastor, seek out a spiritually mature person to mentor you at all times
3. Establish a Pastor's wives' small group
4. Pastor, be committed to appropriate self-disclosure in your preaching
5. Be sure that your Pastor and his family are regularly invited into the homes of families in your church
6. Make sure there is someone who is regularly mentoring your Pastor's wife
7. Make sure your Pastor and his wife have the means to be regularly out of the house and away for weekends with one another
8. Make sure counseling help is always available to the Pastor, his wife, and their family

A lot of helpful explanation of these points are in the book, so you should get it and read it. My wife read it in 1 1/2 days (she has her own copy) and God is using it mightily in our marriage. I can't recommend Dangerous Calling (Kindle) enough. 

Dangerous Calling | Signs of a Pastor Losing His Way

In Paul David Tripp's new, and excellent, and devastating, and grace-giving book, Dangerous Calling, the author lists 9 signs of a pastor losing his way. They are based on one particular pastor he talked to (which is why they are listed as referring to one person), but they are listed in order to help all pastors. Tripp goes into great detail to explain each in chapter 2, and I urge you to not only get this book, but read it carefully and prayerfully as a pastor (or maybe to better understand your pastor). These were hard to read for me personally, and will make for painful yet fruitful conversation with my wife later today. I'll list the 9 signs concerning Tripp's assessment of one pastor, but please go read more about them in Dangerous Calling with the authors application to us all. Also check out the DVD's.

1. He ignored the clear evidence of problems
2. He was blind to the issue of his own heart
3. His ministry lacked devotion
4. He wasn't preaching the gospel to himself
5. He wasn't listening to the people closest to him
6. His ministry became burdensome
7. He began to live in silence
8. He began to question his calling
9. He gave way to fantasies of another life

Pastors: Where Is Your Identity?

Another quote from Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp. This one on pastors and our identity, where it might be and should be...

Blind to what was going on in my heart, I was proud, unapproachable, defensive, and all too comfortable. I was a pastor; I didn’t need what other people need. Now, I want to say again that at the conceptual, theological level, I would have argued that all of this was bunk. Being a pastor was my calling, not my identity. Child of the Most High God was my cross-purchased identity. Member of the body of Christ was my identity. Man in the middle of his own sanctification was my identity. Sinner and still in need of rescuing, transforming, empowering, and delivering grace was my identity. I didn’t realize that I looked horizontally for what I had already been given in Christ and that it was producing a harvest of bad fruit in my heart, in my ministry, and in my relationships. I had let my ministry become something that it should never be (my identity); I looked to it to give me what it never could (my inner sense of well-being).

Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling (p. 25)

Pastors: Find A Deeper Hope in the Gospel

Here's a good reason for pastors to buy and read Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp. I'd also recommend church members read this. It will open your eyes to what your pastor is going through, much of it you don't know.

This is a diagnostic book. It is written to help you take an honest look at yourself in the heart- and life-exposing mirror of the Word of God—to see things that are wrong and need correcting and to help you place yourself once again under the healing and transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of the books that I have written, I found this one the hardest to write, not because of the writing process itself but because its pages expose the ugliness of my own heart and display how desperate my need for grace continues to be. It is not an exaggeration to say that I wept my way through writing some of the chapters. There were moments when I would go upstairs to share what I had written with Luella, the tears of conviction would come, and I would be unable to continue. But as I did my writing, it did not leave me feeling discouraged or hopeless but, rather, with a deeper hope in the gospel and a greater joy in ministry than I think I have ever known.

Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling  (p. 11) - still 80% with coupon code: PASTORS

Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp

UPDATE 10.30.12: Use coupon code PASTORS and get the hardback book for $4.60 (80% off!).

I watched this video today (below) for Paul David Tripp's new book, Dangerous Calling. I immediately went searching for my wife so she could watch it with me. By the end she was tearing up a bit and then we had a 30 minute conversation about the last 8 1/2 years of pastoral ministry and the struggles and pain we've experienced in our family & relationships. It was very difficult to be this honest, but it was very fruitful.

I'm buying Dangerous Calling right now, as well as the conference DVD's (10 - 25 minutes sessions | grab the free leader's guide and discussion guide). WTS bookstore has great deals for the next 6 days: hardcover $12 (48% off, or 5 for $10 a piece) and conference DVD's $15 (62% off). Kindle is out on October 31st. 

Dangerous Calling from Crossway on Vimeo.