"Dangerous Calling"

It would be easy to resent the fact that no one put a copy of Paul Tripp’s book, Dangerous Calling, into my hands when I prepared for the pastorate. I could be bitter that no one recommended it to me ten years into my tour of pastoral duty. Yes, it would be easy to be bitter except for the fact that it was not published until 2012.

With the typical biblical thoroughness, passionate care, and real-life practicality which characterize Dr. Tripp, the book sets before the reader the things to be expected in ministry; but it does not focus on the controlling deacon or the domineering charter member. It focuses on the pastor’s internal thorn-in-the-flesh – himself.

It would be a mistake to write Dangerous Calling off as a pastor’s manual. It is a book for all Christians, because the inner foes of a pastor are different from the people in the pew only in their costumes. Indeed, the book calls for both pastors and church members to know the vulnerabilities and the intensities which beset a spiritual leader.

Dr. Tripp explains the mine strewn landscape of ministry under three headings. Although it is impossible to say one unit is better than another, I would suggest that Dr. Trip has prioritized them correctly. The second unit, in the pivotal position, is: “The Danger of Losing Your Awe (Forgetting Who God Is).” This is the natural consequence of the first unit: “Examining Pastoral Culture,” which takes to task the dangers to which educators expose a pastor-in-training – dangers of scholastic pride and community aloofness to name a couple.

When both of those units have been digested, the reader is ready for Satan’s ultimate tactic in neutralizing a man of God: “The Danger of Arrival (Forgetting Who You Are).” It is difficult to balance on a pedestal.

Why have I bothered to read this in my retirement years? Because of a warning from an older pastor in the days of my youth. “There’s no fool like an old fool.” 

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