Dangerous Calling Quotes

“No one celebrates the presence and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ more than the person who has embraced his desperate and daily need of it.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“You are most humble and gentle when you think that the person you are ministering to is more like you than unlike you. When you have inserted yourself into another category that tends to make you think you have arrived, it is very easy to be judgmental and impatient.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“I have talked with many pastors whose real struggle isn’t first with the hardship of ministry, the lack of appreciation and involvement of people, or difficulties with fellow leaders. No, the real struggle they are having, one that is very hard for a pastor to admit, is with God. What is caused to ministry become hard and burdensome is disappointment and anger at God.

We have forgotten that pastoral ministry is war and that you will never live successfully in the pastorate if you live with the peacetime mentality. Permit me to explain. The fundamental battle of pastoral ministry is not with the shifting values of the surrounding culture. It is not the struggle with resistant people who don't seem to esteem the Gospel. It is not the fight for the success of ministries of the church. And is not the constant struggle of resources and personnel to accomplish the mission. No, the war of the pastor is a deeply personal war. It is far on the ground of the pastor’s heart. It is a war values, allegiances, and motivations. It's about the subtle desires and foundational dreams. This war is the greatest threat to every pastor. Yet it is a war that we often naïvely ignore or quickly forget in the busyness of local church ministry.

When you forget the Gospel, you begin to seek from the situations, locations and relationships of ministry what you already have been given in Christ. You begin to look to ministry for identity, security, hope, well-being, meeting, and purpose. These things are already yours in Christ.

In ways of which you are not always aware, your ministry is always shaped by what is in functional control of your heart.

The fact of the matter is that many pastors become awe numb or awe confused, or they get awe kidnapped. Many pastors look at glory and don't seek glory anymore. Many pastors are just cranking out because they don't know what else to do. Many pastors preach a boring, uninspiring gospel that makes you wonder why people aren't sleeping their way through it. Many pastors are better at arguing fine points of doctrine than stimulating divine wonder. Many pastors see more stimulated by the next ministry, vision of the next step in strategic planning than by the stunning glory of the grand intervention of grace into sin broken hearts. The glories of being right, successful, in control, esteemed, and secure often become more influential in the way that ministry is done than the awesome realities of the presence, sovereignty, power, and love of God.

Mediocrity is not a time, personnel, resource, or location problem. Mediocrity is a heart problem. We have lost our commitment to the highest levels of excellence because we have lost our awe.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“maturity is about how you live your life. It is possible to be theologically astute and be very immature. It is possible to be biblically literate and be in need of significant spiritual growth.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Tender, heartfelt worship is hard for a person who thinks of himself as having arrived. No one celebrates the presence and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ more than the person who has embraced his desperate and daily need of it.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“The blinding ability of sin is so powerful and persuasive that you and I literally need daily intervention.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“The ultimate purpose of the Word of God is not theological information but heart and life transformation.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“For students who have not been required to confess that it is easier to learn theology then live it, it is tempting to think maturity is more a matter of knowing in a matter of living”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Perhaps in trouble you run to other people, hoping that they can be your personal messiah. Perhaps you run to entertainment, hoping to numb your troubles away. Maybe you run to a substance, trying your best to turn off the pain. Maybe you are tempted to run to food or sex, fighting pain with pleasure. Since none of these things can provide the refuge that you seek, putting your hope there tends only to add disappointment to the trouble you’re already experiencing. God really is your refuge and strength. Only he rules every location where your trouble exists. Only he controls all the relationships in which disappointment will rear its head. Only he has the power to rescue and deliver you. Only he has the grace you need to face what you are facing. Only he holds the wisdom that, in trouble, you so desperately need. Only he is in, with, and for you at all times. He is the refuge of refuges.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Human beings are always assigning to themselves some kind of identity. There are only two places to look. Either you will be getting your identity vertically, from who you are in Christ, or you will be shopping for it horizontally in the situations, experiences, and relationships of your daily life. This”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“You are most loving, patient, kind, and gracious when you are aware that there is no truth that you could give to another that you don’t desperately need yourself.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Biblical literacy is not to be confused with Christian maturity. Homiletic accuracy is not the same as godliness. Theological dexterity is very different from practical holiness. Successful leadership is not the same as a heart for Christ. Growth in influence must not be confused with growth in grace.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“There is no one we swindle more than we swindle ourselves. There is no one we run to defend more than we do ourselves. And like every other spiritually blind person, Joe was blind to his blindness.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“You need to preach a gospel that finds its hope not in your understanding and ability but in a God who is grand and glorious in every way and who has invaded your life and ministry by his grace.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Either you will be getting your identity vertically, from who you are in Christ, or you will be shopping for it horizontally in the situations, experiences, and relationships of your daily life.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“You are constantly preaching to yourself some kind of gospel. You preach to yourself an anti-gospel of your own righteousness, power, and wisdom, or you preach to yourself the true gospel of deep spiritual need and sufficient grace. You preach to yourself an anti-gospel of aloneness and inability, or you preach to yourself the true gospel of the presence, provisions, and power of an ever-present Christ.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Knowledge is an exercise of your brain. Wisdom is the commitment of your heart that leads to transformation of your life.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“Bad things happen when maturity is more defined by knowing than it is by being. Danger is afloat when you come to love the ideas more than the God whom they represent and the people they are meant to free.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“You are constantly preaching to yourself some kind of gospel. You preach to yourself an anti-gospel of your own righteousness, power, and wisdom, or you preach to yourself the true gospel of deep spiritual need and sufficient grace, You preach to yourself an anti-gospel of aloneness and inability, or you preach to yourself the true gospel of the presence, provisions, and power of an ever-present Christ.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“When I daily admit how needy I am, daily meditate on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and daily feed on the restorative wisdom of his Word, I am propelled to share with others the grace that I am daily receiving at the hands of my Savior. There simply is no set of exegetical, homiletical, or leadership skills that can compensate for the absence of this in the life of a pastor. It is my worship that enables me to lead others to worship. It is my sense of need that leads me to tenderly pastor those in need of grace. It is my joy in my identity in Christ that leads me to want to help others live in the middle of what it means to be “in Christ.” In fact, one of the things that makes a sermon compelling is that the preacher is worshiping his way through his own sermon.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“The success of a ministry is always more a picture of who God is than a statement about who the people are that he is using for his purpose.”
― Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry

“O conhecimento bíblico não deve ser confundido com a maturidade cristã. A exatidão homilética não é o mesmo que piedade. Destreza teológica é muito diferente de santidade prática. Liderança bem sucedida não é o mesmo que um coração para Cristo. Crescimento em influência não deve ser confundido com crescimento em graça.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“Maturidade é algo vertical, que terá grande variedade de expressões horizontais. Maturidade diz respeito ao relacionamento com Deus que resulta em um viver sábio e humilde. A maturidade no amor por Cristo se expressa no amor por outros. Gratidão pela graça de Cristo se expressa na graça a outras pessoas. Gratidão pela paciência e perdão de Cristo capacita você a ser paciente e perdoador em relação a outros. É a sua própria experiência diária de resgate do evangelho que concede a você uma paixão pelas pessoas a fim de que elas experimentem o mesmo resgate.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“O pastor deve estar encantado, maravilhado – permita-me dizer, apaixonado – pelo seu Redentor a tal ponto de tudo o que ele pensa, deseja, escolhe, decide, diz e faz seja motivado por seu amor a Cristo e pela segurança de descansar no amor de Cristo. Ele deve ser regularmente exposto, quebrantado, assegurado e acalentado pela graça do seu Redentor. Seu coração precisa ser sensibilizado dia após dia por sua comunhão com Cristo, até que ele se torne meigo, amoroso, paciente, perdoador, encorajador e um líder servo doador. A sua meditação sobre Cristo – a presença, promessas e provisões dele – não deve estar subjugada à sua meditação sobre como ele desempenha o seu ministério.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“Veja, é somente o amor a Cristo que pode defender o coração do pastor contra todos os outros amores que têm o potencial de sequestrar seu ministério. É somente a adoração a Cristo que tem o poder de protegê-lo contra todos os sedutores ídolos do ministério que cochicharão em seus ouvidos. É apenas a glória do Cristo ressurreto que vai guardá-lo contra a glória própria, que é uma tentação para todos que estão no ministério, a qual destrói o ministério de tantos.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“é absolutamente vital lembrar que o ministério do pastor não é estruturado apenas por seu conhecimento, experiência e habilidade. Ele sempre é estruturado também pela verdadeira condição do seu coração. Na verdade, se o seu coração não estiver no lugar correto, todo o conhecimento e habilidade podem funcionar para torná-lo perigoso.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“O cristianismo academicizado, que não está constantemente conectado ao coração e coloca sua esperança no conhecimento e na habilidade, pode, na verdade, fazer estudantes perigosos. Ele os mune de conhecimento e habilidades poderosos, que podem fazê-los pensar que são mais maduros e piedosos do que na verdade são. Ele mune os alunos de armas de guerra espiritual que, se não usadas com humildade e graça, prejudicarão as pessoas que eles deveriam ajudar.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“Estou convencido de que a crise de cultura pastoral frequentemente começa nas salas de aula do seminário. Ela inicia com uma maneira de lidar com a Palavra de Deus que é distante, impessoal, baseada em informações. Ela começa com pastores que, em seus anos de seminário, se tornaram bastante satisfeitos em manter a Palavra de Deus distante do seu próprio coração. Começa com matérias que são acadêmicas sem serem pastorais. Começa com cérebros se tornando mais importantes do que corações. Começa com pontuações em testes sendo mais importantes do que caráter”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“Não é possível que os seminaristas se tornem peritos em um evangelho ao qual não estão sendo expostos, nem alterados por ele? Não é perigoso ensinar aos alunos a ficarem satisfeitos com o conteúdo radical da Escritura e, ao mesmo tempo, mantê-lo separado das suas vidas e corações? Não é perigoso para os estudantes se tornarem acomodados com a mensagem da Bíblia, não sendo humilhados, afligidos e condenados por ela? Não é importante que os seminaristas sejam confrontados diariamente pelas implicações pessoais da mensagem que eles estão aprendendo a esmiuçar e entregar a outras pessoas? Não é vital manter diante dos alunos que estão investigando a teologia de Cristo o chamado frequente e consistente para o amor modelador de vidas de Cristo? Pode ser verdade que muitos alunos no seminário estejam demasiadamente academicamente ocupados para sentarem diante da Rosa de Saron em reverência, amor e adoração? Existe a possibilidade de que, ao tornar a fé acadêmica, ou seja, um conjunto de regras e princípios, tenhamos tornado, involuntariamente, os meios para um fim em um fim em si? Não deveria toda instituição cristã de aprendizado mais elevado ser uma comunidade de fé cordial, estimulante, cristocêntrica e dirigida pelo evangelho? É possível que, em vez de ter como nossos alunos de missões aqueles que dominam a fundo o Livro, o nosso alvo deva ser formar alunos que foram dominados pelo Deus do Livro?”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral

“Coisas ruins acontecem quando a maturidade é definida mais por conhecer do que por ser. O perigo está à solta quando você começa a amar mais as ideias do que ao Deus que elas representam e às pessoas que elas desejam libertar.”
― Paul Tripp, Vocação perigosa: Os tremendos desafios do ministério pastoral