About the Author

Publisher's Description

We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness, there is no professional tenderheartedness, there is no professional panting after God.

Endorsement

This may be the most important book written for pastors in the past decade. Piper sounds a clarion call for pastors to chunk professionalized ministry for the radical and humble, self-denying and soul-satisfying, culture-threatening and person-redeeming ministry commended in Scripture. "The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake," Piper warns. This comes from the first of thirty chapters that chart for us how to cultivate radical, biblical ministry. Piper tells us to make God's glory central, pursue our joy in Him, go hard after God in prayer, labor over the Scriptures, read great books, study great lives, and emphasize soul-saving truths. This book is full of clear-thinking about both doctrinal issues (like eternal security) and ethical issues (like abortion), and the clear-thinking is joined with a hot-hearted passion for God, holiness, the Word, eternity, and the perishing. Brothers, this is a great book. If you want to be God's man for such a time as this, then get it, read it, meditate on it, pray over it, and above all, live it. God help us.