Book Review

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry

John Piper, Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 2002, 286 pp.

John Piper has written this book for Pastors. In it he urges Pastors to pursue a radical, Christ-exalting, life-transforming ministry centered on uncompromised fidelity to the supremacy of God. As the in-your-face title suggests, Piper calls for resistance against the modern “professionalizing” of ministry. One should not pursue ministry as a career path but as a passionate calling from God. Piper also notes, up front, that “there will be many rankled by the word brothers,” but he replies, “To all these I say, yes, you have a point. I receive it. If you believe that such things are the crying need of our age, then say them. But that is not my assessment of things” (xii).

The book consists of thirty brief meditations (each about 5-10 pages in length) on various aspects of Pastoral ministry. A Pastor might use the book for a month-long devotion, reading one chapter each morning as the day of pastoral ministry begins. I once heard Piper say that if you read one of his books then you have read them all. There is something quite true about that observation. One will find many of Piper’s favorite themes repeated in this volume. For example, in chapter 7 (“Brothers, Consider Christian Hedonism”), one finds Piper presenting his life thesis: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” (45; see Piper’s classic Desiring God for fuller exposition of his notion of “Christian Hedonism”).

There is also much in the book that is fresh and will prove nourishing food for the Pastor’s soul. Among other things, Piper praises the wisdom of reading Christian biography (chapter 13, “Brothers, Read Christian Biography”), of believing in and preaching straightforwardly about hell (chapter 16, “Brothers, We Must Feel the Truth of Hell”), and of prophetically opposing abortion (chapter 27, “Brothers, Blow the Trumpet for the Unborn”). Piper also exhibits throughout a healthy skepticism of modern man-made methods. In chapter 8 (“Brothers, Let Us Pray”), for example, he writes:

I do not become excited when denominations or churches react to their lack of growth by merely adding a new program. I know that the reason so few conversions are happening through my church is not because we lack a program or staff. It is because we do not love the lost and yearn for their salvation the way we should. And the reason we do not love them as we ought is because such love is a miracle that overcomes our selfish bent. It cannot be managed or maneuvered into existence. It is an astonishing miracle (56).

Indeed, one will not find in this volume any coddling of ministers by telling them they are overworked or warning them of burn-out. Nor will one find any suggestions for quick-fix church growth turn around. Instead, one will find an uncompromising challenge to pursue excellence and passion in pastoral ministry to the glory of God.

In the preface, Piper notes that “The beginning of the twentieth-first century is a good time to be a pastor” (ix). Indeed, it is refreshing to read a book that so esteems the role of Pastor and encourages and challenges those of us who labor in the field of the local church to be faithful and prophetic shepherds.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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