Why Pastoral Professionalism Isn’t Enough
00:00:00.000 | As we mentioned in the previous podcast, we recently hosted a pastors conference
00:00:08.680 | here in the Twin Cities in February. It was about the supernatural in ministry,
00:00:12.880 | and Pastor John, what were some of your conference takeaways? The whole
00:00:18.160 | conference was about, brothers, we are not professionals, and the nub of it came
00:00:26.360 | out when Jason Meier said in his message, "There is no
00:00:34.280 | professional fear and trembling." And he was talking about his taking up the
00:00:40.240 | mantle of the pastor at Bethlehem, and Paul said he came to the church in
00:00:45.600 | Corinth with much fear and trembling, and he said it was of the essence of
00:00:50.880 | faith, because Philippians 2 says we're supposed to work out our salvation with
00:00:56.640 | fear and trembling, and yet when you stop and think about it, that would be
00:01:00.000 | something that no professional seminar would give you ten steps to fear and
00:01:06.480 | trembling. So that's the gist of it. The things we're called to do as pastors are
00:01:14.080 | done in ways that rely upon the supernatural and awaken in us
00:01:21.120 | affections that are essential for doing the ministry, like fear and trembling,
00:01:26.840 | humility, love, kindness, and these are things that are just not considered
00:01:32.600 | professional in our day. They're not evil, viewed by evil as professionals. I'm just
00:01:39.200 | so eager that the pastors not give way to their self-identity as a professional,
00:01:46.640 | because all of the essential things in the ministry are of such a nature that
00:01:51.440 | we wouldn't describe them as professional. The pursuit of the power of
00:01:56.640 | the Holy Spirit is the essence of the matter, and not being professional.
00:02:03.800 | We want to be the kind of ministers who rely not upon ourselves and our
00:02:09.360 | expertise and our excellence and our skills, but upon the Holy Spirit. And
00:02:14.400 | what came out in the conference was that that's done in very ordinary ways. I
00:02:19.800 | think my talk was an example of that, where you meditate on the Word of God by
00:02:25.280 | trying to say things in a most effective and compelling way. That's a
00:02:30.600 | very natural process in one sense, and yet if you do it with humble, childlike
00:02:36.160 | prayerfulness, crying out to God that he would bring to your mind the things that
00:02:40.400 | need to be said, then you can see what a switch it takes from professionalism. And
00:02:45.960 | the extraordinary came out in both Mac Stiles' talk and in Topik Kalioso's
00:02:51.720 | talk, and Mac gave this illustration. This is just classic, non--you can't
00:02:57.920 | plan or professionalize this. He said, "A Muslim woman in a shower heard a voice in
00:03:06.880 | her head, 'I have redeemed you.'" She didn't have a clue what that meant as a Muslim.
00:03:13.800 | She went to her imam, and he said, "Well, that was probably the Prophet Jesus. Only
00:03:17.800 | the Prophet Jesus talks that way." Well, meanwhile, up in Europe--I think it was
00:03:23.760 | Amsterdam--her sister is approached by a woman who says she had a strong sense, or
00:03:29.320 | I think it was a dream, in which she was supposed to get on a plane and fly to
00:03:33.200 | see her sister down in this Muslim country, and she had already bought her ticket for
00:03:38.400 | her. She flies down there, knocks on the door, and she's a Christian, and she says,
00:03:43.440 | "I don't know why I'm here," and the woman says, "Well, I know why you're here," and she shares
00:03:47.760 | Christ with her, she becomes a Christian, and that woman who had that impression in
00:03:52.280 | the shower is now in Max Stiles' church there in Dubai. So now that's the sort of
00:03:58.680 | thing that God's doing all over the world in terms of extraordinary works of
00:04:03.200 | the Spirit. So both the extraordinary and the ordinary show us that
00:04:07.880 | there's a way to pursue ministry that is different from what we ordinarily
00:04:13.280 | think is professional. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this
00:04:17.040 | podcast. Send your questions to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:04:21.080 | Please include your first name in your hometown. Find thousands of other free
00:04:24.560 | resources from John Piper online at desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony
00:04:28.600 | Rehnke. Thanks for listening.
00:04:31.680 | [BLANK_AUDIO]