Professional ministry?

In some ways, serving as a pastor is a "job": the pastor has certain responsibilities to fulfill, he is paid by an employer, he is expected to have basic competence in certain skills such as public speaking. The ministry even has affinities with other professions. There are specialized skills that most pastors are expected to learn (such as Hebrew and Greek), a body of knowledge he is supposed to master, and he is part of an identifiable "guild" of fellow practitioners in his field.

But there is nothing more deadly to the true ministry of the gospel than for a pastor to approach his calling as a mere job, or to only practice his chosen profession. In fact, there is no such thing as a professional pastor. This is the point John Piper drives home in his book written for pastors, "Brothers, We are Not Professionals." He says on the first page:

"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 (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Ps. 42:1)."

It's writing like this that makes me like John Piper. He makes his points clearly and forcefully. I found myself encouraged and challenged with nearly every chapter I read of this book. And often convicted. The temptation a pastor faces, as I've experienced the ministry, is not so much to fail to do the job, but to just do "the job".

Which is why I need to read books like Piper's. I am reminded of what God has called me to do: not to make a living, but to make Jesus Christ known to others for their salvation and joy. No one is sufficient for this, but God has chosen the weak and frail instruments of human ministers to make God's Word known, both his Word of warning and his Word of promise and hope.

If you are a pastor, I recommend this book for you. If you are a Presbyterian pastor like myself, you will not agree with all the particulars of Piper's vision for ministry. But you would do well to hear his reminder to you that you haven't been hired by the church to be their pastor, but called by the Holy Spirit to be Christ's instrument for eternal redemption. And there's no better job than that!