Book Review: Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp

The current cultural climate surrounding pastors is a complicated one. Our country has witnessed the rise and fall of many of our faithful leaders in the church. Many times the moral failings of these pastors can be easily attributed to a lack of accountability surrounding these men. In light of this, it has become all too easy for the rest of us in ministry to point the finger and judge these men according to said failings (I am mainly talking about myself here). In so doing, it can be easy for us to miss important areas of sin in our own lives that affect our own ministries.

In Dangerous Calling, Paul Tripp addresses just this issue. The book is broken into three parts. Part one focuses the attention on the state of pastoral culture. Paul uses personal anecdotes to convey the idea that pastors have become blind to their own sin. He does not fault pastors (necessarily) but rather the culture surrounding pastors and the expectations of their roles. Mainly, he gets across three major points: 1.) We let our ministry define our identity. 2.) We let biblical literacy and theological knowledge define our maturity. 3.) We confuse ministry success with God’s endorsement of our lifestyles.

Part two gets down to the grass roots of these issues. There is a danger in pastoring to become complacent with our sin and in doing so we lose our awe for God. This is where Tripp begins to dig into the heart of our sin issues of our own pastoral ministries. Our familiarity with our jobs leads us to complacency with our sin. This leads to mediocrity in our work, for which our congregations ultimately suffer. In losing our awe for God, we have then caused those who have been placed in our care to do the same.

Lastly, part three harps on the danger of us pastors believing that we have arrived. This is a sneaky sin that is birthed from our own pride and leads to our own self-glory. From here, we forget who we are in Christ and the humble mission God has given to us.

All throughout the book, author Paul Tripp reminds us pastors that our sermons are not just for our people. Indeed, God intends to change us first before he changes our congregations. To ensure that we do not fall prey to the same sinful disasters as many of our fellow pastors and brothers in the faith have recently, we need to preach to ourselves the same gospel that we preach to our people.

Aaron Allen
Young Adults and Families Pastor

Sunnyvale First Baptist Church