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

by John Piper (Author)

In this revised and expanded edition of Brothers, We Are Not Professionals that includes a new introduction and select all-new chapters, best-selling author John Piper pleads through a series of thoughtful essays with fellow pastors to abandon the professionalization of the pastorate and pursue the prophetic call of the Bible for radical ministry.

"We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry," he writes. "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.

"Brothers, we are not professionals. We are outcasts. We are aliens and exiles in the world. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and we wait with eager expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed.

"The world sets the agenda of the professional man; God sets the agenda of the spiritual man. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the wine- skins of professionalism."

Back Jacket

May the Holy Spirit use this book to help ignite the next generation with a passion to deny themselves and take up their crosses to serve Christ and his sheep from every tribe, tongue, and nation." Burk ParsonsCo-pastor of Saint Andrew's ChapelEditor of Tabletalk magazine Piper has provided a generation of pastors with a clear and profound statement on our calling, "

Matt Carter
Pastor, The Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, Texas

I hope every pastor reads this book and listens to its sane, practical, biblical advice." Kevin DeYoungSenior Pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MichiganAuthor of The Hole in Our Holiness It will challenge you. It will instruct you. And most of all, it will encourage you as you shepherd God's flock which He has entrusted to your care." Daniel L. Akin I am honored to be able to recommend this 2nd edition of Brothers We are Not Professionals. I cannot commend it highly enough. Read it. Re-read it. And then teach it to others. J.D. Greear Lead Pastor, the Summit Church

Author Biography

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor for Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For 33 years, he pastored Bethlehem Baptist Church. He is author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.