Pensees: Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

A Book Review by Tim Bixby

Title: Brothers, We are NOT Professionals
Author: John Piper
Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers
Tim’s Rating: 3 Stars

Review: This book is a collection of 30 unrelated essays in which John Piper “pleads with fellow pastors to abandon the secularization of the pastorate and pursue the prophetic call of the Bible for radical ministry” (from back cover). True to his style, Piper is hard-hitting and abundantly clear through the use of helpful redundancy. There is no tautology (needless repetition), however, he never lets you miss his point—he strikes it repeatedly from different angles.

Whether he is after you for not knowing your Greek and Hebrew (“Brothers, Bitzer was a Banker,” p. 81), or for failing to grapple with difficult texts (“Brothers, Let Us Query the Text,” p. 73), or for not loving your wife (“Brothers, Love Your Wives,” p.245), his pen cuts like a well-sharpened knife. The result is a sweet humiliation. A pastor needs to be “taken down a notch or two” (a phrase my mom would often use with me). It is possible, when all is going well, for a “minister” to enclose himself within the very small context of his ministry and to imagine himself as more equipped, more intelligent, more knowledgeable of Scripture, and better skilled to deal with the problems of life and ministry than he is. In short, such a pastor begins to see his ministry as a profession. And a profession can be mastered. Hence he becomes a “professional.” However, God designed the Christian ministry to continually confront the man of God with his own insufficiency (“Who is sufficient for these things?!”). Where a profession has been mastered, Biblical ministry has ceased.

I recommend this collection of essays to every pastor as a bittersweet reminder that indeed, we are not professionals, and hence, we are woefully insufficient for our task. The effect is not to leave you hopeless, but rather to inspire you to “labor more abundantly,” yet “not I but the grace of God with me.”

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Tim Bixby is my younger brother. He pastors Cleveland Park Bible Church in Spartanburg, SC. Tim writes: “Brothers, I wrote these [book reviews] as an exercise in self-discipline and for future reference. I pass them on to you as a way to keep contact and share Christian fellowship.”